Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, eisners, entertainment, kickstarter, watson and holmes

Watson & Holmes – After The Eisners

Published Sun, 03 Aug 2014 11:00:01 -0500

Last updated Sun, 03 Aug 2014 12:16:02 -0500

Brandon Perlow writes,

It's been a week since I got back from the San Diego Comic Con and it was busy as ever. I don't think that will change. It was my first year coming in as Publisher/Creator/Panelist, instead of as a fan ready to spend money and living on the Hall H line. It's a different experience to say the least. I saw a few good panels, had a good meeting and got to hang with the Bleeding Cool crew for a few hours, and suffice it to say things were interesting at the Hyatt bar. Got to meet a few folks, including Michael Davis. He is highly entertaining- he should consider standup. Unfortunately I have not trained well for the party circuit (Note to self: get on a training regimen for next years Con) and went to the hotel at the early hour of something past 1 am).

I got to be at the Eisner Awards with our Watson and Holmes team, its weird and humbling; some very awesome and recognizable people at other tables surrounding us. We received two nominations for Best New Series and Best Single Issue and those two awards went to Matt Fraction that night. I don't think anyone was going to beat Matt that night, it seemed to be his year to win, so congrats again to him. Having said that, the industry really liked our book and thought we were good enough to hang with the big series and creators that commonly get nominated. Being a self-publisher going against the Images, Marvel, DCs, and the like is a big achievement. It had been a great atmosphere and motivated me to want to return again.

Right now we are in the process of finishing Watson and Holmes Volume 2 trade paperback (issues 7, 8 and 9) with the Eisner nominated issue #6 by Brandon Easton and N. Steven Harris as the first story in the trade. We are having New York Times acclaimed writer Lyndsay Faye writing the Irene Adler story (Issue 9) with N. Steven Harris returning for the art. I can honestly say ours will be the most true to Arthur Conan Doyle's version than any other versions of the past 50 years, while still being unique to the Watson and Holmes series.

Part of the problem of being a self-publisher is getting the financing for projects, and that's where Kickstarter comes in. As a backer you are personally funding the project, and getting the stories you want to read. Since there are no middlemen/distributors involved with the Kickstarter, all the money paid into the reward goes directly to the project that's not being used to fulfill the rewards and Kickstarter fees for the backers. We have issue 7 ready, issue 8 halfway done, and the Irene Adler story in script stage. Once this Kickstarter is funded we can cover the final art expenses and printing costs. We want to offer our backers a signed trade paperback with extra material not featured in the store version. The more we fund, the more we can give. We have stories written and we'll put them in there with some great art.

IF we hit significantly past our goal, we can consider starting Volume 3 immediately with the Karl Bollers Moriarty story(been outlined) and Rick Leonardi writing and drawing multiple issues. Rick is very unknown for his writing talent, but his problem solving and knowledge of Sherlockian tropes/storytelling was very helpful for V1. I think fans of his would be very surprised of how good a writer he could be. In a few weeks we may have news about Volume 3.

We have the V2 Trade with downloadable PDF as our main reward for 25 dollars, T-Shirts, Custom Playing Cards, and some great 11 x 17 prints for extra. We are going to offer a new V1 trade with the Walter Simonson/Laura Martin cover, along with extra material: including many pages of Rick Leonardi's pencil art.

For Bleeding Cool readers, I want to up the offer. I'm willing to give away a sketch cover of Watson and Holmes #1 (with Walter Simonson signed back cover) with original sketch art by Rick Leonardi, if we reach $10,0000 milestone mark and the $20,000 funded milestone. All they need to do is type BLEEDINGCOOL in the pledge. I will offer this to any level of backer from $1-$300. This was a $60 reward for the Watson and Holmes V1 KickStarter! If we get 10,000 or more backers from Bleeding Cool only giving a dollar, I'm cool with that! We are also giving away a signed Walter Simonson #1 cover (with Rick Leonardi and Karl Bollers signatures) to any winning backers if we reach $5K (done and awarded), $10K, $15K and funded milestones. We'll also announce an insanely cool prize for a stretch goal once we fund.

So really what's to lose to put up a dollar for this! (Do note, prizes will only be given to backers when its funded, so no pulling out!). These are better odds than the lottery. If we go beyond 20K, I'll keep offering Sketch Covers with artists like N. Steven Harris, and maybe Walter Simonson too.We'll also announce an insanely cool prize for a stretch goal once we fund.

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