Tag: Kickstarter

Smash Pages Q&A | Jordan Mechner on ‘Liberty’

The creator of ‘Prince of Persia’ discusses his new graphic novel on the Revolutionary War, which is currently being crowdfunded on Kickstarter.

Jordan Mechner has built a career around storytelling. Best known as the creator of Prince of Persia and The Last Express, Mechner has turned his attention to graphic novels in recent years, bringing the same cinematic sensibilities to projects ranging from Monte Cristo and Templar to his award-winning memoir Replay.

His latest graphic novel, Liberty, is currently being crowdfunded on Kickstarter by Magnetic Press. It tells the true story of a clandestine French operation that helped supply the American Revolution with desperately needed weapons, following playwright Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais and American diplomat Silas Deane as they risk everything to support the fledgling United States from across the Atlantic. Illustrated by Étienne Le Roux, Loïc Chevallier and Elvire De Cock, Liberty shines a light on people whose contributions to history have largely been forgotten.

I spoke with Mechner about discovering the story behind Liberty, why he prefers history’s unsung heroes to its famous names, the challenge of balancing historical accuracy with compelling drama and more.

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Smash Pages Q&A | Phillip Sevy + Christie Porter on ‘She Comes With Magic’

The creators discuss launching their adults-only fantasy series on Kickstarter, balancing epic adventure with explicit storytelling and bringing Maeve’s magical quest to life.

Known for his work on comics like Tomb Raider, X-Men Infinity Comics and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, among other titles, artist and writer Phillip Sevy is taking a decidedly different path with She Comes With Magic, a creator-owned fantasy series that launches on Kickstarter today.

Co-created with journalist/comics writer Christie Porter, the comic features Maeve, a powerful wizard who channels her magic through sex. She embarks on an epic quest to stop the Starving King in an adults-only fantasy that blends action, humor, romance and explicit sexuality, in the vein of comics like Sunstone, White Tree, Sex Criminals and Money Shot.

While the book’s high-concept premise is sure to grab attention, Sevy and Porter are committed to making She Comes With Magic work as a fantasy story first. Building a world with real stakes, memorable characters and emotional weight was just as important as embracing the book’s titilating premise, resulting in a series that aims to balance comedy, epic adventure and sex without sacrificing any one element.

I spoke with Sevy and Porter about bringing the first issue to Kickstarter, collaborating on the story, Porter’s transition from journalism to comics, finding the right tone for an erotic fantasy and more. While the book is definitely aimed at adults and is NSFW, this interview includes SFW artwork from the comic by Porter, Sevy and colorist Gibran Ferdian, along with a variant cover by Stjepan Šejić.

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Crowdpuncher | ‘Outlaw’s Apprentice,’ ‘Heartbreak Manor’ + more comic crowdfunding projects

Check out crowdfunding campaigns featuring the work of Chris Schweizer, Steve Niles, Damien Worm, Joan Boix and more.

Welcome to Crowdpuncher, where we round up cool comics crowdfunding campaigns. If you’re looking to buy from or support a creator directly, you’ve come to the right place.

Cartoonist Chris Schweizer has been serializing Outlaw’s Apprentice weekly on Webtoon and Patreon, and now he’s bringing the first collected arc to print. The 208-page Appalachian-inspired swashbuckling fantasy follows Otis, a teenage artist-in-training, and Erska, the former mercenary who took him on as an apprentice, as an injustice sends them both on the run.

Schweizer, who has earned three Eisner Award nominations for his previous work on books like the Crogan Adventures series, is publishing the book in mass market paperback format.

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Oni Press will crowdfund ‘Covenant: The Final Chapter,’ the final collection of LySandra Vuong’s hit webcomic

The sixth and final volume of the supernatural queer romance will launch for pre-order on Kickstarter Thursday.

Oni Press will launch a Kickstarter campaign for Covenant: The Final Chapter, the sixth volume of LySandra Vuong’s supernatural queer romance series, tomorrow.

The book will be available in stores in July 2027, but readers can reserve copies through the campaign next week. The popular Webtoon comic has had more than 20 million reads on the platform since it launched in 2020.

The series follows Sunny, a powerful exorcist with no faith in God, tasked with protecting a seemingly ordinary human from rising demonic forces.

“Covenant is a supernatural action series about faith, family, and finding your place in a world that expects you to be something you’re not,” Vuong said. “At its heart, it follows Sunny and Ezra as they navigate Heaven and Hell while learning who they are — and who they want to be.”

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Smash Pages Q&A | Mel Gillman on ‘The Goblin Throne’

The webcomic-turned-graphic novel is now being crowdfunded by Iron Circus Comics.

Mel Gillman’s The Goblin Throne begins with a broken promise and the consequences that follow when you think you can outrun it.

The graphic novel, the latest from the creator of As the Crow Flies and Stage Dreams, follows a young woman who makes a pact with the Goblin Queen for peace and safety, then flees when confronted with the true cost. What she doesn’t realize is that all roads lead back to the Goblin Kingdom.

The Kickstarter campaign from Iron Circus Comics has already blown past its funding goal, with more than $20,000 raised as I type this. I spoke with Gillman about sapphic fairy tales, colored pencil illustration and more.

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Smash Pages Q&A | David Pepose on wrapping up ‘The O.Z.’

With the third and final Kickstarter for the self-published series now live, the writer reflects on finishing a story he’s been carrying since the early days of COVID.

David Pepose has been carrying The O.Z. to its conclusion for awhile. He finished writing the series during the early days of COVID, and has spent the time since making sure everything was in place to deliver the finale right.

Now the third and final issue, created by Pepose, artist Ruben Rojas, colorist Whitney Cogar and letterer DC Hopkins, is up on Kickstarter, having launched earlier this morning.

