I had another incredible month of support and added 54 more patrons and $246 more bucks towards my dream of full-time toning! Thank YOU to my patrons for continuing your support!
In April I went gung-ho and produced a new blog every week. But on top of the increased weekly toonage, I soon realized this new model wasn’t sustainable for my current lifestyle. So I’ve scaled back to once a month in the form of a broad overview blog. I might put out random blogs here and there, but for now, this will have to suffice for now!
Of the goals I set for myself for the month, I reached my weekly capacity of 3 new toons a week, plus hitting my $100 increase in patron funding. These I met because I already had systems in place for reaching them. The other goals I set for myself (creating 10 new products, outlining my 3rd book) did not get hit because I didn’t have systems in place! I’m big on systems. And I know if I don’t create a system around my goals, the goals will not be reached. So I had already set myself up for failure by not spending time creating systems around the new goals.
For example, my M-F system for producing 3 new toons a week goes like this:
I stick to this system pretty religiously, so I know the work will get done. I have a time frame of when I do it and it is now a part of my daily routine. That is how goals get met. I got better at creating systems after reading the book Atomic Habits, by James Clear. So now I just have to figure out new systems for creating new products and producing a third book!
When it rains it pours! In May I had 3 separate interviews in the forms of a blog, a TV show and a podcast. Tara Carver, patron and lifestyle blogger of Babe on a Mish wrote a blog about Jetlagged and named me Babe on Mish of the Month. Thanks Tara! Then later I was interviewed for a local interest piece on mid-west TV program. Then just today, I had a fabulous chat with patron, FA, author and podcaster Joe Thomas on his podcast Grounded with Flight Attendant Joe. Thanks Joe! His interview with me will post tomorrow.
This month I also launched my long-awaited site KellyKincaid.com which acts as an illustration portfolio for my non-Jetlagged work. By advertising my illustration services, I keep myself busy in case I do end up losing my FA job come October.
Patron funds were used to pay for the normal monthly overheads this month like the Shopify website platform and Constant Contact e-mail services, but also for purchasing the new Kellykincaid.com domain name and paying for a 4 day online cartooning workshop I’ll be attending next month to help improve my abilities as an artist and writer (I’m really excited about it!). I’ve also been stocking away a bit of the funds for future days and months where I might not be flying, plus investing a small amount.
As I did last month, 10% ($130) will be donated in three equal amounts to the AFA Disaster Relief Fund, the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund and my own airline’s Employee Assistance Fund.
It's hard to believe, but I actually did fly somewhere this month! Last week I got called out (yes, I'm on reserve this month) to layover in DTW (Detroit). It was a short layover (14 hours) and I was home early the second day. It had been so long since I had a layover I hardly knew what to pack. It took me all morning to figure it out. Bailey, of course, knew exactly what I needed to pack all along.
For June I took a big scary leap and will be flying half a normal schedule in order to focus more on Jetlagged. Eek! It’s a long dream of mine to transition from being a full-time FA to being a full-time cartoonist, and with the help from patron support I’m finally able to make the change. So thank you to my wonderful patrons! I’ll be able to produce another 13 public toons, 4 patron bonus toons and 4 Patron Spotlights. From June 15-18th I’ll be continuing my education by attending an online cartooning course which I hope will increase my knowledge of gag cartooning and help me produce better content for you in the future.
This month’s fun fact about me is that I have a secret love of fermenting things…sauerkraut, carrots, kefir, ginger beer, kombucha… Kelly has one happy belly. ;-)
]]>A sample illustration from the children's book "Animal Potluck" by Brandi & Mike Konopinski
This has been a long time coming. Finally, after years and years of hard procrastination, my efforts finally paid off and I got around to creating KellyKincaid.com.
What is KellyKincaid.com?
I’m glad you asked! KellyKincaid.com in as an artistic portfolio of my designs and illustrations, specifically non-Jetlagged. You may only know me as a cartoonist, but sometimes I go beyond the gag and do special projects for various clients, like the children's book illsutration you see above.
Why It Took Me So Long
For years I’d been meaning to create this site. I thought it would help future clients get a better idea of my style plus give me an online presence beyond Jetlagged. Not many people know I am for hire when it comes to creating custom work. Over the years people have reached out via email or through mutual friends to ask me to create portraits, children’s book illustrations, business ads, custom cartoons, logos, you name it! Samples of most of these projects are now up on the site.
Recently I received an email asking if I could create the illustrations for a children’s book. I sent some samples of my work as email attachments, but soon felt this was rather unprofessional. What self-respecting professional artists doesn’t have an online portfolio? When it’s so easy to create a website, I had no excuse to whip one up for myself.
It took me less than half a day to create it. I first went on GoDaddy.com to purchase the domain name. Originally it was going to be KellyKincaidArt.com since in the past KellyKincaid.com had already been purchased and for sale for $700! (Apparently it’s a thing people do…purchase domain names they think will be profitable and sell them at inflated prices. There was a famous singer in the 80s with my name!). Well, when I went to GoDaddy, KellyKincaid.com was only $.99! I bought it up fast, then used their website builder (one of the best ones, by the way!) and finished my site.
My Online Illustration Portfolio
I’ll be adding samples of projects to the site over time as they come. For a while, I thought maybe I’d get into the world of children’s book illustrating and even took some classes and joined the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) last year. But my time and energy are always pulled violently back into the world of cartooning, which is maybe where I belong. Nonetheless, with this new online portfolio, I am open for other opportunities. Because you never know what you’re capable of unless someone asks you to do it for them!
Another Reason I’m Branching Out
And finally, my move to expand my services also coincides with my fear of losing my job as a flight attendant. As any small business owner, you must find multiple streams of income to pad your paycheck. I have about three with Jetlagged (Patreon, merchandise and selling rights to cartoons). Since I don’t believe it spamming my websites with ads (which many people use for revenue), I thought officially advertising my illustration services a good move to growing my own revenue streams. If one stream dries up, I’ll have a couple more to tap into.
So there you have it! Go on over and check it out and tell me what you think. And if you’re interested in having your own piece of custom art, use the contact form on the site and we’ll chat about your vision.
