This is Chebbo's Little Empire, a newsletter about The Random thoughts of Shane Chebsey.
That's me
In the last decade or so I've worked on lots of creative endeavours.
Some have failed and some have succeed in their own way and I like to think every failure has been a chance to learn and improve.
None of them earned me any money.
Chances are this won't either.
But that's not really my motivation for starting this newsletter/ website/ publication, or whatever Substack is.
To explain that I need you to understand me a little bit.
As a creative person I often suffer from a deadly combination of two conflicting personality traits:
A manically short attention span that induces short hyper creative spurts of productivity and energy combined with chronic procrastination, which can cut that energy and creativity dead in its tracks.
Of course this is followed by feelings of guilt, shame and failure that no amount of productivity can overcome.
The result of this is lots of creative outlets that enable me to remain productive while not having to stay in one creative area or discipline for prolonged periods.
Sometimes I need to draw or paint; sometimes I need to sing or write songs; sometimes I need to bring other creatives together to make comics; sometimes I like podcasting or live streaming; sometimes I really love just studying data and messing with marketing spreadsheets and sometimes I like to write… articles like this or fiction or pass on my experience to others in the hope that it helps them on their own journey somehow.
(Most of the time I just want to be alone… a classic introvert).
But the one thing I can never do is the same thing every day, over and over.
Routine actually makes me physically ill.
I realised this about myself a few years ago.
So my reason for creating this Substack is to allow me to do all of those things and tell anyone who’s interested about them in one place.
Currently I have nearly 4000 followers on Facebook, but thanks to the algorithm only about 200 of them see my posts.
It's pretty much the same deal across all of social media.
So here on my Substack site, you will be able to read articles on various subjects including my advice on making and publishing comics, my own struggles with the creative process, my thoughts on various aspects of popular culture, my reviews of movies and comics, listen to my podcasts, see my artwork, read my stories and join in on my debates.
I'll also include news about my own new comics, the other creators I work with, events I attend and music I make with my band Cosmic Rays.
If you're reading this I thank you for getting this far.
I'll always offer the free subscription option, but if you do see a value in my outpourings for just $5 a month or $50 a year you can opt for the paid subscription, which gives you access to exclusive extra stuff, advice and all of my archive.
It's crazy that just 500 paid subscribers would enable me to make a living out of this (I'm not greedy 🙂) and that would mean I'd be able to make almost daily posts and produce loads more art, podcasts and stories.
But hey I'm not expecting that to happen of course… and I personally value every subscriber paid or not.
I just hope I'll be able to reach more people with my creative endeavours than I previously did.
Thanks for being one of those people 😊
Shane