BackerKit Smoke Test Surveys
almost 4 years ago
– Wed, Jun 24, 2020 at 09:52:03 PM
Hi everyone,
Surveys
The BackerKit surveys have been approved and I've just sent a smoke test - this means 5% of you will have received a survey request. This allows me to make sure the surveys are running OK, they make sense and there are no errors.
If you've received a survey request, first consider yourself very special to be in the 5% :-) And secondly, I'd really appreciate any feedback you have.
I'll aim to get the rest of the surveys out by the end of the week.
Book Production
Lyndon's been very busy getting the softcover and hardback designs together, and we're pulling together the digital and extra content too. So far, everything is on track...
Chapter Two
I'm now on draft v2 of the story structure and I'll start on a v1 of the script later this week. I've got the overall story drafted and know how each chapter plays out, so the structure is about ensuring continuity and giving Lyndon a view of the key scenes for him to think about the visuals. The script will focus on the intricacies of the dialogue, the page turns and scene direction - although, as you'll see in the additional content, often I say 'something amazing happens' and leave Lyndon to create something amazing - and he never fails to amaze!
Thank you for reading,
Andy
BackerKit Surveys
almost 4 years ago
– Mon, Jun 22, 2020 at 06:25:02 AM
Hi everyone,
As I've mentioned, I'm new to BackerKit and I didn't realise there's a review process that must be completed before I can release the surveys, etc to you all.
So hopefully by midweek, you'll have the surveys sent through so we can start processing everything.
If you have any questions, or comments on the process, please let me know as I want to ensure a smooth and simple process for everyone :-)
Thanks, Andy.
Surveys, Stretches and Scions
almost 4 years ago
– Sat, Jun 20, 2020 at 02:20:55 PM
Happy Friday everyone!
Today I have mostly been working through the intricacies of Backer Kit and preparing surveys. I hope to have everything complete by Sunday, but I will let you know if anything changes.
We do have a little bonus too... There was quite a lot of interest in the Elder God Patch image Lyndon created, so we've agreed to include this to all backers of the Deluxe Tiers and above given how close we got to the £15,000 target. More on this when we finalised designs :-)
And last but not least, I've been chatting to another creator, Lewis Alsamari who's Kickstarter I backed recently. This looks a very neat product and definitely worth a look...! More details below.
Stay safe everyone and have a great weekend!
Andy
Lewis Alsamari is an award nominated screenwriter and author of the new comic book, SCIONS, now 200% funded on Kickstarter.
SCIONS is a high-concept sci-fi supernatural magical (and in parts comedic) tale of Genies and Demons (who won't stop goofing around) full of epic twists and parallel universes. It's BLADE RUNNER meets AVATAR and THE MATRIX… as if it were dripping with Armageddon, and directed by Roland Emmerich.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lewisa/scions-printed-comic?ref=2vmhgm
Lewis is also an author with the world's biggest publisher - The Penguin Random House Group - who published his life story: OUT OF IRAQ (a.k.a. ESCAPE FROM SADDAM) about his escape from Saddam Hussein's army and military intelligence. He fled, was shot in the leg, crossed the desert alone into Jordan at night, fled again to S.E. Asia, returned to the UK (where he grew up as a child), trained as a British lawyer (but hated it!), then pursued his inner-calling to be an author, screenwriter and creator of comics, graphic novels and TV animation. He was the lead actor in Universal Studios Oscar nominated movie UNITED 93 and worked with Matt Damon on the movie GREEN ZONE.
Book Design - Preparing for Print
almost 4 years ago
– Fri, Jun 19, 2020 at 07:00:59 PM
Hey everyone,
Again, thank you for all your support and for jumping on board. Myself and Andy have an amazing story we want to tell and I'm incredibly grateful that you are taking this journey with us.
Now that the campaign has ended, we've got a lot of admin to do. Reward numbers to compile, surveys to send, products to order and a hell of a lot of proofing and editing. While Andy will be tackling a good chunk of the admin work, I'll be diving into book design. Finalising the cover, creating those additional concept art pages, making title pages, tweaking artwork and checking printing bleeds so everything comes out correctly when we take the book to the printers.
Focusing on the cover design, here is what we are looking at.
Forgiving the placeholder text, this is a rough mock up of how the text will be sitting on the cover. The front cover was pretty much finalised anyway, it's mostly the back cover and spine that need adjusting. This was mocked up well before the Kickstarter campaign launched and before we had any reviews and book quotes. Thankfully, we've had a number of really positive reviews so we'll be able to pick and choose what to include.
As for the spine. I've been working out ways to make sure that all 1-6 chapters of Reanimator Incorporated work as a set and because we are going to be diving into more Lovecraft lore as we go, I'm going to design a set of Eldritch & Lovecraftian symbols that will sit on the spines. Each chapter will have one of these at the bottom of the spine, giving more nods to the Lovecraft lore. It's a little touch, but will make the printed version look that extra bit special while also giving a nod to the story themes of each chapter. Between the symbol, Reanimator logo and name credits, it should all look flush.
I'm working close with the printer to make sure everything lines up and will update you all with another mock up once everything is finalised. All these little design touches take time, but give it the look and feel of a premium graphic novel (which is what we want to go for).
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In other news, I want to spotlight another Kickstarter from creators Rob Jones, Matthew Hardy and Russel MacEwan.
HELL IN STALINGRAD A wartime atrocity, a powerful ancient evil...War IS Hell.
Hell in Stalingrad is a 80-page pulp horror graphic novel, in the vein of classic war story comics such as DC Thomson's Commando.
Set in the midst of the Battle of Stalingrad - with the Soviet Kessel slowly engulfing the German forces. We follow the story of a German soldier, Ernst, andVassily, his Russian counterpart, as they must set aside vast ideological differences in a bid to thwart an otherworldly threat.
The creative team have done an incredible job and have all been really supportive with what we've been doing with Reanimator. When you get chance, please check it out and support if you can.
KICKSTARTER LINK
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That's all for now. Myself and Andy will be in touch through updates as we prepare for print. If you'd like to see more book production and what goes into making a book, do let us know. In the meantime, sit back, relax and prepare for those surveys being sent out!
All the best,
Lyndon
Campaign Complete...!
almost 4 years ago
– Thu, Jun 18, 2020 at 02:35:47 AM
Wow!
The big numbers:
- 6 - the amount of hours we were funded in
- 479 - the % we made on our initial £3,000 target
- 618 - the final backer count
- 1,106 - the amount of video watches
- 14,356 - the amount of £ raised to support the project
Not to mention all the comments, likes, tweets and emails we received offering messages of support and encouragement.
Now the real work begins as we go full steam into fulfilment.
I'll be completing the Backer Kit surveys over the weekend and intend to submit everything Sunday. In the meantime, we'll work on the final details of the production and get ourselves ready for printing and shipping.
What can we say other than a huge 'THANK YOU' - this has been an amazing journey, and what's more, a journey we've only just begun.
We'll be in touch with more updates over the next few days so watch this space.
Time for a lie down.
Andy
