Kickstart The Week [Mini Edition] & a Farewell

#1 :

The Parlour Trick

Meredith Yayanos (@Theremina) and Dan Cantrell’s first full-length “ghostly, atmospheric” chamber album has surpassed it’s goal. But if they can push it a little further in the next 65 (and counting) hours, this project will attain a whole new level of macabre awesomeness. Go and take a look. Even better, have a listen.

#2:

Peter Pan: The Graphic Novel

As I have previously written about this project at reasonable length, you are probably already clicking this link here.

If you haven’t read my previous article, or visited their main page, you should go and do those things now. The rest of you know the talent behind this book, and you know they can deliver the quality displayed in the gorgeous promotional art.

It only has seventeen days left to reach its target!

GO!

That’s all the kickstarting for this post.

So, on to the farewell.

I realise that this will seem odd to a lot of people, but this is a farewell to someone I have never met, and most likely never will. Nevertheless, it should be said anyway because, to mercilessly borrow and butcher a line from the song, ‘even if you never read this, somebody else will know.’

I am currently processing the news that Karen Berger is leaving Vertigo. I’m sure that a lot of rumours will come flooding out in the next few days/weeks regarding her departure. But as a long-time fan of Vertigo’s output, and having seen numerous authors and artists I admire and respect repeatedly thank and praise her in letters pages, forewords and acknowledgements; all I have to say is, thank you. Thank you for supporting (and harassing when needed) those who have worked for you and for helping to shape comics, as a whole, for the better.

Sincerely, thank you.

Kickstart the Week, Preview: Peter Pan Comic

Renae De Liz is the illustrator of many gorgeous books, including The Last Unicorn and Anne Rice’s Servant of the Bones. She was also the driving force behind the gloriously ambitious Womanthology. So you can imagine my excitement when I stumbled across her new gem of a project thanks to a random follower (@PeterPanComic) suddenly appearing on my twitter feed. (This is why I love twitter).

Renae has already begun the preliminary groundwork (and more) required to adapt the stories of J.M. Barrie’s enduring character, Peter Pan, into a full graphic novel. She has enlisted her husband, the similarly, fantastically talented Ray Dillon, on colouring/inking/lettering and design duties; and together they plan to rule the world! Or at least make a damn fine graphic novel worthy of your support.

You can find their official project blog, replete with sketches and character tags, HERE. And if you like what you see (why wouldn’t you?) you will want to bookmark it and keep a very close eye out for their impending Kickstarter project.

Naturally, I will be hyping this to the high heavens, but not just due to the talent involved. The initial character sketches and full colour images look wonderful. As a father, I would love to have a graphic novel of this quality to share with my kids. Still, even if I didn’t have my son and daughter to read this with, it promises to be a visually sumptuous adaptation of a timeless classic, and good art made with passion is always worth supporting.

Please, go and take a look for yourself. This won’t be the last time you’ll hear me mention it.

Discombobulation //K.T.W./Announcement/Comics/Other//

I have been neglecting this blog for the last week due to a confluence of events that are far too boring to go into here. Suffice to say, there is no full K.T.W. to speak of. However, you should definitely go and check out, Lust, the new comic project by Ben Templesmith (30 Days of Night, Fell, Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse), Menton3 (MONOCYTE, Silent Hill: Past Life) and Steve Niles (30 Days of Night, Iron Spirit). You also still have time to back the Plume Miniseries for the next four days.

In other news, the short comic I wrote for the wonderfully talented Donya Todd will be available *FOR FREE* in the next twenty-four hours. Links will be made available once it goes live, but I don’t think I’ll be spoiling anything by posting the title:

For the comic lovers among you, I also suggest you pick up the following from the last couple of weeks:

Captain Marvel #4 Kelly Sue DeConnick and Dexter Soy. [If you’ve read this blog before, you know about these guys already.]
Ghost #0 – Kelly Sue DeConnick and Phil Noto (Angel & Faith, X-23).
Happy #1 – Grant Morrison (Wyrd Comics Deity) and Darrick Robertson (Transmetropolitan, The Boys).

You can also find some good, but #SPOILER#-y reviews of Ghost and Happy over on Ariellalphabet’s blog.

For Ghost – go here.
For Happy – go here.

Why am I promoting another blog? Hmmm, well:

1) It’s Good, dammit!
2) The twitter suggestion to pick up Ghost? Yeah, that was me. It’s always nice to see someone actually listen to a suggestion, and it’s even better when they feel compelled to write a review because they enjoyed the thing you suggested.
3) Being nice is pretty awesome.

Anyway, I’ll throw a link up for The Demise of Horatio Lovemuscle when it goes live.

