Who am I and what is this?

Hello. My name is Tinet. I've drawn since I could hold a pencil, and since I was little I've made up characters and stories to escape my messed up reality. At 15 I decided I wanted to learn to draw comics for real, and I started to draw "Driftwood". 16 years and 387 pages later, here I am, and here it is.

Driftwood is an epic anarcho-socialist adventure story about parallel universes inhabited by pirates, assassins, love-girls, cossacks, revolutionaries and shamans, and romantic harbour towns in foreign lands that may remind of Communist China and the Soviet Union.
It's a love story. And it's a story about being a second generation immigrant, working class and the child of an alcoholic.
Not least is it a story about growing up. 

The life of 16 year old Willie is dominated by her dad's alcoholism and the mystery with her mother, who was absent all of Willie's life, but has now contacted her again out of the blue and wants to meet her.
Willie's mum arranges a ferry trip for her to come visit her in Norway, but the ferry sinks in the North Sea. Willie is able to save herself on a life raft, and mysterious things start to happen ... She finds herself in a different world, and is rescued by the crew of the sailing ship the Eagle Ray. They drag her along on their crazy adventures, and in the process Willie starts to learn to deal with her problems at home and to dare to choose her own way in her life.

You can read Driftwood online here to see if you like it. (Though for the printed edition I've redone the lettering and translation of the earlier chapters.)

Driftwood is my pet project, but I think it may also be quite valuable for other people. I would have been so happy to discover a comic like this when I was younger (and certainly also now that I'm a bit older).

It's a comic by and for girls, with complex and flawed female characters who deal with women's problems. (It's a bit sad that this is still a relatively unusual thing ...)
And other children of alcoholics have told me that it was a good comic to read, as it deals with these issues in a constructive way that you don't see very often.

And of course, even if you can't directly identify with those aspects, it's an interesting story with plenty of drama, romance and stupid/dark humour! 

Books!

Now that Driftwood is finished, I'm printing it as a book. It was published in Swedish last year. But the English edition is even better. Heh.

Driftwood will be 392 pages, black and white, 17x22 cm.

I've also put together the book Flotsam and Jetsam, with all the side stories, lots of sketches and illustrations from all the 17 years I've been working on Driftwood, and deleted scenes. There are also articles about what influenced me to create the story and the characters, and notes about interesting details such as Eva's mysterious breast expansion between chapters 6 and 7, or how telepathic powers aren't really a supernatural thing in my experience. 

Flotsam and Jetsam will be 204 pages, black and white, 17x22 cm.

Anyways, the actual cost of printing the two books is 2220 €. I have some money put away ... although I put it away in order to cover for medical and other emergencies if such should ever happen to me. But who cares about that when you can print comics!!
However, you can help me with the funds by pre-ordering here.

And more importantly, the number of copies I've planned is limited:
300 copies of "Driftwood" and 100 copies of "Flotsam and Jetsam". So to make sure you get one, you should really pre-order.
And in case hundreds of people should happen to pre-order copies, I can print more books and actually be able to afford it! Win-win!

You can also get both books as digital copies in PDF format. Handy if you don't like to be burdened by too many worldly possessions and don't mind reading books on your computer, or if you're not quite sure if you like it enough to get a printed copy. 

I'm also making T-shirts that will look like this:

"No leashes, no masters" ... I'll post actual photos after I get the test shirts. They'll be printed with Spreadshirt (guaranteed no American Apparel), and available in women's fitted sizes, women's plus sizes, and men's sizes. You can write your preferred size and cut as a note in paypal, or I will contact you about it when it's time to order the shirts.

You also have the exclusive chance to acquire an original page of your choice. I drew it on A3 sized paper. Some of the originals look terrible (adds to the charm, I guess). So I offer you both the actual original and a print if you'd like. First come, first serve ...

Note: In all the perks, shipping is included in the price! (If you live on the other side of the earth but still want my books, don't worry about it, because it's an honour to ship it to you!!!)

If you can't afford to or don't feel like pledging your money ...

... that's okay. V^(oo)^V But you can help immensely just by spreading the word about this campaign!