Hello everyone,



You may have noticed me posting a lot of concepts and comic pages consisting of mice, cats and other creatures, and you might be wondering what I’m up to. (Or maybe you are just wondering who the heck I am and how I got on your tumblr feed? I dunno.)

Sorry about being so cryptic about it, but the truth is I wasn’t so sure myself. In fact, I still don’t have all the details ironed out, but maybe you could help me with that (I’ll get to that later).

Long story short: after a couple of years in “preproduction” (writing, concepting, failing, etc.) I’ve decided to make a comic. In fact, I’m mostly finished with the first issue, and hope to finish it by the end of December. It took a while to figure out a process to do this without going insane, but I think I have it mostly figured out now.

The current project (hopefully the first of many) is called “Scurry”, a nine-part comic miniseries. I’ve drawn inspiration from my love of 80s fantasy films and animations such as The Secret of Nimh and The Dark Crystal: movies that some might say are too dark or weird for mainstream audiences, but struck a chord with myself and others like me. Though the medium and tools I am using are different, I hope to capture that same sense of wonder, mystery and danger that many of those stories had. This will be a “digitally painted” book – no line art or flat color – and I hope to have new issues out every quarter, depending on how much freelance I have to do to pay the bills.

What is Scurry about?

Scurry is the story of a colony of mice holed up in an abandoned house who are struggling to survive a very long and very strange winter. The humans are all gone, the sun is rarely seen, and a cold, black rain drenches the land, befouling everything it touches. As food becomes scarce and many mice fall ill, the scavengers are forced to search farther and farther from their home, braving predator infested lands to find anything that will help the colony survive for another day. When a desperate mission to save the colony goes tragically wrong, two of the mice are flung far from home and into the heart of a cursed forest. There they must face trials and monsters that no mere mouse could hope to overcome, but if they survive, they could lift the curse and possibly save the colony, if they can get back in time.

That’s the jist of it, anyway. The website will explain it better once I get it up and running, but that should give you some idea.

Sounds neat and/or dumb. Anything else?

I’m glad you asked! Yes, there is something else. Most of my progress will be streamed live on my Twitch channel at http://www.twitch.tv/macsmithvideo . Barring the occasional bit I want to keep as a surprise, you can watch me create the artwork in real time! I’ll be on at least 3 times a week (Mon., Wed., and Fri. at 7PM PST), but will also be on at other random times as well. It won’t just be Scurry either. Sometimes I’ll do random sketches or fanart as well.

I have also set up a Patreon page (www.patreon.com/macsmith) to serve as a “tip jar” for my streaming in lieu of subscriptions. As a thank you for contributing, I will post as many files, tutorials and artwork there as I can (2$ gets you almost everything). No pressure though. You can always watch me stream for free, and the finished artwork won’t be behind a paywall.

So where do I find the finished comic when it’s ready?

That is the sticky part. I’m still torn on exactly how to get this thing out there. I am leaning toward an online webcomic, and doing a kickstarter later for print compilations (books 1, 2, and 3.) I thought about maybe going through a publisher or printing my own, but I’m not really well known in comic circles and would probably be wasting my time.

Honestly, my main goal is to get this story in front of as many eyeballs as possible, even if I make only pennies (and I don’t expect to make anything), but if you have any suggestions, I’m all ears.

Does that sound like a good idea to you? Am I crazy? Let me know.

I’m very thankful that many people online seem to appreciate my work, and quitting the full time job to work on my own stuff has been one of the best decisions in my life (though it hasn’t always been easy). Thank you very much!

More to come!