New update schedule!

new-updates

Hey guys. You’ve probably noticed that we’re struggling to keep up with our Wednesday schedule. This is because of extra work pressures on both our parts, as well as my not being able to work as fast anymore because of this goshdarn hand injury.

We used to update on Mondays, which tended to eat up our whole weekend. Then we started updating on Wednesdays, which meant that we were trying to cram a whole week’s work into a weekend plus two days. Neither of those worked out, so we’re trying a Friday update schedule instead. This will give us from Monday to Thursday to work on the pages, instead of just Monday to Tuesday (and it tends to eat into our weekend anyway – if we don’t rough on Saturday we tend to not get it done on time).

We’re hopeful that this will make for more consistent updates.

Thanks as always for reading, you guys are awesome!

Ben & Danelle


 

Cottonstar on Patreon

Rad music, site updates and more

Our friend Kevin who composed this lovely piece of music for our comic has done it again! His new track, titled The Voyage, was an early Christmas present to us. We love it!

Kevin is also the person responsible for all the audio in Super Wolfenstein HD. If you play the game you can hear him barking and attempting German. It’s pretty entertaining.

If you want to hear more of his work, you can head over to his Soundcloud.

Regarding site updates: You may have noticed that we’ve changed our favicon (that little picture to the left of the text in the tab) to our new logo. The header image and other things will be updated piece by piece. Ben’s back at work so we’ll get to it when we get to it. We’re also going to start editing all the old pages to suit Reka’s redesign.

At the moment I’m busy with SEO stuff. I have to admit, I’m groping about in the dark a bit. I know next to nothing about code and technical terms for web development so I’m constantly worried that I’m breaking things. I actually have managed to break a few small things, but luckily they were fixable. I feel like Homer Simpson when he managed to set his cornflakes on fire. So… if anything falls over badly, please let us know on our Facebook page or via the contact info on the About Us page.

Lastly, we are busy working on the page. Ben started work again this Monday and the holiday was so much more busy/stressful than we had anticipated, so the buffer never happened. I don’t know how other people do it, seriously. Maybe if we could work on the comic full time that would be doable. We’d only be able to do that if our Patreon pledges totalled around $1000 a month though. So… if you haven’t yet, please consider pledging to us! And if you can’t pledge, please spread the word. We’re grateful for every cent.

That’s about it for now.

Thank you for sticking with us in 2015!

Ben & Danelle <3


Cottonstar on Patreon

Test

You may ignore this post, it’s just a test. We’re testing some things on the site code! We’re adjusting the RSS settings and some other meta data. If anything looks weird, please let us know. Thanks! Woohoo webcomic admin day!

Please check us out on your feed readers (like Feedly) as well, there ought to be some new features there too.

 


 

 

Cottonstar webcomic on Patreon

Stuff! Things! Etc!

Hello there!

Whew, what a month it’s been. Two huge contracts under our belts, close to the end of two medium ones, with another small one due soon. While we’re happy for the breather, we’re hoping another few things come in, so if you know anyone that might want illustration or graphic design work done, please point them in our direction.

So, couple of things:

First off, thank you so much to everyone who commented on our blog post, on Facebook and in person, regarding our decision regarding Reka. So far everyone has been pretty supportive and we really appreciate that. It was kind of nerve-wracking to go through with that post and words of support helped a lot.

Secondly, we’ve been featured in the prestigious South African quarterly art publication, ARTsouthAFRICA*, in the launch edition of their new comics supplement, ComicArtAfrica.

 

ComicArtAfrica

ComicArtAfrica

Look, it's us!

Look, it’s us!

This is pretty great because this is one of the most respected fine arts publications in the country and has a very wide readership. People who probably haven’t given a whole lot of thought to comics as an art form are now being exposed to it, thinking about it, and talking about it. It features interviews with artists and writers and other comics professionals. There are also some really nice pieces of art from various comic artists. They also quoted a sizeable and largely unedited portion of the interview piece I wrote for them, which is pretty amazing as usually these things get edited almost down to nothing.

