Tag Archives: ashes

Around the Tubes

It’s a new week! What geeky things did you all do this weekend? Sound off in the comments below. While you get going, here’s some comic news and a review from around the web to start the day.

Book Riot – Cuddle Up to These Cozy Fantasy Comics and Graphic Novels – What would you add to the list?

The Beat – King & Sampere to introduce Diana’s daughter in WONDER WOMAN #800 – Interesting.

California Local – A Not-So-Brief History of California Comix – Some cool comic book history.

CBR – Jujutsu Kaisen’s Former Translator Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison – Good.

Review

The Beat – Ashes

Ashes cover

Preview: Ashes

Ashes

(W) Álvaro Ortiz (A/CA) Álvaro Ortiz
In Shops: Feb 08, 2023
SRP: $19.99

Three old friends reunite for the mother of all road trips! One of Spain’s most brilliant graphic novelists finally makes his English-language debut in this elegantly unpredictable gem! Polly, Moho, and Piter haven’t seen each other in years. Now they’ve piled into a car for a loooong journey to a mysterious cross marked on a map. All their old personality quirks and conflicts are resurrected (with new wrinkles) as this surreal reunion gets underway. Up ahead are car chases, alcohol, roadside motels, banjo-playing thugs, a ship graveyard, violence, sensual tension, and, of course, a monkey! The captivating first graphic novel from internationally renowned cartoonist Álvaro Ortiz is an explosive mix of emotional road movie and hooligan thriller in which nothing is what it seems.

Ashes

Kickstarter’s Ashes Isn’t the First Project to Include Retailer Participation

The Beat spotlighted the recently funded Ashes over on Kickstarter and deservedly congratulated the project in it’s success.  As one of the funders, I can’t wait to have it in my hands.  Unfortunately the article perpetuated the incorrect information that it is the first comic book project to include retailer incentives.

Aside from such a large upfront goal funding an original graphic novel, Ashes is also significant for being the first Kickstarter project to offer retailers a chance to participate and get discounted copies of the graphic novel for sale in stores.  As of this writing, it looks like 11 retailers have participated.  A small start for a new practice of cutting and the distributor and merging Direct to Consumer with Direct to Retail fulfillment.

Reality is that’s not true.  We fact checked (I gave to both projects cited which is why I knew) and corrected the original Publisher’s Weekly article where this incorrect fact was first hatched.  From our article:

two projects (I found, might be more) beat Ashes by over 3 months when it comes to retailer incentives.  Super by Aberrant Press and The Hero Code by Jamie Gambell both offered incentives for retailers.

Super saw two levels for $200 and $500.

$200 – GROUP/RETAILER PLEDGE #1: 20 copies of the book will be sent to you as well as 20 of the preview books and 20 of the postcards and your name(s) printed in the book’s “thank you’s” section. Also, you’ll get a page of original art (again, first pledged gets first pick).

$500 – GROUP/RETAILER PLEDGE #2: 40 copies of the book will be sent to you as well as 40 of the preview books, 50 of the postcards, your name(s) printed in the book’s “thank you’s” section and 10 of the signed and numbered prints! Also, you’ll get 2 pages of original art from the book (first pledged gets first pick)!!! AND A SPECIAL BONUS: A ONE PAGE AD FOR YOUR STORE OR GROUP OR WHATEVER REALLY (so long as it’s within reason)!!!

The Hero Code offered the following:

$30 – *RETAILER REWARD* – x10 copies of the book, 7 standard cover, 2 JR Variant and 1 wrap around variant, plus a button, print and 5 full collections of trader card sets. Retailers can order more than one set.

This is the second example this week of erroneous reporting being taken as truth (Dark Horse digital pricing being the other this week).  The fact is Aberrant Press and Jamie Gambell deserve the credit for doing this months before Ashes.  Give credit where credit is due.

Cyber Monday – Try Kickstarter

Many folks will be spending today trying to snatch up deals online.  While you’re thinking of some interesting gifts to give this holiday season, how about some fine comics being promoted through Kickstarter.  Kickstarter is a crowdfunding website that allows creators to promote their projects and receive pledges to help fund them.  For a pledge there’s usually neat incentives, like autographed comics or t-shirts, to even getting a character designed to look like you.

Well, this Cyber Monday, here’s three projects that are worth your support:

Ashes

This graphic novel by Alex de Campi & Jimmy Broxton is 19 days out from it’s funding attempt and $3,500 to go.  The description is what really sold me.

A disturbed 15-year-old boy reaches out through the internet to two former heroes… but he doesn’t want their help. He wants them dead.

