Mike Dawson posts
Posts: 391
Files: 1383
August Minicomic - Digital Download
Hello friends,This is the update to share the digital download for August's minicomic of the month, FUN TIME, Is This The Real Life? or also simply, Guitar Solo. Find it attached to this post or download it from this Dropbox link here https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/1n601nu3rs38tb8715i1k/GUITAR-SOLO.pdf?rlkey=gpyoz6vmdxszavk1xyv546gd9&st=0b1d0k8h&dl=0Physical copies have all gone into the mail. I may have made a mistake with some of the packages I sent out first, where I may not have put enou...
August mini going into the mail!
Hello friends,Just a post to let you know I received the August minicomic back from the printer, FUN TIME Is This The Real Life? and am starting to drop physical copies into the mail today. I will have them all out by Monday. Keep an eye on your mailboxes!I have material already starting to gather for the September "Back to School" comic, and will be sharing cover images and more information about that soon. Over here in my non-glamorous real life, I have a major school trip myself comin...
Newest Mini off to the printers + upcoming comic preview
Hello friends, This is a post to let you know that I sent the files for the August minicomic off to the printer's yesterday. I am hoping to receive them back sometime between the middle and end of next week (around August 27-28th-ish) so I can get copies out into the mail before the end of the month. It's 20 pages, full color, digest sized, and I think an all around nice package.For September I am planning a "Back to School" issue, which will include some cartoons I was writing r...
Minicomics Box. Does this sound cool?
Hello friends,I am not sure if this is the most effective way to go about this, as I am not sure if all patrons check each of my updates too granularly, I expect most subscribers are just mostly happy to look out for their new minicomics each month, which is fine by me as it's the main thing I offer, but I have an idea percolating for a project and would love to know if it sounds interesting to anyone...As I'm making new minis every month and mailing them out, in addition to feeling imme...
Getting Ahead of My Haters
I'm currently writing an all-new diary comic, and I know once I post it to my Instagram I'm likely to receive comments about how there are way too many words in it. I can't help myself! But like Eminem in the final rap battle in Eight Mile, I'm thinking if I own up to it up front it'll neuter that particular criticism. More seriously, I do put a lot of words into some of my diary comics, for sure, but to me, they work as a visual element just as much as the imagery. I feel li...
Cover reveal - August's Minicomic of the Month!
Hello friends, This is a post to share the cover I've created for August's Minicomic of the Month. I'm keeping with the FUN-TIME logo for the moment, because I did indeed have a fun time paying homage to this classic Queen album cover.And, obviously that reveals the overall theme of this issue, Queen, Freddie Mercury, and my ongoing evolving relationship to their music. I'm going to be revisiting some work I'd written in the past, in an effort to create something new that cou...
Update on August comics and Beyond...
Hello friends,This is a post to check in with all physical and digital Monthly Minicomic Club members, to let you all know I've been putting together a comic for August, and that you can most likely expect to see them go into the mail during the week of the 25th.I am not totally ready yet to make the public "here's the comic of the month!" post for non-members, as I am still circling around what exactly this new self-published effort is going to be.I have long had the (possibly i...
FUN-TIME Summer Special 2025 Digital Download
Hello friends,This is a post to share the link to download July's minicomic of the month, FUN-TIME Summer Special 2025. You can access the PDF for the comic at the following linkhttps://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/7swouskm1r1rimwzjxt4l/AI_WPEaTzk1sfRyBtvtBOnA?rlkey=1m9vhvryy9mxe4g54tvo82m9k&st=gwo33vak&dl=0I hope you enjoy this comic, I think it's got a nice mix of cartoon essays, some possibly familiar and some brand new.I'll be announcing the August minicomic of the month in the next we...
FUN-TIME SUMMER SPECIAL - going into the mail
Hello friends,This is a post just to let you know I'm dropping copies of the FUN-TIME SUMMER SPECIAL 2025 into the mail for all physical minicomic club members today, and I'll be posting the link to the PDF for all digital members tomorrow. I am very happy with this one, and am excited to send it out to you. If you're a free member, or joined up at the Tip Jar level, and have been mulling the idea of giving the minicomic club a try, now is a great time to sign up, as all new members...
FUN TIME Summer Special 2025 - off to the printer!
Hello friends, this is a post to let you know that I have sent all the files for July's Minicomic of the Month out to the printer, and expect to receive copies back in the next 8-10 days, which I will then send out to all print members of The Monthly Minicomic Club. As always the digital PDF will be distributed here once all those print issues are in the mail.This was a fun issue, with a wide-variety of comics. Ten different full color diary comics and cartoon essays, including all-new mater...
FUN-TIME Summer Special update
I am sharing this panel because it was originally intended to be part of a new comic essay I'm putting together for the July minicomic, but it doesn't really fit anymore, so I am having to "kill my darlings", and by that I mean, not include it in the cartoon, but post it here, and also probably still include it somewhere in the minicomic anyway.This is also a good excuse to provide an update on the issue. I've been putting it together, and am thinking I can get it sent out to...
