Finishing what we started!
What do you when a Kickstarter campaign fails?
So, many of you most likely read our last few Substack posts that highlighted our last Kickstarter for our original graphic novel, Love & Death on the Dark Side of the Moon. We did receive some awesome support and folks really wanting their hands on this book. Unfortunately this was the first Kickstarter comic that I personally hosted that did not meet our funding goal - and as many of you know, Kickstarter is all or nothing. Understand, the book was nearing 5 figures in funding but our production costs had gotten the better of us.
It was an experiment, more than a book, there were verticals, a web series, an Issue 0 and a killer team, but all of that comes at expense. Frank and I will be the first to admit we shot big on this one and we were just a few hundred dollars shy. So what do you do when a Kickstarter campaign fails?
Simple - FINISH WHAT YOU STARTED! That was all I could hear inside my gut when the campaign timer hit zero. If you can’t take a fail and turn it around into a strength and come back stronger and wiser, than it was all for nothing. I am guilty of having an overactive imagination and impulsive desires to juggle a million worlds BUT there are worlds - comics- that are right here on our laps that need to be finished. Frank and I have been back at Immortal Coil and getting issue #3 ready for a Valentine’s Day Launch.
Frank and I have so many awesome stories in our back pocket but this series is the one that started it all and it’s time we put everything else aside to continue our cosmic horror tale until it’s epic conclusion in Issue #5. Here are a few preview pages from Issue 3:
If anyone has not checked out Immortal Coil, there are a few options to jump on board.
If you want to read Issue 1, here’s a link to check it out on Global Comix,
We also have Immortal Coil Volume 1: The End of All Things which includes issue 1, an expanded issue 2 and the Valhalla edition in a collected 6x9 digest edition.
You can get your hands on this volume right now on Amazon,
IMMORTAL COIL VOLUME 1 ON AMAZON
Cheers, Gerald
Swamp Thing: Fan Fiction
The first project Frank and I worked on together was a fan fiction piece that was part of a Batgirl bootleg by our mate, CJ Hudson. We wanted to share those pages right here for our Substack followers - enjoy!
READ SWAMP THING: GHOSTS
Writing with Gerald is interesting as I have to approach every project differently. Love & Death was a story we developed from scratch, so I had a lot of freedom to envision the story how I wanted. That freedom becomes a little more restricted when writing A Thousand Cuts as it’s a series largely born from Gerald’s head. His vibes, atmosphere, and mood are what drives the visceral art and carnage on every page, but I still feel a lot of ownership over the plot and characters, which has allowed me to determine how the story plays out.
Immortal Coil is something else entirely. Not only did I not help Gerald create this world, it was already in motion when he asked me to come on board. Issue one had already been released and issue two was halfway finished. So I understood, right from the start, that Gerald was giving me an assignment to help him finish this story. HIS story. And so I had to work within those mission parameters when outlining and scripting.
Don’t get me wrong. I love the world of Immortal Coil and working within it. But Gerald is a big idea thinker. He loves the grand moments. The horror. The action. The points in the story that make your eyeballs open a little wider as you gasp in suspense. But a story is more than just the big moments. You need glue to connect them all together. A road that takes the reader from point A to point B. It’s my job to map out that road so that Gerald can lay the pavers. It’s a constant back and forth to make sure we’re delivering the most meaningful and intense story we possibly can. I can’t wait for you all to see it.
Until next time,
Frank & Gerald
Third Contact Comics