Tag: Kickstarter

Fund Me Thursday | Headless Shakespeare Press kickstarts their 2022 projects

Craig Hurd-McKenney, Rick Geary and more contribute to the 2022 titles.

Headless Shakespeare Press, the imprint run by Craig Hurd-McKenney, is currently crowdsourcing funds to publish their 2022 line-up. You can visit Kickstarter to back them.

With this Kickstarter, Hurd-McKenney is hoping to fund the publication of four different projects — three he’s written, along with one written and drawn by Rick Geary (A Treasury of Victorian Murder).

Smash Pages’ Alex Dueben spoke with Hurd-McKenney about his return to publishing a few years back. Since then, he’s published several chapters of Some Strange Disturbances, a supernatural Victorian story by Hurd-McKenney, Gervasio and Carlos Aon, as well as the final chapter of the Xeric Grant-funded The Brontes: Infernal Angria drawn by Geary.

Here’s a look at the four projects:

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Archie celebrates 10 years of Kevin Keller with a crowdfunded omnibus

Dan Parent spearheads a Kickstarter campaign for a collection of Kevin Keller stories.

Dan Parent, a veteran Archie Comics artist and creator of Kevin Keller, is celebrating 10 years of the character with Kevin Keller Celebration!, a 700-page omnibus collecting stories featuring the character, from his first appearance to the Life with Kevin graphic novel that showed the character’s future.

The project is current being crowdfunded on Kickstarter, where they’re looking for almost $50,000 in support.

“For the past 35 years, I’ve had the pleasure to work on multiple characters and titles for Archie, but my heart always comes back to my heart and soul, Kevin Keller,” Parent said. “Being able to spearhead this campaign with the support of Archie Comics is the perfect way to continue the legacy of the character as well as celebrate the 80th anniversary of Archie Comics.”

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Fund Me Friday | Iron Circus kickstarts ‘Cautionary Fables and Fairy Tales: North America’

Plus: ‘The O.Z.’ and ‘The Baboon’ return, Cary Nord and more.

Crowdfunding continues to serve as a viable method for creators to fund their creative endeavors, as comic-related projects flourish on sites like Kickstarter and Patreon. The internet also allows creators to sell their creations direct to fans, through sites like Gumroad, Big Cartel and of course their own websites. If you’re looking to buy something from or support a creator directly, you’ve come to the right place. And that’s a good thing to do, now more than ever.

Iron Circus Comics launched their latest project, Cautionary Fables and Fairy Tales: North America, earlier this week, and they’ve already blown well past their $20,000 goal by almost $100,000. And they’ve still got 14 days to go! That’s all in a day’s work for the publisher, who are up to 30 successful campaigns, and, according to publisher Spike Trotman, they aren’t stopping anytime soon.

“I’ve grown an audience that’s interested in what I do and everything that I publish,” she told Forbes. “At this point my audience kind of knows my tastes and knows my inclinations and even if it doesn’t fit like a glove, it’s something they can get behind.”

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Cullen Bunn + Outland Entertainment are building a shared multiverse based on the works of Barry Blair

The writer has teamed up with Outland Entertainment to work on ‘Dragonring’ and other 1980s independent comics titles.

Outland Entertainment has announced that The Sixth Gun co-creator Cullen Bunn will serve as the lead writer and architect of a new “shared multiverse” based on the works of 1980s independent comics creator Barry Blair, starting with Dragonring.

Outland acquired the rights to several of Blair’s titles back in 2016 — including Warlock Five, Elflord, Samurai and Dragonring, which were originally published by Aircel Publishing.

“Aircel Publishing was one of the most innovative and influential independent publishers of their time (and possibly of all time),” said Outland Entertainment founder Jeremy D. Mohler. “It’s an absolute pleasure to have an opportunity to expand on Aircel’s legacy with this project.”

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A truck driver faces his criminal past in ‘Fog Line’

Mario Candelaria and Andy Michaels are seeking to crowdfund a new 36-page crime comic.

Mario Candelaria and Andy Michaels tell the story of a former truck driver forced to face his criminal past thanks to a true-crime podcast in Fog Line, a new comic that’s currently up on Kickstarter.

Letterer Matt Krotzer and editor Hernán Guarderas round out the creative team.

“What were once intrusive thoughts during quiet moments has now become active panic as Henry spirals while absorbing as much information on this case as possible to see if his day of reckoning has finally come,” The Kickstarter page reads.

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Help fund a third volume of ‘The Abominable Charles Christopher’

Karl Kerschl is crowdfunding another edition of his award-winning webcomic.

The Abominable Charles Christopher, the award-winning webcomic by Karl Kerschl, is now up on Kickstarter.

Kerschl is crowdfunding a third collection of strips, but if you missed the first two books, no worries — they can be purchased during the campaign as well.

“The story of The Abominable Charles Christopher began way back in 2007 as a long-form webcomic inspired by The Epic of Gilgamesh,” the Kickstarter page reads. “It’s been collected in two self-published volumes to date, chronicling Charles’ adventures through the Cedar Forest and into the kingdom of the bratty child-king, Gilgamesh. Now, the long-awaited third volume is here to continue Charles’ story!”

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Check out Travis Mercer’s packaging for Foam Armory’s prop armor

The faux armor can be used for cosplay, Halloween costumes and more, and is currently available on Kickstarter.

