For the dreamers and creators

Reminders: This is a donation per page uploaded campaign - not per month. I will never upload more than 10 pages in a single calendar month. (So if you choose to give $1 per page it would be $10 a month) Please make sure you understand this before joining up. Also, all patrons are charged on the first day of each month for what they've funded.

Read the full comic online here: http://engelbaumcomic.tumblr.com

Hi I'm Lynne Triplett aka TRiPPY. The Engelbaum community call me Engelmum. I'm a self taught Scottish artist living in London who loves comics, dreaming big, video games and pudding. I also have an unnatural obsession with coating everything in glitter and hairspray. If it's not neon, it's not on.
For the past few years i've worked in and out of the games industry with my art featuring in AAA titles and the odd bit of concept art for games studios. But i'm done with that now. Comic books have always been my real passion since I was a little kid. I grew up on UK Sonic the Comic and The Broons. I spent my youth making my own massive comics that I'd share with my friends. Engelbaum is something that technically started in concept back in 1995 with the first Gen I designed. I've been planning this in my head for way too long and I need to get it out there properly before the fans lynch me! 

My art has been described as a blend of manga and UK scene. Not hyper realistic but not straight cut anime style either. It's full of different influences. My pages tend to be extremely dayglow and detailed or extremely grey and harrowing. I try to put as much emotion and hidden easter eggs into my art as possible. Sort of like Where's Wally with giant purple hair.

My stealthy partner in crime Niyazi Sonmez (DiGi) wishes to lurk in the shadows with Engelbaum, but he's the one cracking the whip at me in a Meio Dia-like fashion and telling me when my writing sucks. He gets stuff done and makes sure it all makes sense. So Engelbaum is a two person effort. A labour of love and swearing. We will be your pilots on this crazy jaunt into the imagination. You've been warned.


Engelbaum is a free to read webcomic I've been working on for many years. It once also existed as a printed pilot issue back in 2008. Overall the scope of the Engelbaum universe is massive, I consider it my life project.

The story in brief:
In an infinite space called The Folio a group of eight powerful artists are tasked with designing their own personal universes daily. Literal world building on a massive scale. These artists are called 'The Creators'. As tiny humans we'd describe them as gods - but they only see themselves as painters trying to please their own creator, Spectramis.
There are two generations of Creators, G1 and G2.
G1 are an ancient group of classics and masters, stern and refined. G2 are a rookie group of young art 'students' trying to find their style and place in The Folio. With a new era of artists comes conflict and controversy. Modern versus Classic. All Creators aspire to create the perfect Masterpiece. A perfect universe they can feel satisfied with. But any artist can tell you, that's almost an impossibility.

One of the new G2 Creators, Imagni, isn't particularly good at her job by Creator standards. Her concepts are weak, often unfinished and after meeting her fellow students begins to get very worried about her abilities. Feeling frustrated, Imagni throws a major tantrum in which she unintentionally creates a secondary smaller universe within her own. It's in this other secret universe that she blasts out hundreds of billions of galaxies, solar systems and our little planet - Earth.

Things are nice for a while, Imagni feels occupied with her new hidden project. Back at The Core where all the artists converge things are beginning to feel a lot more positive. Bonds are made and inspirations are passed around.

It wasn't going to last long. One day a series of events throws Imagni's life and universe into chaos as she accidentally creates Humanity - self evolving, reproductive life - with the capacity to be creative... just like the Creators.

Rule number 1: Never create another Creator.

As a potential threat to Spectramis' system this mistake ends in Imagni being grounded to her own half of her universe, quarantined from her friends and the Humans. Meanwhile a Controller solution called Pendula is put in charge of governing over Imagni's mess and making sure that Humans don't get too big for their boots. Pendula likes his job a little too much. 

Humans have the potential to do amazing things. One of those abilities begins to make itself known as Humans start to tune into Imagni's world every time they sleep at night. When a Human dreams they create their own temporary experiences and worlds inside dream bubbles. These bubbles have started to fill up Imagni's world and cause problems with the landscape. Pendula, with his Numeratti team are sent in to utilise the bubbles and keep everyone subdued. Using nightmares and the Human's fears against them negativity feeds over into the waking world. Now at the mercy of the Numeratti and Controller Pendula, Humanity once again adapts to survive.

Gens.

A way to fight back.


Gens are our own unpredictable subconscious selves personified into another being. Gens are like having a tag team partner who supports you in the dream-world when you sleep and then gives you strength in the waking word when you have to deal with life. Every Gen is based on a colour of the rainbow and is a very personal thing to each human dreamer.
Engelbaum is a story about how and why the Gens were created - then how they live their lives protecting their own world and dreamers from becoming jaded by the oppressive Numeratti.



