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The Life And Undeath Of Judd Glenny


Zeke poster

Created & Written by Michael R. Martin and Adam Orndorf. Illustrated by Roy Allan Martinez. Colored by Raymund Lee. Letters Kel Nuttal. The campaign ends on May 14 and will be delivered in July.

Our story is about us, my team, how we came together and how Kickstarter allows little guys like Adam and myself to work with incredible artists in the Philippines and create awesome new stories because of the support of those seeking the same.

Michael R Martin writes,

When I received the offer to write a story about our book Blood & Dust: The Life & Undeath of Judd Glenny, my first thought was panic. How do I write an impactful press release about our story and Kickstarter that will drive the amount of Backers I'll need in order to get funded in the short amount of time I have left. But then I read others stories and relaxed, because it was really about telling our story, and I've been dying to tell you all about the story of NightShade Comics and our family.

NightShade Comics started with Adam Orndorf and me, Michael R. Martin. We've been friends for 10 years now, two guys who met at a call center drawn to each other's nerdy creativity in a corporate environment.

As we got to know each other we discovered each of us are writers, I do horror while Adam wanted to write comic books. We decided we'd try to collaborate and see what came out of it.

It turns out we are make very cool babies together.

Except our baby has teeth.

Big ones.

As we were brainstorming we were talking about my short horror stories, and how they might translate into comics and we thought, what if it were like a family of monsters and an old vampire were reading these horrible stories to these vampire kids, can you imagine what that would be like? These crazy super powered monster kids running around, how would you discipline them? It turns out you'd pull out a big Bowie Knife and shove it through the kids shoulder to pin him to the wall, making him hang there until they settled down.

That was the moment Judd Glenny was born, and we've been plotting mayhem ever since.

After working on this for years, in 2014 we had our first successful Kickstarter campaign that brought Blood & Dust Issue 1 to the public and our comic was self-published in October of 2014 and delivered on time as promised to the best group of Backers we could have asked for.

Our original artist Rudy Vasquez was unable to continue on our story and Adam found Roy Allan Martinez as a replacement.

family sketch

Please understand that in the Indie Comic world, finding the right partners and collaborators is the most important thing you can do, and we spent years trying to find the right artist to bring our vision to light the way we really needed it to be. When I saw Roy's work, I knew the search was done and we had just found our missing element. Roy's art was like putting my brain on paper, and that's not easy because my brain is not normal, or right, in any way. Thank goodness neither is Roy Allan Martinez when it comes to drawing Blood & Dust.

After we talked he offered to draw 3 test pages for us to see if he was our guy.

He was hired in 2.

It wasn't until later we found out Roy was a protégé of Whilce Portacio and had attended his school in the Philippines along with Leinil Yu and has worked on Son of M and Wicked for Marvel and Wonder Woman for DC. After taking time away from comics, Roy is now working his way back in and according to Roy "Blood & Dust is one of my favorite books I've ever drawn. I had a great time drawing the comic and I am proud of it."

Roy then suggested Raymund Lee, another protégé of Whilce's to color and the final piece of the puzzle was in place. Raymund's work on X-Men, Wolverine, and Avengers, along with so many other titles is exceptional. But the pairing of Raymund's colors along with Roy's pencils is something that has to be seen to be appreciated.

Now with the family assembled and the magic completed we are ready to go to the publisher and bring everyone Issue 2 of Blood & Dust.

Family is a central theme in our lives and in our book.

You see, that's all we have is each other. Right now there is no publisher, just us, Adam, Mike, Roy, and Raymund trying to bring our vision to the world and tell a vampire story unlike any other ever told. That's the greatest thing about crowdfunding, the internet and being able to connect around the world. A couple of guys like Adam and myself can find incredible professional artists on the other side of the world, connect and believe in a story, and go for it. That's what we've done and that's where we need your help. As I write this there's only a few days left and we're still almost $3000 short of our goal and with Kickstarter, it's all of nothing.

Family Poster

We've decided to offer the Bleeding Cool family a special reward tier, when you back us at the $50 level, you'll get a copy of Issue 2, an ecopy of Issue 1 drawn by Rudy Vasquez, an ecopy of Issue 2, AND a sketch of a character of your choice by Roy Allan Martinez!

We will be delivering on these things in July and we know you're going to love our crazy little vampire family.

The other thing about Kickstarter is it levels the playing field. When we started writing Blood & Dust, it was get into a publisher or nothing. But now, you have the option of finding those out there looking for something outside of the Big 2 and men in tights. People that were looking for original characters and stories and weren't satisfied with another different spin on an origin story. They're the patrons of the modern creators who want to tell our stories and bring you something different and new.

So that's our story, who we are, where we came from and what we're trying to achieve. Now all we need is your support, your belief in independent creators and publishers, your friendship and your acceptance into our family.


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Rich JohnstonAbout Rich Johnston

Founder of Bleeding Cool. The longest-serving digital news reporter in the world, since 1992. Author of The Flying Friar, Holed Up, The Avengefuls, Doctor Who: Room With A Deja Vu, The Many Murders Of Miss Cranbourne, Chase Variant. Lives in South-West London, works from Blacks on Dean Street, shops at Piranha Comics. Father of two. Political cartoonist.
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