The aim for the supplement is to reach out wider, to cover artists from all over the African continent. We think that’s pretty neat. We’re excited to be a part of the launch issue, and are hopeful that this will turn into a really good source of exposure and discourse for African artists. Besides printing hard copies, the magazine also has an app, on which you can download a digital version of the current issue.

We did inform the publication of our revision of Reka. The magazine had gone to print before our conversation with the Māori studies department, but they are aware of the situation. Not much we can do about it at this stage, except point people towards our blog post on the topic if there are any complaints.

Tying in with the launch issue of ComicArtAfrica is an exhibition called BLIKSEM!** at the Change Room project space in Salt River, Cape Town. Their Facebook page is here. The event details (copypasta’d from the Facebook event page) are as follows:

Saturday at 12:00–15:00

Unit 2 Pals Parkade, Cecil Rd, Salt River, 7925 Cape Town, Western Cape

CHANGE ROOM. Artists include Susan Opperman, TREKNET, Ben Winfield, Danelle Malan, Ben Geldenhuys, Daniel Hugo and Gerhard Human from the launch issue of ComicArtAfrica.

BLIKSEM! is a showcase of original art and limited edition prints by some of the best talent currently producing independent comics in the local arena. These comic artists are pushing the boundaries in terms of content, style and subject matter, creating a new language of sequential narratives that are fast positioning South Africa as a seedbed of emerging creativity in the field.

COME AND JOIN US
Prints and comic books on sale – just in time to find the perfect Christmas gift!

Ben and I will have six prints on show. They’re really nice quality prints, too – printed on Epson Double Weight Matt paper, and both ink and paper are 100% archival. So, a far better quality than we normally sell. They will also be signed and numbered as editions. Most of them will be  420mm x 594mm, around double the size of our normal prints. On sale will be one edition each of The Great Wave of Cape Town, Chat Noah, Reka With A Pearl Earring (revised), Play Room, Rockabilly Monster Mash, and Ben’s Metal 4 Africa Summerfest design. Here are some clickable thumbnails. Sorry that they are all underneath one another, we always struggle to get things to display right when putting images into our posts:

Reka With A Pearl Earring

Reka With A Pearl Earring

Rockabilly Monster Mash

Rockabilly Monster Mash

Metal 4 Africa: Summerfest

Metal 4 Africa: Summerfest

Play Room

Play Room

The Great Wave of Cape Town

The Great Wave of Cape Town

Le Chat Noah

Le Chat Noah

Play Room is a big print with insane detail. A thumbnail really doesn’t cut it, you’ll have to click it for the preview. Better yet, come to the exhibition opening and view it for yourself! 🙂

AND lastly… our costliest and probably second-to-last business investment/Christmas gift:

Cintiq Companion Hybrid!!

Cintiq Companion Hybrid!!

 

Holy crap there's a cintiq in our house!

Holy crap there’s a Cintiq in our house!

Holy wow, right?? I spent weeks conspiring with Ben’s family about this. It’s his Christmas gift, and 30th birthday gift for next year, plus a business investment because I’m paying half, all rolled into one. A whole bunch of us chipped in to make it happen and we are both pretty excited. Ben actually cried with joy when he opened the packaging, so it was totally worth all the secrecy. I mean, just look at this face:

happy-ben

Totally worth it.

We made this investment with the intent to speed up our workflow and boost our work quality. I for one can now write in Photoshop without it looking like something that a crustacean pooped out. It’ll help me a lot with detail work because I can now see where my pen is going, and the same goes for Ben. I have to wonder how much of one’s photoshopping career is spent hitting ctrl+Z or ctrl+alt+Z+Z+Z+Z+Z+Z….

Anyway. That’s pretty much it for now. We’ll report back after the exhibition opening with some photos and the like.

Thanks as always for your patience and support.