Being on Patreon itself is incredibly poignant for this story, I thought it would be a great match. So much of Engelbaum is reflective of my own experiences as an artist and the types of people and friends I've met along the way. I think everyone will be able to find something they can relate to, either in a character or a scenario. My overall intent with Engelbaum is to help people help themselves. Comics can be very powerful and I think Engelbaum has a ton of potential.

Drama, romance, empowerment, self discovery, action, horror, mystery, sci-fi, fantasy, hot antagonists, badass fight scenes and mouthy French gods. It's a little bit of everything without taking itself too seriously all the time. I like to make people laugh.

As creatives we produce content for the rest of the world to use and enjoy. We create and the world around us consumes. But what if we were all being 'consumed' just a little too much? Artists, writers, musicians, designers... so many of us know how it feels to have our dreams and talents squished or abused. Engelbaum is about taking back that dream and believing in yourself. Expressing your inner self and embracing your flaws.

NEO MAGAZINE: "This spectacular full colour comic is not only visually stunning, but confidently tackles a hugely ambitious storyline. We can't wait for more instalments of this beautiful series."


It also has this guy. But we don't like to talk about him.
(Though some fans would say it's worth pledging for him alone)




The above video explains it best but Patreon is simply a monthly wage pool were fans can help creators pay to reclaim their own time to create what they love. Time is something many artists don't have a lot of, so this is giving the artist a payment every month to work on their personal project. You get a monthly reward for helping out, the artist makes more of your favourite thing online for everyone to enjoy, the community grows, everyone wins!
It's not Kickstarter or Indigogo. It's a monthly subscription based on how much the artist uploads.
The coolest aspect of Patreon is that you only pay for what I created each month - not for what I didn't. I can never rip you off.
As an artist this means:
1. I set my own deadlines. Freedom to shuffle my tasks around each month.
2. Less stress. I don't have to go looking for freelance jobs anymore to pay the rent.
3. I owe only rewards. And it's all on one screen. Easy for me to find and contact people.
         
Let's be honest here, when it comes to life, it's never particularly fair to artists or creative people. Unless you're already comfortable financially or have a wealthy spouse (or can somehow work 2 full time jobs) making ends meet is incredibly difficult. You can either settle into working a 9 to 5 which takes away all your time for your own projects, or be a freelancer and spend all your time making art for other people. Its hard to find the time to focus on the thing you really want to define you. What Patreon has achieved is a system where fans can support their content creators. Consumers helping Creators live directly, without the middle men or uncertainty of having electricity or not.
I've had numerous jobs over the years, some amazing, some terrible, all of which were character building and something I needed to experience to appreciate what I have. But all i've ever wanted to do is just be me, be an artist and share our universe. I hate having to hit pause every few years. I want to create a comic so constantly involving and so full of life that it becomes a genuine excitement for fans to check up on. I want to get people excited, I want to feel excited to see people excited! I want Engelbaum to become a thing, a proper living breathing thing.
Supporting Engelbaum means I can just get on with making Engelbaum. Instead of having to go work in retail for the millionth time or get stuck in dead end Zero Hour contracts to be discarded when I'm not needed. I think I'm worth more than that in talent and determination. 
Please save Engelbaum from being stuck in a loop of never starting properly.
Let me be an artist and let me inspire other artists to do the same. 



Engelbaum will remain a free to read webcomic for everyone regardless if they are on Patreon or not. That is SO important to me because I don't think money should be a firewall to enjoying something positive. Patreon users will however get rewards for enabling me to build Engelbaum. It's worth subscribing to and nurturing.

One of the things that seems to confuse people new to Patreon the most is that they compare it to Kickstarter. With Kickstarter you give a one off amount of money as big as you want and you get something in return if the project is funded, then it ends. With Patreon it's like a monthly paid subscription to your favourite artist to enable them to keep creating the content you love. Back in the day, artists would be funded by wealthy patreons to provide their estates with artwork. This is the same kind of thing, except these-days you don't have to be wealthy or wear a silly hat. Essentially this is my monthly wage.
So! Every month I will try to create 10 (max) full colour completed pages of Engelbaum. 10 pages per month is ALL you will ever be charged for unless you set your spend limit to something below that. Some months *life* might happen and I'll manage less than 10, but you'll only be charged for the amount I upload. Realistically it might take me a few months to hit my stride with page speed, but that just means you pay less, lol.

