Shades Of A Back Cover
Here’s something I’ve been working on behind the scenes for a while:
Get Shades of A printed and add another year of updates!
This kickstarter ends May 26th- the monday after London MCM Comic Con. During this time I’ll only be updating the Khaos side stories, waiting for you to decide the fate of Shades of A.
So, internet. This is your chance to let the world know that ace, queer and kinky people deserve places in the media, while getting cool stuff at the same time.
Let’s get this ball a rolling! I would love to have more Shades of A.
Shared!
Shared on Facebook and NOW TO TWITTER.
*screams* I need the Poof Pants!
Omfg, kickstarter, just when I was going to put money in my account for backing kickstarters! Will support you 110%!!
I’m so glad that everyone wants these as much as I do : DDDD
Backed! :) Poof paaaaaaants~~~ :D Plus physical copy of Shades of A in color…?! Exciting!
Shared! http://dragoneers.com/webcomicsoffline/
Oooh, thank you. That is a mighty fine website!
… I usually do not donate to kickstarter campaigns, because I am college poor… But I REALLY NEED TO SEE MORE OF THIS STORY! So… Yeah. Need to discuss with the “partner” and see if we can help out here.
Shared on facebook, and a banner-sidebar on my tumblr! Will definitely be backing this, too. Its been a great read so far, and I’d love to see it continue!
Will definitely share! Quick note for before you print it: I think that semicolon after “JD” in the blurb should be a comma.
Yep! It should be!
No, because of the comma immediately before it, the comma upgrades to a semicolon so you know which stop is more important.
English major, English teacher, professional writer here – it should absolutely be a comma. You only use a semi-colon in certain types of lists, and to join two complete thoughts. The word “when” at the beginning of the sentence makes that clause dependent, not a full sentence on its own.
Noooo I don’t have a credit card /and/ my budget has been very, very tight. :( I’ll have to wait and see if/how much I can contribute!
The asterisk for trans* has been considered transmisogynistic. nonbinary people do not need an asterisk — i wasn’t assigned agender at birth, therefore i identify outside my assigned gender and do qualify as trans, no asterisk needed. nonbinary visibility is overwhelmingly centered on DFAB people and does not need to stifle trans women. the asterisk is often used to degender them.
Some resources:
http://queer-cheer.tumblr.com/post/75633348118/about-the-asterisk (this one in particular should be checked out)
http://kforshort.tumblr.com/post/65314391545/hey-can-you-explain-why-the-asterisk-on-trans-is-a-bad
http://queertheoryissexy.tumblr.com/post/67511694887/mycatisananarchist-jackaldope-someone-sent
Cheers for the update, will fix when I’m next back on photoshop!
I can understand the arguments against using trans* as opposed to trans. Apart from anything it’s unnecessary. However, the term on the cover is LGBT*. What’s wrong with that one? My reasons for using it (when I do, infrequently) is that LGBT is a pants acronym. There are many people who it does not cover who would wish to be represented, but even the longer ones, such as LGBTQIA are not much better- it will just keep getting longer if we go that way. What are the reasons against the asterisk in LGBT*? I don’t like inadvertently offending people.
Hmm, this is an interesting one- to be honest I prefer the term GRSM (Gender, romantic and sexual minorities) but the back of a book is unfortunately an exercise in finding commonly used buzz words to get people to pick the book up.
There’s arguments for and against “trans*” personally I prefer it. The way I see it, if someone doesn’t want to be referred to as “trans*” then don’t use it in reference to them but that doesn’t mean someone who does like it should be told they can’t label themselves as “trans*” because somebody else dislikes it.
Also this is a good blog on the topic http://theenbydiaries.wordpress.com/2014/04/20/trans-vs-trans/
The phrase in question isn’t trans though- it’s LGBT*, meaning to imply other letters that could be included in the acronym. What are people’s thoughts on that?
Use “LGBT+”
ehh ive heard arguments that the term gsrm has been used to include kinky cishets and pedophiles – and “minority” often carries racist connotations? just what i’ve seen.
i opt for “Queer and/or Trans.”
Queer is something I use personally but I don’t think it’s appropriate for a generalisation. It’s easy to forget, but many people have been bullied using the term queer, and while we may be okay with it, for other people it’s a source of bad memories and shame.
I’ve seen and used “trans*” (with the asterisk) mostly to indicate that there are a ton of possible endings to that word, rather than to indicate non-binary inclusion (though I suppose it would do that too), or to be transmisogynistic in any way.
“Transgender” as an umbrella term doesn’t work quite the same way, because many people who identify under the broad spectrum implied by trans* don’t identify as transgender.
Just “trans” prolly would work though.
OH MY GOD, POOF PANTS!!!
