TWO FISTED HOMEOPAPE August/29 - Not Smart Enough to Sell Out
A comic with a metal cover! Truly - METAL \m/
♫ I applied for a rescue dog,
But if I get you dog,
You're rescuing me ♫
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2022 -- bounce.
First up - wow!
A FISTFUL OF PAIN absolutely blew up on Kickstarter!
It launched an hour before bed two weeks ago, so I quickly pushed out my pre-prepared newsletter about it, and by bed an hour in we were about $4,000 deep [all dollars in True Dollars, the mighty Australian Dollar].
I got my usual 6 hours of shut eye [with an extra 7 just to give my brain a mustard kick] and when I woke I actually took my time before checking. I woke, shambled into the kitchen to make a brew, did Wordle while the kettle boiled [got it in 3, my new strategy is to guess one word and then guess another completely different word - I go the Chase/Guilt combo], I warmed a heat pack for my neck because I’m apparently aging like I recently opened the Ark of the Covenant, and then I sat down to my computer.
My brother, James Lindsay [novelist extraordinaire] had messaged me before slumberland and asked what I thought my morning estimate was. I guessed, truthfully, about $8k. Cut to me opening the Kickstarter page and watching it clock over $15k directly in front of my eyes.
To everyone here who backed it - and I have the numbers on both the newsletter’s clicked links, but I’ve also shared a link that’s RKL specific, so I see how many backers it generates - thank you. This launch has been huge, and that matches how huge this book is in my heart.
We still have more campaign runway to go, so if you are on the fence, click again and have a look around and we hope you find the pledge level that’s right for you on this revenge fuelled, draconic starring, midnight kung fu comic!
At present, the campaign is sitting at over $43k, 550+ backers, and we’ve unlocked:
A pdf of my script
An extra 4 pages in the hardcover
A creator commentary by me and Louie
Another art print for the set by Matty Huynh
A set of digital wallpaper materials
And now yet another 4 pages to the hardcover - taking it up to 88 pages in total.
AND, we’ve also unlocked two extra cards for this metal trading card set that’s so so rad.
But my favourite has been unlocking the Metal variant Cover by Nathaniel Ooten.
Nathaniel is a good, and old, mate of mine - so I was stoked to have him provide art for the book, and this metal variant cover - a bloody comic cover made out of metal, wild! - is really something else.
If you’ve been sitting on the fence, I’d suggest heading over to have a gander now, the campaign has 12 days to go and we’ve still got some runway on further stretch goals - and I’ll be honest, I’m not satisfied with this just being the most funded Ryan K Lindsay Kickstarter of all time, I want it to hit the ceiling for a ComixTribe comic launch, and then go beyond.
Come on over and select the copy of A FISTFUL OF PAIN you want today!
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Selling out.
I love the comic DEADLY CLASS - it’s just been a favourite since it launched like a decade ago. It’s about a school for assassins and killers, but it’s really just about growing up as a teenage outsider. It was clear from the start that writer Rick Remender was putting a decent amount of his past into the main character, Marcus.
In recent arcs, as we near the end, we follow these characters as they age and Marcus has become a writer whose growing cynicism of the world sloughs off him like snow sheets causing avalanches in the wild. Marcus mirrors Remender in so many ways - something you can see if you followed his work, and more importantly followed him online, through the past few decades.
I like how much Remender puts of himself into his work - he’s always obviously [in a subtle way, at times, not always] working through his mind on the page. I’ve long said it: writing is therapy, and Remender does it loud and clear.
His latest issue has Marcus seeing the worst side of his book, LONE STAR, being turned into a TV show and he has to make a car commercial about what it’s like to not work for The Man. I’d say it’s an on the nose analogy for Remender’s own disdain for the corporate side of telling stories, but then I discovered Remender did actually make this exact commercial himself.
I knew LONE STAR was a stand in title for his awesome FEAR AGENT comic [a kind of sci fi western] and it being turned into a TV show was channeling his thoughts about DEADLY CLASS itself being turned into a TV show, and getting the can after one acclaimed season, into which Remender poured himself for a long time as head writer, but I never saw this genuine real life Toyota commercial.
In it, Remender openly says he was sick of Marvel [he just says “corporation”] using him and not properly compensating him. For reference, Remender became one of the biggest writers at Marvel and for his reward was just given more titles to write - which sounds like a blessing, but I see it all the time as this trap where the creator has to generate content for 4-5 monthly books - sometimes double shipping - and they just get exhausted.
Burn out and a furious pace don’t make for the best books. Which maybe explains why Remender’s absolute best work was earlier in his career at the House of Ideas - his Franken-Castle storyline in The Punisher is a brilliantly executed crazy idea where Frank Castle is turned into a Frankenstein style monster after being chopped up by Wolverine’s son, Daken. It’s bonkers, and so good.
I really dug his DOCTOR VOODOO run, cut short into one mini despite Remender cooking up years worth of story for that one - oh well, the market spoke quickly and the book was canned.
But it is his UNCANNY X-FORCE that remains his crown jewel in his Marvel work - a bitterly brutal and spectacular X-Men comic that was personal, and massive, and just really damn well executed. It would sit in my Top Ten Marvel Stories list, easily. That run is amazing.
After that, success flooded Remender, and he got bigger titles, and more titles, and [for me] the work didn’t land as much. No slight on the man, I am certain he put everything he could into each of those scripts, but then the deadline hits, these people have to hit send on whatever they got, because the books gotta ship, and if it sucks, be better next time, maybe.
