Posted in: Comics, Current News | Tagged: kickstarter, massive, sean gordon murphy, sean murphy, Whatnot, zorro

Zorro Picks Up A Foil To Unlock Retailer Covers On Kickstarter

Sean Gordon Murphy had licenced the rights to Zorro to publish his own comic book, Zorro: Man Of The Dead, from his own imprint and Massive.

Published Thu, 26 Oct 2023 13:57:08 -0500

by Rich Johnston

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Back in February, Bleeding Cool ran the news that Sean Gordon Murphy had licenced the rights to Zorro to publish his own comic book, Zorro: Man Of The Dead, from his own imprint, later that year. And that Sean Murphy had talked about his love for Zorro and wanting to write and draw a Zorro comic book for some time. The rights have been licenced by the likes of Topps and Dynamite Entertainment over the years, but it seems that Sean Murphy had decided to do that bit himself as well. Sean Murphy posted to Instagram, saying " I'm starting concept art for my next book, temporarily called "Zorro: Man of the Dead" I licenced the rights myself, so it'll be publishing under my own new label. More details to follow!" As well as plenty of that concept art, including surprising vehicles, suggesting this may be set in the modern day.

Then has listed the project on Kickstarter after he got Massive Publishing, the publisher of Plot Holes, to pick it up. "The idea for this book is Don Quixote meets Narcos, told in a contemporary setting," says Sean Gordon Murphy. "Diego is a young man who's convinced that he's Zorro—as a child, he had a psychotic break after witnessing the murder of his parents by the drug cartel in his village. To cope with the trauma, he embraces the 200-year-old legend of Zorro by putting on the mask, training with the sword, and waging a war against the Narcos to free his people."

There is one comic book store in France that sells nothing but crowdfunded comic books. But some comic book stores have a natural aversion to stocking Kickstartered comics, believing that the crowdfunder will have sucked up all possible demand. I don't think that's the case, but it's a hard prejudice to shift. And it's one that Massive Publishing has a novel way of addressing.

By including stretch goals that will "unlock" covers that can then be ordered by retailers. Potentially making comic stores supportive of such a crowdfunder, as its success will give them access to items they can exclusively sell. "These unique unlocks, which include exclusive black & white variants of some of our most popular cover art, will be available to order for retailers with a Diamond account as we hit specific Stretch Goals throughout this campaign. It is our intention to link our Kickstarter campaign with our mass market distribution in a fresh, innovative way that we hope will elevate both endeavors."

Will it work? I don't know. But here are their retail unlock charts, followed by the covers that have been unlocked so far. As of typing this, they have raised $244,899 from 2121 backers with eight days to go. This means they have unlocked five retail unlock covers, with three more to go on the $250,000, $300,000 and $350,000 levels. If those stretch goals aren't met, the covers will be burned. Okay, maybe not, but they won't be published, which is as good as.

So they still have Dan Panosian, Amanda Conner foil (which will probably unlock in an hour or two), Humberto Ramos, Sean Murphy foil cover and the Sean Murphy Connecting Cover set to unlock. But this is Zorro, we all know he loves a foil in his hand, right? Or is that a pun too far?