Jetlagged "Upgraded Series" -- A Brief History
Three years ago I spent about 6 months creating these multi-paneled Jetlagged strips to submit to various syndicates. Every day, for about 8-10 hours a day, I worked on these cartoons. I had never attempted a multi-panel story line before, which it turns out, is a much different writing and drawing experience than my tried and true single panel. But I wanted to give it a shot, try something new and expand my horizons.
After clocking hundreds of cartooning hours, I sent my Opus off to the syndicates....and then I waited...and waited...and....waaaiiittteedd....no answer. It's been three years hence and I'm starting to lose hope.
Anyway, rejection isn't new to me. Syndication is tough. But after no answer, I went back to drawing single panels and stuffed the 50 or so strips I'd done into a filing cabinet, destined to be forgotten.
Fast forward to mid April when I polled my patrons on what they'd like to see more of on my Patreon Page. A lot of them voted on Patron-Only toons...so I felt it was prime time to resurrect these strips and finally show them to someone other than my cat.
Unexpected Surprise
Something I didn't expect after creating the strips was how much more developed the personalities of my characters became. Almost as if they grew on their own, the voices of Bev, Wanda, Rob and Kitty began taking on their own shapes the more I threw them into unlikely situations.
Jetlagged "Upgraded" to Feature Exclusively on Patreon
Starting May 20th, Jetlagged "Upgraded" will post exclusively for my $2 and higher patrons every Wednesday. This is my way of adding value to my Patreon Page (and thanking the fine people supporting my work), as well as testing the waters with a type of cartooning I'd never done before. If you'd like to come along on this journey with me, sign up as a $2 or higher patron and start reading!
This blog post marks the first Jetlagged HQ Monthly Review. Huzzah! I want to keep a tally of monthly accomplishments not just for myself, but also for you to see what the day-to-day operations of a cartoonist are like, in addition to remaining transparent on how I’m utilizing patron funding.
Cartoon Totals
For April I published 13 new cartoons, most of them for the Corona Series. I started off the month with two “old normal” cartoons, but quickly got requests from fans to start cartooning about COVID. As they say, you have to write for the times. Since the second week of April, all of my cartoons have dealt with some aspect of the Corona Virus and so it will continue until we reach a new kind of normal (or are we already there?).
April Showers Bring May…
Also at the beginning of April I saw a large drop-off in my patron support on Patreon. The COVID-19 crisis has people legitimately nervous about their own finances, so I understand why I lost some backing. In response to this, I launched a #SaveJetlagged campaign on social media in hopes to retain and gather a few more patrons to help with the cost of running the comic operations, as well as pad some of my own lacking paycheck from my volatile airline job.
The response was unprecedented. I nearly doubled my patron support and grew my profits by 120%! Having more monthly income helps in my quest to build up Jetlagged enough to start supporting myself from it, relinquishing my dependence on flying. But what really excites me was the outpouring of help and seeing just how many people want me to keep at it. So I will.
Goals Reached
One of my goals on Patreon was to reach $750 a month, then I’d start producing a third weekly Jetlagged cartoon on Mondays. I surpassed this goal much quicker than anticipated and soon found myself trying to create more time to toon. The extra workload has actually balanced out my life a bit. Since I wasn’t flying much in April, I could use more of my morning energy, which would otherwise have been reserved for serving Diet Coke on Boeing aircraft, to making fun of serving Diet Coke on Boeing aircraft! So on April 13th I began publishing a third weekly cartoon.
My New Normal
Before COVID, I flew 3-4 days a week, mostly west coast turns. I’d check in around 6 or 7AM, fly to LAX/DEN/SAN/SJC/SMF/LAS then be home by 2 or 3PM. Once home, with what energy I had left, I would cartoon for the next morning. I’d usually be last minute with cartoons since it was tough for me to find time to create a backlog. A lot of my Jetlagged work was done on the weekends and evenings. Then COVID changed everything. By the end of March I was hardly flying, then in April I only flew 2 trips, the rest of my line was pre-canceled. With nowhere to go, I decided to “pretend” that Jetlagged was my full time job. I rose between 5-6AM, made myself a cup of tea, fed the cat, then headed right into my home office and finished a daily cartoon (1-2 hours). Around mid-morning I’d finally have some breakfast, take the cat for a walk (yes, I walk my cat), then head back to the office to check business emails and started crossing off administration tasks for Jetlagged like creating new ads, scheduling for the week out, coming up with new blog ideas (then writing them), responding to fans on social media and on Patreon, working on custom art projects, etc.
Maintaining this schedule M-F allowed me to bank close to 15 extra cartoons, from which now I can pull and schedule out, allowing me more time for other tasks like working on my website and creating more products. I couldn’t have done this without the lack of flying. It got me excited to think that one day I could possibly be cartooning full time.
More Blogging
Another thing I started doing more of in April was blogging. Previously the Jetlagged blog was very sporadic. Writing more blogs really help me make sense of what was happening in the current arena, and also helped me reflect on past hard times, like when I was furloughed in 2010. I titled that blog Furlough Fueled Jetlagged Comic, then later wrote another titled Humor and Hard Times (inspired by an article written about the creator of Pickles, Brian Crane). I wrote both of these mainly for myself, hoping that through them I could pep talk myself into a more positive state of mind. Luckily, and to my astonishment, it resonated with a lot of other people too and I got some great feedback and thanks from readers. Thus encouraged, I’ve decided to continue the weekly blog (published each Wednesday), giving you another bridge into my world.
Lawyering Up with Patron Funds
For April, a lot of the funding I received from my patrons has gone towards building a legal framework for Jetlagged. It’s high time Jetlagged had a legal safety net! A few months ago I received an email from a fan who also just happened to be a copyright lawyer. Kevin and I have been working closely together to get all Jetlagged cartoons registered with the federal government, as well as trademarking Jetlagged Comic. This will safeguard me in the future if any further infringements occur (which they have before) plus help strengthen the foundation on which Jetlagged is growing. Since I don’t foresee myself stopping any time soon, I figured it was time to scale up. So thank you to my patrons for helping me out with this! Other funds went towards maintaining the monthly overhead (mainly the website and email list) along with charitable donations. I’m not quite at a point to start actually paying myself, but hopefully I will be there in the new 6-12 months.
