Comic Writer Looking For Partner

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zlingley
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Posts: 3
Joined: Wed May 09, 2018 11:36 pm
Location: Dallas, TX

Comic Writer Looking For Partner

Post by zlingley »

Hello,

My name is Zachary Stanush and I am an aspiring comic book writer. I have a whole 6-issue project written, with 22 pages an issue that adds up to 132 pages in total. I don’t simply have the amount of money required to pay an artist upfront for that kind of work, so I have resorted to starting a Kickstarter campaign in order to fund my project. I of course haven’t started it yet, but I am looking for an artist to do this campaign with me so we might have a better chance of success. If I just put a script next to a picture of my face up on there we all know that it will fail drastically without any visual content to back it up on the promises that I’ll turn that script into an 132 page comic book, no matter how good I claim it is. Now I want to be clear, this is a paid project, but the money will be sent to you directly when it is taken from the Kickstarter. This means that even if you decide to start on the project only after you are paid, then there is at least some minimum work you need to do in order to make the campaign look good. There is a full breakdown of the $7,500 goal I have set down in this post. Now I am going to explain each portion of this enterprise, from the project itself to target backers we need to successfully finance our campaign. They go as follows:
-The project itself, plot and art styles required
-The breakdown of the $7,500 goal and the costs associated with it
-The patrons we will be asking directly for money in exchange for our product
-How the comic itself will be released to the world when it is done

Project
For the past couple of months I have been working on building a superhero universe set in the year 2034. Since my stories don’t only delve into the superhero genre but also politics, war, religion, and every other type of controversial topic, I have chosen 2034 in order to make the world I wish to and the necessary political changes instead of going a bajillion years into the future. Now I know we’ve seen war with many superhero comics, but I want to show both the logistical/tactical side along with the badass battle side. Now, while I have other series planned and the whole story goes beyond the arc I am going for with this campaign, I have chosen the very first story to start with.
The name of the first arc is ‘Markov’s Dawn’ and covers a female political commissar in the Second Soviet Union named Nikita Markov. It starts with her going to investigate the progress of a mine that started operations a month before when an event known as ‘Stonefall’ happened. While the warden of the mine, which is using political prisoners to do menial work in the classic Russian style, is suspicious of Nikita’s presence there, the climax of the first issue comes when the rocks that have been mined seem to give off special powers when exposed to somebody in a certain way. As that is only the general overview of the first issue, the arc itself will feature Nikita facing a variety of challenges:
-getting used to her own powers while hiding them from her superiors for fear of what they might do
-navigating the male dominated Soviet government in an effort to prove that a woman should be able to progress as she did, yet still holds true to Soviet beliefs
-Connecting with those around her to ensure she has her own circle of loyal followers should anyone act against her
-dealing with the other human weapons that were created in the same incident she was, for many of them hold a grudge against Mother Russia
What is expected from the artist is a realistic style comic similar to that of DC/Marvel, and will be able to fully pencil, ink, color, and letter a page.

Breakdown
The cost breakdown of the $7,500 goal is as follows:
-$35 a page, colored, inked, and lettered, which adds up to $4,620 for the book alone.
-$25 for a special arc cover that will serve as the unique cover for the book containing all 6 issues
-$25 for a special character portrait to display not only on the Kickstarter campaign but on merch when we establish and gain traction for the comic
-$15-25 for each printed book that is a part of the Kickstarter campaign, as in exchange for money I will be offering signed versions ONLY available there.
-Another 10% of the goal is saved for the 5-10% fee taken from us by Kickstarter and other processing programs
Now let’s say you want more money for a page, say $40 or even $50, then you would also be expected to do a bit more art for the sake of making the campaign page looking better so people will fund a higher goal. To get a sense of what this would look like:
-Go up to $40 a page, $5,280 for you as the artist yet the goal would be increased to maybe $8,500 or $9,000 in order to cover additional costs.
Patronage
Not all of our money will come from individual people, for there is a multitude of comic stores, bloggers, and YouTubers we can ask to fund us or at least share our project through their medium in exchange for promises of a finished product when we are done with maybe a few extra perks.

Release of the Comic Itself
Considering the fact that a 132 page comic book will take a while, measuring it by 1 page a day, only pencilled, then our backers won’t see a finished product right when we reach our goal. I plan to release each issue of the comic on Amazon for $2.99, one issue a month with a printed soft cover version being offered when they are all done. When that has been reached we will then gift out all the copies, Kindle or printed, to those abckers that paid the sufficient amount to gain that product.

If you have any questions regarding anything about this project please feel free to note me and I look forward to working with whomever wishes to join me on thi venture.
Thank You,
Zachary Lingley
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