Eventually, Remender left Marvel while at the top and started a bunch of creator owned comics at Image, and DEADLY CLASS was one of them, and it has been a phenomenal collaboration with artist Wes Craig the entire time. BLACK SCIENCE was another that was just phenomenal and personal and well crafted at all times, because it could have the time to do, and because Remender could have creative control.
I’ve, personally, loved to see Remender shine on his own merits, and I take it as a personal inspiration to see someone get to make their own stories in their own way. I won’t ever get to the point of writing a Marvel Event comic [a great place and audience to bring across to your creator owned work] but I can do the other thing - tell stories that are personal and that bring me great joy.
Thinking about Remender’s awesome comic becoming a tv show - and then that corporation diving in and then diving way out based on the whims of numbers [money and viewers] - is a stark wake up call. Remender no doubt made good money on that deal, but was the personal satisfaction there? His comic retelling of it would say probably not. So it seems you have to take the balance of selling out and pouring out your heart and find the middle ground you are happy with.
This makes me think of a publisher I recently dealt with, and that balance is hard to find. But you can only live and learn. It’s why I like making books with ComixTribe so much - they make this comic making journey still personal, and a win for the creators.
I also then saw a tweet from Michael Moreci this week:
And I could relate to that. I dig some Big Two comic characters, would even dig telling some stories with them, but I’ve noticed my hustle for that world has not been anywhere near strong enough because I can see it’s a definite path towards success, but it’s just not where I think I’ll find my success.
I’ve many times written about being in the DC Writers Talent Development Squad, and then getting no work from it, and it being probably one of my life’s biggest failures, and it being a public one made me feel pretty bad about myself.
But looking back on it, I can see I wasn’t a good fit for it, and the effort I put into trying to make myself fit that role was fairly wasted because it was never going to come naturally or be what they wanted. I needed to be honest with myself about that.
So when I get up at 4am and write for a little bit, I find I want to be passionate about what I’m working towards. There’s little point carving out odd hours in the day to do something you “think you should do for future gain in some ethereal capacity” when instead I could use those hours to do something I massive love, and in that way find present gain in a very corporeal capacity - it makes me happy and I get to tell these stories I love.
These stories would find a bigger audience if I was hot off a recent acclaimed Marvel book, certainly, but that’s not the only way to success.
Making what I love, with mates I love, is something I can do now, so why not use what few hours I get in the day to do just that. Maybe my kids and their Faberge Egg addiction will never thank me for not selling out, but I might be better off mentally for it, so I’ll see if they can bank that and turn it into Online Credits for their own sustenance in the future. Or maybe they just get a somewhat happy father to spend their childhood with.
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PERHAPS YOU'D CARE TO SAMPLE
NOTORIOUS, a solo rpg on Kickstarter - this one looks gorgeous, and is also a great idea. A Star Wars-inspired bounty hunter solo rpg. Uh, yes, please!
A great article about Alan Moore’s Writing For Comics - I got this ages ago, and it almost wasn’t what I expect, but it was very good, very cool. Worth your while to track it down if you haven’t already, and may this article point you in the right direction.
SHRINE ENTRANCE on Kickstarter - my mate Jin Chan Yum Wai started his own manga publisher and it’s looking to put together its first slab of a collection and it looks amazing.
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GRIST FOR THE MILL
Too busy selling comics - at a con and in the Kickstarter - to do much, sorry. I’ll have to talk about CRIMES OF THE FUTURE next time.
But I can confirm I had a blast at Oz Comic Con in Canberra - a first time the show has swung through the old home town. I got to catch up with mates and have some good chats and sell some comics to really awesome people, especially those who came back after buying stuff last time and wanted more.
I’ll post a pic of what I bought when I unpack my bag, after I tidy my office, after I update the Kickstarter, and once some more marking has been done.
So…soon, maybe.
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Be one of the good guys, because there's way too many of the bad.
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POST CREDITS SEQUENCE
There was a One-Page RPG Jam on Itch and I got very inspired very quickly and joined into it because I hadn’t joined a jam on Itch yet, and I’m always keen to try something new!
There were over 300 entries to this Jam, and some are really cool. So, what did I decide to make?
Yes, now you can roleplay as…well, me :]
The way this solo journaling game works is you are a writer trying to break a story, but you’re also slowly sliding into madness as you work this particular personal tale. As such, you constantly have to flip a coin to see if the prompt you just rolled has driven you to Inspiration or Madness.
I’m actually really fond/proud of this specific game mechanic - I’m sure it’s been done elsewhere, but I’ve not seen it in any of these solo journaling games [so I’ll be happy with myself, but not try to claim it as my invention or anything].
In the game, maybe you flip well and only experience inspiration and get your story finished and published to acclaim…or maybe you don’t.
I see this as an intriguing character study, but also maybe something that might help you crack the case on any actual story you are working on right now.
I created a 20 table of prompts and most of those things are things that help my own brain work over stuff. Showers, look at your shelves, go for a walk. I put sit in the garden, but I never get the time to do that, I should have put in ‘mow the lawn’ as that always seems like fertile brain time for me, for some weird reason.
Anyway, you can download WRITER’S BLOCK ON THE PURPLE SEA for free, or pwyw
May it serve you well. In breaking story. Not going mad. Though what I am, your boss/dad/husband? Do what you want, it’s on the internet now, I’m no longer liable.