Charitable Donations
In April I began donating 10% (about $200) of all patron funds into three separate charities; the AFA Disaster Relief Fund, the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund and my own airline’s Employee Assistance Fund. I’m very happy to finally be at a place financially to make monthly donations. The 10% will continue to be a fixed deduction from my monthly earnings. Over time, the charities may change, but for now I will stick with these.
May Forecast
After 10 years of being a line-holder (for you non-airline peeps, that’s like having a set schedule), I’m back on reserve! Today marks day 3 in my first 5-day block of PM reserve (on call from 10AM-midnight). For the next three weeks I’ll then be on AM reserve (on call from midnight-2PM). Needless to say I’m checking my phone A LOT more. Old habits die hard though and I find myself forgetting to bring it with me when I go out into my garden, or leave it in the hall closet forgotten while I fold laundry or practice my violin. Not knowing if and when scheduling is going to call and where they’ll send me, I’ve done the best I could and have my bags packed and ready to go. Until I get a call though, I’ll be maintaining the office schedule I established in April. You might be seeing more toons about being on reserve! If things stay pretty quiet on the flying end, I should be able to pump out 12 new toons this month (3x a week) plus 4 new blogs. Patron Spotlights will continue to be posted every Friday, so stay tuned for 4 new ones.
Some other on-going tasks I hope to tackle this month (time permitting) will be…
Thanks for reading and stay safe out there!
]]>I just finished up a fun custom artwork project for a wonderful client. Celia's husband, Captain Tim, recently retired (a little earlier than planned due to the COVID-19 impact unfortunately). Since he didn't get the traditional water canon salute pilots usually get at the end of their careers, she reached out to me to create one for him.
Printing the final piece.
Since this was a surprise for her husband, Celia described what she wanted and I sketched three different ideas for her to choose from. Working over email, in the course of a few weeks the image began to flesh out and become the final printed version you see above. Celia received both the high resolution digital file and the printed version.
In addition to creating custom artworks, I also have begun offering printing and shipping as well. The final piece is printed on professional Canon Pro Glossy Photo Paper. This version is not archival, but I hope to start offering that soon.
Here's what Celia had to say about working with me:
Make Kelly Kincaid your go-to for aviation-related gifts. I knew my pilot husband would retire this year, but the retirement came suddenly when the airline industry collapsed in the COVID-19 crisis. There would be no final flight with all the celebration, so I turned to Kelly for help making the end of his career special. Using my scant ideas and a couple of photos of my husband, she created a fabulous cartoon rendering of him in the cockpit with the firetruck providing the “last flight” water cannon salute. He has proudly shared the cartoon with family and friends through social media, and we can’t wait to frame it and hang it on the wall. Thanks, Kelly!
Thanks so much to Celia and Tim for letting me create his final water canon salute!
“If we can’t look at things in our life and find the humorous side, the joyful side of those things, we’re poorer for it.” – Brian Crane, creator of Pickles
I recently read an article highlighting Brian Crane, the creator of one of my favorite comic strips, Pickles. Pickles is a long running newspaper strip focusing on a cranky yet sweet retired couple, Earl and Opal Pickles. Brian is celebrating 30 years of his strip, which is an amazing achievement! Congratulations Brian!
In the article, Brian describes a very hard time in his life when his daughter was badly injured in a car accident. Professional newspaper cartoonists are responsible to produce daily comics, usually working two months ahead. Even when hard times come knocking, a cartoonist must go on. He describes how difficult it was to do that during his daughter’s hospital stay. Yet he realized later how helpful it was getting him through it. Being forced to think humorously actually saved him from more stress.
“If you can laugh at something, you can live with something,” he says. I completely agree. This isn’t to say Brian was laughing at his daughter’s situation, but rather finding humor in general. And to my knowledge, she is recovered and healthy.
After reading this article, I too realized just how helpful creating Jetlagged Comic has been for me in my own life. Heck, the main reason I started it was to help me cope with stress on the plane! Especially now with COVID-19 still the hot topic of the century, I find myself with the challenge of distilling our new world into a few pen strokes and a couple of (hopefully) punchy lines.
Needing to create weekly Jetlagged strips for my worldwide audience, I'm "forced" to find humor, even when I might not feel like it. Sometimes it's like pulling teeth, dragging myself to the drawing board! But after spending each part of my day drawing and writing, I come away happier, my conscious clearer, my heart a little lighter.
Should you rush out and start your own comic strip to deal with the stress? Well, you could (and please show me your work)! Or you could find daily reasons to laugh, like (shameless plug) reading my strip, or Pickles, watching a funny show (I’m re-watching The Office right now and it’s hilarious!), reading a funny book, Facetiming with that funny friend of yours, playing with your pet cat/dog/racoon…just find anything to make you smile and giggle and remember to do it daily (like taking a vitamin. Vitamin H, for Humor, preferably with food).
For Brian, it seems creating humor isn’t just a job, it’s a way of life—“It’s OK to laugh at the foibles of old age (Earl and Opal). It’s not that we’re making fun of them, it’s just that we’re finding the humor in life and dealing with life’s problems with a sense of humor.”
Watch this 3 minute interview with Brian from 2011. He seems like such a down to earth guy and I love how he talks about his strip and characters.
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My First Furlough
Don’t worry, I’m not actually furloughed right now (yet). But I was furloughed back in 2010, and this is what happened…
I had recently gotten hired and was living up in Alaska, based out of Anchorage. With The Great Recession still in full swing, everyone was feeling it. My airline offered voluntary leaves (like they are right now), but the writing was on the wall: furloughs were inevitable. So, being a newb, I bided my time and waited for “the call”.
It came one bright, sunny morning as I walked from the employee lot into the terminal, lugging my layover bags through the snow. Little did I know it was going to be my last flight for a while. Anticipating “the call” for weeks, I had started a small cleaning business on the side to make some extra cash. I called it Moose Maids (cute, right?). At the time my then boyfriend Robert (now husband) and I were living on a tight budget in a 400 sq foot studio near the airport. I slept next to the fridge.
After “the call” my furlough lasted four months. This palls in comparison to about a year later when the classes below me were furloughed again for an additional six months. Mine was the last class to miss the cut. Then came the hiring freeze and I was bottom of the barrel for a solid two years.
