Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, HRL

The Second Coming Or Surfing The Void? 'Griff Gristle: Here Be Monsters' On Kickstarter

Published Sun, 27 Aug 2017 10:00:24 -0500

Rob Jones & Mike Sambrook write:

Following up a successful Kickstarter with a sequel is not as easy as some may have you think. Last year, we (Rob Jones, Mike Sambrook and Rory Donald) funded the maritime mystical thriller story, Griff Gristle: Here Be Monsters via Kickstarter. We were funded in 19 hours, ended up 230% funded and we've gotten a slew of 10/10 reviews for the book.

Fast forward to now, and because of these annoying things called "Day Jobs" and "life", we're back to funding for the second issue featuring our grumpy, gruff, and grizzled titular character, Griff in the Siren's Song. So how do you go about making a strong followup to a well-received book? You go bigger, bolder, and much more brash. Our sequel is much more akin in tone to Aliens than our first book, which is more Alien.

There's the seemingly endless prep involved, as you contact reviewers, chase leads, approach podcasts, beat away all the fake promo offers via the Kickstarter messenger system and create advertising for your social media accounts. We know it's frustrating for followers to see multiple ads and posts regarding a Kickstarter, but when you're your only press officer it can be quite the task. There's also the method of fitting those posts and being engaging whilst you fit stuff around your regular life! Finally, we had to ensure the comic was prepped and set…

We assembled a kickass group of pinup artists, including Nick Brokenshire (IDW's Amelia Cole, Dark Horse's Once and Future Queen), Rob Carey (The Phantom: Scarlet Sapphire, 2017 Millarworld Winner), Jim Lavery (Markosia's Pendragon), Gareth Sleightholme, Alisdair Wood (Self Made Hero's Ghost Stories of Antiquity), Grant Richards (Markosia's Away) and more and get them to create a barrage of incredible pinup pieces.

So, what did we do then? We threw in some bombastic actions sequences, an expansion of the world and characterization and sprinklings of intrigue! We make the reader dive deeper into the greater mystery of just who Griff is, just WHAT Griff is and who exactly is keeping a very close eye on his movements. We've got big plans for this world and we'd love to drag you under the water with us and whisper them into your waterlogged ears. The only way we can do that is if you get behind the Kickstarter, which is LIVE RIGHT NOW, right here.

We've got a huge array of great tiers, offering up everything from PDFs, the book itself, enamel badges, prints, T Shirts and most importantly of all EXCLUSIVE ORIGINAL ART! That's right, we've got unique pages from both the first and second issues on offer which once they're gone, they are GONE!

If you're thinking to yourself, hey, this book sounds pretty neat, but I'd probably be best catching up on the first issue first — don't worry, we've got you covered! We are offering up reprints of the first issue as part of the campaign itself so you can get BOTH issues together. It all sounds pretty good right? Well, why not hop over to the link and get your copy ordered, right now.

*Rob, Mike and Rory submerge under the water leaving behind nothing but bubbles and a strong smell of garlic.*