fantasy – Lucy Bellwood

The Cartozia Tales Kickstarter is LIVE

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You’ve heard me shouting about it for months and end, and now the day is finally here! The Cartozia Kickstarter Campaign has launched with an incredible outpouring of support from fans all over the world. I’m so excited to share it with you.

In case you’ve missed it the last fifteen times I’ve gushed about Cartozia on the web, it’s an all-ages fantasy series set in a shared world and brought to life by a core team of eight indie cartoonists. With the guidance of our fearless editor Isaac Cates, we’ve published the first two issues on our own dime, and now we’re aiming to fund an entire year’s worth of 40-page issues. It’s an audacious campaign, but I have faith that we’re going to knock it out of the park.

From story to story and issue to issue, we swap characters and locations via a game of chance, building on one another’s ideas to create a dynamic narrative landscape. Two guest stars per issue help keep things fresh, and we’ve got some incredible names on the project (James Kochalka! Brittney Sabo! Evan Dahm! Eleanor Davis! Dylan Horrocks!).

I’m fairly certain this type of storytelling has never been done before on such a scale, and the results so far have been fantastic — immersive and playful for kids, engaging and complex for adults. We’re making Cartozia Tales because we think the world needs more comics that will attract young readers and let them celebrate adventure, curiosity, exploration, and fun, but we can’t make it happen without your help.

If you want to dive in and make this thing happen, here are some ideas to get you started:

1. Pledge to the campaign.

2. Spread the link (especially to parents and teachers!).

3. Find us on Twitter @Cartozia and get in touch.

4. Reblog this post on Tumblr.

5. Learn more about the world, our contributors, and our methods on the homepage.

6. Invite your friends to the campaign event on Facebook!

I’ll be posting more news as I get it, but right now the biggest goal is setting this campaign off to a roaring start. I can’t wait to see where it goes. As an added incentive, here’s a full gallery of all the ridiculous dances I was giving away earlier this week to celebrate early subscribers to the series:

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Cartozia Lives!

Joy of joys! My copies of Cartozia #1 arrived over the weekend and HOLY COW they are bee-yoo-tiful. Isaac did a stellar job with the print quality and paper stock, and the stories all look gorgeous. I just can’t stop touching them.

We’ll be running a Kickstarter for the full year’s worth of issues later this month, but I encourage all of you to order or subscribe NOW, as the price will go up to account for Kickstarter fees and other sundry costs. The more subscribers we get now, the lower our target goal will be and the higher our chances of succeeding. Plus, this is a beautiful and innovative comic, and I’m excited to get it into as many hands as possible.

If you’re allergic to ordering things on the Internet, I’ll also have these first issues for sale in person at Rose City Comic Con next month. No excuses!

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Cartozia #1 Pre-Orders & Issue 2 Previews!

So I just got word from our fearless editor Isaac Cates that Cartozia Tales #1 is hot off the press and headed out TODAY! Here’s a couple phone-quality photos of the first issue:

FirstIssue — Leah Palmer Preiss’s incredible cover illustration!

BQijD-ICQAEBtLW.jpg-large — A page from my first story, Above.

You can still snag a copy for the pre-order sale price ($5!) until Isaac starts shipping orders in earnest, so be sure to grab one THIS VERY SECOND! Seriously, initial support is crucial to the continuation of this series, which will run for a whole year (and possibly more), so the more the merrier at this point. Plus, I’m super proud of all the work that went into this and I think the contributors are all a buncha badasses, so, y’know. There’s that.

We’ll also be launching a Kickstarter later this month, but subscriptions and single issues are cheaper if you order straight through the store right now, so get to it!

And since we just can’t stop, here’s a couple panels from my story for the second issue, which I just wrapped up earlier this week:

TippingPointPreview — You might remember Reshii from the paper doll cards I posted a while ago. He’s a confident navigator.

TippingPoint2_Preview — Unfortunately confident navigation isn’t always the best strategy when you’re trying to find your way out of The China Labyrinth.

Want to know more about Reshii and his quest? You can catch the first part of his story, illustrated by Sarah Becan, in Issue 1. My piece for Issue 2 explores the mysteries of the China Labyrinth, which was one of my absolute favorite places to design. I’m hoping to do a little “Learn More” featurette about its unique ecosystem somewhere in Issue 2. Keep your eyes peeled.

Cartozia Forever!

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Cartozia Preview

After a three day drawing marathon featuring much Daft Punk and many pots of tea, my story for Cartozia Tales Issue 1 is COMPLETE!

Here’s a preview to celebrate.

The issue is slated to come out later this month. It looks like the discounted early bird subscriptions are sold out, but you can still jump on board with a regular subscription right here.

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Welcome to Cartozia!

As if there weren’t enough stuff already going on this week, the official announcement for Cartozia Tales has just gone live! Seven core cartoonists (and several special guests) have been hard at work creating the world you see here over the past few months, and soon we’ll be releasing the first issue of our brand-new, all-ages fantasy series set therein.

The stories are divided up into map quadrants and shared randomly among contributors, so each issue will pair artists with new environments and characters. I’m very excited to be working alongside creators like Dylan Horrocks, Jen Vaughn, Isaac Cates, Sarah Becan and many others. My story for issue one should be finished before the week is out — here are some preliminary sketches:

I’ll share more sneak previews as and when I can. In the meantime, consider signing up as a regular subscriber to receive the first ten issues and help guarantee the continuation of the project.

See you in Cartozia!