Until then you should probably liven up your day by reading Warren Ellis‘ (Tech-Wyrd Comics Deity) latest column for VICE:

Your God Is Not Strong – which reflects on the abuse of freedom of speech & expression stemming from the provocation of religious hysteria by a certain immoral (and non-religious) political group.

Kickstart The Week [Fast Sell Edition]: Project Eternity

As it says, this week is a quick one (again) thanks to my computer deciding it’s still do-everything-at-1000th-normal-speed day.

However, the project we shall be glancing at sells itself very nicely without call for lots of text. So much so in fact that…

IS ALREADY FULLY FUNDED!

With 29 Days to go!

So the only real questions to ask are:

1. Do you like RPGs like Baldur’s Gate, Fallout(s) 1 & 2 and Icewind Dale?
2. Are you excited at the prospect of owning a brand new RPG developed by creators and designers involved in creating the games listed above?

If your answer is a resounding YES then this is the project for you.

THE project.

Obsidian Entertainment‘s Project Eternity is an absolute must for fans of the distinctive RPG visual style created by the, BioWare developed, infinity engine. Though it will be running on a newer engine this will look, and play, like the RPGs you first honed your adventuring skills on. In non-gamer terms, this is a brand new RPG being made in the classic western RPG style. Not just by fans of the style, but by people who created and worked on several of the classics this game (visually) harks back to.

Thematically, this is going to be a fantasy RPG based in a world where magic is prevalent. So it’s not going to be another post-apocalyptic wasteland scenario. Fallout’s been done already. These guys did it. You will gather your companions as you travel around the world and they will grow with you. You won’t be alone for too long and figuring out how best to configure and utilise your party members will be vital to your progress. Whilst a lot of the specifics are being kept under lock and key, a quick viewing of the project trailer will offer you more of an idea as to whether this will suit your RPG-ing needs.

If this short (it took me half-an-hour to write these two minutes of text! *grumblegrumble*) description has whetted your appetite, you should definitely – GO TO THE PROJECT PAGE – and watch the video mentioned above. Also, read the text, look at the designs and click on all the links.

This is going to be something special for fans of this style of RPG and you will not want to miss out. Especially when you can get digital downloads (via Steam) of the full game, its soundtrack and the collectors book – which features concept art, the main handbook, monster manual and more – at the $35 pledge mark alone.

Go and check out Obsidian’s main page, as well as the project page, for even more updates.

Honestly, I’m so hyped for this project that I’m even considering throwing out this termite-infested hunk of junk and getting a new…

K.T.W. – The List of Three

Ladies and gentlemen, this week’s K.T.W. is – A list of three small projects I rather fancy.

As always, links to the project pages are provided along with a short synopsis of each. But, since I still have a lot to catch up on, I’ve kept the comment to a minimum. There are no favorites here (apart from all of them) so please disregard the numbering, it is for convenience only:

#1 – Batbean: Stories About Superhero Vegetables

Synopsis: A book for young children designed to get them interested in vegetables and healthy eating. The adventures of Batbean follows a winged bean (they actually exist!) in its fight against Mega Corp., which is headed by the evil mastermind Mr Free Radical!

You can read the first book, for free, at www.batbean.com. This kickstarter is to fund the printing of a physical collection of the first three books in the series as well as the e-pub of the third book.

Blog link: Here.

Project Link: Batbean

#2 – PLUME: Help K. Lynn Smith print a 5 issue mini-series

Synopsis: What it says in the title. K. Lynn Smith, creator of the web-comic, Plume [official site, here] has come back to kickstarter, after her previous success to fund a new Plume project. This time she is looking for funding for a new five-part mini-series. Plume is a Western/fantasy comic set in the early 1900’s… but not our early 1900’s. Just go to the official site and take a look for yourself. Rewards vary quite a bit and, if you’re outside the US, remember to read the $10 pledge for details on what you need to add for shipping costs at all levels. Though a digital option is also available at the $15 mark.

Fall in love with the web-comic: Here.

Back the new project: Here.

#3 – Detective Honeybear: An all ages mystery comic.

Synopsis: It’s a noir with a honey-obsessed bear detective. Seriously. Look at the picture if you don’t believe me. Oh, it’s also written by the guy that wrote, Thor and the Warriors Four. He also does a lot of other stuff, but we won’t go into that here. You can find out about him, and the rest of the project, in the video on the project page (link below). As with Plume, Detective Honeybear can already be found online in the eleven page comic: Detective Honeybear and the Case of the Curious Cap. Go and read it!

Detective Honeybear and the Case of the Curious Cap: Is HERE.

The Project Page: Is HERE.

