“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” -Margaret Mead

Wednesday, January 11th is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. To participate, we formed the Comic Creators for Freedom– a group of over 100 comic book creators who volunteered our artistic talents to raise money and awareness for this cause. You may not know it, but there are currently 27 million enslaved people worldwide- more than double the number of enslaved Africans during the trans-Atlantic slave trade. UNICEF estimates that 1.2 million children every year are sold into slavery, most of it sexual. The US Department of Justice estimates 16,000 victims of human trafficking are brought into the United States every year. Unlike slavery in the past, what is happening today is happening in secret. It won’t end until awareness is raised, and people like you and me take a stand.

So here’s what we did: each creator contributed an original drawing of one of our own female characters, and combined them into a single wallpaper image! The wallpaper features characters from all over the web, including Girls with Slingshots, The Dreamland Chronicles, Kukuburi, Earthsong Saga, Looking for Group, Love and Capes, The Dreamer, and tons more! Donate today to download this unique, once-in-a-lifetime wallpaper.

The Donations Drive will last for two weeks, from Monday January 9th – 20th. All proceeds will be split evenly between Love 146 and Gracehaven House- two organizations working on rehabilitation of victims and prevention of this crime.

To learn more about the CCA visit www.comiccreatorsforfreedom. To learn more about the problem, visit http://love146.org/slavery. (Note: contains adult themes and actual accounts of sex slavery.)

What is Human Trafficking? Human Trafficking is a sanitized term for slavery. There are over 27 million people enslaved in the world today, and most if it is young girls being sold into forced prostitution–both over seas and yes, in the United States. In the United States there are only 39 beds at facilities for victims in the entire nation–and at least 16,000 people being trafficked into the US from other countries each year! Not to count the domestic victims already living here.

The money that the CCA raised last year was split between two organizations, one global- Love 146, and a local shelter trying to get up and running- Gracehaven in Ohio.  (Toledo, Ohio is one of the largest trafficking hubs in the U.S.) Both organizations were able to expand their particular fights against this heinous problem in 2010. Love 146 is setting up Task Forces around America, local groups of concerned citizens bringing the fight and awareness to their own corners of the nation. Internationally, Love 146 set up the  Cambodia Border Officers Project . This is total prevention: officers patrol the border crossing, looking for possible victims and the kids they rescue will never know the horrors they might have. Gracehaven used our funds in the ongoing renovations that are necessary to bring the house up to code–plumbing and air conditioning were installed, along with two new bathrooms. They hope to be up and running soon but must first have six months of operating expenses in the bank. They are currently at one fifth of their goal–let’s see what we can do to help them!

If you’re a creator and would like to participate, the deadline for contributions is December 31st. Email ComicCreatorsAlliance@gmail.com to be added to the list. And the Donations Drive goes live January 11th on National Human Trafficking Awareness Day and will last for 2 weeks.  See you then!

There’s been a lot going on lately and there’s still so much left to come.

For those who are wondering- the Comic Creator’s Alliance managed to raise an amazing $10,000 thanks to every ones efforts- an amazing achievement for many reasons. That cash will go towards two very worthwhile organisations to help victims of human trafficking.

There are some major pieces of news regarding Fera specifically. Firstly we are nearing the end of chapter one, and in a couple of pages time our would-be heroes will begin their journey out into the big, bad world. To mark the occasion, once the final page is posted on the site I’ll begin the process of preparing the first chapter for print- it will form issue #1 of the comic and I plan to have it on sale both digitally and in print as soon as possible- and certainly in plenty of time for the convention we’re attending in July.

As a result of this, and a number of other contributing factors- once the final page of chapter one is posted we’re going to be hosting a guest art showcase. This is to give me time to prepare things for print, make preparations for chapter two of Fera and to move house.

