White Ash Deluxe Edition

Surprise 50K Bonus Stretch goal (you're going to LOVE this one).
about 2 years ago – Tue, Apr 19, 2022 at 02:02:05 AM

Hey White Ashians,

Today we crossed the $50,000 plateau which is just mind-blowing.  I was talking with my friend Russell Nohelty, about how amazing this all was and how I wished everyone knew how much we here in White Ash appreciated them. And Russell said... I think I can help you with that. 

And oh my goodness, Russell is helping in a HUGE way.  You see, Russell is an incredible writer and also pretty prolific on Kickstarter. One of my favorite things he writes is series called Ichabod Jones Monster Hunter. It's a Lovecraftian dark fantasy, horror-comedy about an inmate who escapes from an asylum... during the apocalypse. And then, as one does, he starts hunting monsters.  But the thing is, Ichabod isn't reeeally sure if they're monsters or if they're actually humans and it's all just in his head. It's a super fun read... one that Russell has GENEROUSLY offered to give to all of you... FOR FREE. 

What does that mean?  That means every backer will now receive (in addition to their other rewards) a free PDF of Ichabod Volume One.   Which is great... but what's mind-blowing is he's also offered to donate a number of HARDCOVERS of Ichabod  to the campaign.  So now, EVERY BACKER* who pledged at the White Ash & Glarien Catch Up tier or higher ($53 and up) will receive one of these beauties too (for Free).

So if you were on the fence between the digital catch-up and the physical  catch-up tier or wavering between the "pick two" and the "all five covers" tier, know that this hardcover is now included with all those tiers.  A hardcover filled with beautifully horrifying pages like this...

So again, a HUGE thank you to Russel for donating the hardcovers.  We set out to give you more bang for your White Ash buck and we love making good on that promise. 

*(A quick note, if you're an international backer at those levels, this will be an optional add-on as the book is free but there will be a small charge to cover the additional international shipping costs).

Speaking of what else you get by backing White Ash, I had mentioned in a previous update if you enjoyed the crossover print we're offering for backing Night Wolf to stay tuned. Well, we're happy to announce that anyone who has backed White Ash who also backs Slice of Life (at a physical level) will receive this print.

This fun anime style print featuring Lady Vengeance and Lillian facing off against Mara, is the kind of collaboration that's so easy to do on Kickstarter, where creators talk directly to other creators without having to run things by a big corporation.  And it's a great way to introduce readers who like urban/ grounded fantasy like White Ash to a new series like Slice of Life with similar tropes.  So I hope you'll check the campaign out.  And if you do, make sure you get that print.

And while we're on the subject of checking things out, I want to point out one last campaign that's ending in just THREE DAYS, Happy Hill 1-3. 

From the minds of Rich Douek (Superman:Red and Blue, Star Lord, TMNT, ) and Joe Mulvey (Wailing Blade, Mummy's Always Right) comes the tale of a vacation resort that's a little less relaxing than advertised on the brochure... as a monster stalks and terrifies the guests.  Anything that's scripted by Rich is always worth a read, but Joe's art really makes this book shine, hitting the perfect note between wacky and unnerving. His characters all have so much life in them... until it's snuffed out.  I hope you'll give this campaign a look.  Everything that Joe, Rich and Comixtribe do is quality and I'm always happy to support them.  

Have a great rest of the week everyone.  We'll be back when we hit the next official stretch goal. 

Thanks again for your support,

Charlie and the rest of Team Ash (Conor, Fin and Mick)

EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED PRINT RUN cover UNLOCKED
about 2 years ago – Wed, Apr 13, 2022 at 04:08:54 PM

Hey hi, ho, White Ashians,

Sorry for the late post today. With Spring Break, the kids are home and today was some family time. But I wanted to make sure I got this out as another milestone has been toppled. Last night we passed $46,000 UNLOCKING Stretch Goal #6 I Need A HERO. As promised, we are adding a brand new cover to the campaign. 

Behold this beauty from Romina Moranelli. 

The print run of this cover is limited to only 250 copies. If you'd like one, here's what you need to do:  

• If you pledged at a tier that was $125 or higher (the All 5 plus metal, or our sketch cover and rare variant tiers), you don't have to do anything. We're throwing it in for free with your other books.  

• 75 copies are also now available as add-ons at the thank you price of just $15 (Post-campaign they will be $30 each). To take advantage of that pricing, click "manage your pledge" at the top of the page and you'll be allowed to go back in and add the cover on. 

• And finally, we've opened up a new pledge tier where you can choose the new Moranelli cover as your base pledge. 

