GRIZ GROBUS (a hardcover graphic novel)

316% Funded! GOOD GROBUS!
about 2 years ago – Mon, Nov 14, 2022 at 06:46:56 PM

I wanted to give you all a very breathless, exhausted, and teary-eyed thank-you after all the support. We all survived the campaign, and by god, it went incredibly. 

So - NEXT STEPS:

Right now, along with Kathryn Renta, I'm wrapping up the print file for the book itself, aiming to send it off to the printers in the next week and a half. That's the biggest hurdle. Once the print file is ready, we'll also be sending out the PDF to all backers!

Next, I'm working on the imagery for the "guide to thinking machines" at this very moment. Here's one of the robots, a co-starring character from the short story "The Ansible", which will be on comic shelves in "IMAGE!" #9, in December, if you're thirsting for a taste of the grobus:

Lastly, the geniuses of PHIX systems are doing the final tweaks on the print design for our Stanley miniatures, so those will be heading into full production very soon as well.

I also wanted to sneak in one last cross-promotion - Nicole Goux, who provided this incredible pinup for the book...

...has a new book in an ongoing kickstarter put on by Avery Press, a cool tiny publisher who has put up all sorts of neat books already. I personally ordered Nicole's book, "Big Ugly", and Zoe Thorogood's  "The impending Blindness of Billie Scott". So if your wallet and heart is still open, give it a shot here! 

Thanks again, for your faith in the Grobus, and I'll have more updates soon.

-Simon

THE FINAL COUNTDOWN - GOALS SMASHED! NEW PINUPS! MY CUP RUNNETH OVER!
about 2 years ago – Thu, Nov 03, 2022 at 09:33:08 AM

As we enter the final 20ish hours, I have a few updates. FIRST: THE FINAL STRETCH GOAL WAS SMASHED! 

 It looks like there'll be a physical copy of this bad boy slipped into each book, barring something horrible happening in the supply chain. 

  BUT THAT'S NOT ALL -
  We have two final pinups from two of my favorite artists. First, your friend and mine, the animator of our illustrious animated trailer - DREW SHIELDS! 

   And secondly, someone I've been a long-time fan of, the small but powerful Rebecca Kirby!

   My last campaign-related update, too - I've now added the hardcover version of GRIP OF THE KOMBINAT as an add-on, for the canny reader. 

LAST BUT NOT LEAST - I wanted to give a final holler to the campaigns of Matt Emmons,

 Andrew Maclean and Alexis Ziritt,

Matt Lesniewski,

 and a newcomer, PABLO RINCON! 

He's got a strange but very compelling new book underway, and I'm very curious to see more...

Anyways, thank you all so much for your support, and see you on the other side!

A FINAL STRETCH GOAL! (and some cross promotion)
about 2 years ago – Wed, Nov 02, 2022 at 11:26:53 AM

At less then a week left and $51K Canadian on the docket, I must admit, I am overjoyed with how all this has gone over - and how much support we've garnered for our beloved book!

BUT THE CRUEL HOOKS OF GREED ARE TOO DEEP IN MY FLESH, so I have concocted one final enticement - a Hail Mary, of sorts. If we end up hitting $60,000 of my native Canadian Dollars, I have one final cute little treat to offer the physical backers of the book (a digital copy would be included too, of course).

A petit, 16-page (a proposed 5 by 7 inches in dimension) little guidebook to the various robotic clergy of the Griz Grobus/Habitat universe! I've been slowly growing the roster of robots, across these projects, and a zine to highlight these eager automatons felt right (especially after the idea was suggested online by Peter Queckenstedt... who made this wonderful piece of pixelart of Father Stanley back in 2018:

Godspeed, brethren!

And now, of course, the cross-promotion:

Andrew Maclean and Alexis Ziritt are two powerful, tough-headed cartoonists that came up around the same time I did (or at least that's how I remember it), and they are in the midst of their own exciting new kickstarter campaign for a book called DEATH FIGHT FOREVER, in our very own genre space of "Action-comedy Graphic Novel" - a sweet spot if ever there was one. 

Their own little blurb describes it thusly: From the deranged and reclusive indie comic book sensations, Andrew  MacLean (Head Lopper, ApocalyptiGirl) and Alexis Ziritt (Space Riders,  Night Hunters) comes Death Fight Forever, a 144 page graphic novel  inspired by beat ‘em up video games, underground comics, B-movies, and  ravings of the criminally insane. It’s an action-comedy about revenge,  redemption, and grief. Fun stuff.

Thanks again for all your support, and more soon! 

200% Funded!
about 2 years ago – Tue, Nov 01, 2022 at 04:10:18 PM

Somehow, with 600+ backers behind us, we've managed to get past 200%! A Huge thank you to everyone who has pledged/preordered so far - with just a hair under two weeks left in the campaign, I am exceptionally pleased to see how well it's all gone. 

In the meantime, I am slowly working on making some sneaky little bits of extra contextual art for the book, including this in-progress planetary map, showing the eastern hemisphere of the planet:

I'm also working on getting PDF versions of all the rewards squared away - so more on that soon!

Thanks again, and talk to you very soon!

If there's a PROPHET in it, by gum...
about 2 years ago – Tue, Oct 25, 2022 at 11:07:23 PM

With only eight days left in the campaign, I wanted to dive back on here for some news and cross-promotion, as befits any aging kickstarter campaign. FIRST:

A friend forwarded me some interesting info about Rob Liefeld's PROPHET - apparently, it is inching ever-closer to becoming an actual film! As some of you may know, I made my career working on the Prophet Relaunch back in 2012 - it really got me some time in the sun, which i have been coasting on ever since!

 BUT, in commemoration of that, I've added a new tier and MORE add-ons for the kickstarter - ALL OF THE PROPHET BOOKS!

Prophet, if you hadn't heard of it, is a series that began as a sort of off-brand Captain America back in the 90s that had some fitful starts and stops. But back in 2011, Brandon Graham got hired to relaunch it, and he called me up to help him take the reins. The rest is sadly history, but the books are still up for sale! 

Now for the cross-promotion: An enterprising comicsman who goes by the name Felipe Cagno is in the midst of funding a rip-roaring adventure comic called "THE FEW AND THE CURSED", which frankly looks like some classic comics mayhem. A Post-apocalyptic supernatural western, you say? I DO SAY! Most impressive to me is not just that Felipe and his crew are funding their comic, but it seems like an entire empire of games and videos and whatnot, all spawned from the same source... pretty impressive!

Unrelated to kickstarter, my old friend CM Kosemen just released a very funny weird video about a Roman-Era con artist and his SNAKE CULT - I'm only a few minutes in, as of posting, but if there's one clever Turkish man to develop a parasocial relationship with, it's Memo!

A huge thanks to everyone on board so far, and more soon!