I don't have a schedule set yet, but one will fall into place after a couple of months testing this system out. It may be page updates in one block, or it may be completely at random throughout the month. But I am determined to do 10 pages per month. That makes 120 pages a year, which is a good size for a printed graphic novel. And those will definitely happen when I have enough content to print!
And remember you can change or cancel your support amount whenever you want. Go high, go low, go nooo (and cancel for a bit) - whatever you need to do is fine by me. Just thanks for the support!


Take it away, Meio Dia~



Simple!
And remember you can edit your pledge at any time.
Everyone is automatically charged for content provided on the 1st of every month.


I'm a giving kinda lady, so not only will you get the listed perks you choose, but each month I'll do a 1hr digital sketch/pencils gift for the person I feel has left the best feedback on my uploaded comic pages here on Patreon. This is to encourage interaction on the pages, plus it helps motivate me! Be it funny, insightful, thoughtful, useful - gimmie! I love all the comments I get so this is my way of saying thanks directly.  This mini commission is a digital gift and very doodly compared to the high level art commission tiers (those take days). I'll have examples up in the next 2 months of the kind of art available for each commission tier so people know what's what. To keep things fair nobody will be chosen twice in a row (unless they're the only person to comment on something that month).

Plus if we reach a Goal Milestone (on the left there) I sometimes give out special gifts or commissions too. I'll be planning more surprises than what is shown, but I need to get into the swing of things first with just getting the basics covered. You'll receive certain perks after money clears the following month, so that way we're both good.
There's a list at the bottom of the page which shows you what things you can get each month. Ranging from cool stuff like private community streams, Q&A videos where you can ask all about your Fan Gens and even the chance to have your Fan Gen be officially *drawn or designed by myself.

And remember! No need to stress, sometimes we have money and sometimes we don't. That's life. I know what it's like. You can reduce, raise or cancel your Patreonage each month whenever you want. But I'm genuinely super thankful for every single $1 that is put towards this universe. You're helping my characters breathe.

Also! For every $1 you pay it collects into Juncture Points that can be saved up so everyone has a chance to have their Fan Gen get an official cameo or speaking part one day in the comic (Obviously when the appropriate story arc arises later on). The more you pay, the faster your points will rack up over time. For more details on Juncture Points please see the section below. 

*Please understand that with commission tiers ($10 and $20 per page) my commissions are the full 10 page price $100 or $200. The reason there are a set amount of slots respectively is that's how many commissions I feel comfortable working on at a time (I dont want to become dragged down with commissions and be unable to work on Engelbaum itself). Since I'm no longer open for general commissions, those slots alone are for people who are willing to support me a full 10 pages at a commission tier to claim a commission from me. They're not really to be used for camping with low capped amounts to accrue commission 'credit'. If in the case I don't manage 10 pages in a month to charge you the full commission price I'll just add on your next pledges to the total until its paid for in full :) Thank you for your patience.


As an extra special ultimate reward for long term and high end supporters we have a system called Juncture Points. Juncture Point is the name of the small locked up door between Imagni's world and our own universe. A gateway to dreams. I wanted this system to be fair, rather than having a one time reward tier that only people with big bucks could afford. It's simple to understand and easy for me to track via my Patreon control panel.
For every $1 you pay (that clears with me) you earn 1 Juncture Point. 
 
Pay me $200 a month you get 200 Juncture Points. Pay me $50 a month and you get 50 Juncture points and so on. If you decide to pay me something like $1.50 or $1.02 or something it will only be counted as a full point when it hits the full dollar. I can see what everyone has paid so nobody can cheat extra points or lose them. I'll also be keeping a separate database just as a backup. That way if you have to leave for a month or so, you can jump back in and your points will still be accounted for.

But what's the point of... points? Well how about this:
600 Juncture Points = A background cameo in the actual official Engelbaum comic for your Fan Gen.
1200 Juncture Points = Or an actual speaking part in the comic for your Fan Gen interacting with the main characters on a mission or a scene.
With either point cash-in you are also mailed a hand made Glimmer Scroll from the Gold Realm to hang on your wall and show your Gen is just too legit to quit. (I'll contact you about everything directly via email when it happens).
A few important things though. Personal points reset to 0 once they have been cashed in, this is so everyone gets a fair chance. Also you'll think that the point levels are pretty high but the first story arc has no Gens, so by the time that chapter comes around people will be ready to cash in their Juncture Points rather than wait around for months. Inclusion of your Fan Gen is also down to passing a few design checks so it fits within the lore of our story and doesn't break anything (No Spectra-sues or characters derivative of other series please!). You also have to agree to us using your character in a one off royalty free manner. We don't own your Engelbaum fan Gen (because that's personal to you and I'm not particularly evil like that) but for legal reasons you have to sign a contract I'll provide to give the go ahead when that time comes around. Lets keep it all enjoyable.
But what if you save up 1199 points and I close my Patreon?? Not going to happen. Engelbaum is a life project for me and this is my one big push for it to remain active. In the instance Patreon (or the internet?) shuts down I'll still find a way to include your Fan Gen. In any odd horrible occurrence like me being hit by a spacerock or an act of God, then you'll have to excuse me, I tried my best! lol.

