Atypical Artists Newsletter, September 2026 - the audiovisual edition! This podcast episode is a transcription of our newsletter - as a pal, a lot of this is going to sound familiar, but if you haven't checked the Patreon in a while, this is a good summation of what's been going on! The Highlights:Listen to our new MM romance, Drive Thru Magic Vote for TWO THOUSAND AND LATE in the Signal Awards Participate in our fan survey (and enter to win a New Year’s Day comic!) Grab an Atypical Artists sweatshirt and help us support trans organizations - this month, Lambda Legal Get ready for Atypical October! Happy Fall! So, first of all, I suppose calling this a “quarterly” was a bit ambitious. This is only the second newsletter of its kind to go out this year, but that’s largely because things have been so active on the Patreon! I still want to keep this going, both for those of you who prefer to just get occasional updates and not sign up for another platform, and also to do big check-ins for our Atypipals, so that folks can catch up on everything we’ve got going on. And we have a lot going on. So let’s get to it! Drive Thru MagicThe big news of the fall is a new MM romance from our very own Briggon Snow! This delightful, bite-sized story stars Briggon Snow and Daniel J. Kim. Every night, Gabe pulls up to the same drive-thru window, and every night, the same voice on the other end is waiting; Louie. Drive Thru Magic follows two strangers who fall for each other through a speaker box, connecting, sharing their grief, and learning how to move forward as young adults in the world. It is such a joy to usher another Briggon Snow original into the world - like everything he makes, it’s so heartfelt and lovely. “This is the most personal thing I’ve ever made. It was crafted to honor the rockstar women who raised me, to process my grandmother’s decline from dementia, and to show my love and earnest hope for more depictions of male vulnerability in media.” - Briggon Snow You can listen to the entire series ad-free as a paid patron, and for free week-to-week wherever you get podcasts! Getting to know our fans! We’ve had so much growth over the last six months, especially these last few weeks, thanks to Drive Thru Magic and New Year’s Day (more on that below!). This community is mainly growing on Patreon, where we have over 3,000 free members who get updates about what we’re doing, special insights and, soon, early access to limited run exclusive merch. And we want to get to know them, and you, better! So we’re running our very first fan survey - how you found us, what you love about the Atypical Artists community, and what you’d like to see more of! You can participate here. And our Patreon members - free and paid - also have a shot to win a physical copy of our first original New Year’s Day comic, a collaboration with the amazing artist Noah Dao. So sign up free before taking the survey! Expanding into books & comics!Speaking of Noah Dao, his art is featured in a few different spots in the Atypical universe, including the art for our first ever book project. That’s right, we’re releasing a novel! This queer Western romance is a story that I’ve been working on for a long time, and one that is so special to me. It has been a wonderful and surreal experience getting to publish it chapter by chapter on Patreon. The response has been absolutely fantastic and, well, right now - literally today - is a great time to start catching up. You can read the first 5 chapters for free. And here’s the pitch: Seven years after a near-fatal argument, two former friends and outlaws find themselves face to face once again, forced to work together to hide from the law and confront their complicated feelings in the process. As for the comic, Noah has been making beautiful fanart for New Year’s Day all year, so when he reached out and asked if I’d be interested in writing a comic set in the world, I jumped at the opportunity! He’s posted the whole thing on his Instagram and we’re already working on a second. If you’re interested in downloading a PDF or getting first dibs on physical copies when they go on sale, you can do exactly that by, you guessed it, joining our Patreon! Harper & Havoc travel the world! Alright, maybe that’s putting it a bit strongly. But TWO THOUSAND AND LATE, our dark comedy about unionizing your workplace with the demon possessing you, has been making the rounds at various festivals! Here’s a rundown of all the things that we’re very proud have happened in the last six months: Featured in the audio showcase at Tribeca Festival Nominated for Best Podcast at HollyShorts Film Festival Took trophies home from Colorado Webfest for Best Writing and Best Lead Performance… …and Best Writing and Best Comedy from NJ Webfest Selected for T.O., Melbourne, and Sydney Webfests Nominated for a Signal Award - vote for us here! But the true highlight was