Finally, here are some images from these projects that I couldn’t fit in above:

K.T.W. – Updates Week

This week’s K.T.W. is going to be slightly different. As mentioned previously I have been working two jobs this past week, which has left me with little time to look through the latest projects vying for your hard earned cash. Therefore, I’m going to use this space for quick updates on projects I have mentioned previously.

#1 – MOLLY DANGER by Jamal Igle

Molly Danger was the first project I wrote about for Kickstart The Week and I am very happy to announce that it finally reached it’s funding goal with just two days to go. Jamal Igle’s tireless campaign to raise awareness of his creation via any and every medium available, ranging from standard print interviews to his comprehensive tour of the podcast-iverse (it’s a word now, I’m sorry), has been equally inspiring and exhausting to watch. But the best part about watching this campaign has been seeing it pay off.

Congratulations to Jamal and I look forward to seeing Molly in action next year.

You can find my original piece about this excellent comic, here.

#2 – Leaving Megalopolis

Whilst not officially the subject of a K.T.W. article I have previously written about Gail Simone and Jim Calalfiore’s new project, Leaving Megalopolis.

Unsurprisingly, due to the creative team involved being comprised of the main forces behind the excellent Secret Six series, this project was funded within days of going live. It is still open for funding and a whole array of new stretch rewards have been added so, if you haven’t got around to checking it out yet, there’s no time like the present.

My original piece, with links to the project, as well as to the creator’ own sites, can be found, here.

#3 – The Cartoon Art of Mike Deodato, Jr – Volume 1

Next up is the wonderful news that Mike Deodato’s project, The Cartoon Art of Mike Deodato, Jr – Volume 1, has also been successful.

In my original article I compared the cartoon style and content of this project to that of the fantastic Calvin & Hobbes. The comparison remains apt as, since the project closed fully funded, I have found myself filled with child-like enthusiasm in anticipation of receiving my copy of this humorous collection.

My original K.T.W. article can be found, here.

#4 – Bittersweet Candy Bowl

With nineteen days to go, the fundraising for the second print volume of Bittersweet Candy Bowl has already been successful.

If you still haven’t taken a look at this, I recommend you start at the web-comic’s main site. A quick browse through the archives, combined with a look at the artwork of more recent strips, should give you all the information you require to make a decision as to whether this is to your tastes.

On a personal note, the official project update announcing the success of the project was made twice as sweet for me when I realised that the article mentioned, and linked to, at the bottom of the announcement:

is, my original Kickstart The Week write up!

Pretty awesome, huh?

Kickstart The Week: Bittersweet Candy Bowl

In this week’s K.T.W. we’ll be looking at the Kickstarter to print the second collection (and more) of the web comic, Bittersweet Candy Bowl.

Let’s get straight to the point: Bittersweet Candy Bowl is a web comic about a group of cats going through high school, and life, just trying to figure it out. It’s that complex. If you have a thing against cats or reading stories to be entertained, walk away now. Actually, don’t. You’ll be missing out.

Mistletoe’d

Whilst it may not immediately grab you with a complex pitch, this is a funny little comic that is using the KS format to cater to its pre-existing, and sizable, fan base. Which, to be honest, is exactly what Kickstarter and other, similar, sites are there for.

This is not a project that has just been thrown together and put up for funding in the vain hope that it might strike a chord with enough people to become a success. Bittersweet Candy Bowl is already a huge success in its own right. The majority of people supporting this project will already be familiar with these characters and their history and, really, that’s the point.

By using Kickstarter to fund and print the second, physical, volume of BCB, Veronica Vera (creator/writer/artist) and her partner, Oliver (writing/editing/business) are able to offer their fans a variety of bonuses they wouldn’t get using a traditional distribution method. It also gives the fans a practical way to support a comic they already love, and invites them to help contribute to part of the story’s publishing history.

Both Books (as shown on the project page).

Personally, I like the web-comic. It regularly amuses me and, as a fan, being able to contribute a bit to something I enjoy seems like a worthwhile thing to do. I would definitely recommend other fans support this project, even if your just pitching in at the $5 entry level. But that’s enough from me. The project still has 25 days left to go (as of 27/08/2012), so if you’re not familiar with the comic but do like,

a) Cats,

b) Comics,

c) A good story with plenty of humor as well as moments of genuine pathos,

then you have plenty of time to go and – 

CATCH UP ON THE ENTIRE FIRST VOLUME

before making an informed decision.

The actual project page, which contains full reward & shipping details,  can be found: HERE.

And – in case you managed to avoid every other link in this article – the web comic, replete with archives, forums, a store and a fuller history of the comic itself, can be found: HERE. So go and take a look!

 

All images used in this entry were created by Veronica Vera, and are © to her 2006–2012. You can also see further examples of her other artwork over on her deviantArt page (here).