Not knowing whether another furlough hid on the horizon, I cleaned houses for those two years and flew mostly arctic turns around Alaska (anyone for a double Fairbanks with a 3 hour sit?). I was (and still am) grateful to have kept my job during those uncertain years while finding something to fall back on just in case the worst happened.
And here we are again, standing at the precipice of Uncertainty!
“OK”, you say, “but what does this have to do with Jetlagged Comic?” I’m glad you asked!
The Birth of Jetlagged Comic
Don’t get me wrong, getting furloughed sucks. It’s nerve wracking, keeps you up at night and you can’t digest your food properly. But what it did for me, or how I tried to approach it, worked out in my favor. For one, being pushed to think outside the box to make extra money was a good lesson I couldn’t have learned unless I hit hard times. But the real gift hidden in the folds of furlough was time.
Time to think. Time to rest. Time to walk for hours and hours and let the creative voices deep within me bubble to the surface. These same voices once submerged under layers of working and rushing about. And what bubbled up was Jetlagged. That quiet time gave my life enough stillness to help me listen to what it was I really wanted to be doing—Cartooning.
I used the time to explore this new desire. And then Jetlagged Comic was born.
So I urge you now, in this unprecedented global calming, this world-wide hushing…use it! Don’t get discouraged. Embark on a creative adventure of your own. Get up early. Put pants on for God’s sake (which I’m going to do in just a minute), start that hobby you’ve been talking about for years. Start that book. Cook! And go for walks (while social distancing of course) and then let the babblings of suppressed creative voices rise to the surface. Then…listen.
Learn more of how I got started (and how tiny my studio apartment closet office really was) by watching this first video in the Jetlagged Comic Documentary Series
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This week I surpassed my 2nd goal to raise $700 a month! This puts me in a better financial position to create more cartoons every week. I want to create even more, but there's still work to do.
Due to the massive drop off in passenger flying, airline worker's jobs are on the line. Mine included. I've been a flight attendant for the past 12 years. 8 years ago I started Jetlagged. It's supported solely on the financial backing of my patrons (who pledge a certain amount every month).
In the past, I didn't worry so much about the comic earning a lot of money. I still flew for a living and could compensate with what I earned from my day job. Now that prospect is looking bleak. I am currently faced with two choices: lose my airline job and find a full time job elsewhere (thus shutting down Jetlagged, because I just won't have the time to do both), or beef up my patron support and make cartooning my full time gig.
I really want that second option.
And it's becoming more and more apparent that fans what it too. Although $700 a month is great, it's still not enough for me to live off of. My ultimate goal is to supplement what I would have earned as a flight attendant with Jetlagged patron support money. That number is $3000 a month. And I need your help getting there. Once I reach this goal, I will be able to create 5 or more cartoons a week, create more books, more merchandise and loads of other improvements Jetlagged desperately needs.
I realize mine is a drop in the proverbial bucket of all airline worker's problems at the moment. And that's why I am currently donating 10% of all my earnings to support flight crews through various Employee Assistance Programs as well as to help the fight against COVID-19.
Please help SAVE JETLAGGED and become a patron! Help me reach my next goal of $1500 a month. Once met I can begin creating a 4th cartoon on Tuesdays.
Stay safe and healthy out there!
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Thanks to the generous support of my patrons, I had a new banner made for the event, which you can see hanging proudly in the background.
I sold my two books, the 2020 calendar, holiday greeting cards and prints. Most popular were definitely the greeting cards and the calendar.
Lots of friends, old and new, came by my booth. What I love about these events is that I actually get to talk face to face with fans (instead of butt to face when I'm sitting on the jumpseat)! Don't get me wrong, I'm a bit of an introvert so having an online comic suits me fine. But listening to people's stories and watching them laugh in real life is such a treat. Almost as good as VR.
As a donation for the event's raffle, I offered up a framed original drawing of one of my cartoons. I hope it makes someone happy! Letting go of my babies is emotional for me.
Thanks to Alaska Airlines for hosting the event and braving my tolerating another year!
]]>Robert asked some great questions. I was able to delve a little into the meaning of all this funny business and had a few insights myself while talking with him. He made me sound really smart in the article, so I hope you check it out!
Thanks again Robert and to Travel Weekly Magazine for honoring me with a article!
]]>It’s been over a week since I returned from the three day international Licensing Expo in Las Vegas and man, it was quite an eye opener.
What is “licensing”? In my case, art licensing is a legal contract between a manufacturer (licensee) and the artist (licensor) to produce specific products for a specific time in a specific area with agreed upon images supplied by the artist. Every time you see Superman on a cereal box, Superman (licensor) made an agreement with that cereal company (licensee) to contract the Superman image on boxes of their sugar bombs.
What does that have to do with Jetlagged Comic? Well, I have been wracking my brain on ways to increase my exposure and get my images onto products at a mass level. Mind blowing to some, I am the only person behind Jetlagged Comic. I write, draw, market, create products, self publish and fly at the same time. Yes, I am a one-woman show. It can be very overwhelming at times, but I don’t want to stop. That’s why I need some help. And that’s why I went to the licensing expo, to see if there was a licensing agency who would contract with me and start creating products.
During my three day visit, I attended the Licensing University within the expo itself. I learned a ton about licensing ranging from how to negotiate contracts to getting ready to legal advice and so on. It was well worth the price of admission. I met some very nice people, drank lots of coffee and walked around for hours each day.
On my last day at the expo, I had an interview with the agency Surge Licensing. A family run agency, I met with son, father and mother in a small back office on the edge of the expo’s massive display booths. In their intimate setting they graciously offered me coffee and snacks while we looked over Jetlagged’s Media Kit I’d prepared ahead of time. Elan, the son, was very excited about what I did and could see lots of potential. His father, Mark, liked the idea too, but was a little less enthusiastic about my sales numbers. And finally Renay, the mother, was extremely sweet and laughed at all the cartoons.
Leaving the meeting I felt very good about the potential of working with them. Time will tell, though. I haven’t yet heard from them, but I assume these things take time and they are doing their due diligence on Jetlagged. I leave it in God hands and go with the flow from now on. If it works out, awesome, if not, there will be a better path down the road.
]]>Life happens in waves. It ebbs and flows. There are high tides and low tides. Feasts and famines. That is surely the case for my life, and especially for Jetlagged Comic.
