While their first two vampire-centric comics where excellent in their own rights, they also acted like short stories, each ending on beautiful notes that did not necessarily need a follow up.

For anyone who has been following Chua’s work over the years, including Goodbye, Battle Princess Peony and Roadqueen: Eternal Roadtrip to Love, any new project of theirs is reason to get excited. This time, they launched a successful crowdfunded project to not only create additional stories featuring the same characters, but also print physical copies of the collection. Both were published as downloadable pdf files originally, until Chua announced another return to the setting. Originally a short, single-chapter story called My Very First Vampire Blood Drive, Chua later returned to the story and characters she created with Vampire Blood Drive 2. Vampire Blood Drive is the latest independently published comic book by extraordinary writer and artist, Mira Ong Chua. While there are the stories of crowdfunded projects failing to get off the ground or misleading backers, it has overall been a boon for creativity. Do well on a crowdfunded project, and your new fans will spread the word, helping to bolster future projects. For anyone looking to print copies of their books, crowdfunding can provide the much-needed funds to hire a printer. Further, the advent of crowdfunding has provided a source of freedom and a revenue stream, letting creators make some money to focus on their work. Books can be self-published, and there are even websites to help you design basic covers. However, the internet changed all of that, providing way after way for creators to develop their work and get it in the world independently.

Sometimes it can come down to luck, or connections, or simply perseverance. As many writers and artists know, just having the talent and the drive is not always enough. To get a publisher, you needed an agent, followed by a contract.

It used to be that, in order to get your stories out in the world, a creator needed a publisher.

Roadqueen by Mira Ong Chua