Important Career Advice
Obviously there’s a punchline to this comic, but I don’t think the actual advice is bad, particularly to avoid being self-deprecating about your own work. I have always struggled with this, but if you can’t take your own art seriously, it’s harder for others to do so. You need to be your own greatest advocate, because nobody else will ever care as much as you do. Also, yes, do not let them take a doofy photo, it will always be the one they go with.
Fun Time Summer Special 2025
I had a blast drawing and coloring this cover to July’s comic (which I shamelessly swiped directly from an old Dan DeCarlo comic, “Archie’s TV Laugh In #4”), and what is a Monthly Minicomics Club for if not to have fun? I think I’m a decent cartoonist, but it’s always very humbling to copy from one of the greats. This will be digest sized, full color, will feature a potpourri of cartoons as well as some brand new diary comics. More updates to come later in the month!
Chrissy! Wake Up! - digital download
Print copies of this comic went out to all subscribers last week. All physical Monthly Minicomic Club members keep an eye on your mailbox. This is a post to share the digital PDF. You can download the file here or find it attached to this posthttps://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/vyb1t347x9eso7g9t5oc3/STRANGER-THINGS.pdf?rlkey=rhbds5ovw4mchevcj0psq032b&st=8plhfpq1&dl=0Today is the first day of Summer Camp for my two kids (my youngest is a camper, my eldest works as a counselor), which means I'm ent...
"Chrissy! Wake Up!" going into the mail
This is a post to let all print members of The Monthly Minicomic Club know that I have dropped copies of my newest self-published effort into the mail. Keep an eye on your mailboxes for an envelope from me.I will be posting the link to download the PDF for all digital members over the weekend. Keep an eye on your inbox for that one.Thank-you as always for the support!Mike
"Chrissy! Wake Up!" - off to the printers
This is a post to let you know that I've sent the files for my newest minicomic, full title "Chrissy! Wake up! I don't like this!" off to the printer's. It's June 16 today, so I expect to receive copies back by sometime around the middle of next week, which means I will successfully get minicomics out into the mail for everybody before July. Yay me! As always, the link to the digital PDF will be posted here as soon as all the physical copies have gone out to members. As y...
Do You Have a Moment to Talk About Minicomics?
Do You Have a Moment to Talk About Minicomics?A funny little cartoon I created to post on my Instagram and elsewhere on social media explaining how the Monthly Minicomic Club works and the different ways to join.Most folks here, I am sure, already know the concept of my minicomic subscription, but in case you are new, it’s exactly like it sounds: once a month I mail members a new self-published minicomic or ‘zine. There are no additional shipping fees and international members are welcome. S...
Trainer Hau
I was very proud of my son's ruthless gameplay. It turns out that we may have made a small error in understanding the rules, apparently you can't play more than one helper card per turn, but I'll forgive a little kid who couldn't yet read for making that mistake. This event happened a while back, he's older now, but he's still into gaming. He's watching a lot of Chess playing videos on YouTube. What a nerd! I am going to get a locker here at the house so I can stu...
Breath of the Wild
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the WildIf you follow me on social media, specifically Instagram, you might have noticed a big uptick in activity on my account there. There's a few reasons for this, 1) now that my new book is largely done, I've got more energy to make diary comics again, 2) I'm re-drawing some older cartoons (like this one) to warm myself up in the mornings, and to get myself back into the mindset of quickly writing short pieces, and 3) I have loose, unformed, emb...
A Part, Apart - Digital Download
Hello friends,This is a post to let you know that I have dropped all physical copies of the A Part, Apart minicomic into the mail for print subscribers, so all members of that tier can be on the lookout for an enveloped from me. This is also the post where I share the digital PDF of the comic, which you can find attached to this post, or download directly herehttps://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/hkh8o6z167m1bhs72nk8s/A-PART-APART.pdf?rlkey=l0uuy7f2lgeymst5viglljzvl&st=6300w1fl&dl=0A little bit of back...
A Part, Apart, now in the mail
An important message here from me, Mike, President and CEO of Mike Dawson's Monthly Minicomic Club. Copies of A Part, Apart all went into the mail this morning. Thankyou for your patience! There are two little extras going out to all print club members, a small hand-cut and hand-folded bonus comic, and, bizarrely, the BFDI Smiley Mouth sticker that my son had me make for him. Next time there'll be a more Mike Dawson-relevant sticker going out.Thanks as always for the support! The link to...
The Barf Diner
New Jersey is famous for its diners, but every diner in my area has Fox News playing constantly.
Happy Mouth Sticker
Hello everybody, this is a quick post to let you know I received stickers back from the place I used to get them printed, and now I have these little Happy Mouth stickers to send out to all members of the physical Monthly Minicomic Club. This was a little bit of a learning experience (though it wasn't that hard to learn), I've been thinking it would be cool to start dropping in little stickers and more extras into the envelopes when I send out monthly comics, but I wasn't really sure...
Simple Tips and Rules For Making Comics
This is a funny little sequence that I use in my school assembly and workshop presentations to introduce kids to reading and making comics. Once we've read this together, we can start to talk about how comics work. I talk about how we read drawings, and how we fill in all the in-between images, telling parts of the story to ourselves.I did get reprimanded for showing this at a recent school assembly, where the Principal felt that I should have made more clear to the students that they should...