getting to do our very first live show! We did a crossover episode with the lovely folks at Forgive Me! and sent Harper and Havoc to a priest. It goes about as well as you would think. You can listen to that here or watch the video if you're a paid patron! Coming soon: Phantom PulseThe big news of the summer is that we recorded our next original series, Phantom Pulse! This story follows a rock band in the 90s that can exorcise ghosts with their music and I cannot wait for you all to hear it. It won’t be out to the public for quite a while (Kickstarter backers + pals, keep an ear out in early 2027!) but we are releasing Phantom Pulse’s debut album on Halloween! That’s right, this month! There’s so much to share about this show, and the recording process of it (if you’re a Kickstarter backer and you missed our update, catch up here!) but for now I’ll share this video I cut together from our camcorder footage. I think it captures the vibe pretty well. And, yes, that is the official Tumblr account who posted that. Tumblr is, incredibly, an Executive Producer of the show. When we were in the midst of our Kickstarter, I talked about how powerful Tumblr was as a driver of backers and they loved my passion so much they decided to become backers themselves. Not only did they give at the Label Executive level (they have yet to ask for their custom playlist, but I’m ready to go anytime), but they also offered to do a bunch of promo for us, which is incredibly cool and nice. Which is all to say, make sure you’re following the Phantom Pulse Tumblr! We have a lot planned, especially for the end of the month, that will be happening on Tumblr before it happens anywhere else publicly and you’re not going to want to miss it. Also, if you're a musician who was making music in the 90s that you might want to share with the world after all these decades...give us a shout! Recommendation CornerRather than spotlighting one show, I want to call out a bunch of different things! Consider this my version of Oprah’s favorite things (is that too old of a reference for some of you?) Audio dramas: The Harbingers (S2 out now!), The Sunfall Train (just completed its first season!), Camlann (S2 coming soon!) Books: Demon Copperhead, Cat Sebastian books Music: Exploring Birdsong’s album “Every House We Built” has been on repeat TV Shows: Please watch Neagley and talk to me about it What have you all been enjoying lately? Odds & EndsAs you may have noticed, we have a new look! Over the summer, we did a major brand redesign, including giving our website a much needed makeover. I think my favorite part is the matchmaker quiz to help you find your perfect Atypical story. Because we’ve got a fresh new look, we also have some outdated merch! We still have some sweatshirts left with our old logo that are now, for all intents and purposes, collector’s items. So, we’ve put the sweatshirt on sale and 50% of all proceeds from the sweatshirts will go to a different trans organization each month. For October, it’s Lambda Legal, which I had the particular privilege of getting to learn about first hand last year. We also only have a few copies of The Bright Sessions musical vinyl left! Tomorrow is Bandcamp Friday! That means that 100% of what you spend on the Atypical Artists Bandcamp goes to us, without Bandcamp taking any fees. If you’ve ever wanted to own all of The Bright Sessions or the In Strange Woods cast album, you can get that and more! Latchkey Library is out! It’s wild that so much has gone on that this has landed in the odds & ends section, but this is just a little background project that Briggon and I have been working on, where we read public domain books for young readers. He tackled a Hardy Boys book, and we’re almost done with my read of a Nancy Drew! In more personal news, those of you who follow me on Instagram may have seen my series of “this has to work” videos, where I document everything I’m trying to make it as an artist in 2026. While I’m still not able to support myself through Atypical Artists yet, we are doing so much better than we were at the start of the year. What’s more, it’s been so wonderful to hear from so many of you how much you appreciate my candor about the practicalities of being a working artist. I’ve received so many lovely messages. And! One of the big goals I started this whole series with is within reach, which I can’t believe. I’d hoped to get to 500 paid patrons by the end of the year, and we’re so close! I’m very, very optimistic that we’ll make it. This has been a real whirlwind year thus far, and I’ve got a big plans on how to share my lessons from it - the successes, the failures - with our pals in the new year. But I am just so grateful to everyone who has been following along on this journey and especially to those of you who support independent, human-made art. You make all of this possible! Stay strange, 💚 Lauren
