A long-dormant project by Vito Delsante and Giancarlo Caracuzzo, World War Mob, is finding new life after a seven-year absence.
Originally this four-issue miniseries was being published by New Paradigm Studios, with only two issues making it out onto comiXology before going out of business. Delsante says on their Kickstarter page that they now have the rights back to it, so they’ve turned to crowdfunding to finally finish it.
“Without getting into finger pointing or blame laying, the original publisher went out of business and pre-orders were not great. The book was three-quarters complete and just lay dormant. Until now,” he said. “Now, with all rights reverting back to the creators, we are looking to finish the FINAL issue. And there’s not much that needs to be finished either!”
I spoke to Delsante about World War Mob when it first debuted back in 2013. The story is about a hit being put on Benito Mussolini by the mob during World War II.
“It’s based on a story I was told by my grandfather, which, and this has to be said outright, I was led to believe was true,” Delsante said. “If it is or isn’t, I don’t know; my grandfather died in 1990. But we’re saying that WWM is ‘inspired by true events’ because I fictionalize a few things here and there. It’s being described as The Godfather meets Kelly’s Heroes or Inglorious Basterds meets Goodfellas. It is a crazy-so-crazy-it-might-be-true romp. Lots of fun, lots of blood.”
With the first three issues done and the last one started — you can see the first couple interior pages for the issue #4 above — Delsante and Caracuzzo are looking to raise $10,000 to complete the work and publish it themselves. If the campaign is successful, backers can get a digital copy of the complete series for $10 or a print copy + a digital copy for $20. Other tiers offer extras like patches, posters, pins and the chance to cameo in the comic.
The campaign ends on Jan. 27. See their Kickstarter page for more information.