Dogs Of War on Patreon (maybe)

Ok I've had an idea. A while back I worked on a graphic novel based on my 'Dogs Of War' series (you may have heard me go on about it in earlier blog posts). I had a go pitching it to publishers (ok, one publisher. Image Comics) but they didn't go for it. I didn't mind (I would have been more surprised if they did approve it) so I moved on.

However, at the moment I've finished my current animation contract and there doesn't seem to be any more work lined up anytime soon. This got me thinking about what else I could do. I recently found out about Patreon.com and it dawned on me that this could be a way to get my ideas out there and earn some money at the same time.

My main hurdle however is exposure. No good setting up a Patreon account if no-one knows about it. Sure, I've got this blog, but traffic - appreciated as it may be, is small. I need to get my name out there. So to start, I'm putting up a few pages from volume one of my graphic novel (one page today, more to follow over the next few days). If you like it and/or know of people that would, then please let them know, post a comment here to say if you like and would support my stuff. Just spread the word! Anything! Validate my existence! Pleeeeaassseeee!

At first I was going to put up the very first page, but realised it wasn't the best sample. The opening sequence establishes the setting of the graphic novel as well as the bad guys. During this point, it doesn't feature any of the dog characters, making things appear somewhat misleading. So instead, I chose this sequence. Stylene (the fox) is established earlier in the story, but this is the point where we are introduced to her team in their fight against the Universal Alliance (the bad guys).

I hope you like the visual style. I'll admit it does come off a bit simple and I know there are plenty of artists who can run rings around me in terms of style and detail, but I hope this is still adequate. When I began work on this, I was also studying a Civil Engineering degree. There was next to nothing going on in the animation industry (in Australia at least) and I needed a fallback plan. I was hoping to finish volume one and have it picked up by a publisher before the end of my studies. I wasn't keen on being an engineer - even though I was doing well in my studies, I desperately wanted an alternative. As a result, this was all a bit of a rush job. Maybe the backgrounds could have been a bit more detailed and spending more time in the layout phase would have helped. I have made a few tweaks - the main one updating the linework from the Pencil tool to the Brush tool (Photoshop users would know what I'm on about), but for the most part I've kept everything 'as is' because I want to get this done and up and running as soon as possible. As for the font type, that's something I created myself. A little untidy, so I'll refine it, but only if I can get this thing up on Patreon.

So yeah. Dogs Of War. I do hope you like it. I would love to be able to work on this as a career. A concern though is whether or not us Aussies can use Patreon. Kickstarter was off limits to us for a while, but now Kicky is accessible by all, but am unsure about Patreon. I dunno. I haven't looked into it.

(Disclaimer: I am aware that there has already been a comic called 'Dogs Of War'. However because it was a comic, not a graphic novel and is no longer in production - having existed briefly in the mid 1990's, I'm hoping I can get away with using the title on technicalities.)