Please, Tab, please… just take my money!
I support the kickstarter because I was hoping you would do it for this story (and any others anyways) , but boy it feels like making it a paid comic.
It is your story and I am very much enjoying it, but in another year is there going to be another ‘funding or no more comic’ point?
If I get started on the next arc there’s no turning back and I always finish things to the end.
This is genuinely to gauge how much people want the story- Some of the comments on here can be very negative so I’m often left wondering if people want me to keep updating. I’ve got a bunch of ideas for the rest of Shades of A but also a tonne of stuff for a new comic I’ve been waiting to start on.
If I wanted to do a paid comic I’d be much more open about it (i.e. Subscribe for earlier updates or specific content). The great thing about kickstarter is that I’m not just asking for handouts- all the money is stuff people want to buy (Colour books, POOF PANTS), so backers get products.
Maybe the negative comments is because when we like something, we sometimes forget to comment? Like all the negative comments on the young friends who sometimes behave in non-ideal ways to each other? Totally understandable, and I am sure I’m not the only one who love the fact that they are real, fumbling in the dark with understanding their own sexualities, sometimes act out but have a strong basis of friendship but don’t feel up to argue in comments. SO I put it hear. I love each and every strip of yours!
Thank you! I completely understand that the internet works that way- hundreds of people can love something but if someone has an issue with something that’s when they start posting!
It’s good because some of those comments are important, but at the same time it gives me a very skewed view of how much people are enjoying the work. Kickstarters are great because the lukers get to have an input without having to say anything! XD
On the note of never commenting even when you greatly enjoy something because you’re too busy enjoying the reading, this is one of those comics for me. I loved Khaos and I was so excited to see your next project, and have enjoyed it thoroughly. Cheers to Tab for continued awesomeness!
I’ll add my voice to the list of people who like the comic but don’t normally comment. I normally try to avoid reading the comments, because they tend to offend me and make me uncomfortable – maybe I am being unusually sensitive, but it seems like people who try to say positive things get shouted down by a vocal and nasty group that I like to assume is a minority. Often, the people trying the most to be “inclusive” are the ones who make it feel least safe to comment.
I read the comments this time because I genuinely do want the comic to continue and was hoping for some updates, or spoilers, or anything to tide me over until the end of May. I’m sorry if quiet supporters like myself leave you feeling like your art is unappreciated. I will donate to the Kickstarter campaign if I can, though budget is really tight right now.
Thirding this. I almost never comment, but I enjoy this comic very much, and I think this would be a pretty unsatisfying note to end it on.
I haven’t been reading the comments much here because I feel like the commenters and I are on very different pages when it comes to how we express ourselves. However, if you’re feeling kinda lukewarm on reading the comments section now, I can totally understand that. I think it’s also important to remember that in stories like this, where seriously heady themes are pretty commonplace and pages only come out a few times a week, the content of one page often seems way more shocking and striking to a lot of people than it would if they were just reading them serially. Maybe doing batch updates would help defray some of the impact of the pages and help to cut down on update drama? I dunno.
In any event, I hope you do continue to update and that you don’t let the experience discourage you, but if you decide that you prefer to work on new things instead I completely understand. I’ve had a lot of fun reading Shades of A either way, just like Khaos beforehand, and I’ll probably read whatever it is you put out next as well. (Mildly curious as to what’s in the works, actually.)
Same! Love the comics, the characters, and the sheer amount of thought and consideration in them! Sorry we aren’t any louder about our love!
Don’t get me wrong – I’m pretty sure your comics are one of the few that I actually probably would pay for, if it came to it! I love your art and I love the different tones of your characters and my only sadness is that I’m in the US so it’s super hard to get your books D: I wanted to support the Khaos one sooo baaad and I just wasn’t able to. It just made me wary in the beginning that you wouldn’t update anymore if funding couldn’t be raised.
Pardon, but I don’t really know how Kickstarters work… will there be a PayPal option like last time? I want to help out, but I don’t have any credit cards, and they only seem to take credit.
Working on that! I’m off to Norway for a convention this weekend, when I’m back I’ll get it sorted. :)
And got it!
http://www.discordcomics.com/shades-of-a-kickstarter-paypal-option/
I’m really happy to be able to contribute to keeping this story going.
I don’t care to see more of this story, at all. I think this is a good way to end the plot and tie up all the loose ends.
But I will get in on the crowd funding after the first so I can get a copy of the book for me and my girlfriend. This is one of the best representations of asexuality I’ve seen since that New Zealand show ^_~♥
I’d love to know what that New Zealand show is so I can go watch it :D
Oh! I should have checked back on this site a while ago! The show is called “Shortland Street,” and from what I’ve been told New Zealand has a very asexual positive culture.
