A good, but overdue update
over 2 years ago – Wed, Jul 19, 2023 at 10:22:41 AM

Hey, backers! I should have finished writing this update and made a post two weeks ago. My personal life has been really busy, but the comic is nearly complete! I'll tell you more about it, but, there are more important things to talk about first. 

WE MADE IT!

126 of you came together within one month and showed such amazing support throughout the campaign! After a few errored pledges, we reached 162% funding and raised $1,802. I was thankful then, but I'm even more grateful for you all now. My writing began as fan fiction in elementary school, turned into song writing since middle school, & poetry since high school. There's been some ups and some downs, but each one of you helped this project be one of those ups. 

10 years ago, I began to give up. More and more each day, until I wanted to give up everything. If that past version of myself could've seen what we were going to do, he would've realized that things weren't so hopeless. 

If I could give them, or any of you, one piece of advice, it would be to ask yourself a question. If you knew that you would be fully supported, what would you do?  Others words can weigh us down, but it's often our own mind holding us back from some of the fulfillment we truly need.

Book Update!

The story pages are completely finished! All of the files have been sent to Dezi Sienty to design & layout the print files for the comic. I expect the prologue to be complete in July, but digital copies will be sent and physical copies will be ordered no later than August.

In the meantime, you can take a look at a BRAND NEW look at the first four finalized pages!

PREVIEW:

I feel like I owe you a little bit more... so, here's just the tip of Page 5:

"I believe there's a hero in all of us."

Since we swung past 100 backers, I promised all of you would receive my two-page Spider-Man comic short! Here's a small update on the whereabouts of this wall-crawler's story:

As you already know, this comic features art from Marcus Jimenez and letters by Lucas Gattoni. I'm excited to announce Devin Arscott will be the editor for this Miles Morales: Spider-Man script, tentatively titled "I Am the Light." 

This will be sent to my editor within the next week. After that, I can finally send this story over to the artist. In the meantime, take a look at this amazing, Across the Spider-verse inspired art by Marcus!

The Tea Leaves of My Life

I apologize for this little scrapbook of my excuses. There were a lot of real life events happening: fireworks at the park, a garage sale, a lemonade stand, a minor mental breakdown, and a 12-hour drive to Denver with my wife and 3 of her friends to see Taylor Swift. She put on a hell of a performance at the concert with over 73,000 fans there. If you want to see what some of that was like:

 Look at the reflection of the fireworks on the water! 

If you're interested, you can look at this video one of her friends recorded of one of the surprise songs:

Featured in YA Creator Spotlight

Kickstarter is the most popular platform to crowdfund projects, but there are a few others. One of those other platforms is Crowdfundr. During the month of July, they are running a Child & YA Content Creators Spotlight! 

I was featured with my first comic: Kid Cretaceous! If you'd like, you can snag a shirt, a copy of the comic, or even grab out on a copy of The Healer's Blade, if you missed out, here.

That's all I have to share with you all this time. I'll see you all soon!

FINAL 24 HOURS!
almost 3 years ago – Fri, Jun 30, 2023 at 11:02:30 AM

GOOD NEWS EVERYONE

I have some good news! There was a pledge cancelled last night containing the only original art available in this campaign. The creator of "Sacrimony", Matta Sorcier, offered our campaign the chance to sell the *ORIGINAL ART* for her amazing art nouveau variant and its back! 

But don't wait on this one, because The Healer's Blade #1 PROLOGUE campaign only has under 24 hours left! Take a look towards the end of this update to see a sketch of this art while in progress.

 THIS IS IT!

We're down to our final 24 hours of the campaign! The end has been a bit shakier than I anticipated. There haven't been too many people that cancelled during this past month, but a few of them were larger pledges. We were less than $100 away from unlocking our next stretch goal but I'm uncertain if we'll make it now. It's absolutely still possible! 

We are sitting at $1,781 raised across all 114 of you amazing backers. No matter what, that means we are STILL 160% funded and you've all shown so much love and support to the campaign. 

New Reward

There's one final reward available today: the Holo-chrome Catch Up tier! In this tier, you will receive holo-chrome variants for The Healer's Blade #1: PROLOGUE & Kid Cretaceous #1.  You've already seen Mariateresa Susca's holo-chrome cover, but here's a look at the holo-chrome Kid Cretaceous variant by Dee Noonan.

Commissions from Terri

I'd also like to remind everyone that our interior artist and co-creator, Maritateresa Susca, has offered a set amount of digital sketches for backers during the campaign. These are digital commissions of your choosing and there are ONLY THREE LEFT!

