Skip the line- first Couchcon is this weekend!

http://www.vividpub.com/couchcon

Our dealers go live online with everything you can dream of. Some of them are running special weekend discounts.

We're going to offer some special stuff too:

Commission slots (Ranging from $180-$5), hand-painted figurine sets, Troika patches and keychains, buttons, original pencil art, Vivid Publishing Sketchbooks, and more- but quantities are limited.

Free bookmark included with every order.

And we will be cracking open a case of Skirmish games to be available for sale during Couchcon. Everything will go live in our online store this Thursday night, before midnight.

Thank you to everyone enjoying the story, and helping us carry on. We're excited to bring you more- new Volume 5 page coming to Patreon and Dark Market backers tomorrow.

Do you ever feel like you’re missing out by missing conventions?

Not anymore. Vivid’s hosting an online convention in 2019- COUCHCON.

http://www.vividpub.com/couchcon

Everything we offer at conventions will be available to you. Skirmish games will be coming back in stock exclusively during Couchcon along with other Vivid merchandise- buttons, sew-on patches, bookmarks, commissions, you name it.

And it’s not limited to Dreamkeepers!

Artists who have missed out on convention space are comin’ to Couchcon.

We’re testing it out April 12-15 with me and possibly a few others. We’ll launch it again during Anthrocon, July 4-7. and we’ll be bringing in big-name dealers like M&T Comics. His 18 years of dealing at Anthrocon was terminated by staff this year- but you can find Big Mike at Couchcon! Any artists who want a dealer’s table in Couchcon, get in touch.

Miss the lines- don’t miss the fun.

See you at Couchcon.

We’re amped to announce the latest comic to sign with Vivid Publishing-

Turn up Garage Band.

http://garageband.thecomicseries.com/

When I reviewed this submission, I immediately had flashbacks to Scott Pilgrim. Not identical, but it has the same punky vibe and graphic feel. Garage Band takes a gritty look at growing up in middle America, and at the core of the colorful style is a raw authenticity that makes me eager for the next issue.

Helmed by Jason D. with the first comic illustrated by Pyanny https://www.deviantart.com/pyanny and colored by Riana Dorsey https://www.rianadorsey.com/.

Looking forward to following this series, and bringing you quality hard copies after the sound-check.

https://www.dreamkeeperscomic.com/EmailNewsletter.htm

The story of a fursuiter who had an opportunity crushed by their community- but why? Strawberry Cage, Intolerance, and Ultracompassion:

 https://bleedingfool.com/furry/strawberry-cage-intolerance-and-ultracompassion/ 

Thanks to Bleeding Fool for hosting us and adding photos & links. #furry #news 

Unmet desires are in the crosshairs.

Readers periodically come to me interested in new shirt & merchandise designs- but I never find the time to draw them.

I’d also love to create the occasional short Dreamkeepers animation, though I can never quite justify spending time.

Plus there’s concept art & lore that would be great to see- a page of springer gun designs, sports logos for the district fallguard teams, all kinds of stuff.

But even if I had the time, what would readers want me to tackle first?

Then I realized, I make time every month for extra art- the Sketch of the Month. So if we gear that towards official Vivid content, everything levels up. More of the official merchandise, concepts, and animations we’d like best.

So Sketch of the Month is evolving to an even more powerful form- now it’s the Vivid Monthly Poll.

To help guide the Vivid Monthly Poll, we’re also forming an exclusive new Discord room, the Drawing Board. The Drawing Board is a creative panel focused on generating the best, most engaging merchandising choices for the franchise.

Current Mastermind backers (From Patreon and Dark Market) have been invited to join. We’ll sound out the Drawing Board for feedback and input on apparel, toys, games, animations, and other enticing possibilities. I don’t often announce flaming piles of ‘maybe’ in public. But in a smaller group, we’ll be free to share productive brainstorms and hone Vivid’s endeavors.

We’ll be actively curating the Drawing Board to ensure it remains an effective and task-oriented room.

While Masterminds will be invited initially, we’ll be making judgement calls as we go to ensure we get the best team possible for the job. Nothing personal to those screened out, it’s about the work. Full criteria will be shared with Board Members prior to admission.

Here’s the new Vivid Monthly Poll format.

Mastermind backers will submit design ideas in any of the following categories:

Teepublic / Apparel art

1 second’s worth of Animation stage (rough, cleanup, and color are separate stages.)

Concept / lore design

Miscellaneous merchandise

Then the Patreon Commanding Vote backers will vote, and we’ll go to work on the readership’s top choice.

Thank you to the backers who make Dreamkeepers possible every day.

New backers, today is perfect for joining- we’ve just released a PDF of Chapter 13 for you to enjoy, and Chapter 14 updates begin in April.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/chapter-13-pdf-25487785

https://newproject2.com/vivid/chapter-13-pdf-download/

https://www.subscribestar.com/posts/16293

Together, the Dreamkeepers graphic novel series is just the beginning.  

Heads up to present & future Patreon / Dark Market backers, an announcement is coming soon!

We’ll share something nice for you to download, as well as a few tweaks to the Tiers. Should result in more fun & content for all.

And while we’re here, quick update about Dark Market.

In addition to Zero Strings, Subscribestar, and Bitcoin, Dreamkeepers can now accept backers in New Project 2, the Patreon alternative created by the legendary Dick Masterson.

We’re happy to bring you art & fun, whichever platform you prefer! Links below:

https://www.patreon.com/Dreamkeepers

http://www.darkmarketcrypto.com/

Time to raffle off some free art!

