TSC.NS.4 :: Introducing the ThoughtScape Comics Kickstarter 2022!!! ::
{ if } Go big { else } Go home
Welcome to Nervous System, where you can learn more about ThoughtScape Comics and Lifeformed.
NOTE: SUBSCRIBE TO NERVOUS SYSTEM AT THE FOUNDERS LEVEL NOW AND I WILL SEND YOU A PHYSICAL COPY OF THOUGHTSCAPE COMICS #1 AND AN 11x17 PRINT OF JENNA CHA’S FANTASTIC ISSUE ONE COVER (ONLY SIX OF THESE PRINTS AVAILABLE, SO THE PRINT IS “WHILE SUPPLIES LAST”!)
While I had planned to keep things on a “relaxed” track in this week’s post, I am terrible at relaxing and ended up on the rather non-relaxed track myself the last five days, finalizing my plans for the next ThoughtScape Comics Kickstarter. So, I figured I would share some of my process there, and also give you a peek at some lovely art from the ThoughtScape future.
Before we dive in, if you would be so kind - if you haven’t already done so - as to head over to the coming soon page for the new Kickstarter and hit the NOTIFY button, that would be great. We have an ambitious goal this time out and want to build as big a potential audience - and generate as much advance hype - as possible.
Pre-Launch
So, you may ask, seeing the January launch date for the campaign there, why did I spend nearly all of these last five days in the middle of October finalizing KS plans and generating social media assets, etc. Part of the answer is “to prepare in advance and save myself some campaign-time stress,” but the primary answer is “to generate pre-launch interest.” In my recent Kickstarter studies/deep-diving on great podcasts like ComixLaunch and Crowdfunding Demystified, I’ve been hearing successful crowdfunders talk about spending as much time/effort on hyping the pre-launch phases of their campaigns as they do the campaign itself.
While some of the implications of this information are a bit too much to reckon with immediately (does it effectively mean a creator ends up in a state of ALWAYS campaigning? I fear it might), with a substantially larger financial goal than I had for the first TSC Kickstarter now looming, it makes sense to me to see if I can build interest well in advance of the launch. I’ve decided to employ two tactics to drive more followers and hype:
Early-but-not-too-early outreach to press (60 days vs. the 90 days I did on the first campaign)
A popup shop to celebrate the announcement of the new campaign, where I will sell a limited number of copies of TSC #1 in hopes of stoking reader interest
As you’ve seen in previous NS posts, I’ve been stoking some pre-launch hype for a bit already by asking folks to go follow the new campaign’s coming soon page. I’ve also dropped a few posts on Twitter and Instagram. This week, I started to shift things into a higher gear. Here’s how I spent my time preparing for the next phase…
1: Prepping Issue #2
Karl Slominski recently dropped the last of the art for ThoughtScape Comics #2’s Ex Post Facto: A Dash Varrick Misadventure Part Two my way, and with that in hand I had everything I needed to complete laying out the entire issue. Oh, here’s a peek at one of Karl’s incredible pages…
I am prepping the second issue this far ahead of potential printing because giving press and podcasters a look at both the complete Issue 1 and Issue 2 seemed more impressive than not, and it felt like folks trying to understand and discuss the project would be able to get it a bit more if they could see two full comics. At my level, the press game is usually a lot of time sunk into a pretty minimal amount of coverage/eyeballs (great coverage quality generally, just not a lot of quantity), so we’ll see what happens. But come on, they can’t not love this cover from the great Grim Wilkins, right?
The prepped Issue 2 will be included in a Dropbox folder that I will provide to press folks in the press release, speaking of which…
2: Writing the Press Release
Press releases are a little easier than pitch documents, but still fairly brutal to compile. I have a tough time writing this type of deal succinctly, and I like to space and align info in somewhat pleasing ways (the result of laying out pages and screens all day for the last 30 years), which means I end up with a document that is probably way too long, but, oh, well… I want folks to have whatever they may need to properly cover this thing. Here’s where I’ve ended up, in case it might be helpful to anyone out there launching a campaign soon.
- FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -
THOUGHTSCAPE COMICS FOLLOW-UP KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN ANNOUNCED + POPUP SHOP IN NOVEMBER
Date: November 1st, 2022
Contact: Matt Mair Lowery
mattmlpdx@gmail.com
PORTLAND, OR
The News
The Kickstarter
Matt Mair Lowery, writer of the critically-acclaimed Scout Comics YA sci-fi series Lifeformed, announced a new Kickstarter campaign, The ThoughtScape Comics Kickstarter 2022, to fund a three-issue continuation of ThoughtScape Comics, the anthology series he launched earlier this year. The campaign will run January 3rd through February 3rd.
The ThoughtScape Comics series, written by Mair Lowery, features art from a diverse, rotating roster of some the most compelling artists in indie comics today. In the tradition of 2000 AD, Dark Horse Presents, Black Mirror and The Twilight Zone, the subject matter, style and tone of ThoughtScape Comics varies from story to story as Mair Lowery and his collaborators explore the strange possibilities and unique horrors that present themselves when flawed humanity meets the unlimited possibilities of technology.
The campaign will be located at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mattmlpdx/thoughtscape-comics-2022. Folks interested in following the series can head to that url now and click the NOTIFY button to receive a message from Kickstarter when the project launches on January 3rd.
