Crows Comes to a Close

I’m writing this before Feed Them to the Crows #1 wraps up. Unless there’s a mad dash in the last 15 hours of the campaign, we’ll finish just shy of $2,000. While I’m excited to have over 100 people throw money down for a comic I made, I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a little disappointing for my fourth time on Kickstarter to be my lowest funded campaign ever. As you build an audience, the numbers are supposed to grow over time, right?

As I prepare for my next campaign (yes, I’m doing that already), I’m re-taking the ComixLaunch course and realizing that I didn’t prepare as well as I could have for this one. There was more prep work I should have done to get ready. I thought I had enough in my head already and that wasn’t the case. It goes to show you the power of preparation. I will not make that mistake with Clean Up Crew.

This isn’t all doom and gloom. As mentioned, there were over 100 people that backed this campaign. I can’t even name 100 people. That’s really exciting. This is the first issue of this series, so we’ll be back for the second and will be bigger and better. We’ll have the opportunity to create catch up bundles to bring in new readers. The best part? The first issue is completely done! We’re going to print ASAP. I will have a finished comic in my hands in maybe a month.

And that second issue? We have about 4 pages of artwork left to finish. We will be back soon. I would also be remiss if I didn’t mention that while the main campaign is over, it is open for late pledges for select rewards.

I mentioned Clean Up Crew above. I am prepping that campaign already. The pre-launch page is available now. You can click on the image below to sign up to be notified when we launch. I’m swinging for the fences with this book. I just lined up another variant cover artist that I’m really excited about. The letters are in progress right now. The comic will be complete by the time we launch.

In other news, I’ve had steady progress on Project Pirate, nearing completion of the script for the first issue. I’ve already identified a couple small holes in the script which I will fix in the revision process. The important part is finishing the script first. Once that’s done, I can adjust. Perfect is the enemy of done.

To try to focus myself, I’ve started making a to-do list every day. This includes basic stuff I was going to do anyway, like go to the gym or do Duolingo, but also errands and comic writing. I’ve held myself accountable to write for 30 minutes each day and it’s helped a lot. I can’t cross it off the list until I complete it. This has helped me get back into the groove for writing. Do you have any tips or tricks to get back into the swing of things after you’ve lost your mojo for a bit?

Sometimes I read a comic that instantly connects with me. This can come from characters or story or even just reminding me of something else. That was how I felt about Dawnrunner from Ram V, Evan Cagle, Dave Stewart, and Aditya Bidikar. I was immediately hooked as it reminded me so much of Neon Genesis Evangelion, an anime that is burned into my soul after watching it repeatedly in high school. This has elements of that to the point where I’m betting it was an inspiration for it, but has some new and different spins on it. It’s certainly much more than just a big robot vs. kaiju battle royale.

This could be in my mind because I’m also currently reading Jurassic Park, but the thought that comes to mind with Dawnrunner is that famous line (which I’m paraphasing here) “You were so focused on whether you could, you didn’t think of whether you should.” I love how writer Ram V stacks the deck in terms of stakes for this story. It’s not enough just to have the monsters terrorizing the world and giant robots fighting them. There’s a personal element as the star pilot is struggling with the fact that her daughter has an incurable disease that’s slowly killing her, brought on by the monsters’ arrival, plus the weird connection to her new robot that links her mind with that of a deceased man.

Of course, you can’t have a story like this without dynamite artwork and Evan Cagle delivers the action in Dawnrunner in spades. The battles are intense. The moves themselves are elaborate and impressive, showing stuff that’s way beyond what you would see in Power Rangers or Voltron. This is not a dude in a suit. These are dynamic creatures and flexible robots beating the living crap out of each other.

I had a lot of fun with Dawnrunner. There are all these fascinating concepts at play that I could have read this comic for ages and loved it. This is one of those stories where it’s clear you’re just scratching the surface of the overall world and lore. It was disappointing it was only 5 issues. I would have read 50 more, easily.