Swords, sandals, scandals, sausages, and bears, plus one angry volcano.

SPQR Blues is an ancient Roman epic (sort of) of Man vs. Volcano (and vs. a whole lot of other things) set in the years leading up to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. It's been online for almost 10(!) years. Since I shifted from full-time editor to freelancer, I have time to work on it at least a little bit every day and finally blow up a volcano. As a freelancer, though, that also means that sometimes I have to fill every hour with assignments and can't give time to the webcomic.

Because ordinary guys need epics too: Instead of a story about gladiators and emperors and orgies and assassinations (not that there's anything wrong with that), it’s about the lives of regular people in the city of Herculaneum, Pompeii's less famous neighbour—but there are the occasional banquets and battles, and sometimes a spoiled imperial prince gets in the way. A lot of the characters are based on people who really lived in the town. Our hero, Marcus Antonius Felix, self-described descendent of a slave of the much more famous Marcus Antonius, starts out jobless, homeless, and missing his clothing. Subsequently: intrigue, murders, flashbacks, goddesses, star-crossed lovers, ursine intervention, heroic accountants, gambling, slave-dealing, swords, sandals, earthquakes, seven emperors, and a jug of wine. You can read the first four chapters at spqrblues.com and on its old home on livejournal. Chapter IV is finished! ongoing. Rumour has it that enough people will survive the volcano for there to be a Chapter V. But they'll probably have to move to a new town, on account of theirs being buried by the whole volcano thing. Chapter V is ongoing, updating (usually) three times a week.

Let's blow up a volcano, together: I'd like to continue posting a new comic three times a week, plus extra art, reviews, and other assorted posts. Posting times have been inconsistent in the past (to say the least), so pledges are per comic actually finished and online, instead of a pledge amount per month. Any extras won't be counted, such as sketches-of-the-day, revised older comics, Sunday colour comics, etc.

What if there's a new comic daily or something? That's a lot to pledge for each month. You can opt to put a monthly cap on your pledges, so that even if there's a new comic every day, if you only want to pledge $5 per month maximum, you'll only be charged $5. Any pledge helps me spend time on the comic instead of filling every day and night with freelance work. Freelancing eats time like some sort of voracious hairy woodland beast. I'd love to swap some of those freelance hours for a regular drawing schedule. Every pledge is hugely helpful and hugely appreciated.

Over time, I'll add extra goals and rewards. And...thanks!