A webcomic featuring gentle giants and cute little robot girls.

My name is Ash. I joined the Navy in a troubled job market to get a solid foundation back under my feet. However, it's only a stepping stone to get myself to where I want to be the most: a full-time professional independent comic artist. 

My first long term comic project, Monster's Garden, was in development for several years and finally became a reality in 2012. My ultimate goal for Monster's Garden is to see it in print. I would also like to build a larger readership to support the comic's growth and future comic projects once out of armed service.

With your help, we can accomplish that.
Monster's Garden is the story of an outcast turned heavyweight champion known as the Kilo Monster, who maintains a flower garden in his spare time. Much of his life was spent alone, until one day, out of the kindness of his heart, he helps a comic-loving robot girl named NIKA reunite with her human family in the city. Unfortunately for the Kilo Monster, this act of kindness gets him involved in a bigger problem than he ever bargained for. A problem he can't overcome without the help of his newly found family.
I have always been a storyteller. I have fond memories of stapling together illustrated stories from binder paper and reading any book I got my hands on about being a writer and a cartoonist. Monster's Garden is the kind of story that I would have loved to see as a teenager, and addresses some of my issues with current trends and tropes in media by questioning ideas on masculinity, celebrating ideas of femininity, showing a fantasy world full of peoples of all kinds, and confronting anxieties that come from societal pressures and personal traumas.
Being a sailor takes up more time and reduces my computer access than I'd like, so it may not always update every other week as I had planned. I will try my best to give fair warning when this happens, but understand that the nature of my job may not always make this possible.

Since there are multiple pages in an update, patrons will only have to pledge for each update opposed to each page. Updates will always have at least two pages, but can have up to four or five depending on the story flow and if I can manage the workload.

Guest comic updates will not count toward pledges. Additional side story/intermission comics will, however.
Monster's Garden will always be free to read on its website! I would create Monster's Garden even if no one else would read it. It's a project near and dear to my heart that I want to share with as many folks as I can. The donations only help the comic grow beyond what I am currently capable of.
As I mentioned above, my major goals is building readership and putting the comics in print. Donations will be used to continue to maintain the website, keep advertisements off the website, buy advertising for the comic on other sites, open up a web store for merchandise, paying assistants and guest artists, and eventually funding a table at a convention one day.

I will be happy with whatever is managed to be collected. Even the smallest things help!
Unfortunately, this is one thing that cannot be helped. The thing about signing a contract is that I'm bound by that contract until it runs out, and mine has several years left on it. There's no changing the hours I have to work in a week, which keeps the time I have to work on the comic the same no matter what.

Once I've finished my service, I will hopefully have a much better schedule in which to make more updates possible!
Monster's Garden will not update while I'm not around to manage it (Patreon cannot set up updates in advance at this time, anyway). Since pledges are made per update, without any updates, you will not be charged. As easy as that! 

I appreciate every bit of help you are willing to give! Monster's Garden is a labor of love at the heart of it, but with so many stories left to tell, I hope it can be the start a professional career in the future.