Posted in: Comics | Tagged: brian dunham, Comics, entertainment, kickstarter

Kickstarter For Airship Enterprise With Artist Brian Denham

Published Sun, 10 May 2015 16:00:32 -0500

Marshall Naylor writes,

When Nichelle Nichols, best known as Uhura from Star Trek, gave Brian Denham a kiss on the cheek, he fell in love.

"[It was] on my sixteenth birthday. I sat on a panel with Nichelle Nichols. After the panel I went to her and told her meeting her was the best sixteenth birthday present I could ever imagine. She leaned over the table and kissed me on my cheek and said, 'Happy sweet sixteen!'"

That's a dream come true for any trekkie but especially for Denham. He loves Star Trek. He obsessively watched the original series as a kid. In a recent interview with Priority One Podcast, which is dedicated to Star Trek, he confesses his office is filled with memorabilia from the franchise.

For those unfamiliar with Brian Denham, he's a 20-year veteran of the comic book industry. He got his first break at Image back in the early 90's. He's worked on Dynamite's Green Hornet, Marvel's Iron Man: Hypervelocity, X-Files and just a ton of other stuff.

I see Denham every week at Antarctic Press, the indie comic book publisher where I serve as an editor. We work together. I can personally vouch that Denham has a thorough, nerd-like obsession with Star Trek, but also with telling stories.

Denham's an avid story teller. During meetings, he'll launch into weird, entertaining, and strangely disarming tales about the comic book business or childhood memories that hook into his nerdom, like peeing next to George Takei at a urinal as a kid.

Stories like these would be great for a webcomic or an indie title fodder. I often tell – beg – him to make them, but I know he won't do it anytime soon because he's got Airship Enterprise.

Like Star Trek, his new graphic novel chronicles the adventures of a courageous ship crew. Denham adds some steampunk and Wild West sensibilities to amp up the cool factor, as well as more 70s style fashion flair. It looks amazing!

He's kickstarting the whole endeavor too. He aims to raise $17,010 (see what he did there?) . The money goes towards printing ninety-six, full color pages. To sweeten the pot, Denham offers some rad incentives. My favorite is the Lieutenant Cthulu t-shirt – a mash-up of Star Trek's Lieutenant Sulu and the evil overlord Cthtulu.

As of this writing, the campaign has raised $14,351. With only 15 days left, it's just $3,000 shy of the Kickstarter goal. When I ask him if he's worried about reaching his funding goal, Denham says he will keep on trekking.

"Not having the funds means I have to work on other projects and this one may be delayed just a little longer. Either way, whenever it's completed, I will find the funds to make the book a reality."

Please help my friend and colleague get his obsession into print. He's comic book veteran, a Star Trek super fan, and a compelling story-teller. You can back the project by heading over to Airship Enterprise's Kickstarter page right now.

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