I really need to update this site more often! 🙂

One other thing I’ve needed to do for months is add the new comic Thrilling Tales of Vistas Unknown to the store. I’ve had a number of people ask how to buy it now that the Kickstarter is over and fulfilled. I’ve been either too distracted or working on other things. Soon!

Anyway.

Prior to going on vacation in October I drew a Variant cover for a friends comic series, coming to Kickstarter soon (but I don’t know when)! I’ll show it as soon as the Kickstarter launches.

I’ve also been working on getting the Kickstarter page built for the upcoming Sîan campaign, coming in January! I’ve been saying that it would launch this fall, but fall is almost over and I didn’t quite get things done in time, and I’m not quite done yet!

One thing that slowed me down is that I wanted a subtitle for the logo: like Conan “the Barbarian” or Xena “warrior princess”, or, you get the idea.

The first thing that popped into my head was Sîan: Queen of Thieves… but, there is a semi-current fantasy comic by someone I know with the same subtitle so that gave me pause. Also, at this point in time in her career, Sîan is a young woman who grew up on the streets in an organized pack of child pickpockets and beggars, and as she aged out, she graduated to more mature forms of thieving and is in the beginnings of her career as a cat burglar and thief for hire. So “Queen of Thieves” doesn’t feel right, and I can’t say that thief will always be her vocation as her adventures continue.

I figured “Thief of… (enter city/country name here)” and that is where I got stuck. I made up a random name I liked, added it to the logo, made cover mockups and put them on the Kickstarter page, then my wife came home and told me she absolutely hated the name, and there I got stuck. We left on vacation shortly after, but even once we got home I was completely paralyzed.

Monday I got semi-unstuck and came up with a few options, and while my wife didn’t love the one I’ve picked, she hated it less than the others! LOL!

This is such an inconsequential detail, so it’s ridiculous that it has taken up so much of my thought and time. It’s not like I can’t change the subtitle every story arc.

Anyhoo…

Here’s the three covers with the current trade dress. Let me know what you think!

The Kickstarter closed on June 20th and it was a rousing success!

I had modest hopes going in as I haven’t run one in quite a while, but the campaign had an amazing 277 backers and overfunded by 1100%!

Wow!

If you missed it, it’s not too late. Kickstarter now allows late pledges and the basic pledge levels are still open and accepting pledges.

We passed all the stretch goals I set, so as well as the Comic Book and Artbook, backers who pledged for either version of the comic will also get 4 6×9 art prints.

There was also a Variant Cover unlocked halfway through, but it is now gone. I may have a few left over once the campaign is fulfilled, but it was a limited edition for the campaign only.

I’ve got a lot of work to do this week to get the comic and bonus posters ready for the printer. I’ll post again once the comic has been printed and added to the on-line store!

It’s been an all-consuming thing for the last few weeks, and I’m kind of exhausted, but I’m excited about the possibilities and I’m already starting to think about the next comic release/kickstarter campaign coming this fall!

The Kickstarter went live yesterday for the campaign to print THRILLING TALES OF VISTAS UNKNOWN!

So far it is doing better than I could have hoped! Well, I hoped, but, you never can tell. As of noon today, the campaign has been live for 26 hours and I’m at 45 backers and 232% funded! I set the funding goal at a modest $800 Canadian, so I expected to fund easily enough, but not quite so fast! By comparison, the Wahoo Morris campaign had 15 backers on day one and took several days to hit 45 backers. It had a much higher goal, and I think a more niche market than my new comic.

Oh, I also got a “Project We Love” badge, which is nice in an ego affirming way, but it also places the project higher on the Kickstarter homepage which dramatically improves visibility from random people scrolling the comics category.

It is fun running a campaign, but it can be stressful and draining. I’m kind of exhausted and it’s only day two!

Like the headline says, the Prelaunch Page for my next Kickstarter for Thrilling Tales of Vistas Unknown is now live. Give it a follow to be notified when the campaign goes live!

The Books came today!

Well, yesterday actually, as I am writing this Tuesday afternoon, but let’s not complicate things! 🙂

The truck arrived just after breakfast delivering 1300 copies of WAHOO MORRIS Book 2 in 21 boxes. They are going in the basement with the rest of my stock, so I had them drop the pallet on the driveway and I carried them in one box at a time.

It’s a feeling that never gets old, holding a book you created in your hands for the first time.
And, while I’m having the usual feelings of insecurity over the quality of the story and art (all artists deep down fear that they are actually terrible), I’m pretty happy with the way the books look and turned out.

I think it’s a nice looking book if I do say so myself and the prettiest package I’ve ever turned out! 🙂

Now, I have to figure out what to do with all these books!

I’ll be shipping out Kickstarter rewards starting this week, but that’s only going to account for a tiny fraction of the print run.

I’m currently working on getting the books into comic shops, but that’s a few months away.

In the meantime I have to store them. Ack!