Can't Believe It

The Kickstarter that I am doing with my much-loved Secret Six collaborator, Jim Calafiore, LEAVING MEGALOPOLIS,  is exactly halfway through it’s pledge duration…it was for 37 days, and we are at about 18 1/2 days left.

I’ll be honest, we had no idea how this would go. It was a leap of faith, in YOU guys. We felt strongly we could make a good book, and we knew we want to work together.

But there was absolutely no way of knowing if support would be there for an original graphic novel set outside the DC universe by this team. It was completely a creative gamble.

You guys answered this with guns blazing. We just, we had no idea.

We did a signed script incentive we thought would last all month, they were gone in fifteen minutes.  People spread the word before we’d even managed to ask them to, they just took it upon themselves to get the word out. Small blogs and big mammoth sites put us on their crowdsource pick lists. And industry people spread the word and pledged themselves in support.

I asked some of my best artist friends to contribute sketches for incentives, people like Yildiray Cinar, Nicola Scott, Mike Norton, Mike Oeming, Ethan Van Sciver, Joe Prado, Bernard Chang, and others. Then I immediately felt guilty, like I was imposing and sent another letter saying please forget the previous letter, that was too big an imposition.

Every single one said they would contribute a sketch anyway.

I am moved by the people who big on the huge incentives, and I am moved by the people who bid a dollar because that is all they could afford. And I am incredibly moved by the multitude of people who wanted the book. That’s very, very happy-making.

One of the cutest stories is from a girl who wanted to put herself and her girlfriend in the book, so she wrote and asked if it was okay to pledge twice. Pretty freaking adorable.

People sent advice and critiques and suggestions, and offers of help in lots of different ways. It’s incredibly encouraging and an entirely different way of making comics. Neither Jim nor I have ever experienced anything like it before. It’s…it’s very touching and rewarding.

I just want to say thank you. It’s been a huge adventure already and we are only halfway through the duration. You guys made it a success.

One of the cool things we are doing is trying to make it so that everyone who ordered a print copy will get a beautiful hardback edition, instead of softback. We’re only about $900 from that stretch goal. We are trying to make so that we ONLY offer things that add value to the book, that make it better for everyone who pledged. It’s tricky, but so far, I think we’re doing pretty good.

Just want to say thank you again to everyone. We hope to have some fun community stuff up soon, just to say thank you. Will let everyone know when that happens!

THANK YOU!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2069222802/leaving-megalopolis