During the guest art showcase instead of the usual comic updates we’ll be updating with guest comics and fan art created by you the readers, and generally by fans of Fera. We’ve already received a couple of great submissions and I’m really looking forward to sharing them with you. If you want to join in on the action and create some fan art for Fera or indeed a guest page/comic you’re more than welcome to. If you have any questions about submitting artwork or want to send me your images please contact me via email at: t_iii(at)angelk.at

The current deadline for submissions for the showcase will be quite fluid for now, but in general on or before 22nd February would be ideal.

In other news… Fera now has a fanpage on Facebook and a Fan-Club-Group-Thingie on deviantArt. If you’re a fan of the comic come and join us, discuss the comic and any thing else for that matter. There are currently plans for contests that will appear only for fans on either or both of those pages so make sure you’re amongst them.

We’ve also recently been added to a new up and coming webcomic ranking-list (Comic Hovel)… and as of the moment I type this we are neck and neck for rank #2 – with your vote we could get to #1… if you’d like to vote for us please follow this elegantly crafted link.

I think I’ve rambled enough for now- I may be back later to ramble some more… for now- pancakes!

- T III (angelKat Entertainment)

Fera is currently participating in a charity event formed by Lora Innes of The Dreamer. The event is called the “Comic Creator’s Alliance” and includes many well known names from the webcomic community. The event is to help raise money and awareness for a very important cause- that of Human Trafficking. There are many people affected by this- more than we’d like to think and as such there are charities that desperately need your help to make a difference to those lives.

On a personal note, I’m both proud and humbled to be able to participate in this event and might I point out that Lora has managed to do a fantastic job of getting an amazing 85 artists involved in this project. Considering her original goal was perhaps to get 50 artists interested, this is a massive achievement (and of course actually getting those artists to produce the artwork is a collossal task in itself).

Now, where was I… oh yes- these artists all provided artwork featuring female characters from their comics (including Fera) which has now been combined into one epic wallpaper with all of your favourite characters. This wallpaper will be released as a thankyou to all of those who donate on the Comic Creator’s Alliance charity donation drive with funds going to two organizations working on rehabilitation of victims and prevention of this terrible crime.

I’d like to finish this blog with a message from Lora herself, describing the project and giving you all links to see it for yourself:

Monday, January 11th is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. To participate, we formed the Comic Creator’s Alliance–a group of over eighty comic book creators (both web and print) who volunteered our artistic talents to raise money and awareness for this cause. You may not know it, but there are currently 27 million enslaved people worldwide- more than double the number of enslaved Africans during the trans-Atlantic slave trade. UNICEF estimates that 1.2 million children every year are sold into slavery, most of it sexual. The US Department of Justice estimates 16,000 victims of human trafficking are brought into the United States every year. Unlike slavery in the 19th century, what is happening today is happening in secret. So it won’t end until awareness is raised, and people like you and me take a stand.

So here’s what we did: each creator contributed an original drawing of one of our own female characters, and combined them into a single wallpaper image. The wallpaper features characters from The Phoenix Requiem, Girls with Slingshots, Earthsong, Looking for Group, Shadowgirls, Marsh Rocket, The Uniques and three IDW Publishing titles: Fallen Angel, The Dreamland ChroniclesThe Dreamer, and lots, lots more! Donate today to download this unique, once-in-a-lifetime wallpaper. The Donations Drive will last for two weeks, from January 11th – 24th. All proceeds will be split evenly between Love146 and Gracehaven House- two organizations working on rehabilitation of victims and prevention of this crime. and

To learn more about the Comic Creator’s Alliance visit www.comicalliance.weebly.com.  To learn more about the problem, visit http://love146.org/slavery. (Note: contains adult themes and actual accounts of sex slavery.)

- T III (angelKat Entertainment)

Firstly- happy new year to everyone, I wish you all the best in 2010. Its the start of a new decade- and seriously… “Where are our flying cars?”

This year holds many exciting things for Fera- for myself and fans alike. The cast will be setting out into the wider world(s) to discover the truth- whilst one character will begin documenting her arrival on Mu (before we even catch a glimpse of her in the comic), thanks to the wonder of twitter and the characters journal. We should have this set up by the end of the month so be on the look out for updates here.

