SWORDS the webcomic is a fantasy universe created by Matthew J Wills, from Wellington, New Zealand
SWORDS is celebrating its 8th Anniversary and 1000th Episode on March 5th, 2026!
Swords is a comic series that poses the eternal question - what if everything was about swords? Each 4 panel comic explores a different adventurer as they find a magic sword, or lose a magic sword or fall in love with a magic sword - and over time, these stories build up and interconnect to form a deeper world.
Features: - Self-contained 4 panel adventure stories - Deeper worldbuilding about a fantasy realm where 7 Demonic Swords quietly shape the world with their chaotic energy and 5 Gods protect mankind - Widely praised for having weird, outlandish ideas that people can steal and put in their next game of Dungeons & Dragons - 1000 episode comic created in New Zealand and without the use of AI tools
Swords has also delivered on multiple products, including: - 12 successful campaigns with Makeship - A card game Kickstarter to celebrate the 5th anniversary - SWORDS: CUT THE DECK- Self-published physical comic books and enamel pins
ACHIEVEMENTS and ACCOLADES:Swords: The Webcomic - Winner of the Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Professional Publication 2020 - Patreon for Creators : How one Patreon creator added 840 new members with Quips in just three months - Referred to as ‘The Most Wholesome Thing On The Internet’ by BBC News in 2020 - Facebook Reader ReviewsSwords: Cut The Deck - Funded in 12 minutes - 3011 backers raised $251,014 USD - Nominee for The Tactile Taste: Excellence in Physical Games at the NZ Games Festival Pav Awards 2025 - Player Reviews On BoardGameGeek
Other Achievements by Matthew J Wills:Clusterduck (Lead Artist) - Winner of Best Quickplay Game at the Pocket Gamer Awards 2021 - Nominee for The Accessible Ambrosia: Excellence in Accessibility at the NZ Games Festival Pav Awards 2022The Bad Tasting Hero (Assistant Artist) - Nominee for Best Production Design at the Vista Foundation 48Hours Film Competition 2025 Finals - Regional winner for Best Production Design - Regional nominee for Best Animation
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS"Why Choose Swords As The Theme?"I created one episode on March 5th, 2018, posted it to Reddit and it went viral while I was asleep. The theme chose me.I reflect on my personal history as an artist trying to build an audience to support my work here.As it turns out, the theme provides a lot of rich fantasy tropes to make fun of and the niche overlaps with fans of fantasy novels, comics, tabletop and video games."Where Did The Idea For Quest Sprout Come From?"To me, "Quest Sprout" isn't really any different to archetypical characters like "Bread Knight" and "Rapier Tapir" who had already come before. He had the advantage of appearing after a major story arc ending, so it was a fresh start with a new theme and tone. While many characters are going off to fight in violent battles, Quest Sprout lives in a lower stakes world of collecting berries and chasing butterflies.
"Is The Series About To End?"After episode 1000, I want to take a step back and really make sure that I am delivering on my promises and providing the most value possible. This will probably look like simplifying some of the complicated interwoven story threads and resolving some problems readers have remembering which recurring characters are the "main" ones.
"What's Next For Swords?"I'd like to take a beat to remaster the main story thread from Season 1 - the art has grown a lot over 8 years, and I think I can do right by the fans by taking the messy chronological order of Year One and make it a smoother read. I'd also like to seriously lean into delivering on a video game project and refining Swords: Cut The Deck now that it's had time to get player feedback.
"Qwest?"Qwest!
SOCIAL MEDIA:WebsiteCard GameWebtoon - TapasReddit - Bluesky - Tumblr - TwitterFacebook - Instagram - ThreadsKickstarter - Backerkit - Patreon - Ko-FiArtist Portfolio - LinkedIn
UPCOMING PROJECTS:Dazzling Dungeon Decks - A multi-artist collab launching March 3rdSwords: Cut The Deck will be at Wellycon, May 31stATTACHMENTS:swordscomic Press Kit.rar contains: - 10 great comics! - Some Cut The Deck card art - Logos - Transparent character art - Photos
INQUIRES:[email protected]