The last month brought with it a very high tide of success and opportunity. My second book Jetway Reunion was featured at the New York Book Expo at the end of May by IngramSpark Publishing. Then this week I’ll be heading down to Las Vegas for the International Licensing Expo where I’ll learn about the world of product licensing and (hopefully) find agencies to represent my work.
In preparation for the Licensing Expo, I worked with my wonderful business consultant Carolyn Edlund of ArtsyShark.com who helped groom me for the event. I’ve used Carolyn’s services for over two years and I highly recommend her. She put me in contact with a very talented and professional artist/graphic designer Leslie Kell of LeslieKell.com. Leslie and I worked together to create a Jetlagged Comic Media Kit, which I had printed locally and will be taking with me when I meet with a licensing agency in Vegas. If you’re an artist looking for some professional resources, these women have been a Godsend. They were the boost I needed in growing my own art business.
At the same time all this expo stuff was going on, I surpassed 3,000 email subscribers and reached my goal of 100 patron supporters!
What does this all mean? It means someone out there likes what I do, so I’d better keep doing it!
If you’re not already signed up for the Jetlagged Fan Club e-mail list, make sure you do. I’m pumping out two new cartoons a week now (Wednesday and Saturday), a blog post and creating new products as often as I can. You’ll see all of that in the two weekly emails I send. If you’re following me on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, I can’t guarantee you’ll always see the new cartoons. These networks change their algorithms often and prevent my hard-won fans from seeing new content (unless I pay, of course).
I’ll keep you abreast of all the fun in Vegas next week. Well, maybe not all the fun. As they say, “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas…baby!”
]]>Since 2015, International Flight Attendant Day has been celebrated around the world. This day recognizes the dedicated, hardworking flight crews who get up early, stay late and keep a smile on their faces to ensure the safety, comfort and well-being of their passengers.
Being a flight attendant is a unique and often misunderstand profession. Passengers are usually unaware of the depth and scope of the job beyond the interactions of ordering a tasty beverage from the drink cart.
Flight attendants are highly trained professionals for an array of circumstances. A day in the life of a flight attendant might look like administering oxygen to a sick person, deplaning unruly passengers, providing emotional support to those flying under stressful situations, assisting injured or elderly persons to and from the lavatory, noticing unsafe situations before they begin and generally being in a constant state of hyper-awareness throughout the whole of boarding, take-off and landing.
A flight attendant must have a plethora of well-toned social skills in order to maintain a safe flight. Flying often means giving up control. As a passenger you have little to no options regarding personal space and movement beyond the confines of the aircraft. Psychologically, this can make one feel like a rat in a cage, often pushing people to their limits. The joke goes that when passengers check their bags, they check their brains as well. Ultimately it’s the airplane environment that tests the basic human right to control one’s own world. When that right is taken away, so is the “brain” so to speak. Flight attendants understand this and act accordingly. When you see flight attendants keeping their cool while someone is having a panic attack or throwing a tantrum, you might think them otherworldly. But flight attendants know what’s really going on and use the skills they learned in training and on the job to deescalate the high emotions and reestablish peace and tranquility. This is a very important skill. Without it, a situation could easily become dangerous or even life threatening.
If you recently had an uneventful flight, then you had highly skilled flight attendants on board. Let them know you appreciate them by thanking them next time you fly! Even if you didn’t see them beyond the beverage cart, they are working hard for you and ensuring your flight is safe and comfortable.
Thank you to all the flight attendants everywhere around the world!
]]>When I made my 100 Patron Goal I also promised to start making Patron-Only Jetlagged cartoons, meaning exclusive cartoons only available to my patrons! I will start regularly posting those in June.
This is my second goal reached since starting a Jetlagged Patreon Page over a year ago. My first goal was to get enough monthly supporters to help pay for the overhead costs of running Jetlagged’s free distribution of weekly cartoons (i.e. website maintenance, subscriber lists, social media management program, Adobe drawing programs, paper, ink, pens, coffee…). Overhead costs being met, I could stop worrying about how to pay the bills and focus more on creating great content.
Since I keep my website and social media pages ad-free, I miss out on a huge income stream that many independent artists rely on. Businesses regularly reach out to post ads to my social media pages (a couple even wanted to buy my pages!). I went down that ad-road once before, getting paid to post about products I didn’t really care about. At the time I was desperate for money. But afterwards I felt gross. I didn’t like spamming my hard-won fans. So I made a new rule for myself: figure out ways to make Jetlagged sustainable and still feel good about it.
That’s when I learned about Patreon.com. Patreon is a platform for artists like me to allow their fans like you to support the comic they love. In return you get exclusive rewards, Jetlagged gets to keep growing and we both to get be apart of Jetlagged’s mission to make flight crews laugh every day.
Patreon has been a great income stream to my overall art business. It’s something I think a lot of independent businesses could glean value from. But it’s not the only thing sustaining Jetlagged. My web shop, wholesale book orders, custom cartoon work and (hopefully) product licensing also toss a few pennies my way. However, these sources are sporadic and unpredictable. That’s why I really value my patrons, because I get a fixed amount every month, just like a real job! I know what I can afford and what I can use to reinvest back into the overall business.
So thank you again Elyce and to all my current patrons for believing in my work!
If you’d like to become a patron, please visit my Patreon Page, where you can read about the different tiers of support and the rewards I offer at each level.
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After recently reaching out to a licensing company in England to help get my comics on products, they wrote back asking if I was attending the licensing expo in Vegas.
"What expo in Vegas?" I thought.
So I did some digging. Sure enough, there is an upcoming licensing expo in Vegas! And it's big. Like really big. And I've never been to one before. So, you know, I'm like, kinda freaking out here.
But I've decide to take the bull by the horns and have committed myself to all 3 days. I won't have a booth, but I'll have a shiny, fancy pass on a lanyard.
The expo website has a feature called "Match Making" where you can upload your profile and allow people to search for you to see if you'd be a good "match," get it? So I did. And I've spent hours searching licensing companies that might be a good fit for Jetlagged.
You're allowed to send 50 invite emails to various companies, depending on your needs. I had sent about 9 right off the bat, getting rejected by one and unanswered by the rest. Then a day later I got a call from David, an expo rep, encouraging me to use up the 50 allotted emails.
