Ladies and Gents, the True Believer Kickstarter Page is Officially LIVE!
I have been overwhelmed by the support and enthusiasm I’ve received from you all so far, and now it’s time to translate that hype into action. Check out the campaign, make a pledge (even $1 helps, and nets you a shoutout right here on the blog!), or, if you’re down and out, simply share the project with friends. You can talk about it, Tweet it, Tumblr it — whatever floats your boat. The more people we can reach, the less everyone needs to chip in in order for us to make it over the $1,500 mark.
Thank you all so much. I can’t wait to see where this goes.
At 8am on Monday, April 23rd, the True Believer Kickstarter Campaign goes live. I know the video says Friday, but we were alerted to the fact that people have these things called “weekends” where they’re generally off enjoying the sunshine rather than trawling the web for worthy new projects to back. This makes sense to me now that I think about it.
So while we wait, a little about the campaign: I’ll be trying to raise $1,500 to print 200 copies of True Believer. The comic will be 36-pages, with full-color covers and interiors. 100 of those copies will feature limited edition two-color screen printed covers with French flaps by Matt Davison of Dueltone Printing. Aside from pre-ordering copies of the comic, I’ve included a number of Kickstarter-exclusive rewards that include handwritten postcards, custom sketches, limited edition prints, and even dinners and studio tours with yours truly.
So what does this mean? We’ve got two days to get the word out as widely as possible. You can share posts about the project with friends on Facebook, point people to the Facebook fan page so they can stay in the loop (facebook.com/Baggywrinkles), plug the project on Twitter as #truebeliever (you can find me under @Lubellwoo), follow me on Tumblr (tumblr.com/lucybellwood), or let me know if you have suggestions for media sources to contact with the press release.
I’m so thankful to all of you who have expressed your enthusiasm and support for this project so far. I can’t tell you how excited I am to get this thing into your hands.
As I work on compiling all the color and ink files today, I thought I’d throw up a finished preview page so you guys can get a feel for how things are shaping up. More to come soon!
In the final few weeks before True Believer hits the printers, I’ll be coloring up a storm, making buttons, designing business cards, investigating screen printing, and also trying to format that other weird written thesis thing I was supposed to have written by now. Just kidding. I wrote it. Mostly. But that guy needs to go into LaTeX and boy howdy I do not know how to work that program yet. Still, baby steps.
I thought I’d drop a few images in here from the next stage in the process. You can see the whole beast on the wall here:
Which I will now proceed to color using this completely delightful Indigo I picked up at the art store this week.
Here are a few tests:
And here’s a page of ink lines printed at 10% grey with watercolor shading:
I’ll be scanning these in and merging them with the digitized line art to create the final images, which should look something like this:
I can’t tell you how excited I am to pull all this stuff together. The coloring will go much MUCH faster than the inking (thank God), so hopefully I’ll blow through 31 pages in the next week and get this thing printed! In the meantime, I’ve got a few illustrations to stick up in the coming days, as well as a requested post about my perspective on the art/writing divide in comics.
A little bit of pre-comic art to whet your appetites. This is the image that will be appearing on the promo cards for my thesis show, where I’ll be displaying original pages from True Believer! I’ll also have copies of the comic for sale in the gallery. If you’re in the Portland area, keep your ears peeled for dates and times.
More arts! A while back I did an illustration for folks over at the Reed College Annual Fund. They’ve just launched a fundraising campaign to get recently-graduated alumni to donate to the college. This is what I came up with for their branding:
If you look closely in there you can spot a number of Reed-related gags (I think 6 in total). See if you can find them all!
Has this image compelled you to fling money at my alma mater? Great! You can check out the campaign here.
Stay tuned for some preview art from True Believer later this week as I wrestle with the second half of the inking process!
So, you guys may’ve noticed that things have been a little quiet here on the comics front. Fear not! Things are happening and this post will hopefully clear up a few questions about where my energy’s going these days and when you can expect to see some new sequential work.
Oooh! Aaah! Pages!
I’m currently neck deep in my 34-page thesis comic (tentatively titled “True Believer”), which should be out in time for Stumptown this year. I wrapped up the pencils last week after a grueling page-a-day push through February, and am now taking the opportunity for a little downtime over Spring Break. I’ll begin inking in the next few days, then do color, layout, and printing in April. This is, of course, on top of full-time school commitments and a few freelance jobs, so there may be delays, but the progress in February was really encouraging. I’ll be posting some more pictures as I start inking so you can get a sense of what it’ll look like.
In the meantime, the blog will be featuring (surprise, surprise) more illustrations! I’m making the shift from my little Pentel Pocket Brush to the real deal Windsor & Newton Series 7 for this project, so I’m trying to do as much freelance work as possible with the W&N to get the feel of it.
Thanks for hanging in there, everyone! I’m getting really excited to share this new work with you. So excited, in fact, that I’ve taken to walking around like this:
Yup.
And with that burst of absurdism, I bid you adieu.
