Azure Claw Comics

Hi there, Azure Friends!

It’s been a while, hasn’t it?

The last year or so has been a weird time. I’ve been overwhelmed by problems like a lack of money, difficulty finding work, and (frequently, like right now) food and housing insecurity. And so I’ve been dealing with things in my default way of curling up in a corner and hoping these problems don’t spot me.

On the plus side, I am getting ready to start a new day job!

When will this be? How much will I make in my first few weeks after they finally give me something to do? How long will it take to get paid? I have no idea!

In addition, I’ve been relying on government-provided rent assistance to keep me from being removed from my home. But lately, this has turned out to be insufficient!

Why would the government approve me for rent assistance but then not offer me enough to avoid eviction? I’ve been asking them this, but I haven’t yet gotten a real answer.

Now, as an online art-creating person, I’ve got some solutions available to me, right? Because I’m something like a business owner, and I’ve got my own website and commemorative mug!

And yes, I could be making art for money. And I’ve been making plans since forever to do precisely that!

But when I try to do any creative endeavor, there’s always that question of, “Is this any good?” And I adjust what I’m doing according to how I feel while creating it.

But as I said on this other website, all I’ve felt for the last several months is a debilitating dread and despair about how things are going. So that’s been a challenge!

But anyway, if you’d like to help with some kind of support, here’s what I want to share with you that I have! (You may have seen links to these at the top of this page, and it’s entirely possible you’ve already seen what I’ve posted on all these sites!)

First, there’s my Patreon, which is here to fund the Azure Claw Comics experiment!

The downside to that is: I haven’t felt like it was right to charge patrons for any month since “Away From Earth (Be Back Later)” page 2 was released last year. So I didn’t.

But on the plus side: Patreon members get their names shared in little shout-outs at the bottom of every blog post! (And who are these members? Well, I’ll get to that later!)

Secondarily, there’s my Ko-Fi, which is here to give people an option to drop me a few dollars to appreciate the things I create!

Unfortunately: I haven’t updated it in a while, and I’m a bit behind with commissions.

But on the plus side: Ko-Fi Commissions are a thing! And you can use the brand new promo code “IREADTHISONYOURBLOG” this month to save 19% off on a new commission! (Though I make no promises about how long that might take.)

And thirdly, I started a GoFundMe page the first time I was threatened with an eviction, on a friend’s suggestion. It’s here to just try and raise some money to offset some of the most terrifying debts I’m faced with and help me rebuild my life from here in whatever way I need to. And I’ve been updating it every time the situation changes!

Unfortunately: GoFundMe takes a few days to send money to my account, even if I choose to receive it every day.

But on the plus side: The GoFundMe page helps me be clear about what’s going on and what I need money for. I’ve tried to be transparent about what I’ve been doing with the money and what kinds of problems have come up. So it’s basically where I’m telling the story of how my life is going these days, and that’s the purpose it’s going to serve in between now and when I stop having to worry about a future eviction.

So that’s where things are right now!

You can follow my Patreon without committing to any money if you want to be alerted about updates to this comic and this website. Or you can follow my Ko-Fi page if you’d like to for some reason!

Assuming nothing prevents this from happening, I’m currently working on posting more there beginning this week and continuing through my latest installment: Iteration-1a: Enemies of the Stars!

And now: Here are some awesome Patreon members who helped me get this far!

• Yitz
• Jen Kind
• Zugai
• Bjoern
• Conor McKeever
• Schotti
• McFish
• thedragonllama
• emibudd
• Erik Sheader-Smith
• Crabby Sam
• Faulty Functions
• Fricochet

If your name is listed above, and you would like for me to link to something I did not link to, please let me know!

Anyway, thank you very much, everyone!