<3

Danelle & Ben

 


 

*ARTsouthAFRICA, Volume 13, Issue 02, December 2014: Controversy Issue. ISSN 16846133

**An Afrikaans word meaning (to) punch/beat up violently, it is considered a crass expression and is often used as an expletive of surprise or anger. (Think Captain Haddock.) The noun and verb are the same. Also sometimes used in exaggeration by Afrikaans parents when they threaten to give their kids a hiding. You know you really stuffed up when your parents yell “Ek gaan jou bliksem!” 😛

 


 

Cottonstar on Patreon

On creative license and cultural sensitivity

This is a really long post. But it’s really important, and we’d appreciate it if you read it all.

As some of you may know, Disney has recently announced its next film, Moana, for release in 2018. The film will be starring a Polynesian seafaring princess by the same name.

When I first heard about it, I was really interested, and I looked around a bit to see what kind of character designs they’ve released, and found plenty of fan drawings on tumblr, and then I found this, and this. Which is just a small sampling of a lot of (valid) apprehension I’ve been seeing about it. It seems that Disney is focusing on Māori culture in specific, which has left people divided; on the one hand, relieved that Disney seems to be doing their homework, but on the other, suspicion because of its terrible track record regarding representation of… well, everything. The entire internet is there for you to go and look that up, I’m not going to waste time exploring that topic here.

The point I’m getting to is that it made us reconsider our currently Māori character, Reka. We’re planning to expand her role in the comic in the next few chapters. Part of this would involve the reader gaining insight into her cultural history, such as her tattoos. But we realised, when trying to script it out, that we weren’t sure how to tell the story of her culture and background convincingly. We realised that, despite having created her, we actually know very little of her origins. And before all this, we hadn’t actually considered the impact that designing a character like Reka would have on Māori readers.

In our quest to learn more about Māori culture, we read up more in-depth about Māori tattooing, and realised with a sinking feeling that the tattoos Ben designed were all wrong. This, combined with the recent Moana publicity, made us decide to do better research, so we could have a character which is not culturally insensitive. I had no idea where to begin reading, as our questions were rather specific, so I decided to email the School of Māori Studies at the University of Auckland, asking for help. Which was at the same time the best and the worst idea, because we got a very honest and straightforward answer from them.

In a nutshell, I asked if we could talk about our character’s tattoos, and that we were concerned that our representation of her is culturally insensitive, and that we would hate for our comic to be offensive and arrogantly western.

Their response, in a nutshell, is that having created the character in the first place, despite knowing nothing of Māori culture, is already offensive and arrogantly western from the outset. And that if we wished to learn about the Māori culture, the best would be to go to New Zealand, and talk to them face to face, and learn from them in person, and then ask them personally about Māori representation.

Needless to say, we didn’t know where to stick our heads. Because they’re right. We messed up.

So I guess this post is both a combination of an explanation about some changes we’re going to make, as well as a deeply heartfelt, public apology. First and foremost to Māori people. But secondly,  also to anyone else we led to treating an already marginalised culture as exotic and voiceless. Especially as two people living in South Africa, being what it is, that is just a really, really shitty thing to do. We ought to have known better. We messed up, and we apologise. We’ve emailed back saying as much, too. Reka was designed in ignorance, not malice, but the effect is the same, and we really regret that.

So… what now?

Not many of you know this, but Cottonstar was actually never designed to become a webcomic. Ben spent one weekend back in 2008 on an entry for a comic contest. The requirements were: A synopsis of the comic, a minimum of three characters, and a minimum of three comic pages. The contest fell through because Ben turned out to be the only entrant, and he was left with all the work he’d done, which was the cast, the concept of Cottonstar, and three pages that we’ve redrawn and integrated into Chapter 2. After that, in 2009, Ben was approached by a party who proposed to publish the comic, if it was developed further. That also fell through after Ben did pages 1-12 of what is now Chapter 1. (Page 11 was added after the fact to flesh out the story). Then, all of it went into hibernation until around 2010, when we started dating. We chatted about the idea of  launching a webcomic using what he already had, and got pretty excited about the idea, and we leapt into it blindly, not knowing much about either webcomics or writing or publishing. So pretty much everything core about the comic was done hastily in one weekend. Since there was only script for three pages, we had to start writing from there, plugging up plot holes and winging it as we go. We like to think we’ve done alright so far, except for this. If we could go back, we would probably do a lot of things differently.

