Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Bill Sienkiewicz, Comics, evan dorkin, kickstarter

Outreach First, Funding Second – Bill Sienkiewicz Choose-The-Cover Follows Walter Simonson Model

Published Sun, 29 Sep 2013 16:00:44 -0500

Paul J Mendoza writes;

New Paradigm Studios launched its second Kickstarter this week with The Rockthrower, described as, 'The Middle East Meets Western Americana In A Down And Out Baseball Story That Defies Making It To The Major Leagues.'

It's the story of David Willis, a has-been baseball scout that was once a Major League pitcher, loved by everyone; now ignored and on his last leg of a career. After watching footage of a Palestinian/Israeli conflict, he is immediately transfixed on a new potential pitching discovery — a Palestinian teen throwing rocks with the speed and accuracy that defies even the best pitchers on most Major League Baseball teams. On a wild hunch, a wing and a prayer, Dave decides to travel into unforeseen territory to make this kid a star and redeem himself in the eyes of his peers. But will his own heritage of being Jewish and dark past as a disgraced baseball player put this endeavor towards a path of failure before its even had a chance to succeed?

"NPS' last successful KS campaign WATSON AND HOLMES, fans were given the opportunity to have input on voting for the cover. based on three sketches by the great WALT SIMONSON. Once votes were tallied, Walt fully illustrated the artwork with the brilliant Laura Martin in tow to bring it to life with her colors. It is a striking piece that currently adorns the KS exclusive cover of Watson And Holmes #1." says Senior Editor and Director of Publishing, Justin Gabrie. "NPS is at it again, this time with legendary BILL SIENKIEWICZ whose artistic stylings delivered Moon Knight, New Mutants, Elektra Assassin and a slew of other beautifully painted and illustrated projects over the years. We are proud to have him on board for this endeavor."

This week only till (Wednesday Oct. 2 11:59pm EST) all reward backers will get the option to vote for the cover of their choosing. Not only that, we appreciate our fans so much, all backers who pledge $20 and up within this time period will get the EXCLUSIVE WALTER SIMONSON WATSON AND HOLMES #1 – "ETCHING" COVER .On top of that, for you awesome Bleeding Cool'ers, if we hit $2,000 goal by Monday Morning (Monday Sept. 30 6:00am EST) , NPS will create and send a high rez digital copy of a really cool pic with Rich Johnston as an old school baseball pitcher wearing a Bleeding Cool uniform. We will also post it on our webpage, Kickstarter page and our NPS Facebook page, "Y'know… for fun." says Zack Rosenberg, Marketing Coordinator and Assistant Editor of New Paradigm Studios.

"First off, the series is written by Karl Bollers (our studio writer) with Dave Ross and Gene DeCicco on art. I'm also excited to work with the wonderful Bill Sienkiewicz for this cover, a painted cover mind you," Rosenberg excitedly said. "Now why not release it as a 6-issue mini first and then collect it? Though it was meant to be an original graphic novel (OGN), we decided to take the six chapters and split them into issues for a mini-series release. Though Diamond did solicit and agree to order the first three issues of the mini-series, because of their strict guidelines with minimum orders for new publishers they informed us they could not order the last three issues. As we believe this story to be unique, we did not want to release only half the series and leave readers and retailers in a lurch. Therefore, we're working with Diamond to pull the first three issues from ordering and resolicit it as a high-quality OGN, as it was meant to be. In the meantime, our partners at comiXology are set to release the single issues as Digital Firsts. We hope you like the end result and appreciate your support."

"Our first project 'Watson And Holmes' had originally launched as a digital book back in August 2012. Our readership began to grow, and our appearance at NYCC 2012 solidified our standings as an indie publisher that was here for the long haul. We were able to increase readership and garner enough of a fan following to be accepted to distribute the print versions via Diamond earlier this year! Knowing we still had lots of hurdles to overcome, including setting up a print partnership and getting overall publicity, as well as making Watson And Holmes a monthly book, we realized we needed a push." remarked Gabrie. "Going to Kickstarter not only helped us get more attention for the project — our backers got some really nice rewards — NPS was also able to fund future issues outside. No small part of Watson And Holmes' Kickstarter success came from an article on Bleeding Cool mentioning our KS campaign. We think Watson And Holmes is a great series, KS furthered the development of it into a full-fledged monthly and the best is yet to come."

Brandon Perlow, Publisher and Founder of New Paradigm Studios, explains the origins of the story, "The Rockthrower was inspired from catching a news segment about the Palestinian conflict after a baseball game. Watching footage of some rock throwers, the thought popped into my head, 'What if one of this kids became a baseball player?' The thought came to life when I decided to write it as a screenplay. Eventually, I decided to take the screenplay I had written and adapt it into the original graphic novel we are working toward releasing. For the adaptation, the story has gone through some good writers to help me out, but only Watson And Holmes' writer, Karl Bollers, hit the tone and character development I wanted. A story of acceptance, redemption and overcoming prejudices. Is it a solution for the Israeli/Palestinian situation? No. Is this an extreme premise? Maybe, but it is plausible, and I think we have crafted a story that might make you believe people can overcome politics and hate."

On the controversy over the similar idea written by Evan Dorkin, Perlow elaborated, "I was a little shocked in November 2012 when Bleeding Cool did an article on The RockThrower and placed in the Swipe File. It was revealed to me that Evan Dorkin published a dark comedy 2-page strip about a baseball scout trying to recruit a Palestinian rockthrower in DORK #8. Though I knew of Dorkin, I had never read his work and none of the three writers who helped me finalize this story had known about it. Luckily Dark Horse's EiC Scott Allie and our Senior Editor Justin Gabrie came to an accord that allowed us to move forward with our projects (Dorkin's work was to be republished at Dark Horse, including the story in question) because there was no malicious attempt found during discovery."

"Ultimately, I didn't start New Paradigm Studios just to make stories that would please people and tug the heartstrings of comics/geek culture sentimentality; it was about switching the existing paradigm, putting out stories most other indies would not. Whether thats "racebending" Sherlock Holmes — and readers have determined that its more than just that actually — or following a failed pitcher's desperate path of redemption by finding a wunderkind in the Palestinian territories, in the end its about story." declared Perlow. "The Rockthrower to me is a story that pushes boundaries more than "Watson And Holmes" and it is title we feel readers would like to have more of. I think there is more to comics than Marvel/DC or even Boom/Image/DarkHorse/IDW. They all do great work, but I'd like us to be the company you think of that pushes for different ideas."

New Paradigm Studios will be at New York Comic Con 2014, and the NPS booth (#1365) will be a "rock" throw away from Marvel's. There will be more announcements, signings, and other cool things to sell. NPS looks forward to seeing you all there.

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