Howdy,
Welcome to your September MUSEletter, it's huge. When I set out to write this one I didn't think it would be so full of content and announcements. I thought I'd need to start by noting the legendary and controversial Roald Dahl's birthday today, in 1916 (he lived until November 23rd 1990). I'd planned to include an essay about him here s well, but that piece has grown into it's own thing; ideally a blog post finished later today. but read on for what follows.

    •    The 32nd Annual Children's Illustrator's Reception
    •    A Tiger's Tale volume 1: reviews
    •    A Tiger's Tale volume 2: news
    •    Artroom Access unlocked! PLUGOarts on Patreon
    •    Spotlighting Patron #1: Mr. Ryan Claytor
  

I've added a reviews section to aTigersTale.com it remains open to all. Let me share with you a recent review written by a young reader (age 14) from overseas –

 "It is the best and most thrilling comic I have read! The colour’s go so well with the story, and draw you in from the first page, al the way to the very last one! The way it has been written, is amazing!"

So, if you've had the chance to read A TIGER's TALE volume 1 and have some thoughts, feel free to leave your own review. https://atigerstale.com/reviews-feedback/

Finally a note on  A Tiger's Tale volume 2. When I'd initially launched the campaign for volume one, I was convinced that a campaign for a volume 2 would immediately follow fulfillment; sometime in August if not July. Time and a little experience has revealed to me that if I had followed through with that thinking I would be relying too much on beginner's luck and overlooking the sage wisdom of those mentors who've been generous enough to offer advice for building on our success.

It's remains my desire to see our Year of the Tiger end with both volumes 1 and 2 in the hands of readers. There are just a few things that need to be in place first. You see, Volume two is currently comprised of 90 pages, add to that covers and back-matter and we could be looking as a glorious 100 pages. But that will lead to a quantitatively larger ask. Also, fewer reward tiers but more add-ons (like maybe A Tiger's Tale branded Rubber Ninja Stars? see below). So what would you think of an October/November campaign instead? Please let me know what you think, in a reply or on my newest platform!

Volume two, takes the experimental structure of volume one and pushes it further. So there is the possibility of serializing a portion online via my in-the-process-of-being-announced Patreon page. Think of it like how Disney+ used a show like WANDA-VISION to set up Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, (which was great fun to review). I've not fully decided on this path which is why I thought it best to hear from you about it.

Access Granted: Artroom Access is now available via Patreon.com. My life as a full-time artist is composed of equal parts Chaos, Inspiration and the constant work to make it all appear planned. I've written before about how this approach has frequently left a door open to luck and synchronicity, but I'm not certain such writing really captures the flow of magic out of this chaos.  It's been suggested to me, more than once, that people might get a lot out of an up-close, real-time look at how I get things done.

This is one reason I've decided to publicly launch a PLUGOarts Patreon Page. Another is that I have generally been a schedule-averse creative; relying on deadlines to motivate me to get things done. So my goal with Patron is to develop a more systemic method for, not only completing projects (an area always worth improving), but for documenting their developmental processes.

There are things I'm so accustomed to doing, I often loose sight of how some tricks can be helpful for others also on their creative journeys. Maintaining as regular a schedule as I'm likely to on this platform will both help me refine my processes to both our benefits - that's the theory. Added to that it'll give you the most intimate access to the creative process as I live it.

I trust you, if anyone, have a decent picture of the amount of "art" I'm putting out there freely and surprisingly consistently. There's my weekly #TigerTuesday, our monthly MUSEletter, semi-regular blog posts and seasonal movie reviews (fingers crossed for WAKANDA FOREVER), the occasional interview, fan art, Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, K.C.U., G.N.A.W.  and more. But the secret is that, except for a few inspired moments and real-time activities, much of what you see is done days or weeks in advance. Though sometimes the night before too.

This method has been pretty good for me, but I need to do more, better, and part of that equation includes real-time accountability from those whose feedback matters most to me: You.  So, (along with the possibly serializing A TIGER's TALE volume 1½) the Patreon platform, will host exclusive, intimate access to my creative process in-real-time. A look at the work I'm doing AS I'M DOING IT,  rather than when it's posted for optimal social media engagement or to fit my latest marketing strategy; or lack there of.

Hopefully you're now curious about what this all means, so take a moment to visit Patreon.com/PLUGOarts and have a look at what I'll be offering in the way of Artroom Access and Patron Previews. As an added incentive which I'm mentioning here; anyone who joins this Patreon page, at any level, will be added to my growing end-of-the-year care package list. As you know, I intermittently send out care packages to supporters and fans. These usually consist of the various print overages, other print projects I accumulate over the year(s); stickers, mini-comics, zines, prints, postcards and even original art. My last batch of care packages were mailed out in the summer of 2021 while this summer's packages also took the form of a lot of extra stuff added to various kickstarter rewards. After September, only Patreons with Artroom Access will be added to the care-package list, so I offer 16 days to check out the projects I'll be working on and what I'll be presenting on Patreon.

Mr. Ryan Claytor is a bit of a personal hero of mine. It must have been at some distant A.P.E. (Alternative Press Expo) in San Francisco somewhere because http://elephanteater.com resides in an enormous bookmarks folder (an HTML file actually) which  I've been adding too since the invention of the internet. There are a lot of ghost URL's in that file, but Ryan's goes back as far as December 7, 2009; impressive.

While Ryan is probably most widely known for his award-winning, self-published, autobiographical, comic book series And Then One Day. I suspect it was his collaborative graphic novel Coin-Op Carnival: Electrifying Tales of Mechanical Contraptions, which he illustrated and co-wrote with Nick Baldridge and Ryan Claytor.  Living walking distance from a legendary pin-ball museum, the one across from the local comic has me wondering if a copy's ever been in it's window. But one of the great silver linings of the past year or so has been getting to know this human wellspring of creativity, precision and know-how.

You might recall that it was Ryan who generously offered me his own platform to launch our own kickstart.aTigersTale.com crowdfunding campaign when we discovered the synchronicity of it beginning just as his A HUNTER's TALE campaign was coming to its successful conclusion. In fact, he was backer #1 for that very campaign, helping to kick off an overnight success X-number of years in the making.  

Part of what made Ryan's campaign such a rousing success was an unprecedented online tour. He chatted with a different media outlet about that campaign EACH DAY of the month long campaign. The outlets ranged from written interviews, podcasts, video, and liveStreams. These outlets connected him with people from walks of life which include universities, comics blogs, gaming podcasts, watch-maker websites, artist youTubers, comic book retailers, and his own students. It was with this as a model and motivation that I ended up producing my own interview series Tiger Talk.

Recent history repeats itself, sort-of. Ryan's own Patreon Page has been an ongoing source of inspiration, education, motivation and admiration. Along with his work in comics, he's offering front-line views from  international clients such as Moleskine, Stern Pinball, Walmart, Mr. Jones Watches, Verizon Wireless, and more. Plus other artistic pursuits including designing neon signs, watches and illustration.

I'm beginning to see how this model of patronage can work; highly curated art, process and community elevating each other's quality of "content" consumption. In choosing to become Patron number 1 Ryan's leap of faith is just the sort of push that has me seeking to step-up what I've been up to with PLUGOarts. There's more to be done and a few very cool new projects swooping in just in time to make things interesting over there. In the meantime you should check out Ryan's work which you can also find on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Totally worth checking out.


PS: I can see doing this sort of thing for the next Patron(s) who might be interested...