Kato has set up her own twitter feed as well- she’ll be answering fan questions and generally posting her thoughts over the coming year. So if you have a twitter account go and follow her: @kato_marucci

There is going to be a lot of things to do this year, the site will likely get a full overhaul at some point- there’ll be new content, dowloadable wallpapers and avatars for, plenty of artwork for you to enjoy and soon there will even be a Fera shop cropping up on the site.

Speaking of which, the “official” debut of Fera merchandise will be on 17th July 2010 at Londons’ Earl’s Court 2 Exhibition Centre… why? Because we have a table booked in the SmallPress Artist Alley for the weekend at London Film and Comic Con. It should be great fun and since its our first convention we want to do some thing special.

July may seem like a long way off but we’ve decided not to kid ourselves- there is a great deal of planning and preparation to come over the next few months to make sure that it all goes well.  We may very well post updates as the event gets closer so be on the look out for any promotions, contests and goodies.

In the mean time- did you know that we have a fanpage on facebook? Do you want to keep up with the latest Fera updates? Well here’s the place to do it: FERA on Facebook add yourself there as a fan, and spread the word where you can. And of course don’t forget you can bother @T_III on twitter any time.

With so much to do this year, and so little time- soon the first chapter of Fera will come to a close and we’ll see the cast begin their long trek into the wilderness- we’ll meet new friends, discover old enemies and maybe, just maybe see a little romance.

On to a more serious note- I’m always willing to help out with a good cause when ever I can. Last years charity art auction for The Point Foundation was a resounding success and I’m incredibly glad and honoured to have been asked to participate (even though Fera was still quite young at the time).

As 2010 begins myself and several other webcomic artists, led by Lora Innes, are participating in a project called “The Comic Creator’s Alliance” the plan is to create a wallpaper with images of female characters from a wide variety of webcomics in order to promote “National Human Trafficking Awareness Day” on 11th January. With the combined fans of the comics involved it’s hoped that we’ll be able to raise not only awareness but donations that will go to deserving charities involved in rescuing victims of Human Trafficking and the after care involved in such work.

Fera is in good company as artists such as Lar De Souza, Danielle Corsetto, Alan Evans, Rose Loughran, Peter Vine, Taversia, Jessica Cantlope, Scott Austin, Pam Harrison, Byron Wilkins, Dave Reynolds & David A. Rodriguez, J. Gray & Keith Wood, Barry Link, Emy Bitner… all in all there are currently 84 participants (the original goal was only to have 50).

For more details about the project go to the main website by clicking this link and check out some of the amazing artwork that has been submitted.

Well, I think I’ve lumbered you guys with enough information and links for one century- so go and enjoy your weekend, and remember to vote for Fera- every bit helps whether its a mouse click or telling some one about us. Let’s hope that this year will be a prosperous one and we all enjoy the ride.

Until next time…

- T III (angelKat Entertainment)

There have been some exciting things happening this week.

The LGBT Webcomic Charity Art Auction:

I’m currently taking part in a charity art auction featuring artwork from a number of prominent webcomic artists including Clan of the Cats, Lovefeast, Mysteries of the Arcana, Dar, Khaos Komix, Apple of Discord and many many more.

There’s also an original piece by yours truly featuring two of the major characters of my webcomic Fera.

The auction is currently taking place and will continue until Friday 24th July so make sure you head over there and take a look at some of the great art up for auction via ebay.

All proceeds go to the Point Foundation- a charity that provides financial support, mentoring, leadership training and hope to meritorious students who are marginalized due to sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.

The LGBT webcomic community and the LGBT friendly webcomics have banded together to create some great original art that you’ll love and it’s all in a good cause.

Follow the links to find out more about this great event- and you never know you may be the proud owner of a unique piece of art. All support is welcomed by everyone involved whether that be bidding yourself of getting the word out to your friends and family- even post details on your own blog if you like.

