Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, Darren Randall, James Brouwer, Jeremy Love, kickstarter, Teen High Zombie Squad

Welcome To The Thunderdome! Teen High Zombie Squad!

Published Sun, 03 Nov 2013 12:00:03 -0600

Darren Randell writes for Bleeding Cool:

OH GOD THE PRESSURE!

I mean hi gentle reader,

I recently launched my baby into the Thunderdome known as Kickstarter where it now fights for it's life in a bloodied arena filled with the unfunded corpses of a thousand Indy comics. As a first time project creator on Kickstarter it does kind of feel like this. Like I'm sitting in the stands of some Roman Colosseum watching my chubby child wrestle a tiger.

Our baby is a 120 page graphic novel called Teen High Zombie Squad and right now I have absolutely no idea if it's going to survive or not.

What goes through your head in this situation, for me anyway is " did I do everything I could? Was the video strong enough? Did I clearly illustrate what this book is about?" and of course, "Why do my feet smell like Doritos?".

I can't help but feel like my marketing abilities are letting down what is an absolutely stunning project. That's the bit that gets you. You can spend years perfecting your project but without the right marketing and coverage your like a rock band playing an empty hall.

I'm an animator by trade, with over 10 years industry experience, but i've been writing and drawing my own comics since I was child. Story telling is my passion which is how I ended up in animation.

I've been working on the script and planning the graphic novel for years and now i just need to raise the funds to pay for printing and artists James and Jeremy to finish illustrating the book. Curse those artists and their need for food and shelter when there are perfectly good dumpsters outside!

If I could define what the Kickstarter experience has done for me it's that it's renewed my faith in the future of the creative industries. Weather I get funded or not, as of a few minutes ago 70 people on this planet have decided that my baby deserves to get made and that they want to help that happen. How awesome is that? How awesome are they!

It's time to check on my child wrestling that tiger again. 2 new pledges, Alright! Look at that chubby baby fight!