September at KEOLIX: Moses Got a New Face, Bookmarks Happened & Christmas Arrived Early

September was one of those months where I thought I was making a few things and then looked up and realised KEOLIX had somehow acquired an entire bookmark situation, Moses had been reconstructed, Christmas had arrived before October and a tennis ball was publicly insulting people about their age.

So, quite productive actually.

Here’s what’s been happening.

KEOLIX has bookmarks now. Several of them.

I don’t remember deciding we needed a bookmark collection.

I remember making one.

That distinction apparently meant nothing.

The first was More Jesus Less Scrolling, featuring a little sheep attempting to read while the rest of us lose forty-three minutes to our phones.

It is, admittedly, directed at me as much as anybody else.

Then came the personalised ones.

There’s the Personalised Reading Evidence Bookmark, designed like a little evidence bag for somebody who has once again been caught reading significantly later than they intended.

Which is not a crime, but the evidence is fairly compelling.

Then Good Books, Brighter Days, which can be personalised with a name, and Books Make Life Better, which is less a slogan and more a position I am prepared to defend.

I like the bookmarks because they’re small, useful and easy to give to somebody without requiring an enormous gifting occasion.

They also work rather nicely as little Christian gifts, particularly the More Jesus Less Scrolling one.

If that’s what you’re looking for, I also wrote a whole guide to small Christian gifts for friends that actually feel personal earlier this month.

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Moses got a new face.

Again.

To clarify: KEOLIX Moses got a new face.

Biblical Moses has not contacted me regarding his appearance and I assume he has other commitments.

I was looking at the older Kingdom Comics and something about him was annoying me. Which resulted in me redrawing Moses, which then resulted in the surrounding comics looking wrong, which is how these things escalate.

So Kingdom Comics #003 — Moses Gets the Call was refreshed.

Then #004 — Moses and the Staff followed.

And then we got an entirely new one:

Kingdom Comics #005 — Let My People Go.

Moses goes to Pharaoh.

Pharaoh says no.

Moses returns to God with the extremely useful update:

“He said no.”

And God’s response is essentially:

“I heard him.”

Which I enjoy because... obviously He did.

The whole Kingdom Comics idea is still the same: actual Bible stories, illustrated in a way that lets some of the wonderfully human bits remain wonderfully human.

Moses running away from the snake in Exodus 4 remains one of my favourite examples of this because, yes. Obviously.

What else was the man supposed to do?

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Christmas has arrived. Sorry.

I know.

It’s September.

But apparently retail operates on a completely different calendar where Christmas begins while normal people are still deciding whether they need a coat.

One of the things I really wanted to make this year was something for children that wasn’t just another Christmas product with Jesus vaguely added somewhere near the end.

So I made the Jesus, This Christmas Children’s Prayer Card.

It’s a little prayer card designed to help children keep Jesus somewhere in the middle of Christmas itself.

Because Christmas when you’re a child is genuinely exciting.

There are presents.

Food.

Lights.

Films.

Possibly chocolate at an hour when chocolate is not normally authorised.

And I don’t think the answer to that is making all of those things grim and serious.

I just wanted to create something small that helps bring their attention back to why we’re celebrating as well.

It’s now live alongside the other KEOLIX prayer cards.

And because apparently I have fully accepted that Christmas is happening, I also published 15 small and meaningful Christian stocking-filler ideas.

So if you’re already buying Christmas presents in September, firstly: alarming organisational skills.

Secondly: I can help.

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And then KEOLIX briefly became a tennis company.

Not really.

But one of the fun things about KEOLIX is that it doesn’t have to choose between Scripture stationery and a tennis ball making inappropriate comments about somebody’s birthday.

Both can apparently live here.

I already had this tiny tennis ball character knocking around the KEOLIX universe, and this week it became:

Love All. Except Your Age.

A birthday card for tennis people.

That is the entire concept.

No complicated explanation.

Just:

LOVE ALL.

EXCEPT YOUR AGE.

Sometimes a design arrives after a deeply thoughtful creative process.

Sometimes you make a tennis joke and go home.

Both are valid.

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The sticker subscriptions are still quietly doing their thing

This is probably the bit of KEOLIX I’m worst at talking about.

We have two monthly sticker subscriptions.

Actual post.

Through your letterbox.

Tiny objects.

Much better than most of the things that normally come through your letterbox.

The first is the Bible Sticker Journey.

It’s £9.99 a month and you receive three Bible-inspired stickers every month.

The idea is not just “here are some religious stickers.”

The collection moves through Scripture, giving you little visual reminders of what you’re reading and learning that can end up on your Bible-study notebook, laptop, journal, water bottle or wherever else you keep the things you actually see every day.

Some of the newer Christian sticker ideas have also been feeding into this side of KEOLIX, so the collection keeps moving rather than becoming the same three designs circulating until Revelation.

Then there’s Sticker Society.

Also £9.99 a month.

This one isn’t Bible-specific.

It’s for people who simply enjoy KEOLIX stickers and would quite like a little envelope of new ones appearing every month.

Sticker Society currently includes four exclusive stickers each month, and fresh designs have been joining that rotation too.

I think subscriptions sometimes get presented online with the energy of:

ACT NOW. LOCK YOURSELF INTO A FINANCIAL CONTRACT WITH A STICKER.

That is not really the atmosphere here.

It’s just nice post.

If you like it, join.

If you don’t, I will somehow continue.

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So... that was September.

A surprising number of bookmarks.

Moses had cosmetic work done against his will.

Pharaoh said no.

Christmas arrived before October.

A tennis ball became ageist.

And several new tiny pieces of KEOLIX are now out in the world.

There has been a lot happening behind the scenes too — getting products in front of more shops, working on how KEOLIX gets discovered outside social media, and generally trying to spend less time making things only for them to sit beautifully on a website where nobody knows they exist.

That last one remains quite important.

October will carry on from here rather than resetting everything and starting seventeen unrelated projects.

More Christmas will inevitably happen.

Kingdom Comics will continue.

More products will make their way into the world.

And I am making a concerted effort to actually tell people when any of this happens.

Progress.

If you’re new here, you can browse KEOLIX and see the full collection.

And if you particularly like receiving tiny bits of art through your letterbox, you can join either the Bible Sticker Journeyor Sticker Society.

Thanks for being here.

Ari
KEOLIX