Early Bird Vol. 1

Today's SCOTUS rulings.
over 1 year ago – Fri, Jun 30, 2023 at 03:06:58 PM

I had planned to make a more spirited, energetic post today showing off some new art and sharing details about Early Bird post-Kickstarter campaign, but it no longer feels appropriate to do so, as if ignoring the devastating news of the recent United States Supreme Court rulings (rollback of affirmative action, overruling student debt forgiveness, and essentially legalizing businesses to discriminate against their clientele). 

Conservative setbacks like this are dangerous, disappointing, and disheartening, and they're of course not exclusive to America; I don't want this to appear strictly US-centric, since I know queer people suffer globally and are always fighting for their rights, all over. I also don't want queer communities, or our allies, to ever compromise by separating any of the letters characters from each other: L, G, B T, Q, I, A, 2, and beyond.

The more typical updates focusing on Early Bird will resume after this weekend, but for now I just wanted to express the following on this very sullen final day of Pride Month: this sucks; fuck the Supreme Court;  don't let these developments permanently damage your optimism or willingness for action.

ALL stretch goals met!
over 1 year ago – Tue, Jun 20, 2023 at 05:54:00 PM

Just a quick update here to emphasize that all planned stretch goals have been met! This means:

• All backers getting a physically shipped book will get the sticker set for free.
• All backers getting a physically shipped book will get to choose between the default cover art, and what will be a newly drawn variant cover by V.V. Glass for. The digital PDF version of Early Bird Vol. 1 will feature both of these covers for display.
• A bonus mini-chapter will be included with digital and print copies of Early Bird Vol. 1 to expand on the story and characters.

I'm still considering the possibility of other potential bonuses or freebies for backers before the campaign ends, and will keep you all posted!

TWO stretch goals for Early Bird have been met!
over 1 year ago – Fri, Jun 16, 2023 at 07:43:53 AM

I'll keep this update short and sweet, but I just wanted to highlight that not only has Early Bird Vol. 1 been funded, but two of the stretch goals have as well! All backers getting a physically printed book will get a free set of the stickers featuring Satoru & Hector, and their respective Crane & Capra designs. Backers will also be able to choose which cover they want for their printed graphic novel, with a new variant cover being drawn by V.V. Glass (digital PDF versions of Early Bird will include both covers for display)!

With still three weeks left in the campaign, I have great confidence that we'll reach the $10,000 USD stretch goal of including a smaller scale, bonus mini chapter with all physical and digital versions of Early Bird Vol. 1. I'm currently considering the possibility of adding some sort of majorly ambitious stretch goal past that, with the intent of this goal also being a nice freebie for as many backers as possible. 

I'll keep you all posted, and again, thank you all so much for making this campaign such a success!

Early Bird Vol. 1 is now FUNDED!
over 1 year ago – Wed, Jun 14, 2023 at 08:35:38 AM

In just a single week, you've all successfully funded the entirety of Early Bird Vol. 1, which just completely blows me away. I was already wary on the possibility of success with this project, especially with it being a totally new story that's so far removed from my prior material that I've campaigned on Kickstarter, but the campaign is already fully funded with still weeks remaining.

Early Bird began to take shape with some illustrated character concepts in 2019 by Heather Campbell and V.V. Glass, and later evolved into a much more ambitious aspiration in 2020 with Federica as the main illustrator and Chris Blanco designing the logo. We put together a 13-page pitch in an attempt to seek out interest privately with publishers and other possible partners.  Only a single publication that Early Bird was offered to even bothered to respond.

This was, of course, discouraging to say the least. But Hector and Satoru still remained the original characters burning laps through the circuitry in my brain even when I had nearly convinced myself there was no chance their story had a future. My friends, including those involved with Early Bird's development and promotion like Heather Campbell, V.V. Glass, Chris Blanco, Veitstanz, and Kumanaru, plus my close knit group of work colleagues, former L&B backers, and on-going D&D crew, all remained confident that even in the wild, Early Bird would find its fans.

At the end of 2022, Federica and I rallied to build Early Bird again, with more acutely developed writing, refined artwork, and all new pages for preview. However, this time it was going to be in an attempt to sell it directly to its audience, and we were not disappointed. Taking Early Bird to flight has been challenging and worrying, but seeing the success of the Kickstarter over the past week has made it all more than worth it. 

This is a story I truly believed I might never get a chance to tell; thank you all for proving me wrong! I can't express how much it means to me that people have already grown so attached to Satoru and Hector, and there's so much more about these two that I can't wait to share in the full book.

Early Bird is over 80% funded in less than a week!
over 1 year ago – Mon, Jun 12, 2023 at 09:16:25 AM

I'll have more detailed thoughts to share later, but at the moment I just wanted to announce a recent milestone that the campaign passed! For a totally new story, especially one so far separated from my previous work, I can't believe that Early Bird is already so close to being fully funded!