WE ARE CLEVER KAIJU
GREATER THAN THE SUM OF OUR ARTS
Clever Kaiju is an artist-led organization integrating publishing, webcomics, education, and community into one super organism. Our purpose is to enable artists to do their best work, and help audiences, clients, and artists connect in more fulfilling ways.
Community
It all starts with community. We run a vibrant community on Discord for artists and we also have discipline-specific artist groups on Discord, such as for comic book artists, that help them connect and find support on a deeper level.
• Artist brunches, parties, and social gatherings
• Life drawing sessions, hosted trips, workshops
• Online meetings and drawing sessions
• Active Discord
Platform & Publishing
The artists in our community don't complete projects in a vacuum to be released into the void: we build a platform together that can help each of us connect with an audience, and provide a structure that makes connecting more meaningful and enjoyable for audiences and creators, alike.
• YouTube channel with artist interviews and more
• Webcomics and blogs by our members
• Store with Clever Kaiju Studios and member products
Clever Kaiju Studios
Clever Kaiju Studios LLC produces illustration, design, comic book, and animation projects for clients, as well as for our own in-house studio projects. All of the work is done by our community members, and, in the case of our in-house projects, we all share in the ownership and the rewards.
• For-hire studio for character design and concept packages
• Kaiju books and projects are in progress
Events
Our Story
From a support group to a thriving community.
It started with a small idea in 2019, a small decision to start a Sunday brunch for artists. Our backgrounds varied from comic books to animation but we were finding common ground and opportunities to help each other. We realized what we were doing was sorely needed and had the potential to grow and help artists exponentially. We formed an official group, run by Ike Crawford, James Rutherford, Nate Howard, and Gary Bedell. We started doing events and workshops, a live art-show called The Pen Clique, and developed a Discord community. All the pieces fell into place as we continued to construct this behemoth: a studio where we collaborate on bigger projects, a webcomics platform, Youtube, a publishing house-----the Kaiju keeps growing and taking over.
Meet the Founders
Subscribe and we'll gift you the video for the lesson: The Mannequin: The Secret Skill to Drawing Comics Quickly with guest instructor Brian Atkins.