Welcome to the The Young Protectors forum, the official community for Alex Woolfson’s comics! It’s a place where you can talk about Alex’s stories, wildly speculate about what’s going to happen next, get your questions answered, and hang out with other cool readers. There are exclusive sections (and badges!) for the awesome Patreon supporters of Alex’s work as well as public areas where anyone can view the discussions.
What Comics Has Alex Written?
Not familiar with Alex’s work? Start by reading his first science-fiction graphic novel with gay heroes, Artifice, for free as a webcomic.
Then continue with his ongoing superhero story, The Young Protectors which has
- a completed, five-chapter arc, “Engaging the Enemy” that introduces our heroes
- a completed, Patreon-only 18+ arc, Legendary featuring firebender Kyle and magic-user Spooky Jones
- a completed Spooky Jones comic where we discover some skeletons in his closet called “Past Sins”
- and the currently updating arc “Double-Cross”, which currently features Spooky and the youngest hero on the team, Flyboy.
Why A Forum?
Long-time readers know that I’ve used the Disqus commenting system for my webcomic pages since the beginning (way back in 2011!). There are nice things about Disqus—it has a fairly good notification system, an OK search function, some useful moderation features, it allows commenters to use one login for multiple sites and, because of that, you can get introduced to other cool sites through another commenter’s Disqus profile.
But they’re a for-profit company and so they’ve reserved most of their best features for those who pay them $100/month—more than I can afford or justify. This forum software I’m using, Discourse, is open-source (like Wordpress, which I use for my webcomics) and it’s been around for a while, so the sky is the limit in terms of what features are possible.
Awesome Features
Speaking of which, this forum software has a bunch of cool new features, like Markdown support, a Revision History, polls, the ability to Blur Spoilers (like this), and more. Check out this post I created to learn more.
An Automatic Trust System
This site has a built-in Trust System (New User, Trainee, Full Citizen, Superhero, Team Leader) that grants you more abilities.
The more you participate constructively on the site, the more you can do! (You also earn Badges for being particularly helpful!)
Site Categories - Where to Post What
This site is divided into six public categories and two private ones.
New Users
The New Users category (this one!) is the place to ask questions and read answers about how to do things on this Site, both in terms of software how-to (e.g. “How do I turn my Reply into a New Topic?”) as well as etiquette (e.g. “Is it OK to talk about other comics on this site?”). It’s also the place to Introduce Yourself to the community.
Alex’s Comics
If you have a specific question or comments about about the plot/themes/characters of Alex’s comics, the writing, the art, as well as how the team behind The Young Protectors story creates the work and makes their living as independent comic creators, then you should post in the Alex’s Comics category.
Page Updates
If you want to comment about a specific comic page, then you should make a Reply under the appropriate post in the Page Updates category. (You’ll also find the link to the specific post under the comic page on the webcomic site.)
Patreon-Exclusive Comic Pages
If you’re a $5+ Patron who wants to comment on Patreon-exclusive pages—and the even larger topics those advance plot twists stir up—then the Patreon-Exclusive Comic Pages category is your spot!
The True Fan Lounge (Private)
This is a special category that’s exclusive to community members who have earned trust level 3 (Superhero) and higher, and all Patrons of Alex’s work.
The rest of the site is for talking about my comics and LGBT comics in general. This is the place to talk about everything else and to get to know each other as people. It’s exclusive, but that’s part of what makes it special. Consider the Lounge a virtual water cooler to hang out with your fellow true fans of Alex’s comics.
Oh, and just a heads up, Private Categories are hidden to non-members, but they look like this:
Making Comics
If you want to talk about how to make and promote an LGBT comic, head on over to Making Comics.
Site Feedback
If you have thoughts about what this site and community should be about, check out Site Feedback.
Other Comics
And finally, if you want to talk about other creators’ comics, Other Comics is where you can do that. (Please read the About the Other Comics category post first, though—while anyone who is logged in can reply to a Topic in Other Comics, only those who have earned Full Citizen status on this site can post new Topics there.)
Be Sure To Read Our Community Guidelines
Our commenting community is known for being especially thoughtful, helpful and respectful with each other. That’s, of course, unusual on the Internets, and it’s worth preserving. So, please read our Community Guidelines before you start posting, and always address others on this site with a tone of respect.
Dive Deep
This forum software is crazy powerful. Want to learn all the bells and whistles? There’s a manual!
And of course
Have Fun!
Ultimately, new software like this forum software is just another tool. But we have such a great group of thoughtful readers, I think it’s a tool that’s really going to lead to some awesome discussions. I can’t wait to see what we all create here! 