The Popup Shop
To celebrate the announcement of the upcoming Kickstarter and to help folks who missed the Kickstarter get caught up (and get excited for the January KS launch), Mair Lowery is running an popup shop during November where folks can order physical copies of ThoughtScape Comics #1 (shop quantities are limited). The popup shop is located at https://bit.ly/TSCno1PopUpShop (popup shop promo image attached below). The comic is also available in digital form in the same shop.
The ThoughtScape Comics Kickstarter 2022 Campaign Overview
Goal: Fund THREE 50+ PAGE ISSUES of the new sci-fi anthology series ThoughtScape Comics with a single Kickstarter campaign.
Campaign runs: 1/3/22 - 2/3/22 | Shipping/Fulfillment: Three issues to be released quarterly beginning in April 2022.
Kickstarter URL: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mattmlpdx/thoughtscape-comics-2022
!! GET A LOOK AT THE FIRST TWO ISSUES OF THOUGHTSCAPE COMICS IN THEIR ENTIRETY HERE !!
Issue 1 Press Preview PDF: LINKWILLBEHERE
Issue 2 Press Preview PDF: LINKWILLBEHERE
:: PRESS MATERIALS, INCLUDING LOADS OF KILLER ART YOU CAN PUBLISH ::
Press materials (Dropbox): LINKWILLBEHERE
Additional Information: https://www.mmlcomics.com/thoughtscape-comics-a-sci-fi-anthology.
Even more additional information on Substack: https://mattmlpdx.substack.com/
Background
The Kickstarter campaign for the first issue of ThoughtScape Comics ran earlier this year and raised over $9,000. The comic, featuring a cover by Jenna Cha (Black Stars Above) and stories co-created and drawn (and inked, colored and lettered) by Dave Law (The Space Odditorium), Tyrell Cannon (Beef Bros, ERIS, IDKFA), Lisa Naffziger (Taking Back Tokusatsu) and Karl Slominski (Cult of Icarus), was praised by comic creators and press alike:
"ThoughtScape Comics is the quintessential, beautifully packaged and expertly made serialized sci-fi anthology that comics needs right now."
- Liana Kangas: Trve Kvlt, She Said Destroy, Black AF: Devil's Dye
"Fantastic, artistically diverse and engaging stories of a cool far future world, all tied together with prodigious panache by writer Matt Mair Lowery."
- Farel Dalrymple: THE OFTEN WRONG, Proxima Centauri, Pop Gun War, The Wrenchies
“A brilliant and beautiful distillation of the best things in both sci fi short stories and comics! ThoughtScape Comics is as captivating as it is haunting..."
- Ryan K Lindsay: Everfrost, Eternal, Deer Editor
"Packed full of great ideas, fascinating world building and enigmatic characters who we can’t wait to find out more about... a really rather superb read."
- Pipedream Comics
Issues 2, 3 and 4 of ThoughtScape Comics will include collaborations with:
Dave Law (The Space Odditorium, Wolf Punks, Wrong Magnetic Poles)
Karl Slominski (Cult of Icarus, Evermore Falls)
Tyrell Cannon (Beef Bros, ERIS, IDKFA)
Jacob Edgar (DC Comics, Dark Horse, Metal Hurlant, IDW, Dynamite) with Lesley Atlansky (Short Order Crooks, Amazing World of Gumball)
Lane Lloyd (God-Puncher)
Jeremy Brooks (Radd Tuffman) with Marcus Cripps
Luke Horsman (Oathbound, 2000 AD)
George Pendle (Strange Angel: The Otherworldly Life of Rocket Scientist John Whiteside Parsons)
Brittany Matter (MIRANDA IN THE MAELSTROM, OFF INTO THE SUNSET)
...and more
mattmlpdx@gmail.com | twitter.com/mattmlpdx | thoughtscapecomics.com
3: Creating All the Assets for Press and Social
While I’ve been toying with the look and feel of the promo images for the next campaign for a while, this week I locked them down so I could get everything loaded into that press-accessible folder I point to in the press release. This is a pretty fun process for me, having great brand elements from John Larsen and amazing artwork from a murderers’ row of artists, but it can also be a bit endless because I have so many good options.
But anyway, I set up my Illustrator file with the latest and proper social media sizes and created images to promote both the campaign and the popup shop I will be launching to celebrate the announcement of the campaign (another idea I came up with which I have no idea if it will work in any way or not). Here’s where these images ended up…
4: Setting Up the Popup Shop
Praise be to Squarespace for finally making setting up an online store within your own website ACTUALLY easy and manageable. I merely had to add the item to my inventory and BOOM we are ready to go.
5: Story Promo Images and Pages
This is the fun part… poring over the great art I have received from all my collaborators, pulling the story/cover promo images, and selecting pages and panels from the stories that might see publication in reviews and such. I try to select pages that really communicate the tone of the story and the greatness of the art. Only in a few cases do I sweat spoilers or anything. I figure in most cases readers of this comic are in it for the journey and not the destination. Here are a couple peeks at what ended up in the folder…
Oh, an alert! I am nearing the dreaded Substack email length limit… I will call it good for now and wrap this up next week. In the meantime, send your friends over to smash the NOTIFY button on the new campaign.
Thanks, and have a great weekend!
Matt