#comcis

Pages from the official Alastor comic posted to RiplaeChills' commission page.

I love what I do. But as a self published artist and game designer I don't make very much money. Like, almost nothing. I live in a single room I rent from friends. My brother and I have to rent a studio space for our business because neither of us have room to work at home. Every month starts with me paying about half my total monthly income to cover my business expenses. If I'm lucky, over the month we'll sell enough books/PDFs that I can recover that, which then means I can pay rent, groceries, medication and utilities.

Many months we don't sell enough books, so I end up doing commissions or some illustrators to make up the difference. This will add 10 or more hours to my 70 to 80 hour work week.

Most months I walk to work about half the time to save money, instead of taking the bus.

Money is always tight. That's just how it is when you're an artist. I've been making free Modest Medusa comics every week for almost 15 years. I have a Patreon you can support. I have books you can buy. I'd really appreciate it.

My brother Nick and I have been working on our game The Magical Land of Yeld for half a decade. You can buy the book or PDFs. We release new content for the game every month.

I'm used to not having much income. And I'm lucky to have the support I do have! I wish I made more money creating my art, but I'm not going to stop making my art. I cant. There's no version of life where that happens. Sometimes I do have good months! Sometimes I get to take our game or my comic to a convention and make a few hundred extra bucks. When I have a good month, I buy things I need (or want). I pay bills and put money into our business. There's never anything left over. I don't have savings. That's fine! Being poor is part of the whole thing. What I do makes me so happy, and its all I care about. I'm never NOT going to work 70-80 hours every week making art, even if it generates no money at all. But life is SO MUCH EASIER when my art does bring in some money.