The third and final issue is a 44-page conclusion to the story of Dorothy Gale’s granddaughter, an Iraq war veteran dropped into a war-torn Oz. We talked about sticking the landing, what’s ahead for Space Ghost and Speed Racer, and why diapers don’t come cheap.

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Exclusive | Clover Press reveals rewards for Amazing Spider-Man Newspaper Comics Kickstarter

Ahead of the campaign launch, Clover Press reveals two new collectibles accompanying its latest collections of the classic ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ newspaper strips from 1981-1984.

Clover Press is heading back to the newspaper pages of the 1980s again with another Kickstarter campaign collecting more of The Amazing Spider-Man newspaper comic strip.

Following the success of last year’s crowdfunding campaign collecting the strip’s earliest years, Clover Press is continuing its archival reprint program with four new softcover volumes collecting every Amazing Spider-Man newspaper strip published between 1981 and 1984.

“By the early 1980s, Spider-Man was firmly established on the newspaper page,” said Clover Press Publisher Hank Kanalz. “Following the success of our campaign to collect the first four years of The Amazing Spider-Man Newspaper Comic, we are thrilled to continue the line. The strips from 1981 to 1984 feature a more seasoned wall-crawler navigating longer, more intricate storylines that balance action, emotional drama and classic Peter Parker misfortune.”

Written by Stan Lee and drawn by Larry Lieber, Fred Kida and Floro Dery, these strips delivered a unique blend of superhero action, soap-opera drama and offbeat storylines. Peter Parker had encounters with killer robots, Doctor Doom’s flying saucer, the Spider Brigade and even the unforgettable Spidey Jeans craze.

Today, we can exclusively reveal two new campaign extras: the cover to an upcoming pocket book facsimile edition and a brand-new lithograph print available to backers.

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Matt Wagner + Kelley Jones announce a fourth + final Dracula volume

The final graphic novel in the series will be funded through Kickstarter, picking up after the events of Bram Stoker’s original novel.

Happy World Dracula Day! To celebrate the most unholiest of holidays, Matt Wagner and Kelley Jones have announced they’ll launch a Kickstarter for Dracula: Book IV — The Undead, the fourth and final volume in their series of original graphic novels from Orlok Press.

The new volume will taek the series past the events of Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel, exploring what happened after the Count’s apparent defeat. The previous three books — The Impaler, The Brides, and The Count — each told stories set in and around the original novel’s story. Colorist José Villarrubia and letterer Rob Leigh round out the creative team.

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Exclusive | First look at the slipcase editions for ‘The Complete Urbance’

Magnetic Press is heading to Kickstarter soon with a deluxe collection of the manga-inspired cyberpunk saga by Joël Dos Reis Viegas.

Urbance by Joël Dos Reis Viegas has had an unusual journey. It began as an animated short film developed at the studio he co-founded, Steambot Studios, went viral and earned a devoted international fanbase after a successful Kickstarter campaign. Yapiko Animation in Tokyo helped bring the 8-minute pilot to life in 2015, and the response was strong enough that Viegas took the world of Neopolis somewhere the animation couldn’t fully go: a four-volume comic series.

Now Magnetic Press and Oni Press are bringing the complete Urbance comic book saga to Kickstarter, and today I’ve got your first look at the slipcase editions that will be available as part of the campaign.

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John Layman + Rob Guillory re-team for ‘Ghostbrawler’

The ‘Chew’ creators will launch the new series with a Kickstarter next month.

John Layman and Rob Guillory, the team behind the long-running and super-awesome series Chew from Image Comics, are reuniting on a new title called Ghostbrawler.

As revealed on Guillory’s Patreon, Ghostbrawler is the story of Joey Frezzini, a boxer who died in the ring and spends his afterlife evicting ghosts — with his fists.

“My old buddy Layman and I have been developing this since December, and it is a BLAST,” Guillory wrote. “Something truly original and unique that fans of Chew will absolutely love.”

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Exclusive | AHOY reveals Russ Braun’s variant cover for ‘The Forgotten Divine’

The debut Kickstarter campaign from the publisher of ‘Second Coming’ and ‘The Wrong Earth’ launches next month.

Today we have an exclusive first look at Russ Braun’s variant cover for The Forgotten Divine, the upcoming title from Braun and writer Mark Russell, ahead of AHOY Comics’ debut Kickstarter campaign launching next month.

The 64-page book follows Rodney Coleman, an unhoused veteran whose dreams of a faraway planet draw him toward others who’ve had the same visions, leading him to a cult that forms around their shared experience. I chatted with Russell about the project, who talked more about the main character, who we see on this variant cover.

“Rodney is somebody who used to defuse bombs for a living and now, having returned to civilian life, doesn’t find a lot of demand for that. As a result of that, and the PTSD the war left him with, his life has fallen apart. I chose him as the center of this story because I wanted it to be told from the perspective of someone to whom a cult would not seem any crazier than the world they had come from,” Russell said.

Take a look at the cover:

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Smash Pages Q&A | Mark Russell on ‘The Forgotten Divine’

The award-winning writer of ‘The Snagglepuss Chronicles’ and ‘Not All Robots’ talks to us about his latest project for Ahoy Comics.

Mark Russell’s new book with artist Russ Braun is about how ordinary people fall into cults. The Forgotten Divine follows Rodney Coleman, an unhoused veteran and former bomb disposal expert whose dreams of a faraway planet draw him toward others who’ve had the same visions, and the group that forms around their shared experience.

The book arrives via AHOY Comics’ first-ever Kickstarter, which gave the team the freedom to tell the story they wanted to in the format they thought fit it best. I spoke with Russell about the project, the Kickstarter campaign, why he takes his “kiss of death” ideas to AHOY and more.

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