Video transcript:

Hey, everyone!

After reading today’s page, you might be wondering if the Golem is so loud, then how was it able to sneak through the forest to find the Asylum? And the answer to that is simple. It’s just… uh… shut up!

Ha ha! Seriously, though…

I was wanting to make a video last week, and I had a lot of trouble with it. I was never satisfied with the tone; it was either too formal, or too sloppy. So I decided I’m not going to be a perfectionist about it; I’m just going to go ahead and record something and put it out there, so I apologize in advance for what’s probably going to be a pretty rough video.

Anyway, the reason that I was, I think, so nervous with last week’s video was just because it’s about money, and that’s uncomfortable to talk about. Specifically, it was about our new Patreon campaign, which we’re actually very excited about, but it means we’re coming to you saying, “Please pay us,” and that’s just awkward. If you haven’t seen it, [please click here] to check out our campaign. It’s really cool; there’s some neat stuff there. But if you have seen it, you might be wondering why you should pay for something you can get for free (and you can continue to get it for free!) and the reason for that is just that we hope that if you are a regular reader of the comic, then maybe it’s worth something to you. If you get some enjoyment out of it, we’d like to think that that’s of value to you. And we put a lot of work into the comic and we haven’t really made any money from it so far. I know the site looks fairly slick, and that’s all thanks to Al’s skills as a graphic designer. But the truth is that we’ve, at most, broken even.

We think Patreon is a way that we can make a little money for our efforts, and we can also provide a little more for you. A lot of people ask us if we can publish pages more frequently, and to tell you the truth, it’s just really hard for us to do any more than we’re already doing, considering that we’re not making any money from this project. So if we can start to make some money, then maybe we can do some more. One of the big new rewards from the Patreon campaign that I’m really excited about is that I am going to be writing new prose stories set in The Specialists universe. The first one is in progress right now; it should be done very shortly, and when it is, we’ll release it for free so that anyone can take a look at it and get a feel for what they’re going to be like going forward. The first one is going to be an origin story for Geist, and I have a lot of other ideas for stories that won’t actually be in the comic, but might be of interest to you anyway.

Anyway, sorry to babble on like this (I warned you!), but please take a look at our Patreon campaign, and if the comic is something that you enjoy, please consider backing us. You can become a patron for as little as a dollar a month, which is about a quarter a page. So take a look, and we hope that you will patronize us. Thanks!