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Welcome back to another installment of Indie Comics Showcase, the weekly blog where we signal boost a few truly independent comics that are currently crowdfunding their projects, crowdsourcing their funding in some way, or just completely self-publishing on their own. Every little bit of support for these creators matters, from a single dollar pledge to the twenty-five dollar bundle, and of course the higher tiers are usually fun too! Even if you can’t back a campaign or buy a book, you can share or tweet about these projects to your friends and followers.
On Indie Comics Showcase, we interview the creators, show off some art, and tell you how you can check out the product for yourself. Below we have some outstanding crowdfunding campaigns this week for you to learn about, enjoy, and hopefully support by backing one or more of them! Thanks for checking these out and for being the best part of Indie Comics Showcase. Let’s jump in!
Check out the campaign here!
Chris Braly: Welcome back to Indie Comics Showcase, Ben! Tell me the pitch for your latest comicbook project.
Ben Lacy: It’s classic Charlie’s Angels meets the A-Team, but with more vicious action and more beautiful women! Eight women, each with a unique skill, have been kidnapped by a criminal cartel for an unknown purpose, but thanks to a minor miracle, they manage to escape. However, escaping is far from getting away. The mob desperately wants them back and they have weapons far deadlier than men with guns, so even if they can take down the thugs who are hunting them, can they win The Piranha Games!?!
CB: Where did the idea for this comic come from, and made you decide to self-publish it?
BL: In issue 1 of my other series, Shark of War, our cyborg shark hero rescued a group of women from human traffickers, but he’s a shark, he didn’t so much rescue them as kill their captors and leave them to fend for themselves. I began to wonder what might have happened to them and the story just went from there. I thought it would be a nice expansion of my comic book universe and give me a chance to write a whole different style of story. By the way, you don’t need to have read Shark of War to follow this series – but all backers get a digital copy of Shark of War #1 as well.
CB: What kind of comic readers is this suited for and who is it aimed at?
BL: I think it’s fine for teen on up. There’s some blood and vicious fights; there are also attractive women in beach attire. I think anyone who likes classic action movies where the women were both tough and sexy will enjoy this series.
CB: Tell us about your style and creative process, and how you developed them
BL: This project had some unique challenges to avoid falling into recent story telling traps. There are so many ‘strong women who are a match for any man’ stories out now that it’s almost a cliche. I wanted to avoid that here and put a lot of thought into how the fights in the book happen so that the reader buys into the outcomes – which often don’t go in the Vixens’ favor. This book is very much a throw back to the cool 70’s and 80’s women action heroines.
CB: Talk about your creative team that contributed to this project and how it comes together.
BL: I wrote it, Nico Toran has done all the art on both issues as well as most of the covers, and as with all of my books, Nikki Powers is lettering. I write a complete script. Nico looks through it and points out any issues. He then thumbnails the whole thing. Once we’re both satisfied, he continues with the line art. Right now, the art is more than half finished. I think this book will be close to done by the time the campaign ends.
CB: What have you been learning from self-publishing / crowdfunding and creating through this process?
BL: You have to work to build an audience. You can’t just launch a Kickstarter and expect people on Kickstarter to fund you. Sure, some will come, but you need to market your story to build your own readership.
CB: Tell me a bit more about what makes this campaign special.
BL: This campaign is for issues 1 AND 2 of the book, but there will definitely be more issues. These women are on an epic adventure with a lot of twists and turns. I’d been wanting to do a cosplay cover of someone playing the Vixens. I ended up doing two. Fitness model Dailec Hernandez poses as Vixen leader and crack shot Big Sis while IFBB Wellness Pro flexes as the Vixen’s muscle, Blondie. For issue one, we did a connecting set of covers of all the Vixens and those are also available as part of this Kickstarter.
CB: Anything else you would like to share with our readers before we sign off?
BL: Yes, there is a link on the page that will let you read issue 1 for FREE. No need to signup or anything. I’m confident that anyone who reads issue 1 will want to know where the story goes next.
CB: Thanks, Ben. Come back anytime.
Check out the campaign here!
Check out the campaign here!
Chris Braly: Welcome back to Indie Comics Showcase, Russ! Tell me about your latest crowdfund project, The Shadow Kingdom.
Russ Leach: This is a faithful adaptation of Robert E. Howard’s first Kull story now in public domain. Randy Zimmerman is the editor adapting the tale and we have a foreword by Razorfist. This is commonly thought of as the original sword and sorcery tale. Both Randy (Zimmerman) and myself are huge Robert E Howard fans and when his first three stories and the Kull character came into public domain, we both knew we wanted to produce a version of it. We are also big Conan fans and Kull is canonically linked so how could we not do it?
CB: What kind of comic readers is this aimed at?
RL: It’s based on a classic and although it covers deep, dark themes it’s still a fun read. It’s a 15 plus book that anyone looking for traditional adventure will appreciate.
CB: Tell our readers a little bit about your style and creative process, Russ.
RL: My style mostly resembles a bronzeage approach. I’ve drawn Batman for DC in Europe and Dr who for panini and the BBC in the UK. Added to that a spell on Ben 10 , a marvel art series for 4 years and multiple Indy books including my own graphic novel series “Only Death Can Save Us” has shaped my style and process. I pencil digitally and then print blue line pencils to board and ink traditionally, which means I can offer original art within any of my crowdfunding campaigns.
CB: Tell me about the credentials of your creative team on this project.
RL: Randy Zimmerman has more than 4 decades experience within the comic book industry and has written and edited on many independent projects and too many books to count for Arrow Comics. We had some help from author and artist Glenn Fleming on the prose presentation within the book and pre-production art. Then there is myself, I’ve worked for mainstream publishers such as DC, Marvel, Warner Bros and Panini but have most fun on Indy projects.
CB: How far along is the book? Is it ready for print? Or is the campaign funding the production?
RL: The book is 100 % complete. We are ready to go to print as soon as the campaign ends. We have experience of mainstream and Indy projects and both been involved in crowdfunding before. We wanted to create the best version we could and so crowdfunding a special edition was our first choice.
CB: Are there other Kull stories you hope to tell?
RL: Oh yes. We’d love to continue Kull’s story with Randy writing new chapters on his hunt for the lizard people. So taking the public domain character and creating new adventures for him while respecting Howard’s approach and feelings for the character. Look out for The Atlantean series.
CB: Let’s talk about the campaign a bit. Anything particularly unique about it you want to mention?
RL: Yes. We have an illustrated presentation of the original prose story by Howard as well as the 69 pages of sequential story…
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