Ashes is a bullet ride through the brain of a dystopian Britain into the dark heart of the American psyche. As soldier Rupert Cain and journalist Katie Shah are reunited five years after they brought down a government, punishment — from an unexpected source — looms for that good deed. Chased from London’s CCTV-bristling streets to the Home Counties, they are finally brought to ground by an acquaintance’s betrayal and dragged off to an army base in a high-sierra American wasteland. Their only way out is through the mind of a twisted teenager… providing they can also escape his father.

Recommended level – $30 – a limited edition hardback copy

 

Occupy Comics

With a whose who list of creators, this cool comic project does some social good too.  Any money raised will be donated to the Occupy Movement, helping purchase goods to get it through the winter.  The donations will occur right away, but the comic won’t see print until 2012.

The comic is over goal with 10 days to go.

Recommended level – $10 – you get a digital copy of every comic to be released through this project.

 

Tanked

The story just sounds cool….

Tanked takes place 45 days in the future when the world has abruptly run out of gasoline. The story follows three characters as they struggle to cope with a burgeoning apocalypse in small town USA.

Tanked is unique in that you see regular people cope with the apocalypse as it happens. You aren’t coming into the fictional world 20 or 30 years after the nukes have gone off or after the zombies have risen from their graves. I’ve made the characters as real as possible, to make them as much like you, the reader, to convey the most shock.

Um, yes please….  There’s also some preview pages on the project page that show off the art is as cool as the plot.

Recommended level – $10 – an autographed copy of the comic and your name listed in the thank you section.

Ashes Isn’t the First Kickstarter Project to Offer Retailer Incentives

It’s great to see Publishers Weekly cover Kickstarter and Alex de Campi & Jimmy Broxton’s Ashes.  It’s an interesting project and I myself chipped in $30.  Kickstarter is a crowd sourcing website that allows creators to reach out to the public to raise money for their projects.  It’s become a democratic publishing engine that relies on consumers to vote with their pledges and dollars.  However in the coverage, writer Todd Allen claimed:

In what appears to be the first of its kind, de Campi has offered a “retailer pack” of the graphic novel: 5 limited edition, numbered hardcover graphic novels (suggested retail price: $30) for $105, which works out to a 30% discount. The offer also includes an “art card” that can be sold immediately and also contains a password to read the digital edition of the graphic novel, which will be serialized at comiXology as the book is being produced. The participating stores will be the only retail locations selling Ashes in 2012.

That’s fantastic except two projects (I found, might be more) beat Ashes by over 3 months when it comes to retailer incentives.  Super by Aberrant Press and The Hero Code by Jamie Gambell both offered incentives for retailers.

Super saw two levels for $200 and $500.

$200 – GROUP/RETAILER PLEDGE #1: 20 copies of the book will be sent to you as well as 20 of the preview books and 20 of the postcards and your name(s) printed in the book’s “thank you’s” section. Also, you’ll get a page of original art (again, first pledged gets first pick).

$500 – GROUP/RETAILER PLEDGE #2: 40 copies of the book will be sent to you as well as 40 of the preview books, 50 of the postcards, your name(s) printed in the book’s “thank you’s” section and 10 of the signed and numbered prints! Also, you’ll get 2 pages of original art from the book (first pledged gets first pick)!!! AND A SPECIAL BONUS: A ONE PAGE AD FOR YOUR STORE OR GROUP OR WHATEVER REALLY (so long as it’s within reason)!!!

The Hero Code offered the following:

$30 – *RETAILER REWARD* – x10 copies of the book, 7 standard cover, 2 JR Variant and 1 wrap around variant, plus a button, print and 5 full collections of trader card sets. Retailers can order more than one set.

Great to see the coverage, even if the claims are wrong.

Around the Tubes

It’s Wednesday and that means new comic book day!  It’s also the day before Thanksgiving… mmm, good food.  While you wait for the Turkey and gravy and stuffing and pie, here’s the news you might have missed.

Around the Blogs:

Publishers Weekly – Kickstarter for Retailers? “Ashes” Includes Comic Stores in Crowdfunding OfferingA great way to tie in retail stores with a Kickstarter project, but the article is incorrect that it’s a first.

Collider – SyFy Turning DC Comics BOOSTER GOLD into TV SeriesInteresting….

Examiner – Why comic books in the 1980s changed to a darker toneAnd that’s one take.

Comicvine – DC Launches New Storefront On Amazon Website – Mazel tov

 

Around the Tubes Reviews:

LFPress – Code Word: Geronimo