Magic is dangerous. It twists and alters all it comes into contact with, forever changing it. Those who walk under the open sky unprotected come back unrecognizable, or not at all. And yet, there are those who wander. None knows why some people walk off into the open, drawn down the long, ancient roads. But some do. Wayfarers and pilgrims move through towns like ghosts, spinning tales of sights beyond the imagining. And far out on the open plains, mages roam where they please. Wild, unnatural folk who obey no law but their own.
Willow has been told all her life that no good ever comes of meddling with the unknown. That she should ignore the call of the far horizon, lest it carry her away from all she knows. And that as a respectable young woman, she should want to put down roots and continue her family's legacy.
I've always wanted to do one of these comic-year preview thingies.
In just a few weeks, I'll be publishing the first pages of my comic, Stormlark! This comic will be following a trans-masculine main character, striking out on a journey into the unknown as he attempts to learn magic and find his way in the world. I'm incredibly exited to start publishing this, and I can't wait to share it with people.
This project has been on the back burner for a long time, but I've hardly ever had the time or the energy to work on it. Almost all of my time for the last few years has just gone towards commissions. To try and combat this, I've started up a Patreon page to support the comic, which can be found here: https://www.patreon.com/c/turnipstewdios
The entire comic will eventually be available to read for free, but I'll be publishing it at half speed. For every two pages posted to Patreon, one page will be posted here, meaning there will always be twice as much available to read for supporters.
Ideally, I would like to do at least two pages per week, but drawing the first few pages has taken more time than I'd like. For the time being, it looks like I'm going to have to stick to one per week, which will mean there will only be one page per two weeks posted publicly. (This does also mean that the first few weeks of public posting may end up just being the title pages. lol. Sorry.) Any more than that and I can't keep up with commissions, which I sadly need to pay my rent. I'm hoping that eventually I'll have enough support to reduce my commission load. Go join if you want to help! Pages will be available for all paying tiers, even if you're only paying $1. Higher tiers will get to see some of the dev work and concept art as well!
-
A note: I intend to do a dedicated trigger warning page at the start of the comic with general warnings about stuff that will come up in the future, but I plan on this being a long story. I can't TW for everything in advance, especially since some stuff hasn't even been written yet. I'm going to have a more specific warning page at the start of each chapter, covering some of the specific topics that will come up during it. Individual pages showing potentially triggering content will also be tagged or warned to the best of my ability, with anything graphic filtered. I do intend to show blood, violence, ext. in the future. If at any point I miss something, if you feel that something should be warned, or if you would like to suggest a tag/tw for something, let me know and I will try to add it.
A special note on pronouns and misgendering. This story starts before the main character has even realized he's trans. I don't think I've ever seen a story follow a trans character from before the egg even cracks, and I want to explore that. I realized I was trans in my early 20's, and my experience seems to be different from a lot of folks who figured it out younger. As such, the early part of the story will refer to the character with she/her pronouns and his birth name, which may be triggering to some people. It will take a while to get to the point in the story where that changes. Probably at least a year in real time, unless the publishing schedule picks up.
Please be civil in the comments. Do not start or join arguments, post hate speech, harassment, ect on my page. There will be a zero tolerance policy for hateful or bigoted comments. Terfs can fuck off.
Disclaimer: Under no circumstances do you have permission to repost or use this image or my other work for any reason unless specifically stated otherwise. This image may not be used for AI. Do not repost my art to other websites or for any other personal or commercial use. If you have a question, or would like to ask permission to use a piece, please contact me about it. I do not sell NFT's of any sort, and if you see one, it is stolen.