It’d be really easy to say “eh, well it’s hundreds of years in the future, who’s to say cultures haven’t evolved,” and play the creative license card. But that would actually be even worse, because not only do we now know better, but we would also be wilfully perpetuating a harmful thing. Once you put your work in the public eye, you need to take responsibility for the things you communicate with it. If you’re going to be presenting any kind of narrative, you need to understand what you’re saying, and why you’re saying it.

We’ve discussed it, and we’ve decided the best course of action would be to redesign Reka. She’ll keep her name, her personality and.. well, pretty much everything (including her arm tattoos, because those were not Māori to begin with, and they do actually have a back story), but her background will change. It won’t affect the overall plot, and will make her more a more balanced character. At this point we have the benefit of not having revealed any of her backstory yet, nor has she actually shown any signifiers of Māori culture aside from her tattoos, specifically because we were unsure of how to proceed with her. That stuff can all be rewritten now, with more confidence, involving cultures closer to home, with people we can talk to and consult with when writing her.

We can’t do anything about all the books and posters that have already been printed, nor any of the press and interviews. Fortunately, none of these things have occurred on a very large scale yet. But we’ll be editing our pages piece by piece and changing the cast descriptions. Future printings of the comic will not contain Māori tattooing, and we will be editing all our older pages to reflect this.

We are by no means perfect people, but we’re trying to do what we can to be good people. We still make many mistakes. We have a lot to learn and a lot to change.

The comic is our baby, and we love it, but there are more important things than pride. This is one of them. We hope you’ll understand.

Yours as always

Danelle & Ben

<3

 

 

Life and things

Hey guys.

First of all, thanks for all your patience with the pages and sporadic updates. This time of year is seeing us showered with freelance work, which, while amazing and making sure we have enough to survive on for the next few months, also interferes with the time we normally use to work on Cottonstar. In fact, we pushed so hard that my drawing hand/wrist is now strapped up and in a brace, and I am spending quite a bit on physiotherapy (which, once again, your Patreon donations are helping with tremendously. So THANK YOU!). The bad news is that part of it is genetic and that I’ll always be susceptible to injury. The good news is that I can take some measures to take better care of my body. It’ll get better sometime, but for now I need to rest my drawing hand as much as possible inbetween contracts. This means that apart from his day job, Ben is now going to be stuck both doing lines AND colouring the pages, which makes them take twice as long to complete.

Right now we’re juggling multiple projects which will hopefully see some amazing life upgrades happening in the not too distant future. We’ll tell you all about it when the time comes! :3 But we can say for now that it will probably impact the comic positively.

We will really do our best to still get out a page a week. This is just a heads up that we might be taking more breaks than usual. After this we are definitely going to try extra hard to build up a buffer. This is easier said than done. Every time we think we’ll have some time off to start making the buffer happen, life just gets in the way.

Things aren’t all bad though. This freelance work has allowed us to upgrade our current office situation – a better monitor for Ben, which we can double team with mine to record livestreams and make timelapse videos for you guys, and a very much-needed hardware upgrade for his PC too, so he can be more productive with it.

We simply could not have done all this without your generosity. Patreon has carried us through some very difficult times and we are so super grateful to all our patrons for investing your money into our lives. I know we say thank you for that a lot, but in all honesty, we can’t get over how much it’s helping us out. If you are unable to donate, we appreciate shares and links to our page as well. Everything helps! If you are interested in helping us financially, you can make a direct donation through the “donate” button on the right hand side of our site, or go to our Patreon page and make a contribution there. You can also help us be seen by voting for us on Top Webcomics. You don’t even need to register, you just need to complete a Captcha type thing.

We’re also happy to get comments on our comics and blog posts. It seems that the internet likes pointing traffic in our direction if there is interaction on our page. So don’t be shy, we’d love to hear from you! It makes us happy to see your comments on our work. It’s always a pleasant surprise in our inboxes. 🙂

So, yeah. In a nutshell, the updates might go wonky until about January-ish, but we hope that things will return to normal in February. We’ll post more if there are any developments worth mentioning.