All 50?! Sheesh. I had doubts I could even find 50, let alone ones that might be a match. But I'm blessing David now. Once I got to my computer I spent another 2 hours searching for licensing companies and using up 47 of the 50. Had I not done that, I wouldn't have gotten a booked meeting already for Wednesday with a licensing company that looks almost like a perfect match for my cartoons.
Oh crap I have a meeting!
People fear success more than failure. And damned if I'm not one of them! But I can't go back now. I've built up Jetlagged for too long not to give it the best opportunity to grow. Will I be licensed after the expo? Who knows. The important thing is I'm taking steps in the right direction and overcoming some fears I've harbored for years.
I'm finally ready to take Jetlagged to new heights! The sky's the limit! Ready for take off! Up, up and aw--Ok, I'll stop...
So that is where I'll be from June 4-6 if you so happen to be there too, let me know.
And let me just give a HUGE THANK YOU to my patrons, whose monthly support has allowed me to finance this journey and take the time off from flying. Without you all believing in me I would ever have taken these first steps. Thank you!!
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A great email came my way recently.
The self publisher IngramSpark, whom I used to print my second book Jetway Reunion, reached out and asked if I'd be OK with them showcasing my book as one of their examples at New York's Book Expo at the end of this month.
Whaaat?!!
Well, of course, I had to think about it....and then I wrote back "heck yeah!"
I also asked if I could get tickets to go, but they said no. Hmm...
Book Expo 2017 location, NY
Still, this is very exciting news. The Book Expo goes from May 29-31 and is the leading book trade event of the year. Jetway Reunion will no doubt get some nice, healthy exposure. And who knows what else!
Unfortunately, I will not be attending, as I will be gearing up to attend the Licensing Expo in Las Vegas in early June. More on THAT in next week's blog post!
Stay tuned...
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Launching the new site is exciting. I’d been wanting to make my Shopify store the main Jetlagged website for quite some time. It’s faster, the load times are better, the resolution is higher and overall, the user experience is so much nicer. You can also search by keyword or look up popular tags, which my old Wix site didn’t offer. I think it looks way snazzier too! Check it out at www.jetlaggedcomic.com and let me know what you think!
Although the month was overall very productive, this past week was not. I came down with a head cold and barely lifted a finger, let alone creatively. I spent a lot of time reading. I’m currently obsessed with the “Outlander” series and I just started the 3rd book. These books are, like, 1000 pages each. But I just devour them. And I’m not a fast reader at all. I love reading series, though. At the beginning of the year I read the entire Harry Potter series (again). Love those books. Got any good series to recommend?
Oh yeah, this week I also submitted Jetlagged for the hundredth time to the Big Three Syndicates (Andrews McMeel, King Features and Creators Syndicate). *Sigh*, we'll see...
Last week I mentioned I’m going through the book “The Artist’s Way” about connecting to your creative flow. Every morning one of the exercises is writing 3 solid pages, no matter what it’s about. Well, I’ve been very good about that commitment. I have quite a few pages. It’s a nice way to wake up, lounging on my couch, wrapped in my robe and sipping coffee while draining my brain on blank pages. Amazing what emotions start to bubble up. Desires you didn’t know where deep inside you start surfacing. Give it try!
I’m feeling a bit better now, but still have congestion in my head (not good for flying!). The energy is starting to come back though, so that’s a good sign. I felt well enough to see my brother and 3 nieces yesterday for his early birthday party. Family time is great!
Today is also beautiful, so Robert and I continued our “retaining wall project” (which started earlier this month) and I dug in the dirt for about 4 hours this morning. It’s coming along beautifully!
Me digging in the dirt! See all the houses they're building behind us?
Amazing how physical exertion like this really helps me be more creative later in the day. I can’t be creative without being physically active. The two go hand in hand for me. Plus I like getting dirty ;-)
That’s all for now. Until next week!
-Kelly
Becoming a Jetlagged Patron means gaining access to exclusive content you won't see anywhere else! Patrons get wall paper downloads, weekly printable coloring pages, cartoon voting rights, personalized cartoons and more!
Happy late Easter and Passover week!
This week I started a new book called “The Artist’s Way,” by Julia Cameron. You may have heard of it. It’s celebrating its 25th year in print. The book is for anyone who feels stuck creatively, not just for “artists”. I have been feeling a little stuck in places myself, so I thought I’d give it a go. Basically the premise is to follow the weekly “tasks”, starting with writing 3 full “morning pages” every day. This, says Cameron, is a brain drain. You scribble out anything, even if you have nothing to say. It’s a way of unblocking a metaphorical pipe to help you reconnect with the Creative Force within you.
So I did my morning pages all week. I got up at 4:30am, wrote for 30 minutes filling up 3 pages of gobbledygook, worked out, then got on a plane. After about 3 days, whatever was blocking me creatively started to dissolve. I won’t go into details, since it’s rather private, but man it is really helping. If you’re stuck creatively, or simply need help answering yourself and figuring out what you want, I recommend following the advice in this *book.
There are still about 11 weeks of “tasks” to go. I’m excited to see what transpires and I’ll keep you updated!
Besides the book, I got a lot done this past week, including flying 4 turns in a row (two with my husband!) and making lots of headway on new Jetlagged toons.
My goal is to get ahead about a month and have those cartoons ready to post automatically. This makes my life so much easier. Juggling flying and writing/drawing Jetlagged can be, er, hard to manage. Especially when the weather is nice and all I want to do is be outside! Do you remember that scene from Monty Python and The Holy Grail where the king wants his son to marry but all he wants to do is “siiiinnnggg!” Well, that’s me on a sunny day. “But father, I don’t want to be locked in my tower on my computer, I want to be outttssiiiidde!”
I’m happy to report I got 4 new cartoons sketched and 2 colored AND I got to be outside ;-). That means another 4 will need to be sketched this week and colored, then set up to be posted.