Juncture Points cannot be exchanged for real money, have no offline value other than what is stated and cannot be traded with other people as gifts. Also I reserve the right to refuse (or help adapt) a fan Gen from being included if it is designed in a way that is infringing on another artists rights or has been designed to be intentionally offensive or world breaking to my own comic. If at any point you'd like to check your Juncture Point total just drop me a PM via Patreon and I'll let you know ASAP.
 


"Nobody can buy you when you're priceless."


Sure you can! Not everyone can help out with money and I completely get that. But don't fret! It doesn't make you any more or less of a fan. Some fans can help with money and some can't. But together we can help Engelbaum get out there. As great as money is the real reason I'm doing a Patreon is simply because I LOVE ENGELBAUM and REALLY want it to get to the people who need it. Money simply helps me have the time to make the comic and fund things to make it even bigger. So don't be upset if you can't use Patreon, you can also help out by doing this:

1. Tell your friends about it! Show them your Fan Gen if you have one and get them involved too. If you enjoy our work then let other people know.
2. Be an active part of the online Engelbaum community over on Tumblr. Share fanart and fanfiction. RP with eachother. Inspire and support each-others creativity.
https://www.tumblr.com/search/engelbaum
3. Tell people about our Patreon page and see if they'd be interested in helping out in even the smallest amount. Use the social media share links at the top of the page.
4. Share and like/upvote our pages on Tapastic. This grows our audience. http://tapastic.com/series/Engelbaum
5. Submit your fanart to the official DA group: http://scion-of-engelbaum.deviantart.com
6. Get informed. Visit the official Engelbaum website: http://www.spectramisarts.com



PLEASE READ BEFORE JUMPING IN:
1. This campaign is cost PER PAGE, not month. I will never upload more than 10 pages in a month. 
2. You will not be charged for anything until the first of the month.
3.  You will never be charged extra for pages that are not uploaded here.
4. I am not responsible for you not setting a monthly spend limit for your Patreonage. Therefore refunds will not be given unless it is somehow a Patreon error.
5. If you have to cancel for a month you can always jump back in again later.
6. Any physical rewards will always be sent out after payment has cleared to stop scammers.
7. Please check in every month to make sure your payment wasn't declined (i dislike having to bother people).
8. Please be kind and gracious to your fellow Engelbums and the Engelmum.
9. Understand that certain perks have rules in order to keep everyone safe and friendly. Please read the rules to understand the law of the land.
10. Engelbaum is recommended for mature readers who can tell fiction from reality. It contains mild nudity, bad language, violence/fighting, controversial topics and a few things that may offend or upset some readers. Nothing is done to be mean spirited or intentionally harmful. Please avoid if any of those things are likely to hurt you. 
11. Please DO NOT take Patreon exclusive content and share it with other non Patreon fans early. I do this myself at scheduled points and don't need others doing it for me. If you are caught doing this you'll be kicked from the Patreon and banned.

Thank you for your continued interest in Engelbaum and if you're a creative type like me please consider using Patreon yourself to get your own projects off the ground. The world needs more magic and less unhappy people.

Engelbaum and all official related content and concepts
© Lynne Triplett 2015. Spectramis Arts™


*Please understand that with commission tiers ($10 and $20 per page) my commissions are the full 10 page price $100 or $200. The reason there are a set amount of slots respectively is that's how many commissions I feel comfortable working on at a time (I dont want to become dragged down with commissions and be unable to work on Engelbaum itself). Since I'm no longer open for general commissions, those slots alone are for people who are willing to support me a full 10 pages at that tier to claim a commission from me. They're not really to be used for camping with low capped amounts to accrue commission 'credit'. If in the case I don't manage 10 pages in a month to charge you the full commission price I'll just add on your next pledges to the total until its paid for :) Thank you for your patience.