By Todd Allen
Top Cow’s been talking about their digital plans again. This has all been announced prior to Comicon, but I haven’t really commented on it yet and now’s as good a time as any. The two major pieces are a Kickstarter campaign to relaunch Cyber Force and moving Pilot Season over to Mark Waid’s Thrillbent site.
The Kickstarter campaign is a very interesting thing. Top Cow is not the first publisher in the world to use crowdfunding to launch a series, but the idea of doing a crowdfunding campaign to make a comic available for free in _print_ is very, very interesting thinking.
Cyberforce will be relaunched with the initial 5-issue opening arc being given out free to stores in a manner similar to Free Comic Book Day. It will also be available for free online. Presumably, when issue 6 hits, it will no longer be free and they’re looking to convert free readers to paid customers. It’s a very ambitious program.
CBR had the money quote on this a few days ago:
“Ultimately, the primary goal was to try and get as many lapsed or casual readers back into reading comics and trying to drive them into comic book stores,” Hawkins told CBR before diving into the multiple “tiers” donators will be able to choose from, with more incentives the higher the amount you pledge. “We’re doing a black and white variant of each issue of Marc’s covers that is only available through Kickstarter,” Hawkins explained. “Marc is using the original art for the cover to #1 as a higher tier incentive. The moneymaker will be the $50 tier, which will be the only way to ever get the hardcover of the first volume. Hardcovers seem to be what people collect now, and we only need to sell 1500 of those at the $50 tier — where you also get all five sketch variants — to raise the $75k we need.”
The more exclusive and expensive upgrade options are definitely where you can make your money in a crowdfunding campaign. And Top Cow knows a thing or three about variant covers and collectibles. That said, these guys have some pretty huge balls to be setting it up this way.
This Kickstarter campaign is not yet active. Personally, I think it’s a little insane to have been talking about a Kickstarter campaign for a week without having the campaign live and ready to accept pledges. Now, I also wouldn’t want to launch a Kickstarter during SDCC when 100K-200K of my target audience are away from home and with more limited Internet access than you’d otherwise have. But, for the sake of argument, let’s say that Kickstarter campaign went live today. It wouldn’t be over until mid-August if it’s the standard 30 day campaign. $75K is not a small amount of money to raise. October solicitations are out right now.
The way Top Cow has set this up basically says: “Hey fans, we’ve set all this up. Come pay for it.” A more standard approach is, “if you fund this, we’ll do it.” It’s presumed this will go quickly. It might. Certainly, Top Cow should have p
Bursting into today’s Before Watchment panel with apparently nobody’s permission, 9ft filmmaker Quentin Tarantino announced – and given his ability to talk, is probably still announcing now – that he will be writing a 5-issue miniseries for DC’s Vertigo imprint, based on his upcoming film Django Unchained.
About a slave who becomes a bounty-hunter in order to please Christophe Waltz/gain his freedom, the film stars Jamie Fox, as the crowd assembled at the panel are probably being told about right now. There was very little sign that DC knew Tarantino was going to announce this so soon, but here’s a rough transcript of his speech thus far:
One of the things I’m really excited about is that Django Unchained is a big epic, and when I write these epics there’s a lot of stuff that doesn’t make the movies I’m always stuck with adapting my unwieldy script into a movie every day so what’s really cool with doing this is as a comic book is it’s the entire script all the material that didn’t make the movie will all be part of the piece I’m really excited about that, so be looking out for Django Unchained in a comic book store near you! ….And thanks for letting me barge in on your panel!
Look for DC to scramble together an official press release later tonight. Oh Quentin!
Whether it was the dropped categories or just fairy magic, the Eisner Awards came in at a trim 2 1/4 hours last night, an awards show running time that would fit comfortably on Nickelodeon or Spike. While such Eisner classics as sting music straight from Soma’s Secret Agent channel and tiki-themed table centerpieces were still in evidence, the replacement of the emcee with an announcer, and a majority of shorter acceptance speeches definitely helped, but the arrival of a couple of stage manager/show runners probably slimmed things down as well. Also there was a dearth of schtick from the presenters—except mostly the last one, Jonathan Ross, who is allowed to be as schticky as he likes. Speeches were shorter too, except R.C. Harvey but his was still pretty interesting. (We have out live tweet on a different device and once we get better coverage we’ll post.)
