Posted in: Comics | Tagged: georges jeanty, kickstarter

Georges Jeanty Mentors A Bloodthirsty Kickstarter

Published Wed, 29 May 2013 15:00:05 -0500

Mark Landry writes:

When I approached Georges Jeanty last year about mentoring Bloodthirsty: One Nation Under Water, the graphic novel I'd spent the previous two years writing, I expected him to just ignore my email. He's a busy guy, and a working artist living the dream. But to my surprise and delight, he replied, asking what the story was about.

Having been a fan of The American Way (which Georges drew) I explained that, as a native of Louisiana, I wanted to give my home state a comic book hero who would at least allow me to release some of my own rage against the machine that I feel is crippling the state. When I told him the book's hero would be a former Coast Guard rescue swimmer, who saved dozens of lives in the wake of Katrina, his ears perked up. "Now, this is something I would want to read," he said.

So we sat down, and I pitched him the concept: A billionaire disaster capitalist with a genetic mutation for longevity is feeding off the blood of the poor in an alternate-universe, post-Katrina New Orleans. No super powers, no supernatural elements. Just the greedy oppressing the weak, and one man who decides he has had enough.

And we were off to the races. Georges has been my sounding board, my Obi Wan, and my shrink throughout the process of hiring an amazing artist (Ashley Marie Witter, who adapted Interview With the Vampire: Claudia's Story), structuring the project, and thinking ahead to eventual publication. Two podcasts, over 1,500 video views, and over 800 Facebook shares later, the Kickstarter campaign has three days left, and just under $1K left to raise. Georges appears in the project video on Kickstarter, and was even kind enough to share it on Facebook, sending the following message out to the universe:

Hey, friends. There is this somewhat new phenomenon online known as Kickstarter that's all the rage now. Kinda like 8track tapes were in the '70s. A friend of mine asked for help on a comic he was trying to put together, and after a lot of deliberation and debate on how to get it published, he decided to go the Kick-starter route to raise the money to fund the book. For those of you who don't know, Kickstarter is where people can now go to, read a mission statement from someone trying to get something done whether it be a movie, breast implants or a comic book and ask you to pledge money to reach a certain goal. The monetary goal varies depending on the objective. If you feel inclined, throw a few bucks over to this cause. Thanks for reading.

I can't thank Georges enough for his interest and passion, and for believing in this project. You can hear more about why he decided to lend his expertise to it by visiting the project's Kickstarter page.

Ashley and I promoted the Kickstarter at C2E2, and took a TON of photos of cosplayers and Pirates of the Caribbean actors showing support for the project.