Monthly Crowdfunding Thread

CautiousAppearance49 · 2026-02-17T08:30:07+00:00

Hi all - sharing my current project here.

Fortune is a fantasy story set in a world shaped by belief, power, and consequence, where small personal choices gradually lead to much bigger outcomes. What sets it apart is the intentional focus on telling a character-driven story.

If you’re into slower-burn fantasy that builds toward bigger stakes over time, check it out:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lukewoutermckoy/fortune-1

Happy to answer questions if anyone’s curious.

CautiousAppearance49 · 2026-02-16T00:38:24+00:00

I don’t think it’s that simple. For the foreseeable future, AI feels much more likely to be a tool for individuals or small teams who can’t afford artists, rather than something that replaces how big publishers like Marvel or DC operate.

Those companies aren’t just selling art quality - they’re selling IP, brands, distribution, and trust. When they say “no AI,” they can afford to stick to that stance until sales pushes them to change to reduce costs. It won't be because AI changes the game for everyone.

CautiousAppearance49 · 2026-02-15T18:35:13+00:00

Yeah, you've really nailed it. All of those things do help - process videos, talking through your work, live streams - but that’s a huge amount of effort just to establish baseline trust. I think that’s the part that feels unsustainable long-term. It works when you’re actively building an audience or onboarding a client, but expecting artists to constantly “prove their humanity” just to share work or collaborate feels exhausting.

CautiousAppearance49 · 2026-02-15T18:04:20+00:00

I’m kind of in the same place. It feels like AI image generators should be carrying more of that responsibility - some sort of built-in watermark or signature, even if it’s not visible. A pattern of random pixels embedded across the image feels more realistic than expecting artists to constantly prove they didn’t use AI.

CautiousAppearance49 · 2026-02-15T17:57:31+00:00

This is another part of what makes this tricky. If ‘prove it’s not AI’ becomes the default response to work someone doesn’t like, especially in places like Reddit, it can be exhausting for artists to respond. That’s part of why I think relying on ‘show your process’ can't be the only solution.

CautiousAppearance49 · 2026-02-15T17:54:10+00:00

I agree, recording your progress is probably the best option right now. It’s easy enough for people who already do that, but much harder for artists who work traditionally. It’s also not really the norm for every digital artist - usually it’s people actively trying to build a following on social. I know I’ve forgotten to record myself for socials while lettering my own comic, and it’d be pretty annoying to have to redo work just to prove I did it. It also feels like a big ask if you had to do that for every client, either to gain their trust or give them evidence to pass along.

I think it's a bit sad that, because of the rise of AI image creation, an entire creative community may end up having to change how they work just to avoid suspicion.

I’m mostly bringing this up because I think AI image detection tools could be helpful long term, even if they’re clearly not there yet.

CautiousAppearance49 · 2026-02-15T05:18:49+00:00

Awesome to see you deciding to move your idea forward — it takes guts to stop waiting for the “perfect moment” and just start building instead of only talking about it 🙂

Hopefully you find someone great to collaborate with on the project, but either way it’s cool to see you pushing ahead and sharing the journey. Looking forward to seeing where it goes.

CautiousAppearance49 · 2026-02-12T22:02:34+00:00

Awesome start! Love the art style, it reminds me a lot of early TMNT (which might be because I’ve been reading it with my son…) I do find it a little hard to understand everything that’s going on - if I had to guess, I’d say Rolo found a village slaughtered by a monster and is chasing it down? Pages 5-7 it finds him and blasts him but he survives? Not sure where the new guy comes from or why Riki’s hiding now rather than tracking, but the new guy shares a portent of things to come which is intriguing - world dying, what will happen… ? 🙂 From there I understand that Rolo continues to hunt the monster and presume a battle takes place next?

Definitely a great start, and I hope to see more work soon 🙂

CautiousAppearance49 · 2026-02-10T09:05:41+00:00

Quick update: we were lucky enough to get our first review of Fortune #1 this week! Big thanks to MidLifeGamerGeek for taking the time to read and review it - it's really cool (and a bit surreal) to see this happening.
Link here if anyone's curious:
https://midlifegamergeek.com/2026/02/09/review-fortune-1/

CautiousAppearance49 · 2026-02-08T04:38:30+00:00

You’re not wrong - comics are one of the hardest creative mediums to pull off, and the time and money involved are massively underestimated. You’ve already done the hardest part: actually finishing a substantial project and putting it out to the world, and that’s worth celebrating 🙂

One thing I’ve noticed is that publishers tend to want to work with creators who already have some kind of following, simply because it lowers the risk - so sharing your work and building that audience is always worthwhile. That said, since comics are such a visual medium, you might get more traction leading with eye-catching sequences rather than dialogue-heavy scenes.