As this is a limited cover, it will NOT be part of the pick two offerings or included automatically with the all five covers tier (But you can still add it on). I hope you enjoy this cover as much as I do and understand why when Romina sent me the sketches I knew immediately I wanted both.

So let's talk about what's next. It's time to reveal...

Stretch Goal #7 ($52,000) THE BIG SHORT 

If we can reach 52K we'll commission another 10 page Glarien digital stand-alone story.  We've really enjoyed adding those to the campaign in the past. And from the feedback we've received, it seems like you really enjoy getting them too. Glarien is a huge part of the history and lore of the White Ash Universe and we look forward to the day (in the distant future) when you'll get to see how all of these pieces fit together. 

Another book that has it all coming together is Boston Metaphysical Society from Madeleine Holly-Rosing.

Boston Metaphysical is one of the strongest and longest-running series on kickstarter. This award-winning, Steampunk Supernatural series is perfect for fans of Penny Dreadful/ the gaslight fantasy genre. The art is great and Madeleine is a fabulous writer.  She's also an incredible friend to Kickstarter comic creators everywhere.  She's amazingly kind and supportive of other projects, doling out so much helpful advice, it's not surprising she wrote book on how to fund comics on Kickstarter (no, really, she wrote Kickstarter for the Independent Creator) 

Volume 2 of Boston Metaphysical Society launched today. Check it out and let's help her get off to a record-breaking start and find yourself your new, favorite steampunk series.

Also just dropping today is the second issue of Slice of Life from Kat Calamia and Phil Falco.

Slice of Life is a queer romance that deconstructs the "slice of life" genre, unpacking the importance of everyday narratives to tell a larger story about the meaning of life from the point of view of a fictional character... and it's a whole lot of fun.  The series has been running for a while on Webtoons now and deservedly has a pretty solid following. Kat and Phil are providing collected editions for those of us who like the physical version of things. Plus, if you are one of our backers who enjoys crossover prints (like the one we did with Nightwolf), stay tuned, and definitely make sure you TAKE A LOOK at Slice of life.

Rounding out this batch of "new to the platform books, I want to spotlight something a bit different, an amazing looking art book from Clover Press -- Godzilla & Kong.

This 200+ page book features a selection of Richard Bennett's storyboards from the blockbuster hits Godzilla vs. Kong, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and Kong: Skull Island. If you're a process junky or you just like looking at beautiful art you're going to love this book. 

There are 3 hours left to get in on the early-bird special pricing.  So do yourself a favor and CHECK IT OUT.

Thanks again, everyone. It's truly remarkable to us that we still have 14 days left in the campaign and we're working on Stretch Goal #7.  We love being on Kickstarter and look forward to making White Ash campaigns ones that you remember.

Have a great week,

Charlie and the rest of Team Ash (Conor, Fin and Mick)

1000 backers BONUS STRETCH GOAL
about 2 years ago – Mon, Apr 11, 2022 at 01:33:01 AM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.

Another Stretch Goal UNLOCKED and... Revealed.
about 2 years ago – Thu, Apr 07, 2022 at 11:29:48 PM

Hey White Ashians,

The campaign continues to truck right along and we couldn't be happier. That means Stretch Goal #5 Farrah Fawcett's Got Nothing On Us is now UNLOCKED.  We've given Emiliana the Green Light and as soon as she has her pin-up complete, we'll share it with you. 

So let's talk about what's next. It's time to reveal...

Stretch Goal #6 ($46,000) I Need A HERO  IF we can reach 46K we'll be putting another Cover UP for all of you.  And for those of you not around in the 1980's, or who got lost on my very long walk down the pier, Cover Up was a very popular, but short-lived TV series whose theme song was...

...I Need a Hero.  Anyway, putting nostalgia aside for a moment, the new cover is also from the incredible Romina Moranelli.  When I as asked Romina to do a cover for this campaign, she sent me two different sketches. One was this one, which became the incredible cover that's live right now.  

The other was just as good (possibly better).  And in that moment, I got greedy and said "I hope we can do both."  So as the campaign rocketed along, I asked her to get started on the other. Hopefully we'll hit that next stretch goal soon and you all can see what I'm talking about. It's just to die for. 

Also gorgeous is everything that P. Craig Russell (American Gods, Sandman) does.  And he's part of an insanely beautiful looking graphic novel that's an adaptation of Carmen, being done in conjunction with the Arizona Opera.

Five years ago you would have never seen a book like this on the platform.  And likely, the Arizona Opera would have never considered it.  But now, as all of you backers know, is the age where amazing things are being made on Kickstarter.  

