Ausora; the Kickstarter

Taken from the official Kickstarter page! Ausora

It all started on the last day of my prior Wednesday Cartooning class. Empty sketchbooks, coloring books & a Pokémon manga were given out as farewell gifts. Later in the class, this was asked:

“Aaron Man, I have a quick question. Do you know of any publishing companies that'll, like, take kids work & print them?!”

“You’re looking at one,” I responded, smirking.

This is where I come in! In the summer of 2014, I dived feet-first into the realm of independent book publishing with my first book “Strawberry Dough.” It follows the main character, Squishy the Sugar Glider, a curious marsupial creature who takes his species name way too seriously and travels with a loyal doughnut on his wrist. He also has an intense sweet tooth. In the autumn of 2015, a new 4- book series “Strawberry Dough: Season’s Sweetings” began with the “Autumn” book and is ending with “Summer” in June 2016.

And once the summer of 2015 hit, I completed the first book of “SolForce!” This series is based on the dozens of characters I’ve created dating back to pre-school. The stories are pure detective action comedy, following an ever-growing team of hotshot crime fighters from all across the globe (and beyond), as they band together to safeguard all of toonkind in the tropical mecca of Sunshine City USA from mad bio-engineers and/or their shadowy creations.

By the time “Strawberry Dough” and “SolForce” began making the rounds with me to numerous schools and book expos in New York City and the Bay Area, one thing became clear to me: The kids I met were deprived of art. To make matters even more endearing to me, so many of them have untapped potential as cartoon and comic creators in their own right. And much like me when I was a shy, skinny-as-a-twig elementary student, they simply want the adults in charge and even their own peers to take them seriously as growing artists!

This, folks, is the reason behind the campaign for Ausora! Ausora aims to serve as a workshop and small publishing outlet for the graphic novel projects my students and I create. What led me to believe that this idea can indeed work was simply viewing what a couple of groups were able to produce under my wing.

The first project at bat was “The Muji Story,” a 24- page black and white comic created by two of my highly dedicated (and wacky) fourth grade students Alice and Jenna.

Starting in the fall of 2016, I aim to work with students as both private and group lessons depending on the comic project they’d like to take on. Season to season, these projects will be collected into a compilation called “The Ausora Blender,” with winter being the first release. A temporary cover will be created for a campaign update. Inspired by the many creations of my 15 students from my Spring 2016 Cartooning class alongside Cartoon Network’s What-A-Cartoon! program from the 1990s, the reason for these compilations is to also view which comic projects would you, the reading audience and backers, would love to see a fully- made graphic novel project completed alongside the “Strawberry Dough,” “SolForce,” and “Muji” books! As you’ll see in the reward tiers, those with elementary and middle school students will have a chance to pitch their own comic ideas to me. This is an attempt to get as many fun and creative ideas into the “Blender” compilations and who knows, their ideas may turn into a small graphic novel too!

Then, of course, comes the use of funds. Simply put, the private classes and production and distribution of the books are key. The first 50% of the funding will contribute to the numerous classes I plan to teach starting in autumn. Classes will range from 4- 12 students. The next 25% will hit the points of printing, shipping and handling for each package. Thanks to my relationship with the following outlets, the well-to-do folks of Blurb and the Book Patch will handle all of the book printing, while Redbubble and Vistaprint will handle the posters, stickers, postcards and bookmarks respectively. The good news is that the completed graphic novels won’t take much time to print, since the PDF’s are all done! 15% will cover additional shipping costs covered through the various reward tiers, with 10% allocated for Kickstarter fees.

With Ausora, my students and I strive to provide a unique brand of entertainment for all ages for years to come. And all the while, we hope to empower artful youth who can’t wait to solidify all of the ideas in their big and brainy heads on paper with that new book smell. Thank you for considering backing and supporting this Kickstarter! I need you to help me and my students make this project a reality.

Strawberry Dough Season's Sweetings: Summer Bliss

Since this artist and this song has been buzzing around my head and iPod for months, allow me to share it with you. Play it while reading this post:

 

 

Paul Hardcastle, a multi- instrumentalist jazz musician from Britain, provided me with one of the many sounds I've used as a sugar glider drawing playlist for the past few months. The hotly awaited season of summer is about to arrive here in the states, and what perfect way to ring it in but with the release of Strawberry Dough Season's Sweetings: Summer!! It is now available for purchase on my shop.



 

 

 

I remember sharing this cover art for the final season for this series a month ago as a penciled sketch on my Instagram page once Spring was completed. From the very start of my character choices for the first Strawberry Dough, many readers were shocked at the omission of certain obvious animals native to the Australian and New Zealand lands. At the time, they didn't fit the comics I drew out, so I left it to the Winds of Fate -again- to remind me when was the perfect time to unleash the two new characters onto the Alpine Outback

 

Let's start this preview with a bright first page, shall we?!

 

 

I have to give a ton of credit to the Aussie Instagrammers out there for providing me with such vast landscapes and wonderful native birds to draw for this latest comic's intro! Of course, such dazzling décor would be disrupted by-



 

FIRECRACKERS!! Set off by a mischievous... Platypus... 

 

Before I continue, I must state the context of this page. Being an animal lover since age five, I've done my best to educate others on what exactly ticks certain creatures off. I felt that it was necessary to warn others of the use of certain objects that can cause damage. In this case, fireworks and firecrackers frighten the living daylights out of many animals. While this was used for comedic effect for a plot point, make no mistake: the way those birds reacted is VERY similar to how your dog, cat, guinea pig or rabbit would react if you took them out for a 4th of July celebration. They are safe indoors!