Since the awards had begun earlier than before (8 pm as opposed to 8:30) this meant that you could actually do something AFTER the awards, which many did, but the traditional cocktail party was well attended with probably the biggest gathering of the comics talent at the show, from Lynn Johnston to Brecht Evens. The lowkey party setting outside the Indigo Ballroom is still perhaps a little TOO lowkey—it would be nice for people to be motivated to move right out of the ballroom to the mingling area more quickly since the ballroom is so big—but it was great hanging with so many cool comicos, from Los Bros and families, to the D&Q and Fantagraphics contingents to Larry Marder to Maggie Thompson to James Kochalka to…well, you get the idea.
Shown above, btw, the evening’s big winner, Ramon Perez and his takeaway sack of Eisner Awards. Sweet.
An updated and corrected list — congrats to all the winners.
Best Short Story
“The Seventh,” by Darwyn Cooke, in Richard Stark’s Parker: The Martini Edition(IDW)
Best Single Issue (or One-Shot)
Daredevil #7, by Mark Waid, Paolo Rivera, and Joe Rivera (Marvel)
Best Continuing Series
Daredevil, by Mark Waid, Marcos Martin, Paolo Rivera, and Joe Rivera (Marvel)
Best Limited Series
Criminal: The Last of the Innocent, by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips (Marvel Icon)
Best Publication for Early Readers (up to age 7)
Dragon Puncher Island, by James Kochalka (Top Shelf)
Best Publication for Kids (ages 8–12)
Snarked, by Roger Langridge (kaboom!)
Best Publication for Young Adults (Ages 12–17)
Anya’s Ghost, by Vera Brosgol (First Second)
Best Anthology
Dark Horse Presents, edited by Mike Richardson (Dark Horse)
Best Humor Publication
Milk & Cheese: Dairy Products Gone Bad, by Evan Dorkin (Dark Horse Books)
Best Digital Comic
Battlepug, by Mike Norton, www.battlepug.com
Best Reality-Based Work
Green River Killer: A True Detective Story, by Jeff Jensen and Jonathan Case (Dark Horse Books)
Best Graphic Album – New
Jim Hensons Tale of Sand, adapted by Ramón K. Pérez (Archaia)
Best Graphic Album – Reprint
Richard Stark’s Parker: The Martini Edition, by Darwyn Cooke (IDW)
Best Archival Collection/Project – Comic Strips
Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse vols. 1-2, by Floyd Gottfredson, edited by David Gerstein and Gary Groth (Fantagraphics)
Best Archival Collection/Project – Comic Books
Walt Simonson’s The Mighty Thor Artist’s Edition (IDW)
Best U.S. Edition of International Material
The Manara Library, vol. 1: Indian Summer and Other Stories, by Milo Manara with Hugo Pratt (Dark Horse Books)
Best U.S. Edition of International Material – Asia
Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths, by Shigeru Mizuki (Drawn & Quarterly)
Best Writer
Mark Waid, Irredeemable, Incorruptible (BOOM!); Daredevil (Marvel)
Best Writer/Artist
Craig Thompson, Habibi (Pantheon)
Best Penciller/Inker or Penciller/Inker Team
Ramón K. Pérez, Jim Henson’s Tale of Sand (Archaia)
Best Cover Artist
Francesco Francavilla, Black Panther (Marvel); Lone Ranger, Lone Ranger/Zorro, Dark Shadows, Warlord of Mars (Dynamite); Archie Meets
Kiss (Archie)
Best Coloring
Laura Allred, iZombie (Vertigo/DC); Madman All-New Giant-Size Super-Ginchy Special (Image)
Best Lettering
Stan Sakai, Usagi Yojimbo (Dark Horse)
Best Comics-Related Journalism
The Comics Reporter, produced by Tom Spurgeon, www.comicsreporter.com
Best Educational/Academic Work (tie)
Cartooning: Philosophy & Practice, by Ivan Brunetti (Yale University Press)
Hand of Fire: The Comics Art of Jack Kirby, by Charles Hatfield (University Press of Mississippi)
Best Comics-Related Book
MetaMaus, by Art Spiegelman (Pantheon)
Best Publication Design
Jim Henson’s Tale of Sand, designed by Eric Skillman (Archaia)
Hall of Fame
Judges’ Choices: Rudolf Dirks, Harry Lucey
Bill Blackbeard, Richard Corben, Katsuhiro Otomo, Gilbert Shelton
So, Thrillbent is the new Zuda? Who saw that coming?