Free Comic Book Day is the first Saturday in May. It was started to encourage people to visit their local comics shops, by offering them a selection of small comics they could take home absolutely free. I launched my Patreon on Free Comic Book Day seven years ago, and it’s been my tradition ever since to unlock a bunch of posts and invite the Internet in to have a nose round. Alas I am far too busy to do any of this on the first weekend of May 2024, but thankfully Patreon has made it much easier to go have a look-see whenever you like.
Free membership – Subscribe permanently to the ‘Free’ tier, and as long as you stay subscribed, you will get every public post delivered to your inbox, as well as locked posts that become public. I always make at least one free post a month, in which I report on the progress I’ve made in the preceding month and give you some idea what to look forward to in the next.
Free trial – You can sign up to any open tier for seven days, completely free! This gives you access to everything I’ve ever posted to that tier, so choose your timing wisely in order to make the most of it. Tiers like Busker’s Smile and Paper Money have literally hundreds of posts which you can read for free this way. If you do want to sign up to a paid tier, don’t worry about currency conversion – the screengrab above is in GBP because I captured it in the UK, but you should see it in the home currency of wherever you’re loading it from.
Free posts – Are you allergic to even the slightest whiff of commitment? That’s fine! You can read all currently public posts (including every update, ever) by following this link here, with no obligation in any regard. Just scroll past the pleas for your money at the top and you’re off to the races. (Patreon decides on the formatting, not me.)
I am in the incredibly fortunate position of doing well enough on Patreon to cover the essentials – rent, bills, groceries – so I don’t need to beg. But because Patreon is my primary source of income, I do treat it as my job, and try my best to make sure there’s a post a week with extras for the higher tiers. It’s by far the best way to keep up with the production of the books, and as soon as I start drawing pages again you will see them years before anyone else. Before then, there will be plenty of development art which might not turn up anywhere else. I do not need your money … but if you want to stay informed and see new stuff regularly, you may like to know that Patreon is where to find it.
If you’re a purist and you think Free Comic Book Day should be about Free Comics and not me banging on about my crowdfunding site (and who can blame you!) then fear not, there are still Free Comics!
Prologue – the first nine pages of Vol.1, FREE!
The Sea Ice Incident – twelve pages of an episode that will appear in Vol.2, FREE!
The Best Journey in the World – how I went from moderately successful animator to crazy person making comics about dead polar explorers!
The Worst Journey in the World: Graphic Novel 