A hero trying to save a doomed city. A villain causing the destruction. Tart Acid plays both parts depending upon your perspective.
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
As noted in our last update, surveys went out to backers in the morning and afternoon yesterday.
At least one backer did not receive their surveys in their email. I do not understand why this happens to a very few people, but as I noted to the backer in question, it is not unprecedented.
If you can not find your survey in you email (and have checked spam and promotion folders), please visit the following URL to request a survey be sent:
You will be brought to our Backerkit Launch site, and it will look like this:
Just enter your email in the area next to the "Get My Survey" button and Backerkit should send you a link.
As for Digital Rewards. You rewards are ready for you to download and read if that is how you enjoy comics. On the lower right of that page you will see a clickable link that says "Log i to your Backer Account."
Clicking here and signing in should get you to a page with Digital Rewards. You can download what you wish to read, or nothing. Whatever works for you.
First I want to apologize for this. I was under the impression you would get an email and the links would be right there. I do not want any of this process to be a headache or an extra effort for you. So over the weekend I cam going to create a Dropbox Folder with the pdfs and send the link out in an update to backers based upon their backing level.
So if you want to wait, I'll make it a little less of a hassle. But if you want to read now, they are ready to be downloaded.
One other oopsie. Sales Tax. If you are a backer in my native, and nutty, Florida, you may have been asked to provide a credit card to charge you for sales tax.
I am sorry this occurred. I set up a Pre Order Store for backers outside of the Kickstarter campaign to shop for Tart books, and wanted to be legal for all sales that went through the shop going forward. I was unaware this would do anything to backers from the Kickstarter.
It looks, on my end, as if even the two people that I know had to get out their credit cards, no longer have charges on their survey page. So I do not believe anyone, ultimately, will be charged sales tax on their Kickstarter rewards. If you are, I will happily refund you.
The crazy thing is, I actually pay the sales tax anyway, but like a convention, I don't force people to get out the C.C. or pocket change to do so.
Note. I didn't realize any of this was happening. I needed people to reach out and tell me so I could try to fix it. If anything seems wrong, please message me here or email me at [email protected]. I don't promise to not make mistakes. But I do promise to try to rectify them.
KICKSTARTER ROUNDTABLE TONIGHT AT 11 PM
If you are up and want to hang out with Will Allred and me, we'll be talking to Brian Hawkins and Russell Nohelty about the following two Kickstarter campaigns they are running:
THE LUNATIC, THE LOVER AND THE POET
I haven't read either so I'm going to lean on their Kickstarter summaries. Brian says The Lunatic, The Lover and The Poet is:
a horror comic book series that embraces the mystery and thrill of the slasher movie tropes. Our main character, Xylerpher Jones, is a gifted playwright with dreams of one day scripting the next big Broadway smash. However, when the star of the show, Lexus Randolph, is murdered not only is he forced to rewrite his rendition of the Shakespeare classic, but he and the entire cast and crew become suspects.
You can see more here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/brianlouisiam/the-lunatic-the-lover-and-the-poet-issue-1-act-i
BLACK MARKET HEROINE
Russell says this about Black Market Heroine:
Ollie wasn't looking for trouble, but after she saved the Antichrist from being slaughtered, it came for her.
Check out the campaign here:
And if you have any questions for them, or Will or me, please don't hesitate to join us live and comment (we can see them and interact with them). You can watch us at 11 PM EST tonight at:
Back to fulfillment organization!
Kevin
I've been trying to work methodically since the campaign ended to get my ducks in a row for production and then delivery of your Kickstarter rewards.
The Cherry Macabre Enamel Pin is set to start production. They actually sent us a photo of a the sample. I can't remember if I've shared or not, but I'd rather share twice than not at all.
The Printer has the files, and our exact order. We expect the job to be completed and either picked up or shipped to me around the middle or end of the month.
One cool thing about working with them again is we they know we're up for anything. They are looking at whether they can use two different types of foil on the Virgin Variant covers so the split image actually looks and feels split in your hands.
I still don't know if that will be the final avenue we go down, but it's really cool that they're willing to try new things for us.
I've also been working on the Backerkit Surveys, which were just looked over by the people at Backerkit. Creating the surveys and add ons is... well it isn't extraordinarily difficult, but it involves many different moving parts. Thankfully they look at it on their end and try to catch any mistakes I might have made. I did a last second check and just started what they call the "Smoke Test." Five percent of the backers in each tier will receive their surveys first. This helps us find mistakes I might have made before the majority of backers get their surveys.
If everything looks hunky dory, I'll send the rest of the surveys this afternoon. So please do fill out your survey if you see it this morning, to help us make sure it works for everyone else. And please do fill it out this afternoon if you see it, so I can start organizing delivery of your rewards.
Besides delivery information; you have a chance to add other books and pins etc to your rewards (Note: some tiers will not be able to add extra swag at this time due to shipping concerns).
For the first time, we're offering physical add ons to digital only backers. If you add anything to your order that must be shipped to you; a shipping fee will be added to the cost of the reward. If, however, you are receiving any reward shipped Priority Mail (any tier over $21, except for the two Catch Up Tiers), adding up to three items will not increase your shipping costs at all. So if you are missing any issues of our series, you can fill your collection through the add ons.
KICKSTARTER ROUND UP AND CAMPAIGNS YOU SHOULD BE AWARE OF
I'm still having a blast talking comics every Friday at 11 PM EST with Will Allred and a rotating guest list of creators who are currently running crowdfunding campaigns. Last week we had the pleasure of talking with Mike Shea (Miskatonic High) and David Kann (Lovecraft P.I.) about their crossover comic that is currently running on Kickstarter.
They are raising funds for the crossover, and also the Printing of Miskatonic High #12.
