Reintroducing Created by Clyde

For New Readers of the newsletter

It has recently come to my attention that there are people reading this beyond just a few friends from “the real world” and I wanted to take a moment to reintroduce what it is I’m doing here and what you can expect moving forward. For those in the know, feel free to bounce — but if you are sticking around, you’ll at least know some of my thinking about this newsletter moving forward.

A Quick Intro

My name is C. Clyde. I’m a cartoonist that has been using this newsletter as a virtual home for my creative projects, primarily sharing new pages of two webcomics, Processing and STEPPERS. I began working on comics after a long period of creative agency work that never felt very authentic to who I am, so this would be a place where I could take risks and challenge myself to create the type of stuff that I’d want, untethered from what the client wants.

What is Created by Clyde?

I landed on the name of my newsletter, Created by Clyde, based on the generational impact of my father, Clyde, and his father before him, and how that relates to what I want to say as an artist. Having lost him a few years ago to cancer, my passion project, Processing, is a long-form story that facilitates a conversation with a man that is no longer here, but very much still in my heart. Generational trauma, redefining masculinity and our relationship to death play a major role in my work. The creative work is a means of processing that pain and hopefully give myself a space to just be.

Processing Pages

Lately, STEPPERS has been my focus. You know, a comic book about Mickey Mouse¹.

Which probably seems a bit silly to the uninitiated. Why would you move your focus away from Processing, a book with this level of emotional authenticity, and stop working on it for another “Steamboat Willie” project?

If Processing is a way of examining my past, STEPPERS feels much more like an examination of the present. Processing is a book that I’ll likely be in conversation with for many years to come. But it doesn’t quite cover the feeling of scarcity, economic turmoil and our relationship to art that is so persistent in my current day-to-day.

STEPPERS presented an opportunity to explore that - and to do it with a brilliant friend² that has a significant impact on me now. Collaboration, the relationship we have to the media we consume, the frustrations of an economic system that is damn near impossible to imagine working differently…this is also important, and what better way to do that than through a symbol that embodies so much of that frustration? How could it not be Mickey Mouse?

So…STEPPERS.

After spending decades behind bars, Mickey has been released from prison. In a twisted turn of events, he must reckon with a public persona he does not recognize that poses an existential threat to all that he stands for.

“Most people go their whole lives stepping to the beat of the drum. They don’t question the rhythm or who made the drum. One foot in the front of the other, marching along thinking that’s what you’re supposed to do. The music is infectious and everyone loves to dance.”

-Oswald, The Lucky Rabbit
STEPPERS, Chapter 6

This book has been a blast to make. Despite the veneer of marketability of a book like this, we’re exploring some dark themes and taking a lot of risks. The readers will ultimately be the final judge of the veracity of those claims, so if you haven’t given it a chance yet, we’ve got 40 pages out right now that you can read, and another chapter coming out on Sunday.

This’ll be our first Kickstarter campaign, too - collecting the first 12 chapters, roughly 170 pages of story to wrap up Act 1. If you haven’t wishlisted it yet, you can do so here (the almighty algorithm and I thank you for your service).

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Processing

For new readers, Processing is a book exploring the question, what if all afterlives are real? It deals with the death of Clyde, sent to the Department of Processing: a place people go when they didn’t believe in anything in life.

It’s a dark comedy with the first 2 issues available to read, and a number of side stories called Problems After Death. Once we’re finished up with STEPPERS Act 1, I’ll be redirecting my attention back to completing Issues #3 and #4.

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Some Closing Thoughts on the Future

After reading some sentiments from the writer

DB

in his excellent post, Selling out to the Digital Era, I find myself fairly deep in reflection about my relationship to my creative work, and what it means to build an audience. I’ll have more to say about that later³, but I think at the moment, my first major takeaway is that I want to write more, and stop worrying so much about how “well positioned” this newsletter is. I’ve always been somebody that enjoys talking through my process, the thinking behind a work alongside the work itself.

Other times, I like to just write about stupid things like hold music⁴ or reflecting on an some incredible pieces of art. Moving forward, I’d like to advocate more for Created by Clyde as a creative journal, working out a lot of ideas in a more public way. This newsletter has ultimately always been that anyway. I’d like to embrace that, release more frequently by actually just writing more, and not just be a content mill to publish new comics. I’ll still be doing that, but I’ll be hiding a lot less of the process.

To readers of this newsletter, I thank you for being here. If you do enjoy what I do, let me know by responding to this by email or a comment, or share it with someone that might like it.

You’ll likely see a “Start Reading Here” post in the next few days, just to make it easier for new readers to get started. Feel free to disregard if you’re all caught up, but you’ll see an extra email or two from me while I finish up some restructuring of the newsletter.

<3 C. Clyde

1. Legal Disclaimer for Lawyers: “STEPPERS” uses the public domain cartoons “Steamboat Willie” (1928), “Trolley Troubles” (1927) and associated characters as basis and inspiration as well as other public domain cartoons. STEPPERS is in no way associated with the Walt Disney Company, nor are any claims made against their trademarks. Promotional material created for STEPPERS occasionally contain satire and parody, through entirely fictional situations created by the writers and artists of this work. This work or any associated materials is not intended to describe actual events, persons or entities, or to suggest any association with or sponsorship by any person or entity.

2. Here I am, paying you compliments

Henry

, in a very public way, because it’s too difficult to do it when we’re stoned on the couch.

3. I highly recommend any creatives read it. It is dense and thought-provoking.

4. 1,500 words and I never released it, because it wasn’t comics-related. I can’t speak to the quality of it really, but I do know it was fun to write, and I’d like to be a little less sacred about what I’m willing to put out there for people to see.