The 5th of November & the Birth of Meanwhile

Today is the 5th of November. A day one which not only saw the poorly executed "Gunpowder Plot" but a day when our comic strip "Meanwhile..." was conceived by my brother and I, like Joffrey Baratheon. It all started 2 years ago. We were joking about comics, and film and then at one point we said how ridiculous a comedy on V for Vendetta would be if instead of a Guy Fawkes mask he was wearing a Groucho Marx mask.

Every once in a while, to the bane of my editors, I will have, or hear, an idea that will completely consume me until it is completed; because I have to see it. Case in point, Hippopotomus Prime, or the Greasers as Ninja Turtles, or as Green Lanterns, or sci-fi Tinkerbell... Okay, so I sometimes get distracted. And hearing this idea of "Groucho V," I had to make:

I really would love to see this movie

This parody of an iconic image led to a bunch of other parodies, that originally were just for our own amusement. Then in a couple weeks we had 10 images and decided that this would be an ongoing project as we kept tossing out ideas faster than I could draw them. We spit-balled names back and forth, none of which I remember til we came up with "Meanwhile..." A name which fit perfectly as these short clips acted as interludes in our more serious books. We labeled the panels with the logo and then posted them online for all to see. This back and forth eventually culminated in some of our own favorites like "Hipster Starscream," or "Dr. Reality".

Though none of these has had the same reach as one strip our writer Dimitrios came up with. Jesus Loves George R.R. Martin. Yeah... you're just going to have to read that one for yourselves

Sir Thomas J. Griffin is a poor artist and potato working for GryphonKnights Comics. He's illustrated books like Greasers in Geese , Hero, The Only Choice, Meanwhile, and others.

The Resource Known as Patreon

Greetings and salutations!!!

I wanted to turn you guys onto a resource the small comic company I run with @DimitriosFragiskatos & @HarperArsenal have begun to use. 

Our comic company has expenses as any company or artist does. Website costs, advertising, convention costs, and (what is often neglected) pay for any work we've done to for our company. We weren't sure how to meet these constant costs, and for a long time these expenses came out of our own pockets.

Finally we found Patreon! Patreon is a crowdfunding service that functions similarly to other CF services, except this one donors can contribute per month, or with comic books can donate per page published. Its pretty handy especially if you have regular readership. Those who are already interested & investing in your book are likely to donate. While the rewards are more difficult to figure out, many users have dollar subscriptions that just support their comic and $3 subscriptions that allow readers to see extra content on the Patreon.

Visiting a variety of users can soon help you garner some ideas on how to reward those who are faithful contributors. Things from one time rewards like sketches to monthly prints of pages of the comic. Another way to garner contributors is using a twitter management tool like justunfollow.com or others to set up automated messages to new followers providing the link to your comic and to your Patreon!

In the end it also never hurts to ask for contributions from those who have expressed interest in your book!

We've had good success with it thus far, and have actually found other people on the site that we ended up donating too. Also at the time of this writing Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal (SMBC) Was making $100,000 a year. They are one of the most successful Patreon users there are. 

Finally if you haven't seen our work yet you can really our various webcomics on gryphonknights.com! If you have and you love our artwork & storytelling then please help by donating to our Patreon page at www.patreon.com/gryphonknights! Each donation allows us to focus more time on the comic, and will hopefully one day make us full time artists!

Tom Gryphon

PS. Hippopotamus Prime thanks you for any & all contributions you make!