The Zephyr finds itself trapped in the Expanse in the sixth installment of Skies of Fire, the dieselpunk airship comic.
Thank you everybody for an incredible campaign! We'll update soon with the logistical details of fulfillment!
<3
Ray and Vince
Hey Folks!
We have just about 12 hours left in the campaign and we're around $1,500 shy of the $30k stretch goal! We're already so grateful for the out pour of support for our little indie comic. Making that stretch goal would put the cherry on top of this campaign!
If wee do manage to get there, each physical copy will include on random new postcard.
And if you want to purchase the set, all you have to do is add on $4 USD regardless of tier you're in!
You'll also be able to forego the stretch goal should we reach it in order to receive your package faster. This way our fulfillment won't be impacted by the production of new art.
We also want to give the option to have the postcards shipped separately once they're ready to go out. We'll probably only be able to do this for people who get the entire set, though.
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We really want to reach this stretch goal because it would present us with a huge opportunity to expand the world of Skies of Fire. We're so close we thought we might as well blast one last time to see if we can get the second and final wind.
Regardless of what happens thanks again so much for being here. You know we couldn't do this without you. We'll see you on the other side!
<3
Ray and Vince
@mythopoeians
Hi folks,
Hope everyone's had a good start of the week! Over here, we're super excited for the campaign as we get to its final days. Thank you all for your humbling support. It's so cool to share this journey with you guys and your feedback and thoughts about the adventure so far is truly appreciated by the Skies team.
We're excited to show off a work in progress for our Issue #6 variant cover! Crafted by the talented Ariel Colon, we hope you agree that this stunning piece really captures the essence of what happens in the issue. It's always an arduous task creating something that is special and relevant to the story, but also fitting into the world aesthetic. I think we hit a nice balance here and can't wait to see it complete with titling!
As we make the final countdown, we're getting so close to our 30k stretch goal: 5 Postcards depicting places in the Malfearn Desert Region. This is something Vince has been waiting to do for quite some time now. Bringing back Dimitris Martin to craft the cards in all their airship-laden glory is a great way to explore more of the world outside of the story and experience unique ships and locations for your own. Let's make it happen!
A campaign or so ago, we had mentioned our ideas of building a tabletop RPG for Skies of Fire. We also dropped a campaign goal of developing 100 ships. This would be a feat in of itself, with more than quintupling the technology and world space from where we are today. These projects will also give us a chance to explore more of the world with a group of friends, allowing players to have their own unique adventures in the world. We wanted to give you guys an idea where everything is at right now.
Building on the Forged in the Dark system, we currently have a decent alpha-build from which to continue development. It's not ready yet for testing, but close. Being the hardest part for us (as we've never really tried our hand in game design before), we want to make sure it's in a good place before we get it into your hands.
In regards to the worldbuilding, we've been making strides as well! We've set up a Skies of Fire wikia in order to help in the endeavor. This is a great way for us as creators to go deeper into the world lore without getting lost. We also hope it will eventually be a useful tool for players during sessions. We intend to continually update it with more lore content and artwork as it becomes available.
With the 100 ships, we are 50% of the way through! Alex has been doing an amazing job developing the ships to be special, yet accurate, to the world we are trying to build.
It's a gargantuan task to build an entire world, one that wouldn't have been possible without you. It's always a delight for the Skies team to be able to really extend the boundaries of our imagination and further each adventure with you! Thank you! We truly can't say it enough!
As we wind down the campaign, do drop us a line with your thoughts on our progress and share the campaign with your friends! It's the best way for us to continue to grow and develop more of the world.
Till next time, keep flying!
Love,
- Vince and Ray
Instagram, Twitter, Facebook - @mythopoeians
Hey Everyone!
Welcome back to another weekly campaign update!
This weekend Mythopoeia finds itself at a comic book convention! If you are a UK fan and happen to be going to MCM London, please find Vince in the Comic Village in booth CV239.
Comic cons are quite the adventure. Scratch that - adventure is not the right word. They are fun, they are rewarding, but they are most definitely taxing. As indie comic creators, we've been going to shows for around six years now. In our peak we used to do something like 9-10 shows a year, which is really insignificant compared to the like 30-40 shows many full-time artists and creators go to in a year.
To be honest, whenever I talk to another creator who attends that many shows I can't fathom how they do it. A convention is basically a travel weekend with all of the disruption in routine and schedule those entail. At the end of a convention weekend I am absolutely knackered and don't want to do anything for at least a day, usually more. Can't imagine what it's like being constantly on the road but I know I definitely couldn't do it. So to those of who you who travel that much for your jobs - I salute you.
We used to be quite the party animals when it came to conventions. ("used to", hah). In 2017, I got to our booth at NYCC on Saturday at 1:30 pm. The entire aisle - our fellow exhibitors - stopped to sardonically applaud my arrival. Felt... good, man? Vince didn't make it in with our buddy Alex until it was time to close, and the only reason they came down at all was because we had all gotten tickets to Blade Runner that night at Times Square and they weren't going to miss that, no matter how hungover they were. That wasn't a very good sales year.
