Ding dong! Roughs are here! All of these were drawn last Thursday, March 16, and Friday, March 17. I was already whipping up ideas for CNN when Donald Trump truthed that he would be arrested on Tuesday (which didn’t happen).
This is actually the second rough of this idea. I threw away the first as what you’re looking at here was the beginning of my making it an official cartoon…until I stopped. I pushed it aside and drew this instead.
This didn’t turn into anything.
I liked this one and probably should have done it.
I kinda liked this one too. I would have offered it to my friend Joe Heller who lives in Green Bay, but like me, he doesn’t take ideas from other people.
I really liked this one and it became this cartoon.
I liked this one but I didn’t want to do two on the subpoenas back to back.
This was my first idea on this subject.
And this is the second which turned into an official cartoon. People are still yelling at me.
I kinda liked this one. An editor liked it too but thought it might be a stretch for readers’ memories or something like that. I forget her wording.
I kinda like this one too.
Now, this I don’t like.
This became the cartoon for last weekend’s CNN Opinion newsletter.
I kinda like this one too.
I’ve been seeing other cartoonists pimping their Patreons (where you pay a fee to support the cartoonist) and by subscribing, they’ll show you their cartoons early, the roughs, and the timelapse videos of their creations. Some even add blogs. Am I an idiot for not charging for any of that stuff and just hoping people will be generous and donate? A few do and I really appreciate those supporters. But would I get the support financially that others get if I took my work into a subscription platform? Just thinking out loud.
Now, Which of these cartoons are your favorites?
Signed prints: The signed prints are just $40.00 each. Every cartoon on this site is available. You can pay through PayPal. If you don’t like PayPal, you can snail mail it to Clay Jones, P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402. I can mail the prints directly to you or if you’re purchasing as a gift, directly to the person you’re gifting.
Notes on my book, Tales From The Trumpster Fire: There are 19 copies of my book in stock, which go for $45.00 each, signed. Also, I have copies of my first book from 1997, Knee-Deep in Mississippi available for $20.00.
Tip Jar: if you want to support the cartoonist, please send a donation through PayPal to clayjonz@gmail.com. You can also snail it to P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402.
Watch me draw:
claytoonz 
The alligator subpoena made me laugh out loud. 😄
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Monetize your Patreon. Have 2 or 3 levels.
Free
Sneak Peak
Drafts
This way you can be supported and people will be able to have the level of access they want.
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That’s interesting. The tough part for me is figuring out the levels. There are also blogs and timelapse videos. Hell, I do two timelapse videos for each cartoon. It’s also tough to figure out how much to charge and if there will be enough support for it. Do I have the following to garner at least 500 subscribers willing to pay a few bucks a month? I don’t know.
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Subscription platform may make sense. Have your financial advisor, business manager or af riendly accountant model some numbers for you. Start with your tax accountant to see if it makes you have to file more tax returns. It is obvious you work all the time.
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It would be more forms to file. Anything that goes through PayPal is tracked and reported to the IRS. PayPal sends me a 1099 every year. Yes, I do work all the time. Thanks for noticing.
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I wouldn’t give you a dime, because I don’t have one to give you. Like many seniors, we live on fixed incomes, and inflation is eating that away faster than we can afford.
If you need money that badly, go for it. But you will be losing a of poor people who are as much in need of a good laugh as anyone else.
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It would be worth looking into. I know I’ve joined a few people on YouTube to help support their content. I’m not thrilled that some of that money goes to Google (they don’t need it). Not sure how much Patreon takes out, but if the monthly price was reasonable, I would contribute.
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I do my monthly donation thru PayPal; I don’t know if PP gets a percentage or not. Patreon refuses to recognize me in any shape or form, so I switched all my donations (The Knight Life, Hope For Paws, Comics Curmudgeon, among others) to PP.
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Yes, PayPal takes a bite unless it’s from “friends and family.” A few of my clients pay through PayPal. Yes, Patreon will also take a bite, then I think they pay me through PayPal, which will also take their bite. Any price for a subscription will be low.
I take offense at the comment about never paying me a dime. Not because I think everyone should contribute but because he makes it sound like I’m being selfish to want to earn an income from my work…and nobody in this business works harder than me.
I lost another client this month. Since COVID, I have lost over half of my clients. I am always thinking of other revenue streams. This blog is one of them but it’s tiny as it only gives me about $300 a year from the ads…and then people who read this site for free complain about the ads.
I get hits from social media but people on Facebook like to copy and paste the cartoon and even the entire blog and post it on this timeline. They often include a link but nobody’s going to click that when they already got it all for free. They think they’re promoting me but they’re actually hurting me financially. Every Facebook restriction hurts me financially.
I’m not anywhere near making a decision on going to Patreon and I have a lot of factors to consider. But one factor that won’t be considered is someone threatening that I’ll lose them if they don’t get everything I produce for free while also telling me that they’ll never support me.
I shouldn’t lose anybody as there will still be content here. There will be more blogs about this. And hell, I may not ever do it.
I do appreciate all the comments about this. Thank you.
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