October 2021: The biggest Kickstarter yet!
Reflections on a wildly successful Kickstarter, three new comics, and an upcoming mini-series.
October, one of my favorite times of the year! A time of year when you can sit back with some candy, watch a slasher chase after some teenagers, and it’s considered getting into the spirit of things. (Shout-out to my fellow horror fans who watch these movies all year long!) This month also marked an incredible achievement that I would never have achieved without the support of 217 BACKERS. Discover all the gory details with this month’s update!
Announcements
The month of October marked the beginning and end of my Kickstarter for Road Trip to Hell #1-3: Divine Intervention. This was my third Kickstarter, which I set at my lowest goal ever, $1,000, and thanks to a couple of hundred amazing people, it hit $4,100! Five stretch goals were unlocked, meaning I can finally create some adorable chibi stickers of Road Trip to Hell characters designed by the always amazing Zoe Stanley.
A big part of why I think this Kickstarter was so successful is because of the increasing contacts list that I’ve been building up over the years, both in terms of emails exchanged and social media contacts followed. This was also the first Kickstarter where I worked hard towards cross-promoting with other campaigns. Plus, I followed some wonderful advice from editor extraordinaire Brittany Matter.
I was also able to again do the most nerve-wracking thing (for me at least) over the course of this campaign: give interviews! I’ve found that getting out of my comfort zone often results in the best results, and those results were these fun interviews:
A live stream with interviews host Sam Da Crazee Man and co-host Jorge “Da Dreamer” Medina on the Catch Da Craze podcast
Another live-streamed interview with hosts Will Allred and Kevin Joseph alongside two other amazing Kickstarter creators for the Explain Yourself Kickstarter Roundtable
A text interview (to take the pressure off!) with Comic Book Yeti’s Jimmy Gaspero, which he lovingly titled The Road (Trip) to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions – An Interview with NICOLE D'ANDRIA
Road Trip to Hell also got a review from Wells Thompson of Comic Book Yeti. This is by far the most critical review that the series has gotten so far, and I’m so glad that despite that, I can still pull quotes like this from the article: “Road Trip to Hell is a visually rich experience with a cool premise, snappy dialogue, and an action-forward mentality that makes it impossible to avoid getting swept up in.” It reminds me of the days when I used to write comic book reviews. Two types of creators stood out to me: the ones who responded positively to my critical reviews and the ones who responded… less well. Needless to say, I typically avoided reading and writing anything further from those creators. So, it was a really insightful experience to be on the other side of the review process, and I hope I can use constructive criticism that I see in reviews like this one and apply it to future issues in Road Trip to Hell while keeping it fun.
If you missed backing the Kickstarter and you’d be interested in getting issues of Road Trip to Hell and/or those adorable stickers, contact me on my website and I’ll see what I can do once I begin to ship out rewards to backers!
Interviews
Kickstart the Week with Supernatural Stories
My Comic Frontline interview series “Kickstart the Week” featured three Kickstarters in October exploring a variety of fantastical elements, from werewolves to wizards:
In an increasingly rare occurrence on Kickstart the Week, I was able to interview both of the writers AND the artist of Savage Wizard. The comic combines action-packed pages with the likes of Conan with comedy ala Skullkickers. As we find out why Savage Wizard is worthy of those comparisons, we also talk Kickstarter tips as well as future projects to expect from the creators.
Some deja vu for readers of my last update! The first Kickstarter for the horror mini-series Zombie Deathball Mayhem has been in the works for a while, and I’m the editor on the series! Pairing humor and horror, this quirky comic is about a woman searching the zombie apocalypse for an orthodontist along with her chihuahua, whose been put in a deathball to kill zombies. Find out what animal the creator would take into the apocalypse and more in our interview.
Exploring some new werewolf lore, Snow Paw is a spin-off series from Robert A. Multari’s Night Wolf series. He actually contributed the first issue of Night Wolf as part of the digital comic bundle available to backers of the Road Trip to Hell Kickstarter. I talked with him about his empowering female protagonist and his interesting choice of setting the series in 19th-century Scotland.
What I’m Editing
Projects on Kickstarter
I contributed edits to parts of these two projects below, which you can still back for most of November.
Territory features tribes in a post-apocalyptic world that worship kaiju as their gods. I came onto the project with the second issue of what is planned to be a six-issue mini-series. It’s inspired by the likes of Godzilla, Horizon Zero Dawn, and one of my favorite comics, Sweet Tooth.
Nightmare Theater Anthology 2 is a sequel to the anthology I contributed to previously with my “The Kill Boat” short story. This year, between Road Trip to Hell and an overwhelming amount of other projects, I decided not to pitch a new story. But I did edit Robert Krisch’s Turner Family Terrors short, an original story that pulls the characters from his mini-series that I also edit. Get ready for some unapologetic supernatural shenanigans steeped in comedy. Along with a bunch of other stories by other amazing creators in this 125+ page book!
Scout Comics
More comics that I’ve been editing for Scout Comics were released in October or were finally announced on Previewsworld!
By the Horns #6 is a rare example of a silent issue in comics. So I certainly didn’t have to contribute many dialogue edits, to say the least! That hit comic stands in early October from the Voracious creative team of Markisan Naso and Jason Muhr.
I can also tease another mini-series I’ve been editing, which just landed in the October 2021 Catalog (for a December 2021 release). Say hello to the high-octane grit of Cult of Ikarus, a four-issue vampire series by writer Jenna Lyn Wright and artist Karl Slominski. Believe me, the art doesn’t pull any punches, but let the series description speak for itself: “A rebellious, teenage foster kid goes searching for her roots, only to discover that she’s something more than human and possibly a harbinger of the apocalypse.”
What I’m Covering
Screen Rant
For October, eight of my comic book news articles were published. Rather than rehash every one, I am going to talk about my three favorite new stories that I’m the most excited about!
Kurt Busiek To Write New Arrowsmith, Astro City Comics For Image: “Kurt Busiek returns to Image with re-releases of several iconic titles as well as continuations of his fan-favorite series Arrowsmith and Astro City.” I am waaaay behind on my Astro City reading, but of the few issues I have read, I’ve absolutely loved it. So having more content to get behind on sounds great.
Cursed Pirate Girl Comic Returns in The Devil's Cave: “After over five years, Jeremy Bastian's cult hit comic book is returning to Boom! Studios' Archaia imprint with Cursed Pirate Girl: The Devil's Cave.” I had not heard of Jeremy Bastian before writing this news story, and I’ve absolutely fallen in love with his art. His variant covers are gorgeous.
Marvel Announces Spider-Man Halloween Series With Spine-Tingling Theme Song: “Marvel has released a creepy theme song for Spine-Tingling Spider-Man, a new horror comic starring the Webslinger available on Marvel Unlimited.” Putting the words “spine-tingling” in anything gets my horror fan spider-senses tingling, to say the least, and the theme song is a super-cute marketing idea.
Your friendly neighborhood Comic Maven will be doing more work next month, so be sure to subscribe! Stay geeky, everyone!