Rewards progress check-in: looking good, looking good
over 3 years ago
– Sun, Nov 20, 2022 at 10:39:59 PM
Pledges: all collected! On their way to my bank now.
Volume 5 wallpapers: delivered! Check your Kickstarter DMs for the download links.
Survey design: in progress. BackerKit has added some cool new features to their survey tool since last year, and I'm figuring out how to use them.
Early Bird bonus art: finished for everyone who's sent me a prompt. If you haven't yet, it's not too late! (But please don't put it off much longer.)
Volume 5 ebooks: in progress. There's still some bonus art left to draw...and it turns out 192 pages isn't long enough to include all the bonus comics that could be relevant, so I'm still deciding what to squeeze in, and what to hold back for Volume 6.
Mini-prints: extremely shiny. The sample proof arrived a few days ago, and it looks good, so the full order has been approved.
~Erin Ptah
Volume 5 is funded! What's next?
over 3 years ago
– Sun, Nov 06, 2022 at 10:23:04 PM
$5,400, good lord. This is a new Leif & Thorn record, and then some.
Here's what happens now:
Kickstarter collects your pledges: Over the next 2 weeks. If there's any trouble charging your card, KS will contact you directly and let you know.
I draw the rest of the Early Bird bonus art: As the prompts come in. I've drawn 8 so far, which means 7 of you still haven't decided! Anyone who still hasn't sent a prompt in the next couple days, I'll poke you again.
Surveys go out through BackerKit: After KS has all the pledges collected. That's where I'll take your addresses, and any other info I need to fulfill your rewards. It'll also give you one more shot at grabbing any extra add-ons.
Digital rewards start to go out: Wallpapers will be sent once the pledges are in! The ebooks will be delivered whenever they're ready, i.e. after I have all the Early Bird art drawn.
Stay tuned for production updates on the paperbacks, and other printed rewards. Like this year's exclusive mini-print. Here's the poll-winning artwork:
Leif & Thorn strips continue to be published online: Always! Follow the website, join the comments section, enjoy.
~Erin Ptah
Even more webcomic campaign recs
over 3 years ago
– Wed, Oct 19, 2022 at 10:50:04 PM
Hey, Leif & Thorn readers, now that I have your attention...can I tell you about some of the other webcomics that are crowdfunding right now?
Because there are plenty of good ones out there -- including some of my personal long-time favorites. And it's never a bad time to add a new series to your reading list.
In order by campaign deadline, soonest first:
Widdershins: Sea Change
Things have been a little difficult for Lei Feng ever since she broke out of prison. Having made a rather explosive exit from her previous career, Lei picked up a new job as a flunky for the self-proclaimed World’s Greatest Bounty Hunter, Verity Cunningham, thinking it would be a good opportunity to turn things around and get herself onto the right path. But now the repentant former villain has found herself setting off on a journey of discovery, it turns out to not quite be the one she was hoping for.
Incredible long-running fantasy comic. The ensemble cast is big, weird, and lovable. There's fun magic worldbuilding, the kind where you can pay close attention as each arc goes on and put the puzzle pieces together before the characters do, or just relax and enjoy the discovery along with them.
Earlier arcs are pretty closely tied together, so you wouldn't want to read them out of order. I think this book would work all right as a standalone -- Verity is a delightful menace who can drive her own plot, easy -- but you should check out the back catalog anyway, because they're all a delight.
The Widdershins campaign ends October 23!
Somewhere In Between: The First Collection
Somewhere in Between began its life as a little comic that I would draw and post to Instagram while working from home during the pandemic. The idea was to draw cartoons based on our little mixed family going about our daily lives. At some point, the comic started shifting more towards Boothe, an introverted, highly intelligent biracial child curious about the world and his place in it.
An adorable comic with fun, expressive kid characters and newspaper-strip charm. Openly deals with how these characters' lives are impacted by race and its issues, but with a light touch that doesn't lose sight of how they're kids, with all the quirks, silliness, and sweetness that includes.
Originally posted panel-by-panel on Instagram, but you can tell these were designed to be read in a more traditional format, and they deserve the chance.
Somewhere In Between is funding until November 2!
