u/KicksandStrings

I’ve been building this world for years.

It started with a thought. There’s KUNG FU panda…KARATE kid…NINJA turtles…

But my martial art, Tae Kwon Do, didn’t have a character of that caliber.

So I made Tae Kwon Donkey - The Ass that kicks back!

Then I thought…why not a character for every martial art?

Not just in name…

but actually representing the philosophy, style, and mindset behind each one.

So I started creating them…

-Muay Tiger Shark

-Roo Jitsu

-Nin Shih Tzu

-The Foxer

-Ka Ratty

-Tai Cheetah

…and over time it turned into 150+ original fighters.

A lot of people told me early on:

“Too many characters is confusing. Focus on one.”

But I didn’t want to build just one character…

I wanted to build a world.

So the easy way to describe our comic-

It’s like X-Men if it started with Magneto winning, With TMNT style absurdity and action, but with deep world building and consequence in Game of Thrones…It’s all that but dressed in ridiculous puns and martial arts traditions.

Tae Kwon Donkey: The Reign of Crab Maga — Issue #1

We launched it on Kickstarter this week…

and somehow it funded in under 10 hours.

Still kind of surreal.

If you’re into indie comics, big character driven worlds, or martial arts themes, I’d genuinely love to hear what you think, and invite you to grab a copy!

NINJA Tutles…KARATE kid…KUNG FU panda….

That’s why I made Tae Kwon Donkey. A character that represents our art.

A lot of times character titles are click bait headlines and they don’t actually practice the art they represent.

So it was fun..weird…ridiculous…punnny…

But it’s authentic martial arts.

After loving it so much…I decided to create one character for every martial art.

Muay Tiger Shark

Nin Shih Tzu

Ka Ratty

The Foxer

Roo Jitsu

and 140 more…

And now it’s a successful comic book on Kickstarter.

What other passion projects are people doing with Tae Kwon Do off the mat? I’d love to get involved with it - things that go beyond just teaching and practicing.

What is happening with Tae Kwon Do in pop culture. What passion projects are people here working on?

Let’s talk about it.

I’ve been building a project called Tae Kwon Donkey since 2021!

It started as a a Kung Fu panda / Ninja Turtles joke - but serious in the sense that I wanted the martial art Tae Kwon Do to have a mascot that popular.

Over time it turned into something much bigger.

I ended up creating over 150 characters, each based on a different martial art, and quietly built out a full world for them to live in and the stories that connect them.

After 5 years, I finally released Issue 1 on Kickstarter this week.

I didn’t know what to expect…

But it funded in under 10 hours and just crossed 200% in the first few days.

A few things I think helped:

- I spent a long time building the world before asking for anything. I didn’t wait until I was at the end before I started engaging people with my content and characters.

-I shared a lot of the process publicly before launch. Letting them in on what I was building. So by the time we launched they had been building anticipation for years.

-I focused on making something that felt different. Anthropomorphic martial arts characters have been done, but not all pop culture properly represented all martial arts styles.

-I treated launch day like an event, not just a post. I had a countdown clock. I let some key supporters in on it. I had a promo post before the day of. And gave a specific time.

-I finished the comic before launch! I made sure I had a printed copy of the book in my hand before launch…especially since it’s my first release…I wanted people to be confident that we would fulfill our end of the promise.

I’m still figuring things out as I go, but it’s been a wild experience seeing people actually support something that started as a single concept / idea.

If anyone’s interested, I’d love feedback, especially from other creators.

And if you actually want to check it out, I’ll drop the link in the comments!