Whhhhyyyyyyyy is there no PayPal option :(
Working on that! I’m off to Norway for a convention this weekend, when I’m back I’ll get it sorted.
http://www.discordcomics.com/shades-of-a-kickstarter-paypal-option/
I’ll chip in if I can scrape up the cash! :)
Have fun at Banzaicon this weekend, Tab! I wish I could be there, but alas I didn’t get a ticket. Sadface.
I, too, love this comic but never comment. Just wanted to support what others have said — I will definitely support the continuation of this comic! I’ve always loved your storylines and your sensitivity to character. The more awkward things get between them, the more real and identifiable it feels to us. That might be why people are driven to comment negatively about characters’ behaviors, because they end up feeling so involved.
I’ll definitely second that.
I always read and enjoy, but the only time I commented was a situation that hit *way* too close to home.
But then the whole JD/Anwar relationship-splosion is basically a 20 years younger (and less experienced at … well … life :) ) and gender flipped version of my life.
I identify deeply with Anwar in this because of the similarity, and when he messes up, I cringe, thinking “Oh no, I was trying to forget being that young and stupid. Oh well, hopefully he’ll outgrow this tendency to chew on his own feet, I (mostly) did”
Maybe it’s because I’ve mellowed with age, but it’s incredibly rare for anything I read to hit so close to home that I feel a need to say something, instead of sitting back and just quietly enjoying it.
Tab: I hope you take it as a sincere compliment that something you wrote felt real enough to make this 40 year old Ace, who has always been a lurker in almost every forum ever, make a public rage-flail. :)
I’m going to cry if we don’t get a second year T.T
Tab doesn’t seem to be promoting this Kickstarter as much as the previous one, and it’s starting to flag. That worries me, because we might not see more Shades.
Interestingly I’ve used the same amount of money on advertising and emailed even more people directly this time. I’m not doing the daily give away because I don’t have any original art for this one. Sometimes people just don’t want something as much- I’m doing what I can without spamming but Khaos was a much more broadly loved series.
I think it’s also important to consider that Khaos ran for years and years before a Kickstarter happened for it, and that that wasn’t to fund more Khaos — it was just to get books printed of Khaos as a capstone to its having run for several years.
I know Shades has been going for some time, but I literally followed Khaos since I was in high school and now I’m three years out of college. That’s a really long time to gain followers (and to let them mature and get jobs so that they can give you money for printing stories they know they enjoy). Khaos’ long run also gave you a really long time to develop characters; here you’ve only had, what, like a year or a year and a half?
I’d really like to see more comic before I put money into getting Shades printed, but now that’s not looking like it’s a possibility. And, as Nachtie below commented (they are extremely astute!), there’s no option to just back the comic without investing in a book that I don’t need which will definitely be printed at this point.
I really hope regardless of how the Kickstarter turns out you’ll maybe look into Patreon or other ways to keep developing Shades. I have high hopes in your ability to develop these characters into folks I’d love to wear on pants and stickers, but money is really tight for me right now, and I’d rather see the comic continue online than own a book with no ending. Missing out is going to be really sad to me, but ultimately, like we’ve said before, it’s your decision what creative projects you pursue. I respect if you’d like to do other stuff and elect not to look into other ways to fund the comic, like Patreon or something similar. But I don’t think the fans not wanting it badly enough is the issue here at all — comparing this Kickstarter to the Khaos one is like apples and oranges.
Don’t know if Tab reads this at all, or how much of a concern it might be, just wanted to chip in.
Tab? If you’re reading this, please don’t take something important like a year of a webcomic and roll it into another kickstarter. My personal feelings about this particular comic aside, as someone who studies kickstarter and the nature of crowdfunding, I can tell you that this approach throws up all sorts of warning signs. I tell people all the time who inform me that they’re interested in a kickstarter to not back, because what they want is a stretch goal. Kickstarter aims to protect your pledge by only collecting if the project is a success, but when people running a kickstarter offload what many may consider a ‘primary’ feature, or in this case, an ancillary product that they may be much more interested in than the main project, that money is not secured, and will be collected even if it fails to achieve a sufficient margin for them to receive what they had intended to back/purchase. I would back a kickstarter for Shades of A to continue, but I cannot back this because it isn’t a sound investment. I’m looking for a webcomic, but to get it I have to purchase a book. I’d be ok with that approach if there was any guarantee of the comic following, but there isn’t. There’s also a lot of problems with the nebulous legal nature of stretch goals, which are even more of a legal grey spot than regular kickstarter promises. I hold you in high enough regard Tab that I wouldn’t really suspect you of trying to bamboozle someone, but again, it falls into the sort of thing that I, and most people who look at kickstarter with a serious eye, would advise people away from.
