Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, jay fotos, kickstarter, Rising Rebels

Be Kind, Rewind… Or Else – Rising Rebels on Kickstarter

Published Tue, 05 May 2020 14:00:16 -0500

Jay Fotos is a regular at Bleeding Cool, and he has a stormingly entertaining project on Kickstarter, the eighties throwback horror series with a modern twist, Rising Rebels. He writes;

Remember when monsters, knife-wielding maniacs, cannibalistic zombies and demons of all shapes and sizes lived on the shelves of the local video store? No? Well the team behind RISING REBELS, a comics throwback homage to the timeless horror films of the 1980's and the VHS videotape medium that brought them into our living rooms remembers! And we're sharing it with comic book fans worldwide with our new Kickstarter campaign.

Be Kind, Rewind... Or Else - Rising Rebels on Kickstarter. — Be Kind, Rewind… Or Else – Rising Rebels on Kickstarter. Art from Jay Fotos.

RISING REBELS is a four-issue, full color comics mini-series, brought to you by a crew of veteran creators who have worked in the comics industry for decades! It's a scare-filled, monster romp through the Louisiana swamp, with script by Mark Kidwell (Fangoria's "BUMP" and Image Comics' "'68"), story assist and colors by Jay Fotos (IDW's "Locke & Key", "Godzilla", "'68") and no-holds-barred horror/action artwork by Jeff (Must Be Destroyed) Zornow ("'68 Jungle Jim", "Godzilla", Fright Rags)! This team knows horror and how to bring it cinematically through the comics medium.

So "What's a Rising Rebel?"

A story within a story…a young boy, digging through his dad's college stash of dusty videotapes discovers one at the bottom of the box with bright red lettering. The title? RISING REBELS! His dad can't remember ever owning the tape and has no idea how it got in with his bygone goodies, but together, he and his son pop the tape into his old VCR and the film begins. The tape spools out the story of Colonel Abel Knox, a confederate raider during the civil war who refuses to surrender at war's end. As a result, the north sends a death squad to end his reign of terror in the south. Knox goes down all right…but not in the way they planned! He is dragged to hell by the souls of those he's murdered! Fast forward (that's 80's lingo for let's get going!) to 1983, as a commercial real estate developer arrives in Louisiana swamp country to survey for a new resort community, only to be attacked by a coven of swamp-squatting, voodoo witches, accidentally igniting a decades-old curse that raises the undead Colonel Knox and his regiment of rotted, spectral rebel troops from the muck and mire of the bayou! Meanwhile, back in front of the VCR…dad and his son are starting to act funny…there's something about this movie, this videotape. It seems to crawl inside you…get under your skin.

In the classic vein of unsurpassed fright films like John Carpenter's, "The Fog" and "The Thing" and with the playful, monstrously tongue in cheek attitude of "Gremlins" and "Critters", Rising Rebels is designed to please fans of hardcore gore and dark humor alike.

The series is complete and back-issues are getting extremely hard to find, so the creators have launched a Kickstarter campaign, offering the full series in a deluxe, full color, 130+ page trade paperback collected volume! The new book contains everything from the original mini-series along with a bonus, never before published SEQUEL STORY, "Knox's Revenge"! ('Cause a good '80's horror film without its sequel!?) The book is offered in digital and printed formats, along with a ton of nifty exclusive horrific upgrades like a magnetic sealing giant VHS sleeve binder, rare copies of the original comic books, creators' signatures and "available nowhere else" exclusives!!!

So, if you're a fan of horror comics, retro 1980's nostalgia, the VHS boom of yesteryear or you're just into cool, original comic stories wrapped up in a professional, deluxe edition, RISING REBELS might just be for you! Check out the Kickstarter page and get it on the gruesome fun and as always, we deeply appreciate your support! After all, Dr. Frankenstein might've been able to raise the dead all by himself, but we can't! We need your help to bring our rotting monstrous things to life!