Here are a few examples of sketches from Terri:

Sketch vs Final variant cover art by M. Sorcier 

 THANK YOU!

Thank you all again for all you've done to help support this story. I'll talk to you all in a day, after the campaign has ended, to write a celebratory post, provide an update, and share a few other indie comic campaigns.

-Trailer edited by Cody from KEEPING IT GEEKLY 

FOUR DAYS LEFT!
almost 3 years ago – Mon, Jun 26, 2023 at 02:41:03 PM

I’d get in trouble if I shared them, but Taylor was able to work on the letters ahead of schedule. Brittany will be looking over them for any lettering notes she might have. But, holy crap, he did such a great job!

Current Status

We’ve gained some more people and now have 106 backers, but we've had a few cancellations too. That’s normal and not an issue, but it does mean we are now $212 away from our next stretch goal and unlocking a free copy of Kid Cretaceous for all of our backers.

I know we can shatter this stretch goal and reach for the next goals in these next four days! We could use your help though. Please share the campaign on social media & with any friends that might be interested, if you’re comfortable doing that.

Don’t be afraid to reach out if you’d like several items and want to see a custom bundle for yourself. We can create one just for you! We’ve already set up one for a retailer bundle. 

Shoutout & Full Circle Moment

You may not have seen, but The Healer’s Blade recently received a little shoutout on Twitter.

Thanks to Terri’s original tweet, legendary comic book writer Gail Simone shared our campaign! I tried to play it cool and not tell everyone, but this felt like a full circle moment for me. 

Kid Cretaceous #1 is the first comic book I published. I feel like I've grown a lot as, not only a creator, but a human since then and The Healer’s Blade feels like a culmination of that. On page 13, it also happened to have an easter egg. For the first time, Kacey enters her new school: Gail Simone Elementary! 

I wanted to name the school after a woman who made a huge impact on the comic book industry. I had read some of her work, had respect for her, and was extremely excited at the time for her Marvel mini-series: The Variants. 

When I moved to a new state, the new middle school mascot was the same as Kacey’s new school too. Oh, and its hard to explain, but there‘s an inside joke on the internet about Gail Simone being a bear.

GO BEARS!

Indie Comics Bundle Finale

It’s time to announce the final arrivals into our indie comics bundle! There may potentially be one final comic added to the bundle, but I can’t confirm this since they have not sent their file yet. 

•  The Secret Protectors #1 by Adam Wheeler 
•  Terran 20K, plus two more comics, in a collection of shorts drawn by Vinivius Carreiro 
•  Plague Rat #1, a 36-page first issue by Bran

100 BACKERS!
almost 3 years ago – Thu, Jun 22, 2023 at 02:38:09 PM

Thank You!

We are now sitting at 102 backers with only $181 until we reach our next stretch goal! We still have a little over a week left, so I'm confident we can unlock free copies of Kid Cretaceous for all physical backers!

Once we reach 150 backers, all physical backers will receive an exclusive sticker! This sticker is not part of the sheet and is not available as an add-on.

Art is done!

Terri has been hard at work on the last pages of The Healer's Blade PROLOGUE, but I have good news. She finished the art this week! The pages have been sent to Taylor, our letterer, for the next step in our comic making process. Lettering will start around the first or second week of July, unless there are any changes. 

Once he's finished, Brittany will review the letters and provide any editing notes. After any lettering edits, they'll get sent to the designer to complete the final layout of the book before we send it to the printer!

 Your Friendly, Neighborhood Stretch Goal

Marcus Jimenez is an amazing artist. Who else could tackle an Amazing Spider-Man? That's why I reached out to Marcus,  earlier this year, to create a two-page comic featuring your favorite wallcrawler. Take a look at this amazing commission artwork! You can find the original commission here.

Since we reached 100 backers, I should tell you about this two-page Spider-Man story you were promised. I had a completed script for a Spider-Man story centered around the winter holidays. This was the comic we originally planned to make. Unfortunately, I decided to scrap that and save it for another time. 

I've felt like the spark of my soul has been reinvigorated this year. It's been a wonderful journey. It's been this experience that made me want to take this web-slinging story in a more personal, but similar direction. I've just about wrapped the new script up and suspect this short comic will be finished around the time fulfillment starts for The Healer's Blade. 

