Kick It Up A Notch!
Just a reminder that the Pre-Launch page for the GunEngine Zero Kickstarter campaign is up and running. Building support ahead of launch is EXTREMELY important, so please go to the pre-launch page HERE and click on the “notify me” button. And feel free to share the link. Every bit helps. Thanks!
I’m working on the campaign and trying to figure out the pricing, what kind of extras people might be interested in, etc. What I’ve done in the past is offer a very basic option (just a physical copy of the book), a PDF version (mostly aimed at international backers since shipping is so ridiculous), extras that can be added on a la carte (like trading cards, pinups, variant covers) and a “superfan” option that has everything at a discount with some exclusive items.
My understanding is that the economics of these comic book crowdfunders calls for the average pledge to be at least $25 as a good predictor of success. Right now, I’m thinking to offer the basic book for $4 and if I need around $4000 to make the book happen, that would require 1000 backers. It’s highly unlikely that will happen.
But if the pledges averaged $25, that would only require 160 backers to reach $4000. That’s a lot more reasonable goal. Although, still lofty considering my previous crowdfunding results.
So I have to come up with some exclusive and interesting items to entice people to pledge at higher amounts. I have a lot of extra art that I could use either as variant covers, pinups, prints, trading cards, etc but I’m still trying to figure out what might be the best way to offer it all.
Roll Call!
Ian and Anton finished character designs so I thought I’d share that whole process. What I did was gather photo references and make what I called a “design sheet” for them to work off.
I’ve talked at length about Gunny’s design already, so we’ll focus on the human characters now.
Mya’s appearance is based on the actress/singer Selena Gomez. Andrey Portilla did some designs during the inital phase of development of the project and I really liked the personality that he was able to convey thru her body language and facial expressions. But I wanted her to have long, flowing, chaotic hair (when she let it down) and I later reconsidered her fashion sense to run contrary to what was trendy in the 80s. So her final design became more emo/goth. (I just now realized that she resembles Ally Sheedy’s character in The Breakfast Club, which is funny because I used a pic of her in a previous newsletter without any conscious thought of this connection.)
The initial sketches of the Sheriff were by Andrey Portilla. I liked the general look that he came up with so I wanted to stick with that. He’s meant to appear as an obvious foil/enemy to set up a storyline swerve (or two!)
Harrison’s persona went through a bunch of iterations. At first, he was going to be a “dumb jock” that was popular and could do whatever he wanted because his father was the sheriff. But then I thought it would be more interesting (and more fitting) for him to try to live up to that ideal but fail miserably. I think it’ll make for a more interesting arc for him. This kid is going to go through hell.
Fun fact: he’s named “Harrison” after Harrison Ford. One of the things I think I forgot to mention about the development of this concept is that it was originally going to be set in the 1950s. And whenever I think of that era, American Graffiti pops into my head. Which I believe was Harrison Ford’s first acting gig. And “Harrison” seemed like a fairly unique name to give a character. So, now you know. And knowing is some percentage of the battle whose exact quantity escapes me at the moment.
Marquez is my son’s name. Got it from the author Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Just always thought it was a cool name. But his older sister has always called him “Kez” or “Kezzie”, so I figured I’d use it for this character. He wasn’t in the early versions of the story and I can’t remember exactly how or why he came into being. I think he may have just been a background character in one scene then I realized he could show up more and have a great effect on the story as well as provide some needed comic relief. Because, spoiler alert, this story is going to be heavy at times.
Nukkle HeDD podcast
I did an interview with the guys about previous projects and the upcoming GunEngine Zero campaign. They had a lot of good questions and I had a great time, even though I was still woozy recovering from the Vid. You can check it out by clicking on the pic!
Horror Anthology
The adult horror anthology is also coming along well. Joaquin Guerra, Brian Azcurra and Ricardo (Rock) Alves are all working on their individual stories as we speak. Here’s a teaser by Brian to whet your appetite.
The damn headache I got after catching the Vid is still lingering and it’s made my tinnitus a lot worse. Hopefully, it’ll start to go away or I can find some treatment for it because it’s been making it hard to focus and get any sleep.
~Michael T Gonzalez