My Reaper Boyfriend Vol. 3
The kind and humble human Charlie, his (Boyfriend? Soul reaper? It’s complicated!) Jax, and the demon of nightmares himself, Nox, team up to find yet another way to release Charlie’s soul, encountering demons, witches, and even a few new friends along the way!
It's the classic romcom setup: Boy meets boy, boy makes offhand comment about how he'd sell his soul to date boy, additional soul-reaper boy takes boy up on offer, soul-reaper boy finds himself falling for boy...
Seriously, this is pure cross-cultural fluffy romance with a supernatural spin. Read it when you want to feel good.
The My Reaper Boyfriend campaign runs until November 11.
A Little Immortality: Schlock Mercenary Book 17
A Little Immortality begins with the story of Captain Tagon’s return from death, and subsequent return to his mercenary company. The book introduces new characters, new ships, and boldly dares to give our solar system a ninth planet¹ again.
¹ The ninth planet in the Schlockiverse version of Sol system is not Pluto. Sorry. It's the planet responsible for Pluto's weird orbit. In order to name it in the same scheme as the six non-Earth, non-Uranus planets, the U.N.S. had to free up the name "Bacchus" by destroying an asteroid.
One of my favorite long-running webcomics. A sci-fi comedy that spent 20 years upping the stakes from "space mercenaries get hired to take out the opposition's genetically-modified lawyers" to "racing to redefine the interaction of matter and energy in time to save all of intergalactic civilization" -- all without ever forgetting how to be funny.
The end of the comic is published online, but there's still a huge chunk waiting to be collected in print -- 3 whole books left after this one! You better believe I'm on that mailing list until I can catch the whole set.
Schlock Mercenary is on Kickstarter until November 18.
If Only We Could - Webtoons
After being bullied, Jun moved to Busan for a new start. His first stop was the arcade, where he immediately claimed the top score for every game but Strike. However, the reigning champ, Saka, was an unbeatable opponent, a local favorite, and...he made Jun extremely nervous and shy around him. However, when Jun gets the courage to play a match with Saka, they begin their never-ending story.
Soft retro romance between a couple of gamer friends turned e-sports celebrities. Pressured by homophobic/transphobic relatives and classmates on one side, and over-invested shippy fans on the other, can they come to grips with their true feelings for each other?
If Only We Could is taking new backers until December 5!
Talk stretch goals to me
over 3 years ago
– Tue, Oct 18, 2022 at 09:44:01 PM
Ten days in, and we are funded!
(1) Woohoo! and (2) What's next?
That is a record funding speed for Leif & Thorn -- or for any project/series I've crowdfunded. Kudos to everyone who's jumped on with us.
What's next:
1) Stretch goals! Just $700 more will get us a longer book, bumping the page count from 180 to 192.
That would give me room to add bonus pages about panel callbacks, deleted scenes, the featurette on the Neineikura family that I didn't manage to fit in Volume 4, and more.
2) The mini-print poll is still going!
The top 2 contenders for print designs are neck-and-neck -- with 20 and 19 votes, respectively -- so if you have a strong preference, go get your votes in.
3) Tell your friends!
Self-explanatory. There's a whole 2-and-a-half weeks left for new readers to dive into this, so keep getting the word out!
- Erin
The Volume 5 mini-print poll
over 3 years ago
– Sun, Oct 16, 2022 at 09:28:57 PM
Good grief, it's only been a week and we're almost 90% funded. Guess I better get this rewards poll going, huh?
Every year, if you back the newest Leif & Thorn volume on Kickstarter, it comes with an exclusive mini-print. Instead of just picking out the art myself, I figure it's more fun if I grab a few different pieces and let you folks vote.
You can find the poll on the Leif & Thorn website.
Here's a closer look at the options! Featuring some Heartsword Knights action poses, some Leif/Thorn(/Kale) tender moments, and some ominous vampire scenes:
Don’t worry about the exact sizes — they’re all high-res enough for these prints, and I’ll adjust them to look good at the right dimensions. Just focus on picking your favorite. (Or favorites! You can pick up to 2.)
The poll will stay open until our fundraising deadline, November 4. Click on over and put in some votes.