 In the meantime, you can chuckle at some of my scribbles I made as layout suggestions and the summary below. And yes, these were also drawn during our bedtime activity with the kids too. 

"Engaged in an epic battle against Electro, Spider-Man must summon his inner strength to save the city and stop Francine Frye siphoning scheme before the city's power grid surges!"

Recommendations

Falling Stars #1 

Cero Unit is the royal family’s elite guard, when the heir is taken, their mission is clear: save the princess. Kill the deserter.

Into the Deep

The old Imperator is dead! And the new Imperator is out for blood. The only thing that stands between him and conquering the entire ocean is an ex-Imperial agent and a pair of down on their luck scoundrels.   

Into the Deep is a 100+ page action-adventure, sci-fi graphic novel following Imperial Wayfinder Kor as she fights back against the empire that created her. This is one campaign you'll want to dive into!

Current Progress (Update #8)
almost 3 years ago – Sat, Jun 17, 2023 at 11:04:15 AM

We have 94 backers and are 166% funded! We are only $254 away from unlocking free copies of Kid Cretaceous #1 for all physical backers and only 6 backers away from everyone receiving a free two-page comic I'm creating with Marcus Jimenez.

Don't forget to add a digital sketch, from interior artist Mariateresa Susca, to your pledge before the remaining SIX spots are taken!

The following updates have been made to the campaign:

• Updated campaign text with additional information and to reflect changes below
• We have lowered the regular price for M. Sorcier's art nouveau variant (Cover B) by $1 
• We have added a new Kid Cretaceous retailer bundle tier that includes 10 copies of Kid Cretaceous #1 and 1 copy of The Healer's Blade
• Editing Services has been changed to a tier reward rather than an add-on

Next Goals

🔒100 Backers  (only six backers away!)

• At 100 backers, every backer will also receive my upcoming two-page Spider-Man comic with art by Marcus Jimenez and letters by Lucas Gattoni. If you want to see more of Marcus' art, go look at his Spider-Punk commission and everything else on his profile!

🔒$2,100 Free Comic  

• Every physical backer will receive a physical copy of Kid Cretaceous #1

🔒$2,500 The Healer's Blade digital short comic

• Once we reach $2,500, we'll take a look inside the pages of Matilda's journal and share a poem, while we see some of her past!

Indie Comics Bundle penultimate reveal!

Backers at every single level get the indie bundle full of 20+ digital comics. It's time to reveal the next four comics, increasing the total to 15 comics revealed. Towards the end of next week, an update will include our final announcement revealing the entire indie bundle!

• Lost Between Worlds #1 by Edwin Decastro
• Lost Between Worlds #2 by Edwin Decastro
• Lost Between Worlds #3 by Edwin Decastro
• Hellbillies #1 by Jon Westhoff

Recommendations

Sainted Love

Vault Comics is currently one of the best publishers in the industry and they are known for telling terrific tales & are continuing to create some of the coolest content out there. I've had a chance to read advanced copies of a some of their series (such as Fox & Hare, Mindset, Barbaric: Axe to Grind, and End After End) and I can guarantee this is NOT a story you want to miss.

New York City, 1907. Malcolm "Mac" Irina is the greatest inventor the world’s never heard of, and his lover, John Wolf, is the toughest fighter in the world of underground boxing.

Despite their love, they are forced to keep their relationship a secret due to fear of reprisals. When Irina's lab is raided by members of a shadowy organization known as The Pilgrims, the pair escapes through Irina's newest untested invention--a time machine. But where have they ended up?!   

Can the two lost lovers find each other again in the confusing future? Will their relationship survive their evolving understanding of sexuality? Who are The Pilgrims? And did someone say bathhouses?  

It's up to Irina and Wolf to protect queer history from those who would try to erase it. Ricochet through time with Irina and Wolf as they explore new eras, new friends, and some wild new positions in Steve Orlando and Giopota's gorgeous new creator-owned comic, SAINTED LOVE.

My Neighbor Necromancer

A curious and upbeat 12-year-old girl stumbles upon a cabin in the woods where she finds a friendly necromancer hiding with an ancient secret. But her presence has revealed his location and now she must learn to raise the dead herself to prevent the forces of evil from obtaining the ultimate power: the literal Hand of Death itself.  

In this premiere issue, Jessie follows Bibbits (her best friend and pet flying lizard) into the woods when he is chased by a raven. But soon they find themselves in the middle of an ancient battle of the undead. Will they make it out alive? Or will they learn the hardest lesson of being a Necromancer's apprentice?