For full disclosure purposes, I’ll start by saying that Stephanie Chan is one of the founders of Smash Pages, and contributes not only content for the site but also behind-the-scenes on the tech side. When she’s not doing that, though, she works for Foam Armory, a start-up she co-founded with aeronautical engineering technologist and special effects expert Ben Eadie. Together they create faux armor prop components  for stage, screen, cosplay and more.

Now those two worlds have come together, as they’ve enlisted comic illustrator Travis Mercer (Red Hood: Outlaw, Green Hornet)  to design packaging for their EVA Foam ScaileMaille, which is currently available through a Kickstarter campaign. The campaign has raised more than $36,000 and runs until May 31.

“Travis’ work is high energy and dynamic,” said Chan. “I personally have a lifetime history with comics, and I wanted to bring that world together with my new venture. And after one brief teleconference call, he immediately designed a mascot I would want to cosplay as myself!”

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Jeff Smith returns with a crowdfunding campaign for ‘Tuki: Fight for Fire’

The creator of ‘Bone’ and ‘RASL’ is crowdfunding two volumes of his latest project.

Jeff Smith, creator of one of the best-ever kid’s comics of all time, Bone, and the science fiction romp RASL, is crowdfunding his next project — the resurrected Tuki: Fight for Fire.

As longtime fans of the creator know, Tuki started life as a webcomic back in 2013. It grew from Smith’s love of fantastic heroes of pulp fiction, mythical lost realms and human evolution.

“I’ve always been fascinated by evolution,” Smith writes on the project’s Kickstarter page. “I visited Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, the famous archaeological site occupied by many early humans over time. Standing down amongst the rocks and dirt, looking up at the swaying trees above the gorge, I had a vision of multiple human species walking around and interacting with each other. It was almost like seeing an echo of something that really happened.”

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Smash Pages Q&A: Alex Segura on ‘The Dusk’

The editor, author and comics writer discusses his current project that’s up on Kickstarter, as well as his next comics-themed novel, Micro-Face and more.

Alex Segura has many irons in many fires on any given day. He serves as co-president of Archie Comics, where he has also been known to write comics featuring the flagship character meeting bands like the Ramones and the B-52s. And when he’s not in Riverdale, he’s working on his own projects, whether that’s novels like the Peter Fernandez mystery series and Poe Dameron: Free Fall, or comics like The Black Ghost and The Dusk.

It’s the latter that’s occupying a lot of his time right now. It’s a new comic he’s made with Elizabeth Little, David Hahn, Ellie Wright, Taylor Esposito and Joseph Illidge, and it currently has 10 days left in its Kickstarter campaign. It’s about a lawyer/divorced dad by day, superhero by night who tries to take a different approach to fighting crime.

Segura was kind enough to speak with me about this project, as well as his next novel, Secret Identity, and an upcoming comic he’s made with the folks at NPR’s Planet Money podcast, among other topics.

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Smash Pages Q&A: Mat Groom on ‘Inferno Girl Red’

The co-writer of Marvel’s ‘Ultraman’ discusses his latest graphic novel, which is currently up on Kickstarter.

After writing Self/Made and working with Kyle Higgins on Marvel’s Ultraman comics, Mat Groom is focusing his love for tokusatsu superheroes and boarding school dramas into a new project — Inferno Girl Red, which is currently up on Kickstarter and has already surpassed its goal just two days in.

The 100-page graphic novel is about a pragmatic girl named Cássia with a secret legacy and a magical dragon bracelet that gives her the means to stop the ancient cult attempting to offer her home, Apex City, to their demonic dark lord. Unfortunately, the bracelet is powered by belief, and Cássia doesn’t have much of that to spare.

Groom has teamed up with artist Erica D’Urso, colorist Igor Monti, letterer Becca Carey and design group For The People, with Higgins serving as editor. We spoke about the project, how it came together and what the best boarding school dramas are.

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Smash Pages Q&A: G Romero-Johnson on ‘SFSX: Terms of Service’

The artist of the newest volume of the queer science fiction tale discusses her process and approach to creating the new story.

Sfsx (Safe Sex) was a stunning book when it was published in 2019. Writer Tina Horn was new to comics, but the journalist and podcaster took to the language of comics in a really exciting way. The queer science fiction tale was like nothing else in comics. The dystopic series is returning in a new graphic novel coming out from Image Comics. Writer Tina Horn and editor/designer Laurenn McCubbin and other members of the team are back with a new artist, G Romero-Johnson.

SFSX: Terms of Service is currently being kickstarted and G Romero-Johnson was kind enough to take a few minutes to talk. A cartoonist and illustrator, she’s made comics like Sweet Insecurity and The Red Side of The Moon and her work has appeared in anthologies including Stratos and the upcoming Nectar.

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Dark Horse puts a hit out on ‘Mafiosa’ in October

The story follows a mafia family’s youngest daughter and her quest to join the family business.

Dark Horse has announced they’ve acquired Mafiosa, the story of a mafia family’s youngest daughter deciding to join the family business. The comic, which started life on Kickstarter, will be published as a trade paperback in October.

The story was developed by Thomas Brooke of Portland’s Rainwerks Studio, and was created by Sunshine Barbito, Alessia Alfano, Débora Caritá, Ronda Pattison and Mariacristina Federica.

“What draws me into the world of organized crime is the juxtaposition of tradition, loyalty, hyper-morality, and what boils down to murderous greed,” Barbito said. “We wanted to take this familiar and popular storytelling genre; set in the roaring ’20s, but show you this world from a different perspective in order to create a dialogue. For me, this story is about desire and how it affects people once it takes over completely.”

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