Hi, I'm Alex Woolfson.  As a gay kid growing up, I loved science-fiction and action stories, but I never got to see what I really wanted to see—and that's kick-ass genre stories with heroes, real heroes, who just happened to like other guys. That's what I tried to tell with my science-fiction comic, Artifice, and it's the kind of story I'm trying to tell with my ongoing superhero webcomic, The Young Protectors.

I've always made my comics available to read online for free, and that's not going to change. But in 2014, the work moved from being a part-time hobby to a full-time job. I pay my artists a real page rate and, as my comics grew in size and readership, I had to turn down more and more work from the day job to keep things going, which meant burning through my savings. It got so dire, it looked like I was going to have to shut The Young Protectors down.

I had to find a way to make creating these comics truly sustainable on the long-term, so I launched this Patreon—and in 2015, support from readers like you allowed me to quit my day job and work on my comics full-time!

It's the ongoing Patreon support—and new support from readers like you!—that keeps The Young Protectors going.

Recently, though, with all that's going on, some Patrons have had to take a step back. Just paying my artists and keeping the lights on with the site costs thousands of dollars a month. And that's means that I'm currently doing full-time work with very part-time income. I'm burning through savings again. And, obviously, that's not sustainable.

But you can help!

Your pledge today will allow me to continue working and making stories with gay heroes (and other cool folk!)  And by being a Patreon supporter, you'll get access to a bunch of cool rewards, like sneak previews of the art, digital pin-ups and wallpapers, access to Patreon-only comics on the webcomic site, a special YP badge for your Disqus Avatar, access to the exclusive True Fan Lounge, NSFW art and comic pages, the ability to read a comic page days ahead of everyone else, and even free stuff from my store!

I'm always looking for ways to show my gratitude for the support that makes The Young Protectors possible. So far, I've made over 80 full-color pin-ups with my characters available exclusively to my patrons, a bunch with full nudity (which, as you know, I don't show to the general public) and a bunch that are safe for anyone to view, but are gorgeous.

Click here to check out my Patreon Rewards Index which shows you everything you can download.

In that Index, you'll also find instructions for how to read the Patron-only pages on my webcomic site as well as how to access the exclusive itch.io rewards.

If you're enjoying my work, would like to see it continue, and would like to get access to a bunch of exclusive benefits, please join me now as a heroic member of The Young Protectors tribe by clicking the big Become A Patron button over on the right!