TLDR
Please make things like this an actual kickstarter campaign of their own next time rather than a stretch goal? The added security of directly backing this would bring the peace of mind that would get myself, and I strongly feel others as well, to more readily back it.
I have to say that I agree with your thoughts on this. I would love to see shades of a continue, but as you said there is no direct way to support this endeavor except to buy the book, and this still does not guarantee in any way that more shades of a will happen.
Tab, if you are really doing this simply to gauge interest in whether you community is really interested in another year of updates or moving on to another project, I would think this could happen in another way that still supported you financially. Why not look into patreon, which I have seen a good number of other webcomic artists using of late, and tie support through it into a voting feature? Those that pledge to support you would gain access to a voting part of the site, where you explain any other future endeavors you may be planning and they can give their opinion on which of your endeavors they would rather see updated. Still not a perfect system of going about things, as the webcomic one chooses to support may still not be the one that’s chosen to go forward by majority rule or whatnot, but with something more akin to patreon you can choose monthly whether or not you want to (or can afford to) keep supporting the artist in their endeavors, and for you tab it would be more of a regular source of income than these one time kickstarter deals to support your work. Such a system may or may not work with how you need to do things, but it’s a thought for a different approach that would allow those of us wanting to weigh in and support shades of a continuing, though not necessarily getting the physical product, to still contribute and help fund the lovely madness that is Tab.
A fair point, unfortunately it’s too late now so I’ll keep that in mind for next time! I’ve been considering patreon so I’ll look into the details for that.
I wish I had the funds to donate to this. This has been one of my favorite comics, and I’d love to see it continue. Hopefully I’ll get some before this ends. :-(
i was sad when the previous comic came to an end, i didn’t think i would like shades of A. but indeed i love it! just as much as the previous one. i will be sad to not see more of the story line develop. but i’m pretty sure i’m going to like tab’s next project as well. glad to have helped in the small way i could! thanks tab for the great characters and story :)
So glad it got funded! Though I admit to being a little annoyed that being funded was a stretch goal, and not the original. Whatever- yaaay, more Anwar!
I’m understanding right that this got funded, right? Does anyone know when Tab plans to start updating again? I’m looking forward to it…
Sorry – after some hunting on the Kickstarter site I found the reference to updating again in August. Do you have any kind of mailing list, for people who want to be alerted when the comic starts updating again? I’m not really a fan of the Khaos side stories (though I loved the original stories), so it’s mainly A I check here for.
Thanks for looking that information up! I’ve been wondering why it’s not starting up again. For others who are interested, Tab has posted the timeline in Update 3 of the kickstarter campaign. It will be hard waiting two whole months for more Shades of A, but it is understandable.
Good idea! There’s one in the side bar now, looking forward to seeing ya in August!
Hello. I was googling “asexual comics” and just read this comic in one sitting. It blew my mind. It’s amazing. Everything about it is amazing. Characters, plot, diversity and shit… Just woah. We need more comics like this in the world.
the kickstarter was successful and it’s August now, soooo…
where da comics at?
Easy as- just click the banner at the top or go to discordcomics.com and they’re on the home page!
found this via a tumblr post and i am enjoying this!
-also an asexual
NICEEE :D
Just last year, after having been scared into assuming I was straight for my entire life, I realized that I was homoromantic. It was a big revelation and all and probably the happiest moment of my life. But then when I started dating, things were just so difficult. I’d never really felt sexual attraction in my life until very recently and no matter what I did, I just couldn’t manage it for my date. And then I started looking into demisexuality, bit by bit coming to the conclusion that that was probably what I was, if not outright ace. And…I wasn’t happy about it.
I’d never met or read about someone like me before. I feel out of place in a lot of queer spaces, but definitely don’t belong in straight ones. Every once in a while I’d read or see something and think, “Hey, this is hot! I’m not ace after all!” But…I can never imagine myself in any such situation.
But man! This comic just nailed it! The “scientific curiosity,” the longing for closeness, the peculiar desire to just sit on a couch and point out the good parts of a fun movie! I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a loving portrayal of a non-sexual relationship before. Maybe it is okay if I’m demisexual. Maybe it’s okay to want what I want, to lay out boundaries as clearly as I can. Thank you so much for this.
I read Khaos Komix when I was younger and really connected with it, but when Shades of A first came out I didn’t feel as drawn to it. Now here I am, years later, connecting with this comic on personal levels in so many ways and I wanted to deeply thank you for your work. It may have taken some growing and learning about myself to fully appreciate all the aspects of this comic, but now that I do I find it amazing that it could make me feel so many emotions and I’m so glad that you included such a diverse range of characters. Thank you. It’s amazing to see how much my life has changed since the first time I read this and how much I relate to the characters now