Hello and thank you ever so much for stopping by to check out this campaign. My name is Heather Scott and I am the owner of Dragonmun Studios - a small group of artists that enjoy producing comics for everyone's entertainment.
Blink is a graphic novel about Matt, a boy with peculiar powers that wind up trapping him in a comic created by his jealous girlfriend, Amanda. With the help of Julia - a girl with similar powers - he must fight his way back to the real world. This also poses some very unique challenges for my group.
When I first envision Matt's adventure, it was like a fantastic dream where I got to explore the fantastic visions of my favorite artists. I knew immediately that in order for this story to be told correctly, that I would have hire additional illustrators to work on this project since is more than my regular crew could handle.
Being a comic artist myself, I knew that I couldn't ask other artists to work on this for free. I also knew that the promise to pay based on the comic royalties would not put food on the table or pay the bills. Because of this I reached out to a great many people and found 11 other wonderful artists who were willing to volunteer their time and effort for a rate lower than what they honestly should be compensated for - all because they believe in the story.
I can't even begin to express how grateful I am to have them working on this graphic novel, but I can offer a little bit right here. Thank You Frances Nash, Sarah Bryant, Steve Bennett III, April Burns, Stephanie Chateau, Hannah Cruz, Elizabeth Doyle, Russell Reynolds, Miriam & Dee Jay Smith, and Katrina Trotta for heping me with this!
Because Dragonmun Studios started off as a collection of individuals that produced comics as a hobby and helped each other out in terms of resources, a massive collaborative effort like this is way outside of our normal business model. Making sure that the artists are paid is a huge challenge as the funds for our existing comics go into funding those very same comics. Anything extra would require that we either take on additional employment or ask for help - as we are doing.
The amount we are requesting is strictly to compensate the artists for their time and effort. This does not include the production costs, but I am hoping to pitch this story to some comic publishers to help ease that burden. If that fails, I do have a small budget set aside to publish this through my normal means.
However, despite the fact that I am floating some of the costs myself, this unique comic project will go nowhere if the artist aren't paid.
I mentioned above that the artists had volunteered to work at a low rate because they are as excited about this story as I am. That rate is a measly $20 per page (or a little less than $3/hr if they work fast). As this graphic novel is 200 pages long, that means we need $4,000 to complete this project. If we do not reach this goal, then the money contributed is still going to go to the artists so that it can at least be started and perhaps released in single-issue form (not as fun for the reader).
Because we are all about thanking people, everyone that contributes will be mentioned on a special thanks page up on the website and will have access to a digital wallpaper featuring the submissions from the poster project mentioned below (other perks are listed over there on the right!).
Spread The Word!
It may sound cliche, but one of the best ways that you can help us to reach our goal is to spread the word! It doesn't make sense to ask a small amount of people for a large amount of money in these economic times. Besides, networking is fun!
The Poster Project
The poster project for Blink is an alternative way for financially impaired artists (like us) to help donate to the fundraising campaign. The goal is to create an Andy Warhol-ish poster featuring as many variations of the same image as possible. This poster will then be posted for sale through a print-on-demand service to serve as another means to raise funds a bit later on.
It's a pretty lenient project overall as the only things that need to stay the same are the branding graphics and the pose. The rest is left up to the artist (who is in the pose, the demeanor of the pose, etc.)
Poster submissions and information on this can be found at http://theressomethinginyoureye.com.
Heather Scott