#ooh words

[rachelillustrates]

🎉🎉🎉 I have really cool news!! 🎉🎉🎉

Earlier this year, I applied for a grant to help with funds for publication of the first trade-paperback style volume of @tockthegnome with the intention of getting ISBN and copyright on it, so I can get it onto bookshelves (including and especially libraries).

And I am SO STOKED to announce that my project has been accepted! I am officially a 2026 Strategic Opportunity Stipend recipient, via the Community Arts Partnership here in Ithaca NY.

More details on the process to follow (including crowdfunding for the printing - please contact me anytime if you would like to contribute early!) - but for now, here is this.

My weekly posting schedule will also be impacted as I do this work, getting the volume formatted, with bonus content. The nutshell of that is that weekly world building for the comic will be down to every other week until the project is complete, and will be combined with "Thank Gnome it's Friday" wherever possible, to streamline my workload.

That said, GET READY TO SEE TOCK ALL SHINY OFFICIAL IN BOOKSTORES AND THE LIBRARY, EVERYONE!!!

Bonus art and stories ~ Prints, comics and more!

[rachelillustrates]

As previously advertised - ta da!! My current show, "Shoulder to Shoulder."

Must admit that I am very pleased with how this came together, considering how last minute it was. PHEW, muchly. And the idea - considering the title, and the song lyrics it came from (as noted on my artist statement) - was to more than kinda lean into the energy of togetherness against all the harm going on right now. Across peoples, across circumstance. Most of this work features the peoples of "Tock the Gnome," and as always, I find that Faerie can be an immense metaphor or example of what should be possible between us lowly humans.

Most of this work has been featured before, in different contexts, but I am really really stoked to have been able to include some of my writing this time!! Both being bonus scenes from "Tock the Gnome," both featuring connection between the aforementioned peoples across cultures, both previously only available on my Patreon.

So! Again, if you're local and need a lift wrapped in faerie-goodness and whimsy (and, let's be honest, sapphic romantasy all around), please come visit! Show will be up all month, likely through midnight on the 28th or 29th.

(And not to toot my own horn or anything, but I have a very important anniversary coming up this week and a really great way to help me celebrate that would be to come see my work and let it warm you, however that impact looks 💗)

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Bonus art and stories ~ Prints, comics and more!

[rachelillustrates]

Time for another @tockthegnome world building post, dear readers!!

This week, we are looking at a context clue in Orcish culture about whether or not a certain gesture was intended romantically.

Full notes here 🗡️💐

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✨💗 “Tock the Gnome, volume 1: The Rescue Quest” now available!! In my shop and also locally at Protagonist Books & Coffee (Dryden NY), Odyssey Bookstore (Ithaca NY), Hilton Garden Inn Ithaca, Buffalo Street Books (Ithaca NY) and Wonderland Comics (Rochester NY). Save the date – Release party August 27th!!  💗✨

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Bonus art and stories ~ Prints, comics and more!

[rachelillustrates]

Time for another @tockthegnome world building post, dear readers!!

This week, we are looking at where the Gnomish expression “Butrus’ bygone bloomers!” came from, and what it is technically supposed to invoke.

Full notes here 🪨🪙✨

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Bonus art and stories ~ Prints, comics and more!

[rachelillustrates]

Time for another @tockthegnome world building post, dear readers!!

This week, we are looking at a bit of secret history from one of the Orcish clans, in regards to a seemingly cosmic prank once played on them…..

Full notes here 🐾

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Bonus art and stories ~ Prints, comics and more!

[rachelillustrates]

Ta daaaaaaaa!!!

" @tockthegnome volume 1: The Rescue Quest," now available in my shop as well as at Protagonist Books, locally (with more locations to come!).

"What do you do, when you're a lost faerie in a realm that has forgotten it is Faerie at all? When you set out to save a legendary Princess that no one else believes in? When you intend to court and marry that Princess, but you meet someone else - someone fascinating - on the road?

When Love can change the world?

Follow Tock, a Gnome woman from a steampunk society in a realm of high fantasy, as she finds herself thus bound. Driven by a Fairy Tale about a trapped Elven princess on a floating island, she convinces her friend Bumble – an airship pilot – to join her quest to rescue her.

They hire extra firepower from unfamiliar lands, and together they seek the island and the princess. But what they seek may not be quite what they expected . . . "

As always - proudly contains queer characters and romance, size-positivity, Faerie, spiritual magic, conundrums and tomfoolery. Rated T. Collects existing issues 1-4, as well as five exclusive bonus tales/articles and some behind the scenes design work, for a total of 176 pages.

Thank you so much to everyone who helped make this possible, especially the Supporters who contributed to the printing, and the Community Arts Partnership locally, who provided the grant that got the ball rolling!

(Stay tuned for release party details, too!)

~

Bonus art and stories ~ Prints, comics and more!

[rachelillustrates]

As it says!!

Please join me at Protagonist Books & Coffee in Dryden NY, August 27th, at 6pm to celebrate the release of the first trade paperback style collection of my beloved comic @tockthegnome 🎩💕 Come talk faeries and queer rep with me, hear some of the bonus prose from the book and get your copy signed!!

More details on their site here, and Facebook event details here if you want to RSVP. But either way, come celebrate and support, if you can!

~

Bonus art and stories ~ Prints, comics and more!

[rachelillustrates]

✨ ding ding!! ✨ A new page of @tockthegnome is available for reading!!

Read in full here ❤

Or start from the beginning here ❤

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“Tock the Gnome: The Rescue Quest” is about a Gnome woman who lives in a gaslamp /steampunk culture in a high fantasy world. Driven by a Fairy Tale about a trapped Elven princess on a floating island, she convinces her friend Bumble – an airship pilot – to join her quest to rescue her. They hire extra firepower from unfamiliar lands, and together they seek the island and the princess. But what they seek may not be quite what they expected…

Proudly focuses on queer characters, romance and relationships, size-positivity, Faerie, spiritual magic, conundrums and tomfoolery.

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Bonus art and stories ~ Prints, comics and more!