#please consider reading

Since last year i've been meaning to make a comic using rubberhose public domain characters, before steamboat willie came into the public domain i planned to make a very diffrent plot based comic that was suppoust to be a "fan" work and looking back would probably end up too big for me, but with steamboat willie free now i've decided i'll try to not break any trademarks or copyrights and make an plot-gag oryginal comic

the characters are based on their already known counterparts and there is inspiration taken from comics and shorts that still belong to the walt disney company and dreamworks inc. however the characters arent the same, there are many things changed about them role wise, design wise and characterization wise, at first I aimed to have them be as close to their most popular characterizations but then i realized that I had perspective on some of these characters others do not have and after few nights spent looking at the wall intensly and thinking I decided to do what I find the most fun and intresting despite it posibly not being a take everyone might enjoy or find "accurate" it is a take I put lots of love and hope into

indie works have been a big intrest of mine for years and public domain made me see some real gorgeous stories with lots of work put into them from other other small artist, what I admired the most about them is how the characters often got re-written in ways that would not even be looked at in corporate workspaces, and after slowing things down I looked at my own work from an outsiders perspective and asked myself "why shoudnt I write them diffrently to how they were written before?" and the only answears that I could think of made me feel more like a executive breathing down an artists neck rathen than the artist

while I understand my takes on characters in the story might not be everyones cup of tea I like them and genuinely have fun with them and must ask everyone reading this who do enjoy already existing takes on all of these characters to at least give my works a chance and look at them for a moment even from the corner of your eye

Whats the comic about?

Its about toons that at their lowest [or stupidest] decided to sign a contract with a shady ringmaster simply referred to as "MR" the toons are now stuck working for him as entertainers at his circus...a very porly managed circus, MR is not the brightest and while not truly evil he is quite stupid, that mixed with his greed leads to circus endlessly having to deal with something, be it undoing a badly struck deal, having to preform in shady places, sudden changes in their work schedules none are happy with or the accual devil who knows!

what type of a comic is this?

The chained circus is a gag comic! mostly lighthearted many chapters/stories wont be very plot driven but despite that there still will be ongoing plot in it you might wanna follow!

unlike a typical gag comic things will change overtime, one story wont be forgotten to make another one work and suddently characters wont forget their lessons or morals from before [unless theres an accual reason for it in the story]

And while the comic is mostly a comedy there will be serious moments in it there and there but do not worry! anything that will require a content warning or a trigger warning will be marked at the start of the chapter/in title card [ I write more about that below ]

overall id say that there will be more gag and comedy focused chapters but the lore/story driven chapters will leave a stronger mark after themselfs

The artstyle?

The comic will be in black and white with the only color visible being yellow, i plan on making the artstyle slightly messy i want you to feel like youre looking at something indie, not put through corporstions eye, i plan on the lineart being a bit rought and the texture of both characters fur and clothes will have noise to it, I dont plan on making it visualy busy or overwhelming but you'll mostlikely wont see much still color (or well brightness)

while not ideal and more of concept art here are some examples

Who will be the main characters?

The main characters are

Michael charm (mickey mouse) as the clown

Oswald charm (oswald the lucky rabbit) as the arial dancer

Julius. (Julius the cat) he does all the paperwork

Minerva mice (minnie mouse) as the magician

Francine fanny cottontail (sometimes reffered to as "bunny lou") as the Contortionist

Peg leg pete (accual name "peter fluffpaw") as the strong man

While the recurring Side characters are

MR. - The circuses ringmaster, but definitley not head, the man that menaged to lock others in with a bunch of contracts but cant multiply by 2 (oryginal character)

Alice comedy - julius' right hand woman and best friend! She helps with the paperwork and despite not spending much time with the toons because of their...strong reaction to her, she tries to be kind and helpful to them, what a sweet kid! (alice comedies)

Age rating? content warnings?

The chained circus is very much not made with children in mind but also not adults, id say its rated T (teen, aka 13+) While i don't plan on making every character swear every chapter 40+ times an ocassional cuss word there and there might be dropped, some humor can be based around more adult themes, none of it would be too serious, it is a gag comic afterall but I do plan on putting warnings at the start of the chapter at the title card since i belive all triggers are valid, there will be 3 levels of warnings,

Blue for jokes or brief mentions

Purple for slightly serious implements/showcases

Red for explicit serious showcases

do keep in mind that red rating will be barely used and most likely will be for things like characters being in distress, scary imaginary, heavier arguments and such, things I belive could be heavy or upseting for some but not dreadfull, like I said more plot driven chapters will happen but it is suppoust to be a comedy comic at the end of the day

when and where can I read it?

I plan on writing out a whole chapter then uploading it over the course of 2 weeks publishing few pages at the time [as you decided on a poll i made] the comic will be avaiable here, comic fury and on my neocities website! I'll link all of them here when the first pages of the pilot will be out

as of relase date I hope to start publishing first pages this month but cant yet tell if early on or later on I'll update this post and make other seperate posts about it when I figure it out

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING THIS POST! LIKE I SAID IT MEANS ALOT TO ME AND WORDS CANT EXPRESS HOW MUCH ANY SUPPORT OF YOURS MEANS TO ME! <3<3<3<3<3