I woke up...and it was all still true! Stretch goal: ACHIEVED!
over 7 years ago – Fri, Aug 26, 2016 at 07:19:00 AM

Tell me if this happens to you: you get great, wonderful, fantastic news...and worry it's not true. You go to bed thinking you'll wake up in the morning and it's all been a dream.

Well, I woke up this morning and it was still true: a Red Stylo book got nominated for a Harvey Award. AND, overnight, like some kind of gift from the Kickstarter fairies, I woke to a stretch goal ACHIEVED! We hit the $4000 mark! I'm going to hurry up and post this in case it all goes away, but I gotta say:

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Everyone at the Passenger Car + level now gets a FREE copy of NINA BEAR! I also promised to unlock rewards and add-ons if we got this far--but I must first tell you I'm surprised and happy and grateful to have the opportunity!

For OBSERVATION CAR+ backers, check out this new add-on:

 For those thinking of bumping up a car or two, check out this new LIMITED reward in the rewards list:

Please consider adding-on! With 48 hours left on the clock, we have a little more we might be able to achieve before the train leaves the station. If we can hit $5,000 before 2PM on Friday, we will be able to translate the first issue of CROSSING into Spanish, opening up a whole new market for this new series. But there are rewards in it for YOU if we do:

But remember, this is ONLY possible if we can hit our $5000 goal! The comic will be translated by RSM alum, Pablo Arriaga! I know it's a stretch, but there's no telling what we can achieve with 48 hours to do it! Check out the reward tiers and add-ons and see if you want to upgrade those tickets!

I've said it before, but it bears repeating: wherever our final destination, please know that the opportunity to do this is a dream come true, and it's only possible because our Backers make it so. No matter where we go with CROSSING, we have you to thank for getting us there.  

 48 hours left!!! See you on the other side,  

Enrica J.

A HARVEY Nomination!!!
over 7 years ago – Fri, Aug 26, 2016 at 07:17:07 AM

Ok, it's been a crazy amazing weekend for CROSSING, and the holiday made it difficult to jump online and keep y'all updated. I was smack in the middle of a post, when we got another bit of incredible news this morning. So please, forgive the fact that you'll get two posts from us today. But guys, this news is so incredible, we must share:

Last year, a book that Mark Mullany and Alex Cormack both contributed to (and that I edited) got funded on Kickstarter and picked up by Action Lab Comics. This morning we found out that

THE 27 CLUB, A Comic Anthology was just nominated for a HARVEY AWARD for Best Anthology!

 

 

 

Sometimes called the "Golden Globes" of comics, The Harvey Awards "recognize outstanding work in comics and sequential art" (their words). This is an incredible honor to be nominated. I'm shaking as I type--I'm so very excited. 

All three members of the CROSSING creative team worked on that collection, along with fifty-one fellow indie artists and writers. We also must point out that the book was funded and supported by wonderful people like you on Kickstarter.

Great things DO happen because of your support on Kickstarter. You make a difference in our creative lives, and you help make dreams come true.

And so... Comics pros: please vote for us! The rest of you: please root for us!

More news to come for CROSSING, but we are so thrilled!!!!!! 

See you on the other side,

Enrica J.

P.S. Stories from that very same anthology are rock-n-rolling out on Patreon now!

Right on time, and feeling fine!
over 7 years ago – Tue, Aug 23, 2016 at 06:13:20 PM

Hi everyone! 

Partly because I'm in the midst of some serious Olympics fever, but I'm doing a lot of cheering and shouting the last few days. I know, I know, easy for the writer to do when the artists are the ones that have to do the work, but I am working up quite a sweat over here on the sidelines as pages come in for CROSSING. Happy to report we're right on time for our October debut!

For those interested in a little process, here's a layout page followed by the pen/ink page from Alex Cormack:

 And more panels, just for fun:

Bonus points (and a free comic download) to the first person who can tell me the significance of the tavern depicted in page 1 up above. Hint: CROSSING is set in Baltimore. No googling! You're on your honor. Post in the comments below!

Other updates: 

• SDCC went smashingly well, and you can see some of the pics on our facebook page. 
• I'll be a special guest at Geek Kon in Madison WI in just a few weeks! Close? Stop by!
• Voting for the Harvey Awards has closed--giant THANK YOU to our comics friends who were eligible and voted for THE 27 CLUB! Stories from that book are rolling out now on Patreon! Here's a fun clip of what you can expect from it here--and yes, that IS an animated ME:

 Thanks everyone! More pages and panels sooooon!