In the meantime, please have a look at our snazzy website which our coder and friend John has helped us set up! It is called Malhuys, which is a silly play on words, combining mine and Ben’s surnames (Malan + Geldenhuys), but which is also a homophone for the word “malhuis,” which in Afrikaans translates quite literally to “madhouse.” Corny but fun. :p Please share it with anyone who you think might be interested in commissioning some freelance work. We’ll populate our portfolio with some more work soon, but for now there is a fair idea of the kind of thing we do.

As always, thank you. We wouldn’t be where we are without you guys.

Much love

Danelle & Ben

 

Cottonstar on Patreon

Open Book Comics Fest 2014 recap

Phew, AT LAST, right? Yup, it was about time! Let’s get right to it, shall we?

Open Book Comics Fest 2014 was loads of fun. We were in the same venue as 2013 – the District 6 Homecoming Centre, adjacent to the Fugard Theatre in town. The layout had changed a little from the previous year, fitting in more participants, and also adding a “kid friendly zone.” Apparently there were some well-intentioned parents last year who brought their kids to come look at comics, only to be confronted by the more graphic side of graphic novels. I suppose there may have been some complaints! Oops. Either way, we were stationed in the “kid friendly zone” and made some sales to people buying things for their kids, which means they are getting exposed to local comics and also to reading, which is always good!

small_20140921_134644

Yay, TRUTH coffee! 😀

Last year, we had tote bags to draw on. This year, there were caps. We have to admit that we preferred the tote bags. They were more buyer friendly, and were easier to draw on. Not everyone enjoys wearing caps, and these ones were slightly old fashioned, being cheapish, small, soft baseball types as opposed to the structured snapbacks which are currently popular. We haven’t found out how the sales compared to the tote bags yet, but we suspect it may have been slightly lower. Either way, there were some amazing designs, and hopefully they will all find homes. Proceeds will be going to fund next year’s Open Book Comics Fest.

20140921_112008-MIX

Ben holding my “Ceiling Cat is watching you read!” cap.

So yea, while we covered our most recent prints and such, we didn’t really make a profit. We still had a lot of fun, anyway! And neither of us got the dreaded con crud, much to our relief.

small_20140921_133934

Our cool booth neighbours were Pete and Elaine Woodbridge from Studio Woo.

small_20140921_134029

Vincent Sammy (left) and Daniël Hugo (right) getting their salesbro on.

The general consensus among all the artists/participants is that the traffic was a bit slower than last year, with most people breaking even-ish. This was partly due to lack of marketing, but also because the door connecting the Fugard and the Homecoming Centre was closed. Normally, people attending shows at the theatre would wander in and browse through the comics, and buy things. This year, due to some admin issues, we didn’t have that, which is a huge pity. The organisers have promised to look into the matter so that we don’t have the same problem next year.

small_20140921_134826

Left to right: Nicolas Rix, Michael Crafford and Andrew Cramer.

The talent on display at this year’s OBCF was pretty insane. We’re really excited about the fast growth the local comics scene is showing. Great things are ahead! 😀

Here are some more pictures for your viewing pleasure:

20140921_114105-MIX

20140921_113442-MIX

20140921_112738-MIX

20140921_112207-MIX

We do have lots of buttons, fridge magnets and bookmarks left over. Pricing/shipping info can be found here, and here. Our comics stocks are running a bit low, but we still have some left, including sketched editions, which you can order directly from us, or purchase from Readers Den, Outer Limits, Clarke’s Books, or The Unseen Shoppe.

Thanks to everyone who came along, said hi, brought us food/water, and of course those who bought prints and comics! You guys are the best.

<3

Ben & Danelle

 

Cottonstar on Patreon

Find us at Open Book Comics Fest!

