It's ON! Today at 9AM I launched the BLIGHTER: TRACKER OF THE REALM kickstarter written by me, drawn by Drew Moss, Colored by Rosh Kurichiyanil, lettered by Ariana Maher and edited by Nate Cosby. Go watch a video of me and my dog shot on the last existing iPhone 6 (you'll pry the headphone jack out of my cold, reluctant hands) and consider spreading the word and joining our campaign. Very excited for this book, which if it clears the hurdle, will begin work in about a month after Drew has wrapped up his other art jobs, and should be printing next year around May-Juneish. Early pushing helps the most and I appreciate it more than you can know. Also my studio mates Karl Kesel and David Hahn have a new Impossible Jones campaign today!
Welcome to new subscribers who signed up for this mailer at the Rose City Comic Con! Unless I didn't read your handwriting correctly in case, hope you check that bookmark and find me anyway. That was a great show by the way, attendees showed proof of vaccination and wore masks, and it felt safe for a big convention, very well done. Maybe we can start doing these things again.
I'm now switching these newsletter to mailed blog posts because it's something 100x easier than using the newsletter section of my site, so I hope that's working for everybody. Incredible Artist pal Justin Greenwood mentioned that he missed the practical tips section from the last one, and I meant to make it up on this one with a quick how-to on tightening your bike brakes but this Kickstarter is now demanding all attention. But I will say this, while I'm on my bike-tips: You obviously want a good lock while you're getting all this exercise and saving gas by biking on your shorter trips, but they kind of cost a lot.
Like, bike shops will sell Kryptonite Locks for around 30-40 bucks. And they're great locks, very strong, but you probably still need lights and other parts. My "hack" here is go to your local hardware store, where they sell U-locks of other brands, supposedly for locking things like gates and faucets, etc. but they almost always have the mounting brackets for bikes too and cost HALF as much as the ones in bike shops. I got this one for $13! By the way, I am not knocking bike shops, they gotta get by, and you should definitely buy your bicycles from them instead of big box stores which sell cheaper but poorly made rides with inferior parts and heavy cheaper metal. Or buy a nice used one from the most coherent seller you can find on Craigslist, which I often do because I plan to work on them anyway. Next time, which will be soon, I will do that brake tutorial.
I almost forgot, NINJAK #3 is out in stores now! If you want to see Javier Pulido do stuff you didn't think a comic could convey, go pick that up soon, it's impressive. And you will learn more about the origins of The Kingmaker in the weirdest way possible.
Thanks for letting me jump into your pleasant Fall day, while you sip cider and feel the pleasurable crunching of acorns under your warm weather shoes, talk again soon. - JP