Enrica J. 

Character designs and a new page
over 7 years ago – Mon, Aug 08, 2016 at 01:17:45 PM

Alright! Only $700 or so separates us from the next stretch goal, and we've almost hit the 200 backer mark--we only have two more weeks to take down these stretch goals. But we're excited to see so many people lined up already to take this ride--thanks in part to people like Christopher Calloway from Word of the Nerd Online, who posted this interview about our new series:

Chris asked me a few questions about what we have planned and where the idea for CROSSING came from, so check that out if you haven't read it yet. Direct link is here: http://wordofthenerdonline.com/2016/06/kickstarter-interview-on-crossing/

And we're also excited to be connecting with so many of you on Facebook and Twitter! Kickstarter tells me that most of our pledges are coming from word-of-mouth from all of you, and I can't thank you enough for sharing our campaign. Sharp-eyed folks there noted that we've been sharing a bit from a page that isn't in our preview. Have a look:

New characters! We'll show off the colors in a bit, but first, a little bit more about the two main characters you've already met:

This is an excerpt from our ghost, Nina's, character description:

"Nina is an idealistic, well-read 'goth princess.' Brainiac-turned-bad-girl, she’s outspoken and confrontational. She’s is adamant that people believe her when she tells them she didn’t kill herself, and hyper-sensitive to people who talk down to her. The irony is that people often DO talk down to her, often because she is an attractive girl, and they don’t like it when she calls them on it."

This was Alex's first pass:

Ultimately, I thought Nina came through in all her rabble-rousing glory in #7. Here's an excerpt from character description for M.C.:

"Miguel Christopher Tejada. His friends call him “M.C.”, except for his friend, Trey, who calls him “T.” He’s a train conductor for the DARC train that runs from Penn Station in Baltimore to Washington D.C. He’s a young man, proud of having moved up to be a train engineer so early in his career. A lapsed Catholic, it is his religious training that makes him pray for the young woman before his train hits her on the tracks, but now that he’s stuck with her, his patience is wearing thin."

Lots of scowling in this round of designs:

 And #2 is where we landed. These resulted in the characters you see here:

We've still got two more weeks on the clock, and lots more about CROSSING to share, including some pages that Alex Cormack is working on now! Leave a comment with some of your own questions, and I'll share answers in the next post. Remember, we only have two more weeks to hit our next stretch goals!

See you on the other side,

Enrica J. 

P.S. No one has jumped on the BABY ON BOARD reward tier yet! 10 spots there for the taking!

 

Single digit day!
over 7 years ago – Mon, Aug 08, 2016 at 01:16:36 PM

The Kickstarter clock is counting down, and as of 2PM we're officially in the single digits for days left of this campaign! Your support to this point has been outstanding, and I'm excited to welcome so many people aboard! We hit over 200 backers this week, and we're 70% to the next stretch goal.

We'll reveal a new milestone reward add-on when we hit 75%. For now, thanks, everyone, for spreading the word--most of our new backers are coming in from Facebook and Twitter, and so we know we have all of YOU to thank for telling people about CROSSING! Please help us keep it going--this is the final stretch of track before we pull into the station, and we're just over $500 away! 

Some people have asked about the CROSSING logo, and how we settled on the design. Of course the story pages are the single most important part of a comic, but even as the wisdom goes that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, both indie and established publishers will tell you that people most definitely DO. The logo, sometimes called a masthead, is a huge part of branding. It took a good three months to arrive at a design that would get at the heart of the story. 

Some of the places we started for inspiration:

Our designer, Mark Mullaney, looked to these as templates. He started here:

Not bad. But even as the train and safety themes were obvious places to begin, the design also had to hint at the heart of the story. We riffed on the "ghost train" theme for a bit:

This was... close. But just not quite there yet. And finally, we realized what we were missing:

And that's how Mark got us where we needed to be. The official CROSSING logo:

Looks neat, catches the eye, and tells a story--with a twist. I think Mark got us exactly where we needed to be with this design. Backers have seen this logo grace our cover and KS campaign, and can also pick up t-shirts, bags, or pins that feature it right here (check out the add-ons below if you haven't yet.) Cool, huh?

Thanks, everyone! More soon...

Enrica J.