As someone who is not versed in Lovecraft's world, I enjoy Miskatonic High because you don't need to know how to pronounce Cthulhu to enjoy the comics. I assume Lovecraft Junkies get even more out of it, however.
Issue one of the crossover has a lot of the "Man out of Time/Fish out of Water" humor that I adore. So I definitely enjoyed it immensely.
If you are new to the world, you can catch up on it all either digitally or with physical books/ And if you are a Lovecraft fan and/or enjoy stories starring imperfect high schoolers in outrageous fantasy adventures, I suggest you do.
We also had the pleasure of speaking with Frankee White who is Crowdfunding his Mature Title (for gore and nudity according to Frankee. Though he didn't say exactly how everyone got naked at the end, he did say basically everybody is naked at the end).
This book feels Gothic, and extreme to me, and I'm excited to try it out. I got the sense that they were going for a Grindhouse style story when we spoke.
Going to the Dauntless Stories site feels more like a Preorder, than a Crowdfunding campaign, but in some sense, that is what Kickstarter is. And it is always true that the more money is raised before printing, the better it is for everyone working on the book.
If you are a collector the hardcover with this amazing illustration
version is limited to 100 copies, but they are only printing the amount ordered (though I'd expect with a few safety copies). So if you like owning very rare editions, this will be one. This campaign which Dauntless calls a "Green Light" is only live for two more days. You can find their Crowdfunding site here:
To watch a replay of the talk live, please visit my youtube page at 11 PM EST. We can see your comments and interact directly with you.
Explain Yourself Youtube Interview Page
That's it for now. Please fill out those surveys!
Kevin
I didn't do barely a thing Kickstarter or comic-related yesterday. I just relaxed in appreciation of what you did for our team over the last three or so weeks. We ended up have the second most backers, and second highest funding in the history, of our title because of you.
It was an incredible and thoroughly enjoyable campaign, but I was WHIPPED! So I took Saturday and had a really nice, luxurious day of nothing. But as a hero I admire once said:
"Break's over. Back on my head."
I didn't do a tremendous amount of work today either (well, I mowed my lawn but the only backer who cares about that is my Mom. Hi Mom!), but I started the ball rolling on other stuff. I contacted the backers whose credit cards didn't go through. Friday night as we closed there were 17 backers who couldn't be charged, and today there are only 10. So a huge thank you to everyone who fixed the issue, and a thank you in advance to everyone who can fix it before Kickstarter cuts you off. I've had it happen to me and totally understand.
I've also been working to make certain our first Stretch Goal - the digital PDF of The Tart 13 Epilogue will be easily accessible to you if you read the physical comic instead of the digital files you get when you fill out your surveys.
I created a page on our Kechal Comics webste whose URL will be there on the printed page for anyone who wants to follow the story to use. You'll just type it into your favorite search engine (Bing. It's Bing isn't it?).
To find out if it works, however, it currently redirects to the screwball comedy comic I wrote with one of my best friends Chris Brennan UnderWars #1.
For the next few days you can download that pdf here:
kechalcomics.com/tart-13-epilogue
In a few weeks we'll change it so the address redirects to the 8-page epilogue instead of a black and white comedy about a monkey who gains human cognizance when he's dressed in men's tightie whitey underwear (the themes of both are quite similar however).
If you choose to download UnderWars (please do!) and it does not work please let me know. This experiment is to be certain the epilogue is easily accessible when you want to read it. You can check out this one page for the type of Shakespearean heft of the writing you find in UnderWars.
Oh yeah, my wife came up with the bastard, bastard joke, so the first Joseph in those credits is not me.
In last Friday night's Kickstarter Round Table I had the pleasure of talking to two of my Scout Comics colleagues about campaigns they launched last week. I think are definitely worth checking out.
CAPABLE
Jonathan Hedrick (writer of The Recount an incredibly tense political thriller) has the fourth installment of his superhero title Capable. I grabbed the catch up tier to read all four issues of the series where disabled people develop superpowers directly inverse to their disabliity. For instance the lead character
was wheelchair bound, and develops super speed.
The series seems really compelling to me, and as I loved the issues of The Recount I've read, I trust Jonathan as a storyteller.
Check out Capable here:
STAKE PRESENTS: JESSAMY
David Byrne is bringing Jessamy back to Kickstarter after an incredible campaign for the first issue in which a Vampire tasked with making sure humans do not learn of the existence of vampires comes to Colonial America to investigate rumors of an outbreak of blood suckers.
It is a prequel to David's Scout title Stake, which transpires in current day. I've read the first issues of both series and am excited to find time to dive into more of both.
You can check out the Jessamy Kickstarter here:
That's all the energy I have for now. I'm going to try to get in bed early like a good boy so I can start attacking the Backerkit surveys tomorrow.
If you read UnderWars, I hope you love it. It's dumb (so dumb) but dumb is what we set out to make! And let me know if you want UnderWars #1 and #2 available as free downloads in the Kickstarter Digital Bundle. I know a guy who can make that happen.
Kevin
I wanted to send one last thank you before the campaign closes. The support we receive from the Kickstarter community is the single most important factor in our ability to continue making this comic.
We are thrilled to be able to go to (return to) conventions and put books in comic shops to build our readership. But you are the reason we even have those opportunities.
Tonight is the last Kickstarter Round Table I’ll host during the Tart campaign (though I am honestly hoping to make it a weekly thing even when I’m not in a campaign).
If you are free tonight at 11 PM EST we’d love to have you watch us live and interact with us. Direct questions of the creators has made the talks more interesting in my opinion.
EXPLAIN YOURSELF - KICKSTARTER MADNESS
I do hope you can make it tonight. But even if you can't, it's been one heck of a ride. Thank you for making it so.
Kevin