The Final Lap! 24hours to go! The $40k Freebie stretch goal is in sight...!
about 3 years ago – Fri, Mar 05, 2021 at 08:30:57 AM

Hey everyone!

This is getting fun... picked up some speed yesterday and today...! It might have had a little to do with being selected as Kickstarter's COMIC OF THE DAY all day today... ;)

There are so many great projects out there, it's cool to be recognized among the best of them! That might sound a little like we're pumping up the competition, but hey... it's not a competition when we're all just racing to make cool comics! It's up to us to bring the coolest books to the fair!
Only $1400 left to unlock the next stretch goal!! 

Will we make it? What will it be?! 

Tune in at 6pm CST tomorrow to find out!

Final 48 hours!
about 3 years ago – Thu, Mar 04, 2021 at 12:58:44 AM

Hey everyone!

Just a quick 48-hours-to-The-End update: things are picking up a bit! They usually do in the final days/hours, so we're hoping we can pick up enough steam to unlock the BACKER-VOTED STRETCH GOAL which everyone at a physical tier will get for FREE!

If you're new to the campaign since we announced this survey, you can go to this link (http://bit.ly/2NVLQCK) and pick which of 6 freebies everyone will get when we hit $40k!

There are 2 keychain designs, 2 mousepad designs, a set of stickers, and a set of postcards to choose from. Or you can write in another idea! (But in full transparency, a lot of people would have to write in the same thing to get enough votes to win... that'd be pretty coincidental... and AMAZING... there have been some good ideas thrown in there!)

I took a peek at where the poll stands right now, and it's neck and neck between two top contenders, with a third coming up hot... I won't spoil or influence anything here. But I think you'll be happy with the end result, regardless of what it is! (I mean, it's FREE, for cryin' out loud...)

So please, share your support, get your friends to come aboard, tell your peers and coworkers, family, neighbors, the person standing behind you in the checkout line at the store... tell EVERYONE! The more people we get on board, the more stuff everyone gets! :D

Next stretch goal survey options revised -- please read!
about 3 years ago – Wed, Mar 03, 2021 at 02:59:43 AM

Hi everyone!

Thanks for so many comments and messages about the next stretch goal survey. HUGE apology for the technical glitch with the link. It was set to "internal contacts only", but now it is open to the public. :)

You can get to it here: http://bit.ly/2NVLQCK

Please fill out the survey, even if you voiced your choice in a comment last night!

We will be using the survey results to track the votes, and can't manually track every comment and message that comes our way.

We not only fixed the link, but we took some feedback and suggestions into account and added two more options: stickers and postcards --

We were very excited by the amount of interest and feedback from last night's update -- some very strong opinions in many different camps of thought! Some of you prefer printed bonus items, others like the more tangible stuff like coins and mousepads, and others think that anything that doesn't add content or context to the story/reading experience itself is pointless. All very valid and appreciated input!

Just to explain a little of our thought process behind adding stretch goals: they aren't there to make us more money -- just the opposite, in fact! Since they are free to you, they are extra costs on our part meant to encourage folks to join the campaign and (ultimately) buy the book. The more books we sell, the better we are doing. The cost of these bonus items does come out of our narrow profit margin, but the more copies of the book we sell, the more margin we have to play with. Hence the "stretch" part of the goal.  So we want to make the bonus items enticing and worth the collective effort. Not just for you, the forward-thinking cool kids already on board, but for those folks who are still watching the campaign from the outside, on the fence as to whether or not to join the party. The more stuff we unlock collectively, the more inviting it becomes for new backers.

Statistically, it's impossible to please everyone. And there is one school of marketing that says not to give the customer too many options because it could paralyze their decision-making muscles. That same school of thought also advises against letting customers determine the product features because doing so will inevitably lead to some folks disappointed that their choice was not selected. That could very well happen here, with this little experiment. We hope not! We hope that whatever we end up offering is cool enough to please everyone! But statistically, that is impossible. We just don't want to piss anyone off in the process.