The new website (which is currently the shop) is coming along nicely. My goal was to upload 10 cartoons a day, but then I realize I really don’t want to be spending my weekends doing that, so instead I’m uploading 10 on weekdays. This week, however, I got 72 uploaded! So far the new site has over 300 cartoons. That’s all of my cartoons from 2014-present. I’m currently tackling 2013, and that was a BIG year for me. I must have another 150+ just in that year. Unfortunately I wasn’t good about numbering and filing, so while I’m uploaded I’m also renumbering and filing the originals to correspond with the digital downloads. Joy!
Over the weekend I had a great time celebrating Easter with my family. My mother puts on a huge dinner every year. Everyone brings a little something--my cousin buys flowers from Pike’s Place for the tables, my mom makes amazing food, the iconic éclair cake makes an appearance and anyone displaced for the holiday is invited. My amazing husband pulls his weight plus more helping my mom move furniture, mowing lawns, vacuuming and staying late to help clean up. It’s always a lot of fun and one of those traditions she hasn’t skipped in over 15 years.
I hope you all had a great holiday and have a fantastic week ahead!
Happy Jetlagging,
Kelly
*This is an affiliate link. If you purchase the book through this link, I do receive a small commission from the sale of your purchase.
]]>Oh man, what a week.
I don't often talk about the emotional roller coaster being an artist is. To put your heart into something, show it to the world and (with the help of social media) get an instantaneous response back is, to say the least, very nerve-wracking.
In the beginning of creating Jetlagged, I suffered self-doubt and anxiety pretty much daily. Over time, I thought I'd grow thick reptilian skin, but it's more like a thin veneer. I'm sensitive. It's not to say my cartoons don't get a good response almost all the time. I never aim to offend anyone and try to keep things light and goofy (the angry, "shaming humor" industry is over crowded. I don't want to be apart of it). Although my aim is to just make people laugh, there are those who's purpose in life is to try and make yours miserable.
I recently had the pleasure of encountering once such individual who was trolling my Instagram account, then went as far as to email me some nasty opinions of my work (none of which were constructive. Hey, I can take criticism!). I played it off humorously, not much I can do if they don't like my work, but it still stung. Damn! I let them get to me.
After a bit I came to realize that this was a good opportunity for me to "trust my wings", as the little inspirational painting in my office says (thank you Meara!).
A few more unfortunate things happened during the week (l lost some patrons and email subscribers) which started letting the self-doubt and anxiety back in. What am I doing wrong? What can I do better? Damn! I was letting everything get to me now.
But on I trudged, flying during the day, scribbling down ideas, working on improving the website, creating posts for social media, then drawing new cartoons at night before bed.
Then I got some messages. And they made me cry (hey, I said I was sensitive!)
The first was Tayla, a new $10 patron (right after I'd lost two others in a row) and she wrote a message on behalf of her mom, Diane. Diane has been a flight attendant for 37 years and just recently found my cartoons. She loves them, Tayla says. She said her mom would be overjoyed if I made a special card for her with her dog. I wrote back right away, flinging myself on the joy and love that was coming through my computer screen. Of course I would do this!
The card I made for Diane, Tayla's mom, with Remy the dog!
Then I got a message from The Wings Foundation, a non-profit organization from American Airlines that offers assistance to flight crews. They are celebrating 30 years and would I be interested in auctioning off a custom Jetlagged cartoon at their celebration this July? What an honor!
This was all so a humbling. And here I was, not days before, fuming over a grumpy troll, when lurking in the background where these amazing people.
It just goes to show that if you're in the "putting your heart on your sleeve" business like me, to always Trust Your Wings. Sometimes you just got to zip your coat up, put your hood on and push through the storm of self-doubt and anxiety.
There is always blue sky above the clouds.
Happy Jetlagging!
-Kelly
Patreon.com allows you to support Jetlagged Comic directly. My fabulous patrons get exclusive behind the scenes content, see works in progress, vote in the next cartoon plus more! Thank you to all my current patrons. Click on Bev to become one too!
My daily planner tells me that this past week I finished 3 new cartoons, created a new greeting card in my store, uploaded 82 more cartoon digital downloads (all cartoons from 2017-2019 uploaded!) flew 3 turns to LAS and went to Palm Springs with Robert to visit my uncles. Phew!
I'm trying to get more ahead in cartoons. My current system is to procrastinate until the night before, then stress out and scramble to create something before it's due Wednesday morning. But that's all changing (hopefully) starting now! My daily planner will help me. Of the 3 cartoons I finished this week, the other two will be held in reserve and finished to post at a later date. Below is a photo of this week's cartoon "Take Off" before final production in Photoshop.
I found this little gem in an old sketchbook from 2011. Artistically, this one was a bit challenging for me since I had to draw from the perspective of sitting on the airplane's nose. But I think it came out great! I'm paying more attention to shading and crosshatching, which I love the look of. And in the past I never drew out the black border for some reason, but I'm going to start doing that. I think it looks better as an original, and better framed if anyone wants to purchase the original.
If you like seeing the process photos, I'm starting to share them weekly, from start to finish, on Patreon. So get your butt over there and become a patron to see all of them!
As for flying, this whole month I am flying Vegas morning turns. And because it's Vegas AND spring break, the tendency of passengers to be either A. Drunk B. Demanding or C. Drunk and Demanding is very very high. Luckily it's early enough that most of the airport bars aren't open yet, so there's not a lot of pre-funking and pax are mostly sober once aboard. The service is a bit tough though with lots of people drinking double vodkas, Bailey's and mimosas, but they've all been nice and polite and that's all I really care about.
It's nice to have the same flight all month because it's almost like having a "normal" job with set hours. My routine has been to get up around 5, attempt a workout, drink coffee, go to work, come home, eat dinner, pack lunch, and spend a couple hours drawing while my cat crawls over me meowing. This all goes off without a hitch as long as my husband and I don't start drinking wine. If that happens, then I'm a useless blob on the couch. Also not a bad way to spend the evening.
Hope you guys are liking these weekly updates! Until next week...
-Kelly
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Man, am I sore. The nice weather in Seattle coupled with a few days off resulted in lots and lots of yard work. My husband and I are in the middle of building about 3 separate retaining walls in our backyard. This morning I woke up with a very sore finger, maybe an infection (ew) and it's probably from all the stress I put it through yesterday after 4 hours on the roto-tiller.