In other news I attended London Film and Comic Con 2009 at Earl’s Court this past weekend (hence the messed up Fera schedule at present- should return to normal shortly) with my fiancee Donna.

It was our first convention and we didn’t have a table so we weren’t completely sure what to expect. There were some amazing events, artists and costumes over the weekend as well as plenty of famous faces. We were amazed at the turnout for the small press section which was only a recent addition to this particular convention.

Despite arriving early (after navigating the maze/gordian knot that is the London underground system) we were treated to a long queue filled with some… interesting people. I couldn’t help but find it funny that the organisers had sent the Cylon cosplayers to police the growing crowds outside the convention centre- a race of machines who’s main objective is the genicide of the human race on crowd control? Seriously?

Once we were allowed in on the first day Donna made a bee-line to Vic Mignogna, the voice actor of Ed Elric from Full Metal Alchemist, he’s quite short, and his voice is ever so high pitched- I have to admire how well he hides his remarkably strong texas accent in his work. It seemed as though his entire fanbase had turned out to see him- including people cosplaying various Full Metal Alchemist and Dragonball Z characters- even some Chobits characters at one point.

Whilst queueing up to see Vic we were entertained by a group of Ghostbusters being attacked by a Pwanda which then went on to some how get a perfect score on a nearby DDR machine. Close by we had a gaming tournament including everything from Spectrums to Xbox 360’s- the apparent organiser of this event was casually wearing a Nintendo Powerglove, something that I haven’t seen in the flesh since I was a toddler.

I have to say we were feeling bad for the disheartened Spike (voice actor of Shinji from Evangelion) who despite his young rivals massive queue seemed to only have one or two people requesting autographs over the course of the entire weekend.

A huge amount of our time on saturday was spent meeting and getting autographs from various sci-fi, film and tv stars. Amongst them- Danny John-Jules aka the Cat from Red Dwarf was a pleasure to meet, as was Tom Baker- though a little odd he did offer Donna a jelly baby… which led to some fan-girl/boy-ing. Paul McGann was equally nice and we were suprised that even the likes of Scott Bakula was very cool, though he does have a very strong hand shake. Jewel Staite of Stargate: Atlantis and Eve Myles of Torchwood were both very sweet and Eve was very excited about the Children of Earth episodes that recently aired- claiming that they were just as grueling for the cast in terms of “surely he won’t…” and concluded that drama like that really makes for some thing enjoyable to watch.

The list of people we met over the weekend was huge, though we sadly missed Keeley Hawes from Ashes to Ashes and a couple of others who we simply didn’t have time to see. I did spend a huge amount of time chatting with Henry Davies on both days of the convention. He was great to talk to and had many interesting things to say.

For those who don’t know Henry Davies is one of the artists for the fantastic comics and annuals known as the Beano and the Dandy- with such characters as Dennis the Menace, Bannanaman, The Bashstreet Kids, Desperate Dan, Korky the Cat and Minnie the Minx. For my American audience who may not know of these titles, the Beano and Dandy are two of the most well loved childrens comics in Britain. Most British children have read a copy of them or been given the annuals for christmas at some point in their lives.

In fact it was one of these annuals that was my first book, I was under a year old and I still have it, though it smells of burgers. They have a wide variety of characters, stories and jokes- though the character designs and styles have always been fairly consistent over the years.

Henry took over doing the artwork for the Beano and Dandy in the early/mid-80’s so most of their annuals and comics that I have bought in my lifetime have had his name some where inside. It was amazing meeting the man who is at least partly responsible for my interest in comics and seeing him work as well as chatting about anything and everything with him. After requesting a drawing of my mams favourite character (Plug) and my childhood alter-ego (Bannanaman) he graciously produced a piece of art that I could call my own, though ever the perfectionist he refused to accept that he’d done Bannanaman justice and so invited me to have a 2nd picture drawn the following day once he had proper reference free of charge. Personally I love both versions, and it was a delight to get to see him work.