But y'know, you get older, try to take care of yourself a little bit more... be more professional, all that jazz. This past summer at SDCC I booked a very expensive hotel right next to the convention. I was sick of commuting into the show and reasoned that being so close would translate into an extra hour or more of sleep every night, which meant more energy! Right?
WRONG! A convention is a convention. It doesn't matter what you do, where you go, how late you stay or how early you turn in - you will be tired. I didn't go out a single night during San Diego and still my bones ached every morning when it was time to get up. I was just as tired, even with all the extra rest.
All's that to say is if you ever see me or Vince at a convention, we'll happily accept your offer to buy a round or two after the show.
Every campaign I like to take a look around Kickstarter and other platforms to see what's new, what's hot, and what's interesting in crowdfunded comics! And for those of you who are wondering - yes, this is the section where I plug other cool projects. But before I get into that (and because I'm in a rambly mood), I want to marvel again at how much crowdfunded comics have changed for better in the just shy of six years we've been at this.
When we started, there were a lot of webcomics and other established creators looking to publish their books in print using crowdfunding to great success, but as far as original comics went, it was a lot more barren. Even rarer was an original comic going for its second, third or god forbid fourth issue. It just didn't happen very often. Well, that's certainly changed in 2019! Every year there are more original comics on Kickstarter and the quality has been growing exponentially. Creators are building both fanbases and series on the platform We're happy to have been a small part of that. At the end of the day we're in a small industry so a rising tide lifts all boats.
Anyway... here's what caught my eye this week in crowdfunded comics:
Slightly Exagerrated - Indiana Jones meets Studio Ghibli! Curtis is a rising creator on this platform, having already pumped out three series and four issues over the past two years. He's got a great eye for artists and novel concepts, Slightly Exagerrated just being the most recent example. Only five hours left in the campaign so check it out!
Neverender is a comic about an earthborn punk and his journey into a space dueling ring. That has to be one of the more original concepts I've ever heard. What caught my eye with this project is the crazy design sensibilities of its creator, Devin Kraft. Both the above image and the thumbnail for the project are incredibly. Looks to be a pretty fun and wild ride. Don't get more indie than this, folks :D
This project is subtitled"a warmly pornographic fantasy saga." The art on this project is incredible. Really detailed, reminiscent (to me) of Fiona Staples but, with, like, more dicks and boobs and stuff. Artist/Creator Alexis Flower is clearly trying to push the boundaries of quality in sequential storytelling, and you know us - that's something we're always down for. Also, the page excerpts has some pretty damn snappy dialogue. I haven't read the whole thing, but if you're into beautiful elves and demons and princesses fucking, scheming, and stabbing, check it out!
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What are your favorite projects live right now? Any interesting comic con experiences you'd care to share? Let us know in the comments below! Next week we'll hopefully unveil our variant cover. It's also about the time of the campaign where we begin working on fulfillment - talking to printers, etc.
Stay tuned!
- Ray and Vince
Hey Everyone,
A little later than I anticipated, but here's your second update for the campaign!
On the creative front, Vince and I worked on a lot of Glow this week. As in, we're knee deep in drafting mode and trying to break story for the next arch. This is by far the hardest thing we do as it's our purest form of expression. Each issue of our comic goes through about ten drafts. We write, and we write, and write. We then rewrite, inevitably circling back to some idea we had several drafts before but somehow this time around it's better and it works cause we've given it time to ferment.
Other than that, we also gave notes to Pablo regarding his thumbnails for the month. For about two years now he's scheduled into a pretty good rhythm of 5 pages a week. The consistency we attribute to baking in bonuses for him if he manages to complete 5 pages a week. That's a protip for any of you creators out there working with artists. Incentives talk. The work keeps coming so long as the money does!
So those of you who follow us on social media may have noticed that we've recently begun to consolidate our various accounts. Welp, I'm happy to say we've finally managed to do it! All of Mythopoeia now lives under the @mythopoeians username. We're active through Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
Vince and I are not huge proponents of social media. Mostly because we're not huge users of it. Most of Vince's time spent on the internet is used looking up history memes while I like to argue about soccer with people on reddit. Neither is a very healthy habit and probably reflects poorly on social media as a whole.
Nonetheless, we do recognize the importance of social media when it comes to spreading the word. We're trying to be better about it but I think inevitably you can still kind of see we approach it from more of a business standpoint rather than a personal one.
For personal stuff, we like to use Kickstarter updates or our blog. We feel like this a better medium for us to directly talk to you, our truest fans, and let you know what's up. Anyway--
Also, we're doing a giveaway on social media! If you'd like a chance to win a free art print ($25 value!), please check out our instagram, facebook, or twitter @mythopoeians. The twitter post will go up later today but the Instagram and Facebook ones are already up. You don't need to enter into all three as one will enter you in general. But you can so long as you tag more people :)
We also did some work on this issue's variant cover! It's going to be a bit of a pivot away from our initial concept (the one we listed on our campaign page). Nonetheless, we're very happy with how it's turning out. We're going to wait until we have some more polished drafts to show you but hope you'll enjoy it as much as we do...
Hokay y'all. That's it for now! Let us know if there's anything you'd like us to talk about in particular below. And don't forget to follow us @mythopoeians!
- Ray and Vince