So please feel free to provide other suggestions in the survey! If you don't want ANY of the stuff, that's cool, too -- we don't have to send any of them to you! They're all just bonus freebies anyway, so it's not like your core pledge purchase will be any less cool on its own. :)

Thanks again, everyone! Curious to see where this leads...!

Only 5 days left! Let's get unstuck from the mud!
about 3 years ago – Tue, Mar 02, 2021 at 11:22:33 PM

Hi everyone!

Hope you had a good weekend. We spent some time hammering through some deadlines and lining up pieces for streamlined fulfillment (moving past ASTER... this pandemic has just been one headache after another...)

The survey has been going strong -- some real eye-openers in there! We won't reveal what's taking the current lead, but there are some interesting write-in ideas (that may already be in mind for the next campaign...) ;) If you haven't filled it out yet, please share your thoughts at http://bit.ly/2NVLQCK.

While "flattening the curve" has been perceived as a good thing these days, it's not so great when it comes to a campaign's mid-performance. We seem to be bobbing over and under the same figure for the past week, with canceled pledges being replaced by new pledges, back and forth... Statistically, it looks reeeeeeally unlikely we'll hit that $42,500 next stretch goal, so we are going to officially lower that bar just a tad to $40k. :)  We'll be perfectly honest: that's really our ideal goal in the first place. While the starting goal of $7500 was set to cover the costs of the exclusive extras (ORPHANS box, etc), the rest of our significant costs would be covered at $40k -- printing, freight, royalty, materials, translation, production, and of course the cost of all the freebies, etc. So we're really hoping we can hit that number (as unlikely as it may seem at the moment).

It's fine if we don't -- we'll still come through with a beautiful set of goods when this is finished!

Did you know LRNZ is creating his next project live on Twitch?

He's hard at work on his next graphic novel, GEIST MASCHINE, and is live-streaming his drawing board for the entire production. You can watch the pages develop from blank boards, and maybe even interact with him (if he's feeling responsive... after all, he is trying to work... ;) )

You can check out the archives for previous shows and the schedule to see when he'll be live again.

We also made a little video of the trailer music.

This is the full track that our Kickstarter trailer borrowed from. Not really a "music video" but "visuals to go behind the music". Enjoy!

COIN UNLOCKED! YOU pick what's unlocked next! (Plus: a bonus gallery to celebrate!)
about 3 years ago – Thu, Feb 25, 2021 at 09:53:19 PM

Hey everyone!

We did it! $32.5k -- the coin is now unlocked!

Everyone at a physical pledge tier when the campaign ends will get one of these cool collectible challenge coins added to their reward package for FREE!

I know some of you think these coins are kinda frivolous and pointless, but I think they're pretty dope. And now that we're onto five of them in the series, it's getting to become kind of a "gotta get 'em all" sort of thing. Hopefully, we can keep the trend going on all of our planned campaigns! :D

SO WHAT'S NEXT?

Well, we had a number of ideas that we were gonna choose from, but they're all kinda cool... so it occurred to me: why not let the backers vote on it?

Head on over to the one-question survey at this link and pick one of the four items above. Or you can write-in an alternate suggestion! The choices we're presenting are:

A) a 1.5" die-struck metal Magnetic Press Ambassadors Club keychain

B) A 1.5" leather Monolith keychain with silver logo

C) A 9.5x7.75" microfiber MONOLITH mousepad

D) A 9.5x7.75" microfiber MONOLITH "Infinity" mousepad

They're all roughly the same cost, so if you present ideas, keep them somewhere within a reasonable price range. ;)

We will keep this survey open until we hit the target stretch goal of $42,500. At that point, we'll consult the survey and reveal the results. Sounds fair and democratic, right? (Or at least something to keep it interesting along the way...?)

Another $10k may seem like a long way to go from here, but we've still got well over a week left, and the last 48 hours are always interesting...! I think we can do it! 

Prove me right! :D

To show how grateful we are for unlocking the Coin, how about a bonus gallery of miscellaneous sketches and studies by LRNZ? ;)

We posted a bonus gallery over on our website -- check it out. Or just enjoy this random selection of those bits and pieces reposted here:

Thanks as always, everyone! More to come!