For some reason Henry Davies was how I always pictured a comic artist- bumbling, not quite organised, friendly, interested in the world, people and silly facts such as “is a banana a herb or a berry?” and having hands covered in ink/charcoal whilst wearing tiny victorian-type glasses.

Just to show the kind of person he is, and his dedication to not only his craft but his fans- each time a child sidled up and handed him an annual to autograph or requested a drawing of their favourite character he encouraged them to draw along with him. He gave them tips and showed them how he did things, he even offered one girl his own inking pen and inkwell so that she could finish her drawing, showing her how to get the lines she wanted.

I’ve heard a number of people in the states complain that there isn’t enough children reading comics any more, that most readers are older and comickers seem worried about this. In England we haven’t had that problem just yet, we still have the likes of the Beano and Dandy, Oor Wullie, the Broons just to name a few- and its artists like Henry Davies who aren’t afraid to encourage an interest in art and comics in the young that really help to keep that alive.

I also managed to get a sketch of a DC character from their WoW comics drawn by Lee Townsend who is the cover artist for a number of Marvel and DC comics. He seemed nice enough although didn’t get chance to talk to him much.

There was plenty to see and do, the small press section was well turned out with Ian Sharman from Faster Than Light (who I completely blanked on- sorry) to Fallen Angel Media- an excellant small press printing service that I hope to use in the future. As you’d expect Tokyopop were in attendance with a huge selection of manga and related merchandise (all sold by a girl in a manga-style maid costume), as well as tables selling japanese cuisine, props such as swords, replica costumes and helmets and plenty of prints/photographs.

From the small press three people really caught my eye that I’d never known of before but they made a great impression. First up was Niki Hunter who did an amazing reinterpretation of Kato Marucci of Fera for me, both her and her husband were really nice and Donna got a caricature drawn by Niki as well- she was also kind enough to let me return a shirt that I bought from her on saturday that turned out to be too small and exchanged it for the one I’m wearing as we speak.

Secondly Nanniibim who had some beautiful artwork on show, as well as the small sketchy comic I bought “Shika Shika Monster Mash”- I spoke to her about the small press things that she was producing as well as how she found getting tables etc. at the con and even talked about digital art techniques. She was interested in doing a version of the Fera cast for the guest art gallery I plan to add to the site shortly though I’m going to have to send references to her since she’s primarily a digital artist.

Last but not least- Will Kirkby who was sharing a table with Nanniibim his comics are a pleasure to read and theres some thing about him that reminds me of my childhood friend Paul Burr. He’s a genuinely nice and friendly guy if you click the link in his name- we bought the card art in his blog of the Full Metal Alchemist cast. His versions are fun and I was impressed that he even included Winry’s guardian- he mentioned that he loved drawing elderly manga characters as their style is always so different to the rest of the cast.

Its hard to cram so many brilliant events into one blog post- needless to say fun was had by all and whether it was meeting the stars, hanging out with people or the huge array of talent and merchandise that may have bankrupted me had I not controlled myself it was a great weekend.

Now just as a couple of extra things I witnessed during the weekend:

• Picard pulling Batman up about his dress sense (particularly on the knee pads on his shoulders).
• Ed Elric’s voice actor (american) arguing with an englishman over how to queue in a bathroom.
• Ed Elric’s voice actor being punched in the face by an Envy cosplayer.
• Ton’s of furries.
• Pizza eating contest (that I missed).
• Pwanda assaulting Ghostbusters and playing DDR.
• Xenomorph giving out free hugs and scaring anime and twilight fangirls.
• Xenomorph giving Predator a hug.
• Rorchacht wandering the streets of London.
• Square Pies that weren’t square and cost the Earth.
• The tenth Doctor hitting on Ash Ketchum.

I’m hoping to have a table at next years London Comic Con for Fera, and may even have some sketches of a couple of this years events. I look forward to next years convention and hope to see you guys there.

- T III (angelKat Entertainment)