View of backyard and back-of-husband
All soreness aside, I still got some cartooning done. I hope you liked the newest cartoon "Food Pyramid". It came as a sudden idea while I was on the jumpseat with another flight attendant the other day. We were just giggling about something or other and somehow that idea came out of our joking around.
That's really all there is to it sometimes. Some think coming up with ideas means I'm locking myself in my office all night, working by a single, flickering lamp, my fingers bandaged and bleeding from scribbling, sinking in a sea of crumpled up ideas on bits of paper. OK, well, maybe nobody thinks that. But ultimately ideas come out of just joking around and having fun. And if my brain is really in the zone, they'll come when I'm not even trying.
Bailey "helping" while I color "Food Pyramid"
I flew up and down the west coast this week. All flights were pleasant and uneventful. Probably not the best for writing material, but good for my sanity. However, since it's spring break there are a ton of once-a-year-flyers and young people. They're great, but a little naive. My favorite overheard interaction was between two young coir girls:
(A loud bang issued from the tug when it released the plane after pushing back from the gate)
"What was that?!" said one girl.
"Don't worry," said the other, "that was just the plane changing gears from reverse into drive!"
Awe, so cute! But, no. Incorrect. I've gotta thank them for saying it, though. I think it'll make a nice little cartoon down the road. :)
In other news, this month will (hopefully) be very productive on the Jetlagged front! I am plugging along, putting up cartoons almost every day on the new website. My flying schedule for April is extremely straight-forward: morning LAS turns, alllll month! So if you're flying to LAS at 8:10 in the morning out of SEA this month, you will see me. Oh yes, you will see me. Let's hope I get a ton of new ideas from all those crazy crown-drinking gamblers.
Other Goals for April include:
-250 new cartoon uploads on the new site
-1 new product!
-Revamp Patreon tiers and release a special offer to new sign ups (got any ideas?)
-5 New Patrons!
-Get ahead by 1 month in cartoons (I say this every month)
-Fly my line and Retain sanity (or what's left of it)
Happy Jetlagging!
-Kelly
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Complaints of slow loading times, no search function and lack of cartoon downloads have haunted my dreams for years. Why haven't I done anything about it earlier? Well, for two main reasons:
Why am I able to finally deliver the comic website of your dreams? A big part of it is due to the amazing monthly support of my patrons. Because of them, I am able to afford the better website platform and keep it ad free. Thank you patrons!
Another reason is that I finally decided to merge my "comic's only" site with my online store. Before, my site had a link to my online store, but the site (which I hosted on Wix) was extremely slow to upload my cartoon images, even after I resized them and fiddled with the resolutions. What bothered me about having to do that, is that when a fan (like you) wanted to view a cartoon, it's quality wouldn't be at it's best. I want you to have the best! And I want you to have super fast uploading times too.
For a time, I used Wix's online shop platform, which I found extremely slow and not very user friendly. So I moved all my products onto Shopify's platform. Slightly more expensive, but there's no need to resize images and the load times are much much quicker. Also, it's extremely user friendly and easy to check out. With all of Shopify's super neat apps and features, it got me thinking...
What if my entire website were an online storefront?
Having a fast, ad free site for you to view and search for cartoons plus enable the option to download the cartoon outright would kill two birds with one stone. It suddenly dawned on me that I'd probably never have to move my website ever again. So I got to work, and I'm still working hard to deliver you a better website!
This will be a marathon, not a sprint. The main feature I want to offer is the "Cartoon Category" section at the top. There are 12 categories you can choose from to see cartoons. I have close to 500 Jetlagged cartoons (I think). Every single one of those cartoons needs to be uploaded, described, tagged and set into it's specific categories. Mathematically it looks like this:
500 cartoons x 3 minutes per cartoon = 1500 total minutes
1500 minutes / 60 minutes in an hour = 25 hours
I average about an hour a day, but I'm only able to get in about 10 cartoons an hour. This equation assumes 20 cartoons per hour, which I'm just not mustering. So I'm looking at 50 hours, or 50 days, roughly 2 months of hard work. If I keep up this rate, the new website release date will be sometime at the end of May.
This is a big elephant people. Every day I am uploading as many as my brain will allow without getting sloppy. It will take months of dedication, but it is my year's goal to have all of my cartoons, starting from 2012 til present at your disposal, all searchable and categorized.
Currently www.jetlaggedcomic.com is still hosted on Wix and will be slow and stubborn for the duration of this process. I can't help this right now, but just know that every day cartoons are being uploaded as "digital downloads" on www.jetlaggedcomicshop.com. From there you can search by tag, upload date or your own description. Eventually, once all the cartoons are uploaded, I will transfer my main site from Wix to Shopify and the two sites will merge to become one, single, beautiful www.jetlaggedcomic.com.
Thank you for bearing with me! I will keep you posted of the progress of the months. And please, if you have any suggestions for what you want to see on the new website, or certain functions, I'd love to hear them!
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Me working at my new desk top easel
Since hitting my goal of $200 a month over the summer, Jetlagged Comic is now 100% financially supported by my patrons! This means my monthly recurring bills for the website, Adobe programs, pens, papers, etc are all being met. I can finally sleep at night.
I'm now around $300 a month, giving me a little extra to forge new artistic grounds. This past month I was able to invest in a small set of Copic Markers (wonderful blending markers), an online Copic class and a desktop easel to improve my posture while working.
The start of my Copic Marker Collection
As an independent artist, patron support has been a Godsend. Over the years I've often contemplated throwing in the towel on Jetlagged. As it grew, so did the bills. Producing a free webcomic surprisingly doesn't leave one rolling in the dough. Luckily, after learning of the fabulous website for creators called Patreon, I discovered I had some die hard fans who wanted nothing but to see Jetlagged thrive!
My plan is to start coloring the comics with the markers. I color them digitally now using Photoshop, which I'll continue to do. But I've wanted to learn marker medium to offer something unique down the road. Also, the Copic class is teaching me about color theory, something I know little about (I was an art school reject, after all).
So, THANK YOU again to all my patrons! Patrons not only support the comic, but also get exclusive behind-the-scenes sketchbook peeks, vote on weekly cartoons, see new cartoons first, get monthly hand-written thank you cards, cartoon creation relapse videos and more!
To become a patron sign up here and choose a tier that's right for you.
Thanks again and Happy Jetlagging!
Kelly
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