Posted in: Comics, Recent Updates | Tagged: Comics, kickstarter

Standing Out From The Crowd With Make-Believe, Or How I Stopped Worrying And Learned To Love Kickstarter

Published Sat, 07 Jun 2014 11:00:13 -0500

Last updated Sat, 07 Jun 2014 16:02:59 -0500

By Brett Uren

Torsobear: Yarns from Toyburg is a collection of eleven grisly crime stories, written in the style of good old film noir and set in a world of toys. The stories are written by Cy Dethan (Cancertown, Indifference Engine), Brockton McKinney (Ehmm Theory, Deathcurse), Janos Honkonen (Kaiken yllä etana, The Rocket Man from the Sea) and co-editor Glenn Møane (Fubar, Indie Comics Horror) & Grainne McEntee (Apes 'n' Capes). The artists on board include Peter Mason (Cancertown Blasphemous Tumours with Cy), Saoirse Louise Towler (Discworld Stamps), Jon Scrivens(Little Terrors), Randy Haldeman(The Jacket), Matt Rooke (Apes 'n' Capes) & the almighty Hal Laren(Reaper Comics). Our Kickstarter closes 1^st July, project completion and delivery should be end of July.

Torsobear: Yarns from Toyburg is a comic anthology that will combine the world of toys and film noir into gristly yarns of murder, love and crime. Ruxby Bear and Toyburg PD investigate cases of violence, corruption and murder in a city of toys.

Have a good look at the picture above. You see that? That's what happens when all the sensible marketing ideas for crowd-funding have already been done. You start raiding the baby's toy box.

Something within my societal conditioning tells me that I should be ashamed, but you know what? I'm quite happy with it. Feels like drawing a huge picture of a butt-sniffing dog on a beach along the commercial flight path, so you can see it from the air… Or on satellite photography.

In the next few days myself and 20 or so new friends are hoping to send a small shockwave through the aforementioned crowd-funding world with the campaign for our graphic novel anthology 'Torsobear: Yarns from Toyburg'.

Not in a paradigm-shifting way, we're only trying to do something that stands out just enough so we don't get lost in the mix, in a way that gets people talking about something odd or funny they saw…

… Like frequent fliers would if they saw a huge butt-sniffing dog.

Cut to me, about two weeks ago, knowing we'd have to start funding soon to pay writers, artists and printers etc. – someone on the team mentions that we shouldn't do yet 'another ken burns, transition-y video of still pictures/panels and a pasty/nerdy creator (me)'. I can imagine it, looking awkward as heck in some half-lit back room, like a D&D-themed hostage tape.

So, I was walking past my 18 month-old daughter's raincoat in the hall on the same day I was trying to source custom plush toys for Kickstarter rewards, and I thought 'well heck it, no-one's going to have tried crude puppetry before, because it's a stupid idea'.

And about four days ago, I was getting a smartphone audio memo from an American friend who recorded a voiceover from my hasty script, asking record companies for permissions to use sax-heavy jazz tunes and taking delivery of a custom teddy about the right size for my girl's coat.

The result of this was me wearing all my black clothes, save for white tuxedo gloves, black lycra cycling shorts tied around my face (you can see out of that material, just), my long suffering wife (also colourist, co-editor/writer on my previous projects) helping me build a small street from the baby's toys and film me, laid on my belly, wiggle a teddy bear around for about two minutes in near pitch blackness.

One to tell the grandkids, I told her. All I got was a dryly-amused eyebrow lift, which was understandable.

All so we might get some of your money for our Fluffy Noir comic book.

You see, the bear I was wiggling for our Kickstarter video is a representation of my creation, rookie detective Ruxby. He's a sort of Teddy-Ruxpin-come-Brad-Pitt-from-Seven-type character.

It's the combination of all the story-telling talent, sheer artistic joy with the most extensive world I've ever created that will make Torsobear a really unique little thing. It's more blackly grim than Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but with none of the gore or sexual leanings of say a Stieg Larrson book. It's dangerous in a cute way, scary but still clean fun. It's a first, Fluffy Noir.

If that doesn't make much sense, this should clear it up –

In the fluffy noir world of Torsobear not all toys play nice!

June 2nd, — What happens to the toys when they are not being played with? Do they have cute adventures like in children's books, or is there something more sinister and unwholesome behind the scenes? Welcome to the city of Toyburg, whose streets are teeming with crime, passion, and murders most foul. There are grim detectives, burned-out has-beens, femme fatales and tragic heroes.

The Torsobear anthology started with one story, a little bit of fun for the Outré anthology, just to see if I could make something grim without guts and sinful without sex or swearing. Then, somehow that twisted kind of fun got out of it's bottle and spread, infecting those who were also susceptible. Upon reflection, my previous creations Kuzimu and The Vale were just stepping stones on the way to this.

In the story that started it all, dismembered bodies of teddy bears are being found in the back alleys, and it's up to our hero, rookie detective Ruxby Bear and his partner officer Hazbrow to solve this string of murders, no matter how high and far the clues take them.

The scripts are finished and the stories are currently being illustrated and inked. Torsobear: Yarns from Toyburg is currently crowdfunding at Kickstarter.com and it will be published in both traditional paper format and as a digital comic – either through a publisher, or as an independent publication.

Seriously, go to the page and look at the video, no matter what you think of the project. It is all meant to be a bit of fun, so have a laugh on me.

Brett,

Amateur Toymaster and Uncomfortable Puppeteer.

We have a special reward for Bleeding Cool readers.

First week pledges at the 'BOOK' reward level and up get an inked sketch on the inside cover.

BC readers can get a single panel, three-colour comic on the inside cover instead. To claim this exclusive reward, after your pledge, just head to my Kickstarter profile, hit the 'contact me' button and send me your name (as it appears on KS), quoting BLEEDTB.