Comic Projects in Review
I have backed a wide variety of projects and though I have not received rewards for most of them at this point, they do appear in dribs and drabs. Most of them, I admit, are pretty long horizons, but of those I am most eager to see reach fruition, the news is regular enough and generally good; one of them, the project I am most excited about, in fact, just announced that they are on schedule to start shipping in late March.
Not all projects take this long to materialize. One genre in particular seems to reach fruition quite quickly: Comic books. I have backed quite a few, and many of them have already reached me, with decidedly mixed results.
Interested? You know what to do.
Some of you are backers of our own project, The Wardenclyffe Horror. It will likely come as no surprise to you then that I have a soft spot for comic books on Kickstarter. I genuinely want to see these fledgling creators succeed in fact, that’s kind of what I think Kickstarter is there for. You already know all that though, so let’s dig right in to some of the projects I have had a change to peruse.
- Leylines – 3 Stars – I knew this comic wasn’t going to be completely up my alley when I backed it, but the project was well done and the creator was earnest and talented; I wanted her to succeed more than I wanted to read it honestly, but when it showed up, I was still excited to peruse it. Leylines volume I and II make for in interesting story about mysticism and intrigue in an eastern style universe of the author’s own devising. Though the art quality improves significantly from the beginning of the first volume to the end of the second, it is not yet what I would call professional. That’s okay though, because I think Robin will certainly continue her arc of improvement. The story as I said before, is not exactly up my alley but it is told in a vividly with good pacing and panelization throughout. For $8 i consider these books to be a great buy, and look forward to watching Robin continue to improve as writer and artist both in future projects.
- Dan in Space – 3 Stars – For $6, part 1 and two of this comic were much shorter, and thus a slightly worse deal than the previous project, but still worthwhile. Dan in Space is the story of Dan and his misadventures with a slightly belligerent AI, in his never ending search for coffee. I was shocked to find out that this story existed and was not, in fact, written by my friend Ben. The comic is lighthearted, and shows real promise artistically. Storytelling, I think the story was paced too quickly and some of the panels were a bit awkward Practice does make perfect though.
- Daedalus 1 and 2 – 2 Stars – This comic book series bills itself as hard scifi, and though it doesn’t quite hit that mark, it is certainly closer to that point than the typical science fantasy we so often see in fiction these days. For $15 I was reasonably happy with this product, even though part two ends with a cliff hanger. This comic tries to occupy a world that is somewhere between retro and post-human in a way I did not find entirely convincing. The most interesting part of this project to me was that after fulfilling their backers, they announced that they were going to be starting a comic label that would be putting out “up to 12 titles a year.” As impressive as that sounds on paper, I think it sounds an awful lot like hubris. We’ll see though right?
- Monstrology – 5 Stars – Last but certainly not least comes Monstrology. At $10, this project had the most value of any of the comic projects I have backed to date. The entire book, an anthology that was created by several different writers and artists, comes across as very professional and full of talent. In fact, reading through the whole thing makes me wonder why I haven’t already read some of these names elsewhere. Each story is a tale of a different classic monster, surprisingly few of which come across as cliche. Though it is hard to choose, two stories vie to be my favorite: White Widow and Darkest corners. The first is a truly bizarre ghost story that borders on the postmodern, and the second is a dark tale about the Blob having a great ole’ time in sin city. If you are a fan of horror comic books, I cannot recommend this particular title enough.
How about the rest of you? Read any Kickstarter comics you want to discuss?
Caffeineforge 
“somewhere between retro and postmodern”
What does that even mean?
Are you quoting the Daedelus bit? I said retro and post-human. I thought some of it’s science fiction influences were on both sides of that gulf, and it attempted to meet them in the middle in a way that was not entirely successful.