Author: Matty Boy

The BANDS I USETA LIKE BIG BOOK OF COMICS is now available for purchase. You can get your own by clicking the following line: 

TAKE ME TO THE BIG BOOK!!! 

Until April 16, you can get a discount by entering the coupon code LULU10. If I can sell a hundred of these babies, my chances of survival over the next month will greatly increase. In case you haven’t noticed, nothing is currently set up to benefit freelance or independent artists. (If you think otherwise, you haven’t tried to apply for benefits.) I am considered “inessential”. This is ironic, now that everyone is “sheltering-in-place” and typically enjoying music, comics, books and movies created by other “inessential” people. It looks like we’re getting a repeat of the Obamacare fiasco, where thousands of artists had their healthcare fucked with and just died. If anything resembling an “artist class” still exists in 2021, I will consider that a miracle. Not like it still exists right now, though. 

If I sound desperate, it’s because that’s the situation. I go through long periods of despondency where I don’t draw because I’m losing the belief that there’s a future in it. If I didn’t have people who believe in me already, I would’ve given up by now. For that, I am thankful. But without more support, it doesn’t look like I can keep things going. I don’t have the audience I had 12 years ago; the means to reach an audience that size no longer exists for independent artists. Everything is compromised and censored by social media, to control people’s lives, what they buy and how they vote. In 2004 I once got a quarter-million hits in one month; for the past five years, I’m lucky if I crack a hundred. So yeah, sometimes I get angry and frustrated when I see some jerkoff getting a grand a month on Patreon for doing next to nothing. Sometimes I get angry and frustrated when I create something and everyone seems to be raving about Disney or some fucking reality show about meth addicts who own tigers. I don’t have the resources to compete with that kind of saturation marketing. 

Anyway, here’s a book that represents the focus of the last few years of my life. I think it’s great and funny as hell. If my opinion or abilities mean anything to you, consider telling people this book exists and they can purchase it. I can’t keep going alone. Any artist who tells you that they can is lying, or living off of someone else. Thanks as always for your support. 

April 1st is a special day here at MIKE THE POD, because it’s the day that JOHN’S ARM: ARMAGEDDON actually screened in a real theater (the Plaza on Ponce De Leon in Atlanta), back in 2009. To commemorate this momentous occasion, here is the cover of the new issue of PATRON SAINTS. Normally, this magazine is only available to Patrons, but for April it’s visible to regular folks, to give a glimpse of what you get for as little as $1 a month. More exclusive material (including stuff from ARMAGEDDON) appears regularly here, so if you haven’t already, get on board. You won’t want to miss a thing! 

This is the unedited inked page, pre-digital coloring, for this Sunday’s upcoming CFB strip. Finally, another character appears! About time, huh? 

Suitable for printing, here is the first installment of 10 STEPS TO A FINISHED PAGE. Once we get started, these pages will be Patron-only. This is a fully-formed manual that can increase and develop your skills, and take you from amateur to functioning professional. You will no longer be mystified as to how some artists can produce on a weekly basis. You will have the tools and information you need to produce your own comic books. From start to finish, I will show you how it’s done, in 10 steps.