The Miscellaneous Adventures of STYKMAN™ Returns
The following letter is a little long; sorry about that. It’s filled with good stuff, though. Promise.
As you no doubt may have heard, My family and I are in the process of relaunching my all-ages comic book series The Miscellaneous Adventures of STYKMAN™. Yay! (Insert live studio audience soundtrack applause.)
Just over 10 years ago I released the first few issues of what was supposed to be an ongoing comic book series with plans to take it far beyond the realm of comics. Unfortunately, as I’m sure you know, things did not go as planned.
In fact, I affectionately like to refer to that first iteration of the character as a “successful failure.”
Why?
Well, we hit all of the right notes, received all the right praise from all of the right industry related media outlets; built up a strong following of adoring fans, and even licensed the character to a toy company that began producing STYKMAN™ related collectibles.
Sounds like we had a hit on our hands, right? Unfortunately, not so much.
In lieu of all the love, and in spite of all of the accolades, certain gatekeepers and industry hurdles placed in front of independent creators such as myself made it too difficult for us to continue producing the comic profitably and we had to, heartbreakingly, shelve the series. (Awww)
So why try to bring it out again now?
Timing is everything. And now is the perfect time to bring the character back!
Why?
Well, first, the mainstream comic book companies (Marvel, DC, etc.) have been doing a real bang-up job alienating their fanbase over the last couple of years by pushing shall we say, agenda driven storylines in their books that are not really resonating with their readers.
Comics used to be fun; an escape, if you will, from the craziness of real life. Apparently, the mainstream publishers have decided otherwise and thought dragging the real world everyone was trying to escape from – if only for a moment – into their books was a good idea.
Yeah, not so much.
Instead, it drove readers away forcing them to look for alternative sources of entertainment like independent comics. Bad news for the industry, good news for us.
Second, and most importantly, the gatekeepers are no longer relevant. This is a biggee!
You see, we can now offer an avenue for people to go directly through us to preorder the comics while simultaneously taking an active participation in the relaunch of the series.
How? Through crowdfunding. (Oooooh)
In case you are unfamiliar with the term, crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising small amounts of money from a large number of people.
With the help of contributors, also known as campaign backers, we will be able to produce and deliver the book directly to the customer without the need of 2nd and 3rd parties (i.e., Comic shops & Distributors).
And I am not the only comic creator who has recognized this. Several campaigns have been launched this year alone that have raised significant amounts of capital to fund their projects– something I know we can do too.
Our comic book campaign launches on Thursday, November 15th, 2018 via the crowdfunding platform IndieGogo with an initial goal to raise $15,000. These funds will pay for the printing and shipping costs associated with the production of the comic, as well as provide a way for us to begin moving back into producing comics full-time. Yay! (Insert live studio audience applause again.)
We will accomplish this by offering “perks” to those who pledge to back the campaign in return for their contributions. These perks will include the new comic itself, a “Behind the Branch” sketchbook, hand-colored head sketches by me of characters from the series, and pages of original artwork from the new comic – something I have never done.
Along with the perks, we will be adding additional items to each backer’s pledge through what are called “Stretch Goals” making each backer’s pledge to the campaign worth that much more.
These Stretch Goals, which include things like additional story pages added to the comic book, bookmarks, collectible trading cards (with gum), posters, and more, will be “unlocked” when we achieve certain funding benchmarks in our campaign after raising the initial amount.
Pretty cool, right?
So where do you come in?
Spread the word. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.
If you could do us a huge favor and help us spread the word about our campaign launch via your social media profiles, email, and word of mouth we would be truly grateful.
You see, one of the hardest parts of a crowdfunding campaign is getting the word out to potential backers; you have contact with people we cannot reach. Over the course of the next two weeks I will be sending out updates with links that we would appreciate your help in sharing with your social circles. Don’t worry, my updates won’t be anywhere near as long as this. (Whew!)
And here’s why: If we raise at least 30% of our funding goal within the first 72 hours of our launch, we become eligible for promotion by Indiegogo themselves on their main website page, as well as added to their newsletter that is sent to all of their backers as a campaign to watch. These two items alone increase our chances to raise funds from additional backers that otherwise may not hear about us.
With your help in getting the word out, we run a much better chance in accomplishing it.
What do you say, can we count on your help with promotion?
Thank you so very much for taking the time to read through this rather lengthy announcement. My family and I truly do appreciate your support and for helping us spread the word.