We’ve just received our floor plan for Open Book Comics Fest! Here is the map (click to enlarge):

ComicsFestTables2014-2

 

As you can see, we are in the “Kid Friendly Zone” – we didn’t know that was a thing, but whatever works! 😀 Come say hi!

We’re still busy with the new page. Just finished up doing stock take and a bunch of admin stuff. All we’re waiting for now is our new stock – The Great Wave & Keep Calm and Let Me Cook posters, our button badges, bookmarks, and in a last minute burst of inspiration – fridge magnets!

We decided to show you the bookmarks and badges. We’re pretty happy with the designs and hope that you will be, too. The fridge magnets are 4 x 4 cm versions of the “Keep Calm and Let Me Cook” posters.

Ladies and gents, are your bodies ready for….

THE PARTY STARTER?

party-starter_badge

AW YISS

 

These badges are 2.5cm in diameter and will be available for R10 each.

Then, the bookmarks: A slimmer version of our pop-up banner (which, sadly, we are not allowed to put up at this year’s Comics Fest due to space restrictions):

watery-webcomic-bookmark

 

Those will be R5 each, or free if you buy 3 or more comics.

We’re getting pretty excited about Saturday… See you there! 😀

<3

Danelle & Ben

 

Cottonstar on Patreon

Open Book Comics Fest 2014 is approaching!

Hey guys! 😀

First of all, we’d like to say a huge big THANK YOU to everyone who has signed up to support us on Patreon! You guys are helping us tremendously! You don’t even know how much. If you are currently not supporting us on Patreon, and would like to do so, please click here to do that! Even just $1 a page helps us. You can also set a cap on your expenses, so that you don’t pay more than you bargained for if we upload more content than usual. For more info on why we really need and appreciate your financial support, please go here.

If you have been following our Facebook page and/or our Twitter feed, you may have heard us talking about Open Book Festival and Open Book Comics Fest. This is an annual celebration of all things literature-related. We are pleased to return for the third consecutive year as literature creators, and are excited to meet and chat with people, sell things, and chat to other writers and artists.

Last year was a great success, and we hope to see an even bigger crowd this year.

The Open Book Festival itself runs from the 17th to the 21st of September, with Open Book Comics Fest running over the 20th and the 21st of September. Comics Fest will be held at the District 6 Homecoming Centre at 16A Buitenkant Street. Here is a map if you need directions.

The art and comics market will be open from 09:00-21:00 on the Saturday and from 09:00-18:00 on the Sunday, with talks and book signings interspersed throughout both days.

There will be some really cool authors participating in this year’s OBF, including  André P. Brink, Toast Coetzer, and of course celebrated international guest, Raymond E. Feist.

Be sure not to miss Daniël Hugo and Moray Rhoda’s talk on Saturday about their experiences at San Diego Comic Con 2014. For a full schedule of the Open Book Festival events, please go here.

So, what will we be selling this year, and for how much, you ask?? Well, let me tell you!

Yoinked from the FCBD Masterpost:

*YOINK*

Comics!

We are selling our first ever printed editions of Chapter 3! There will be regular copies, as well as sketched editions. There will also be stock of Chapter 1 and 2, in case you missed out on buying those last time. Chapters 1 & 2 will retail at R50 each, and Chapter 3 at R60. Sketched editions of Chapters 1 & 2 will be R100 while sketched Chapter 3 books will be R120. Stocks are really limited for the sketched editions, so we recommend you get there early if you want any.

Prints

We also have three fine new poster prints for you guys to purchase! You may have seen them in the gallery. We’ll be selling the odds and ends we had left over from other events, too. The posters will be retailing at R50 each.

cottonstarry-night

Cottonstarry Night by Danelle

reka-with-a-pearl-earring-cropped

Reka with Pearl Earring by Danelle

Chat Noah

Le Chat Noah by Ben

There is another poster print in the works, which will be based off Hokusai’s “The Great Wave off Kanagawa.” Ben is doing this one. They will also be A3 sized and will retail at R50 each.

We will also be taking orders for canvas prints of the above posters, at a price of R450 each. If you order multiple canvases, we can work out a package deal for you.