Everybody else was too slow- Vivid Publishing is launching our own Patreon alternative, today.

If you’re unfamiliar with the #PatreonPurge, plenty of other content creators are covering the circumstances that led to commentators and cartoonists being banned from the platform.

But Dreamkeepers isn’t banned- they love us over there, so why are we launching a Patreon alternative? Because readers were asking for one. A good number of people wanted to support us, but through a different outlet- and my answer was yes!

So we joined Makersupport.

It was shut down by the cartel of payment processors.

So we joined Subscribestar.

It was shut down by the cartel of payment processors.

Hatreon, Freestartr, Gab, everyone who tried to build their own platform to date has been shut down by the ruling cartel of Silicon Valley companies and their payment processors.

The damn cash register is deciding what you are and are not allowed to buy!

But the internet doesn’t like hearing ‘no,’ and now EVERYBODY is talking about building alternative platforms. But nobody’s delivered yet, so Vivid Publishing has stepped up.

Welcome to the Dark Market.

www.darkmarketcrypto.com

In the Dark Market, you can find creative content you love, support it, and get rewards. The Silicon Cartel can’t stop you, because we accept Bitcoin, and we use a newly founded, independent credit card processing service- Zero Strings.

If you’re new to Bitcoin, there are links in Dark Market to introduce you to the basics. Getting started is about as hard as setting up a Paypal Account, except Paypal can freeze your funds, and Bitcoin you can spend and accept with total freedom. I don’t know anything about investing, all I know is Bitcoin is an unstoppable way to conduct transactions. People are calling it “free speech money.”

Any Dreamkeepers customers who use Dark Market here in January, I’m going to raffle off a free single-character lineart commission. Payment options, instructions, and rewards are listed right there on the page.

Launching with us in the Dark Market is Boneitis, Corvus Publishing, DireWolf Media, Darkspeeds, and possibly more creators coming soon- so check in with them, they might have some launch specials planned as well.

Now, we will continue posting on Patreon. I might not like everything they do, but then again, I don’t like everything the government does, and I still use roads. But all Dreamkeepers Patreon content from here on out will be available through Dark Market- including some things that may be too spicy for Patreon’s TOS.

If you want to know more, go to www.DarkMarketCrypto.com, and join the underground.

We have cartoons.

What a year. 

The war to control crowdfunding is upon us.  Thought you could choose your entertainment, and simply support who you like?  Well strap in.

But let’s recap before looking ahead.

Skirmish delivered.  Our deluxe boxed tabletop game, complete with foil stamping and black-core linen-textured cards, along with the first expansion deck. “Ruthless”.  The guys at EPF games outdid themselves, and Dreamkeepers has successfully claimed another medium with flying colors.

Simultaneously, the Dreamkeepers spinoff novel “Wayward Astronomer” won multiple Ursa Major Awards, as did the Dreamkeepers comic series itself. 

And congratulating fellow winner Dogpatch Press, we discovered the most curious thing.  A secret blacklist!  (Not the only secret in the furry community, as it would later turn out.)  They weren’t permitted to even retweet our congratulations.  So I wrote a nice article for them about how to prevent Nazis, and our Patreon boomed.  

Backer support has unleashed more art than ever before.  It’s backlogged, I have too much to post!  Vivid has hired a social media manager to help us keep up.

Aside from a cascade of art from crowdfunding, Vivid published & delivered Mike Rosen’s Firebrat book just in time for Christmas, and the Dreamkeepers Volume 5 soundtrack was successfully crowdfunded by composer Nikolas Albrecht on Kickstarter.

The Dreamkeepers theme, as recorded by a live orchestra in Budapest, will make your hair stand on end when you hear it.  

We also licensed Furrysculptures.com to create 3-D printed Dreamkeepers figurines, and launched a unique Dreamkeepers roleplay system in Discord.

And that’s about when Patreon decided to start violating their own terms of service to ban creators for wrongthink.

If you’re out of the loop, check out Timcast or any of the legion of youtubers covering the debacle.

Creators flocked to an alternative platform, Subscribestar- which was immediately crushed by Paypal and Stripe, the same way they killed other Patreon competitors like Makersupport.  Some concerned citizens, like YoutuberLaw, are filing FTC complaints.  But everyone is talking about new alternatives.  

Like cryptocurrency.

Starting in 2019, Vivid Publishing will unlock the door to crypto.

In fact, you can try it right now.

Advanced players in our new cyberpunk dystopia, send BTC to:

1KvbJhj5JNDzhT4DEm1yQ6JqGcFkjmGMrf 

A comprehensive announcement with more currency options, and rewards for crypto donations, is coming next month.

So, 2019 ought to be interesting!  

New platforms, new opportunities, and more content than ever for you to enjoy.

Vivid will navigate the changing marketplace to give you the best possible options, while I work my tail off to create the best possible content.

2017-2018 saw the successful expansion of Dreamkeepers, but 2019 I’ll be focusing exclusively on Volume 5.  I can’t wait to show you what we have in store.

Meanwhile, look forward to the next Vivid book release, “False Start” by the unstoppable madman Boneitis.  

If you trust the social media company algorithms, then just sit back and do nothing.  But if you want to take control, secure a position in our newsletter:  http://www.dreamkeeperscomic.com/EmailNewsletter.htm  

Thank you to the readers for making all this possible- through ups and downs, corporate censorship and community drama nonsense, it’s your willpower and commitment to your own taste that keeps things vivid.

Keep reading, and we’ll keep drawing.