WHAT’S IN STORE FOR JACK?
/WHAT’S UP PEOPLE OF EARTH!
We wanted to take just a minute of your time (honestly closer to 5) to let you know what we have in store for this series (and beyond) over the next year or so.
But FIRST! some exciting news.
Alice of Spades has been short-listed for Graphic Novel of the Year with the Alberta Book Publishing Awards!
Hold for applause :p
The winners of the 2024 Alberta Book Publishing Awards will be announced at a gala reception at the Varscona Theatre in Edmonton, Alberta, on September 24, 2024. The gala is open to the public. Tickets are $50 and can be purchased through the registration form below. The deadline to register is September 17, 2024. (for those so inclined)
Now the fun stuff!
Alice of Spades Vol. 1 was a huge success for us when we launched it on Kickstarter in June 2022. We truly appreciate everyone who lent their support to this campaign during a time when we didn’t know if conventions would open again, or if they did, what they would look like.
Even though Kickstarters are - *checks notes* an absolute nightmare to run - we have a couple ideas for crowdfunding projects we think you might dig.
1
As a bit of a test for myself - to see if I have any hope as an illustrator - I drew the complete 22-card lineup of the Major Arcana. I’ve been consistently selling out of the small number of cards I’m able to make myself at home (it’s a whole process - don’t ask… I don’t know why I said that… DO ASK and I’ll info dump on the card-making process for 20 minutes straight).
Anyway…
I’d love to see these get a proper release and to the same standards as our other playing cards. The Kickstarter would be a relatively low goal (around 1.5K), but we’d add special reward tiers if our funding reaches a certain threshold (gold-gilded edges, custom tuck boxes, etc.)
Certainly won’t miss gluing cardstock together in my garage :p
2
You’d think this was a no-brainer, but out of these three, this is the most daunting project. For the past few months, I’ve taken a stab at illustrating this book myself, which has been peppered with its own perils and pitfalls. To make this more manageable, I’ve split this book into two halves: Jack of Spades Vol. 2 and Vol. 3. I’m 20 pages into what will likely be a 90-page book. Below is a sneak peek at what this next installment will look like…
(If you ask nicely I’ll send you the pdf teaser)
If I take this book on myself, it will likely take another 12-18 months to finish and I’d need to raise close to 10K to get everything coloured, lettered, and printed. I’d love to make this work, but - for the moment at least - this project will likely get shelved.
Unless you all are clamouring for a sequel.
3
This next project is a bit of a departure from sword and sorcery. For the past decade, I’ve been trying to get this story made in one form or another. Earlier this year, I received a grant from the Edmonton Arts Council to make a 130-page graphic novel. I’ll be working with the amazing talent of Kyle Smith (another local comic book artist) and will inevitably end up colouring and lettering it myself. But the grant wasn’t quite enough to pay for the full production. We’ll need to run a Kickstarter to cover the printing costs.
“Funding for the space program has been slashed. The International Space Station (ISS) is scheduled to be decommissioned in 2031. This is the final crew of the ISS. And one of its crew was just murdered 270 miles above the earth.
While the surviving members plead their innocence, NASA scrambles to avoid a PR nightmare. Fearing for the lives of the remaining astronauts, NASA secretly enlists the help of an unconventional forensic scientist to discover the identity of the killer before they strike again.”.