Perhaps the most famous opera in history, Georges Bizet’s Carmen premiered in 1875 at the Opéra-Comique in Paris. Adapted orginally from the novella by Prosper Mérimée, Carmen remains one of the most exciting and popular works in the repertoire. The Arizona Opera commissioned opera singer and director Alek Shrader to write the graphic novel. Accompanying him (along with Russell) is a murder's row of talent including: Colleen Doran, Erica Henderson, Marguerite Sauvage, Natacha Bustos and Ana Mirallès.

This campaign is filled with beautiful art.  

But check it out for yourself and you'll see what I mean. 

Thanks again everyone for all the support.  Before we leave you for the day, I did want to point out one more project that's coming down the road.  One of my good friends from the LA comic scene Rylend Grant is coming back to Kickstarter with an all-new series with Immortal Studios Fa Sheng: Origins.

I've seen some of the advance art from Dexter Wee on the book and it looks incredible.  They have a prelaunch page live HERE.  Give them a follow and let's help them get off to a great start when they launch later this month.

Be back soon to hopefully show off that beautiful new Moranelli cover. 

Best from Team Ash,

Charlie, Conor, Fin, Mick

Another Stretch Goal Unlocked
about 2 years ago – Tue, Apr 05, 2022 at 03:39:22 AM

Hey White Ashians,

We figured we might be back today. We didn't have far to go, and you blew right through Stretch Goal #4 DEAL ME IN.  So the trading card (and trading card sets for our catch-up tiers) have officially been unlocked.  So it's time to reveal the next one...

Stretch Goal #5 ($42,000) Farrah Fawcett's Got Nothing On Us  Yep, we've got another pin-up on the way. (Note: for you younger folk, Farrah and her windblown golden locks, was a bit of a thing back in the day)  This one is from the incredibly talented Emiliana Pinna. Emiliana is a rising star in the comic industry who's recently been doing Vampirella for Dynamite and HISMWTC (with me). We love adding in pin-ups for backers as they benefit both our physical and digital-only tiers.  

Speaking of pin-ups, we mentioned in the last update that we had a (hopefully) fun game for you.  When Conor finished that Thank You illustration, he thought... "this has meme potential." And he quickly mocked this up... 

And I said, "That's great, Conor, but I bet our backers can come up with something even better."

So we're opening up a contest, what can you come up with?  You can download the image HERE in two forms, completely blank, or with Word Balloons. We're going to give you one week (till end of day, Friday the 8th) to come up with your take. Make it funny, sexy (but not dirty) and  email all entries to [email protected]

We're going to post our favorites in an update and on social media.  We'll run a poll and the winner will receive a free METAL COVER of White Ash: Deluxe Edition.  So put your thinking caps on and get creative.  

Speaking of creative, one of the most insanely creative and fun books that I've seen in a long time is also live on Kickstarter. And that's Jamie Jones and Matthew Sardo's Monkeys Fighting Robots.

This is a collection of 104 MFR tales. The war between monkeys and robots has raged on for eons; these are the stories that have survived. I'm a huge fan of Jamie's artwork an immediately back anything he brings to Kickstarter. He did a killer White Ash pin-up that we had in our first Hardcover.  Everything he draws is so fun and alive.

But go over and CHECK OUT the project, I think it's something you'll find that lives up to everything that comes to mind when you read the title -- Monkeys Fighting Robots.  There are FIVE DAYS left to pick this up, so don't miss out.

Also ending soon with SIX DAYS TO GO, is something special and green-toned from one of my favorite people I've met since getting into comics, Russell Nohelty.  Russell has put a slew of amazing books out through Kickstarter, but one of his best is the Cthulhu is Hard to Spell trilogy.

Beyond being a fantastic writer, Russel is a force of nature when it comes to putting these anthologies together. He's assembled some of best voices in comics including David Pepose (Savage Avengers), Trina Robbins (Wonder Woman), Paul Jenkins (Spider-Man), Lea Hernandez (Teen Titans Go) and so many more to bring you this Battle Royale.   

Plus, how many Cthulhu books do you know that are all-ages appropriate? I'm really excited to get the third volume to join the first two on my self.  I highly recommend you check this one out. 

Anyway, before we leave you for the weekend, we did want to let you know about one more cool freebie that's available to anyone who backs our campaign and backs Rob Multari's NIGHT WOLF. Check this sweet crossover print out...

Drawn by Carlos Herrera, I like to call it Lillian and the Wolf. Hopefully you'll call it yours when you back Night Wolf. 

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone. Get working on those memes.

And thank you again for your support,

Charlie and the rest of Team Ash, Conor, Fin and Mick