ABOUT
Hello, my name is Matt Ebisch. I’m a freelance illustrator of little to no renown and a lifelong fan of the fantasy genre and the heroic ideal.
One day I set out to update my art portfolio in an attempt to get some paying work doing either fantasy or children’s book illustration. That update inadvertently turned into an ongoing, ever-expanding worldbuilding project instead.
That project is Carbunkle! The World of Adventure. (You might have already known that since you’re on this website reading this text.)
Carbunkle! is not grimdark, it’s not cozy, and it’s definitely not romantasy, it’s just straight-up fantasy. I love the tropes, the clichés, and the timeless conventions that make the genre what it is. I’m not interested in subverting, deconstructing, or redefining anything. On Carbunkle!, heroes are heroic, villains are villainous, and the good guys, through struggle and sacrifice, win out in the end.
So, if you’re looking for a world full of familiar faces, we’ve got them all: dwarves, elves, orcs, goblins, and trolls. There are animals with human qualities and humans with animal traits (they’re totally different from each other, at least they think so, no one else does). There are also alien bird people, unpleasant lizard folk, and a sentient flock of geese that almost started a world war.
For the explorers, Carbunkle! has plenty of places to get lost in: Armournoth, a once-great elven nation now rolled up into a hollow moon; the vaunted halls of Bastion Indomitous, the impenetrable fortress that defied the gods; the shifting sands of Gaheris the Great Desert, that moves entire cities overnight; the Canker, a jagged crack spanning a continent with the remnants of a marvelous city within its depths; and then of course there is the great boil of hell that constantly bleeds lava and ash into the sky and where Carbunkle! gets its name, Mount Grockunmaz, the God Volcano.
If you’ve read this far, you probably see a bit of what I’m trying to do here: to create a fully realized fantasy world built from the ground up through art, storytelling, and pure imagination. I want Carbunkle! to feel like the worlds that made us fall in love with fantasy in the first place, a place where true heroes and grand adventure still mean something.
Now, I’ll be honest. I’m winging all this. While there are books, videos, and blog posts galore on how to worldbuild, there’s no definitive blueprint, nor should there be. That unpredictability is part of the fun.
What part of the world will I show you next? Sometimes, even I won’t know. Over time, things might change, names, places, even entire histories, or maybe they won’t. Maybe I, above all others, will build a perfect fantasy world with no retcons or revisions needed. A man can dream, can’t he?
Here’s where you come in. Carbunkle! is a one-man show. I write it, I draw it, I do all the graphic and website design. It’s a passion project, and like all passion projects, it needs support. Financial support is ideal, but even moral support is appreciated for a project this big. Any and all support helps me keep this world alive and evolving.
So, if you love worldbuilding, enjoy watching a world come to life, or just want to be part of something made with genuine love for the fantasy genre, then consider supporting Carbunkle!
You can support Carbunkle! The World of Adventure on Patreon or Ko-fi for access to sketches, drafts, behind-the-scenes work, and a chance to influence what comes next. You can also support the project through PayPal, which is more like sliding a few gold coins across the tavern table for a job well done.
Links are below:
Thank you for helping keep Carbunkle! The World of Adventure alive, growing, and full of wonder.