There will also be prints of the Chapter 4 cover, with artwork by Deon de Lange, for R80. They come bagged and boarded, and there are only ten of them, so hurry if you want one!

Chapter 4 cover

Battle for the Cottonstar by Deon de Lange

Bookmarks!

We will have a special, brand new bookmark available for purchase for all you bookworms out there. If you’re like me and have a bunch of half-read books lying around your home at any given time, you’ll know that one can never have enough bookmarks. We might reveal the design beforehand, but it might be fun to leave it a surprise for the day. ;D The bookmarks will be retailing for R5 each.

We also MIGHT have some Button badges! Hopefully the printers can finish them in time. The badges will retail for R10 each.

 

mystery items

*~Mystery Items!~*

 

Also, let us tell you once more about…

Snapscan

To our friends with smartphones: We’ve mentioned before that we now accept payment via Snapscan. This nifty little app allows you to make instant credit card payments using only your phone! How it works:

1. You download the app.

2. You input your credit card info (a once-off process).

3. You scan the vendor’s QR code (ours will be on display on the table at our booth)

4. Input the amount owed.

5. Hit “pay.”

And there you go! Easy as pie! If you are already good at baking pies, anyway. Pie can be tricky. But Snapscan is not tricky, it is in fact very easy, easier than learning how to bake a pie. We’re hoping that Snapscan will be a viable alternative to renting an expensive and cumbersome electronic card machine, and for people who don’t like working with cash. The Snapscan fees are very low and reasonable, especially towards the vendors.

We see a lot of vendors advertising the service on their blogs and Facebook pages this year, so it’s certainly grown in popularity as a means of payment. Hopefully that means that customers will be more aware of it and that it’ll take off properly.

As you can tell, we’re really scrambling to get everything done. We’re sure it’ll all work out though. Thank you for your continued patience and your support, as always.

<3

Ben & Danelle

 

Cottonstar on Patreon

Realtalk time

Hey guys. 

I’ve been avoiding making a long blog post about this, because I hate to get all super serious on you guys. But I guess it’s time now… so please bear with me!

We’ve been going through some “life upgrades” lately. Ben’s car got trashed by thieves and we had to get a new car. We achieved this by selling my busted up golf (which came with its own slew of nasty financial surprises) and also taking out a bank loan. We’ve switched over to Photoshop CC, which means we have that cost extra per month. We’ve both had a bunch of health issues (you all remember the plague from hell right? Well, Ben got it too, after I finally got better after a month), family needing support, etc… and it’s been costing us a great deal of cash. Meanwhile, inflation is rampant, freelance work is scarce, Ben is underpaid and overworked, and the bottom line is that we’re really starting to struggle to keep our heads above water financially. 

Ever since we started our Patreon page, our wonderful and generous (and the time of writing, only) patron has been helping us out so much. The Patreon funds have been covering medication and other bills, and has actually helped us not go without electricity or food at times. We’re not going to stop making Cottonstar! But we do however really need some more help at this point. We thought we were okay, and then suddenly we were not. Prices just skyrocket all the time and when it rains unexpected bills, it pours.

So what I am asking you guys is to consider pledging some money to our Patreon page. You can make it as low as a dollar per page, it really really will make a difference to us. The money gets debited from your card at the end of the month, and you can cancel your pledge if your financial situation changes. There’s an FAQ and a description to help you out with any other questions you may have. You can click on the Patreon button in the sidebar to the top right of the site, or you can click here.

There are some rewards for pledgers, like postcards, sketches, livestreams, etc. Please do consider pledging!

Alternately, we also have some stock for sale, and Ben and I are both currently taking commissions. Here are the relevant links: Ben’s commission info | Danelle’s commission info

The link to our international postage and stock rates is here.

Thanks so much to everyone who has supported us in the past, we couldn’t have come this far without you. Thanks in advance to everyone who helps out. You have no idea how thankful we are!

I apologise for the heavy nature of this post. Please don’t worry, we’re not going to stop making our comic. We just need a bit of help.

Thanks guys.

<3