 

Now, onto why Platypus exists.

 

 

With the summer season hitting the Alpine Outback, the ever- so mythical Northeast region begins to bloom in popularity the way Kiwi and Dingo shared with the others during Spring. Platypus acts as the herald for the region, carrying out acts of naughtiness to fend other animals off until his -gulps- leader says to let them in.

 

 

He was a character long in development to appear in a book! Thanks to the platypus being an unusual creature to zoological standards -duck- billed, beaver- tailed, otter- bodied-, his overall design will make for a great sticker to add to the series collection! As seen above, his leader I'll speak of at the end. 

 

One joy I had while finishing this book was reuniting Squishy and the Alpine crew with Kiwi and her kiwifruit to see the side effects and wonder of their full journey unfolding!  

 

Note to self: Bandicoot can't avoid thunderstorms easier than trees.

Since this IS the ending book to the current Strawberry Dough series, there has to be cap- offs to things that have happened in the previous seasons. Case in point: Goanna still exists-

 

And Bilby arrives with Dingo! Once a month passes, I'll have a blogpost detailing exactly what I was going through at the time I started this book and finished it. In a weird philosophical way, Summer is the encapsulation of my latest transition in the Bay Area for the past two months. Much like I've described in Brooklyn By The Bay, it's a change I saw coming.

Much like how Kangaroo makes her grand entrance in the book!

 

 

 

Thank you all for reading, sharing and supporting my books! I'll be back to talk about something more key to my career... on Monday.

Brooklyn By The Bay

It's now a partly cloudy Monday here in Berkeley, CA. Five days ago, I've successfully moved out of my previous living situation in Emeryville SOMEWHAT unscathed! After a year and five months of moving back to the Bay Area from NY, I'd say the transition was not only inevitable; it was necessary.



 

 

 

The day I turned 27 back in late February, -still alive, thank ya!- I drew this piece out a few hours before my Wednesday Cartooning class started. For at least two months prior, a picture of myself and my quasi- official mascot Squishy the Sugar Glider kept burning in the back of my head. "What better day to draw this," I figured, "but my day of birth?!"

That day struck a cord with me for numerous reasons. Outside of binging out to the Super Smash Bros. for 3DS & Wii U soundtrack all morning, being told by an after school director how popular your Cartooning class has been for two past semesters, and being treated out by your first Bay Area roommate, I was something that I've been trying to achieve for the past three years.

Happy. 

And something even more important: Hopeful. 

 

By the middle of spring, my two Cartooning classes proved to end more successfully than I originally thought they would. Rumor had it that my classes would see the end of day if the company- sponsored Engineering classes would take on higher registration in the fall semester. I'm happy to report that it doesn't seem to be the case!

 

 

To make matters better, my two Cartooning proteges Alice and Jenna were finally done with their first graphic novel-

 

And, of course, they and their families joined me for a few hours at my booth at the Bay Area Book Festival this past Sunday! The two b.f.f.'s showed up between 10:30 and 11 am. By 11:30, I was already out of breath from drawing and clowning around with them and our books. Needless to say, foot traffic doubled around my booth thanks to our shenanigans!

 

It also helped that The Muji Story was showcased just inches away from my SolForce and Strawberry Dough graphic novels. Total strangers, families and librarians were impressed by the sight of two future fifth graders promoting their first project wackily alongside some ice cool, latte chugging, theatrical cartoonist. As a true surprise, all books on my table sold out within those two days! Here's the evidence-

 

 

This photo was taken simply 30 minutes before the festival's close. Any time I get to showcase my graphic novel projects whether in schools or book festivals, I like to keep a close eye on what catches the audiences eye. I made sure flow the table with a wave of postcards, stickers and props -Footloose the Mannequin returns!- to lure them into the characters and watercolor-on-ink art style I've sported for three years.

 

And now, it's time for a demographic study! I've done two book events between October 2015 and June 2016 and taught classes since October 2014. Have a look at the pictures below. My books, characters, and classes garner an audience of-



 

Impressionable elementary school students!

 



 

Kids of color. -which is WAY too vital, as I've explained before in Drawing While Black-

 

Oh... and girls.

 

 

 

Even before 2016 hit with Alice and Jenna being my first two students to create a book-

 



 

Many young female readers and aspiring artists were intrigued by my characters, art style and classes. Could it be the watercolor rendering style? The character descriptions and depictions themselves?! Or is it simply because much like the kids of color-

 

 

 

They see themselves more in my few characters than the thousands of rinsed and rehashed character types they're bombarded with by pop culture since birth?

 

Fellow bloggers and artists, this is why I do what I do. Sure, it's too risky to turn up unexpected into areas you don't fully fit into simply because your name doesn't hold weight as a cartooning teacher, -let alone an independent cartoonist!- or someone will think that you're too intelligible, easygoing or dark to be viewed as acceptable, but this past weekend at the festival proved to me how the price of independence in life is high, but slowly rewarding.

 

And as a shock to many, it's a price I'm willing to pay for.

 

Let's face it: if some slim- fit introverted nerd who draws cartoons for a living isn't able to have some sort of influence on brightening the future for today's more self- aware and sophisticated next generation...

 

Who will?

What It Looks Like When Thumbs Cry



 

Between my travels and ventures of San Francisco and New York City, many a sketch were made. Here's the collected few so far of 2014!