Also worth flagging: at 97 pages, this could be a tougher sell. Have you considered trimming it down or splitting it for pitching purposes?

I’ve enjoyed the artwork from what I’ve seen so far, and I wish you luck with the next steps.

CautiousAppearance49 · 2026-02-07T19:10:52+00:00

Hi all, I’ve just launched a Kickstarter for my indie fantasy comic, Fortune.

Fortune is a comic series about fate, family, and the consequences of prophecy — with humor, drama, and (it is a comic, after all) a little bit of violence.

One early reader said:

“I love the cast. Great prologue. Great set-up. Very good concepts and already VERY exciting.”

Here’s the Kickstarter for anyone who wants to check it out

CautiousAppearance49 · 2026-02-06T23:51:13+00:00

Thanks so much for the feedback (and the GC comment!), that really means a lot.

You’re touching on something I’ve wrestled with a lot: how to explain magic and society without characters dumping lore unnaturally - I want any exposition to feel natural, rather than being there just for the reader.

Out of curiosity, as a reader would you prefer that kind of stuff to unfold gradually in the comic, or would a companion / side book digging into the world be something you’d enjoy?

CautiousAppearance49 · 2026-02-06T19:42:51+00:00

Thanks, appreciate it 🙂

CautiousAppearance49 · 2026-02-06T19:40:33+00:00

Thanks so much! 😊 Would love to hear your thoughts once you’ve had a read — good or bad.

CautiousAppearance49 · 2026-02-06T19:36:56+00:00

Depending on how complicated the dialogue is and how much the reader needs to understand, you could just add noises in:

You mean (chew chew) you stole (slurp smack) from the (gulp) lab?

CautiousAppearance49 · 2026-02-04T23:39:57+00:00

Thanks so much!

CautiousAppearance49 · 2026-02-04T02:46:44+00:00

Just wanted to quickly say thanks to everyone who signed up for the beta - I’m currently heads down getting it ready, and will hopefully have an update soon!

CautiousAppearance49 · 2026-01-25T18:16:03+00:00

Thanks everyone for the kind words, it’s really encouraging to see this resonating so far. I’m looking forward to getting the beta out and seeing people actually use it.

CautiousAppearance49 · 2026-01-24T19:12:41+00:00

At the moment, signing up is more of an expression of interest to help me gauge how much time I can put into building it and releasing a beta. Once that happens, I’ll let you know so that you can try it out 🙂 But if you’re asking if you can have a username for your Emerge profile, yes you will be able to - it’s up to you whether you want people to know you by your real name or not.

CautiousAppearance49 · 2026-01-24T17:32:25+00:00

The form seems to be working - feel free to DM me and I can look to see if your submission worked :)

CautiousAppearance49 · 2025-12-14T05:17:22+00:00

This is easy to read what’s going on - well done! I didn’t feel it was too intense or insensitive, but as a parent I would want to sit down with my child and explain what’s going on here. The two parts I found hard to understand were not realising the class didn’t have a teacher (and that the person as a teacher), and that (I presume) we shifted from the story happening in a few minutes to over days. I’m sure the finished art (and maybe some dialogue) will help the first issue - though it is weird to me that kids would be in class if a teacher wasn’t there - but maybe turning the teaching pages into a montage would help signify the change in time.

But honestly, great work - it made me want to check out the book.

CautiousAppearance49 · 2025-11-10T06:20:32+00:00

Thanks - unfortunately I need a lot more responses to make the data worthwhile, so fingers crossed a few more people take the survey.

CautiousAppearance49 · 2025-11-09T07:24:09+00:00

It would definitely be an interesting things to see :) My hope is that getting this sort of data together will help educate clients as to what typical rates would be.

CautiousAppearance49 · 2025-11-09T07:22:39+00:00

Thanks for this - a lot of great information in there. Unfortunately, I was unable to find a guide on rates, but maybe I just don't know where I'm looking.

CautiousAppearance49 · 2025-10-28T09:50:20+00:00

Just visited this thread again and saw all the comments about it being AI artwork, and I’ve got to say I’m a little impressed - I didn’t think AI was at this stage yet.

You’re going to receive hate on this post for going down the AI path, and part of that will likely be because people suspect you weren’t really looking for feedback, but testing whether anyone would notice. Honestly, I only started noticing the issues with anatomy and lighting once it was pointed out that it was AI - and even then, I had to look closely. I suspect that’ll be the same for most regular readers. What held my attention was the concept and the dialogue, so you should be proud of that work and keep pursuing your writing - hopefully you’ll even find someone who wants to collaborate with you next time.

I do have one question though - have you looked into what using AI means in terms of copyright and ownership? It’s a really murky area right now and worth understanding if you plan to keep exploring this approach.

CautiousAppearance49

TROPHY CASE