Indie Comics Showcase #149: Relentless Tin Soldier, Airith Saga & Cape Fear

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It’ new comic book day, and we are back with an all-new installment of our weekly Indie Comics Showcase, where we signal boost a few truly independent comics that are currently crowdfunding their projects, crowdsourcing their funding in some way, or just completely self-publishing on their own. Every little bit of support for these creators matters, from a single dollar pledge to the twenty-five dollar bundle, and of course the higher tiers are usually fun too! Even if you can’t back a campaign or buy a book, you can share or tweet about these projects to your friends and followers. 

On Indie Comics Showcase, we interview the creators, show off some art, and tell you how you can check out the product for yourself. Below we have some outstanding crowdfunding campaigns this week for you to learn about, enjoy, and hopefully support by backing one or more of them! Thanks for checking these out and for being the best part of Indie Comics Showcase. Let’s jump in!

Check out the campaign page here.

Chris: Welcome to Indie Comics Showcase, Robert. Tell us about your comics crowdfunding project, Cape Fear.

Robert: Well, Cape Fear can be described as a Horror/Suspense/Adventure Graphic Novel, something like, if ‘Sandman’ met ‘Lord of the Rings’, met ‘X-Files…’ It is about the God of Fear, his Earth-bound alter ego, and the struggle Fear faces in keeping his power out of the hands of evil…Hence the sub title : ‘Power Struggle.’

Chris: This isn’t your first time crowdfunding. Tell us what’s different with this campaign.

Robert: I had originally crowd funded the original graphic novel run of ‘Cape Fear : Power Struggle,’ in 2009, I believe. THIS new campaign is the second printing with a new design, lettering, AND with an anthology PREQUEL comic book that introduces key characters from the graphic novel! The 48 page prequel plays like a Horror Anthology comic book, with stories involving fear and how it affects us.

Chris: Where did this idea originate? And why did you decide to crowdfund it?

Robert: The idea for Cape Fear started as far back as the late 1980’s!! Without TOO much detail, my friends and I wanted to create a comic. After many meetings, we decided on two concepts. One was a berserker dude with a time machine, the other was Cape Fear. As time went on, interest faded among my friends, but I wanted to carry on with the idea…It went through MANY changes. At one point, Fear was more of a Super Hero. I hated that, so I decided to make him ACTUAL Fear! I had written AND Illustrated THREE versions of an ENTIRE four issue series, but disliked them all until really buckling down and creating this ultimate version of the character, and supporting cast…I actually have several completed versions of Cape Fear in my Art Vaults! LOL!

As for deciding to crowdfund it, I had shopped it around to a few indie-companies, with no response, so… crowd funding! The initial run of copies had sold out at the many cons I attend through my Zombie Portraits business, but folks kept asking for copies, so, Second Printing! 

Chris: What kind of comics fans would you say this comic is best suited for.

Robert:I think that the independent comic market has grown a LOT since I was a young lad, and folks are more accepting of concepts and story telling that isn’t consistent from the big two publishers, so I think Cape Fear will speak to a much bigger audience. Primarily however, readers into the horror, suspense, genre will likely enjoy it the most….plus it has MONSTERS! 

Chris: What can you tell us about your creative team?

Robert: Well, to be honest, the creative team is all me! I live way up North in Canada, and there are NOT a lot of folks to conspire with up here in creating ‘fanciful things!’ LOL! I’m basically in a mining/hockey town. I wrote all versions of the story, illustrated them, and even taught myself to letter! I had originally approached a few letterers but the cost to letter would have DOUBLED what I’m asking for to publish in the campaign….So, Rob better learn how to do it! LOL!

Chris: Wow! That’s a heavy load. What is your work load like?

Robert: I work constantly! My peak performance time is typically from 9 PM to 5 AM however! I also run the Zombie Portraits business that I started back in 2006, plus contribute to Zombie Daily, a Patreon page where I post a new Zombie Drawing every day, that started in 2008! I have to admit though, comic art is the MOST difficult thing I’ve ever done…For many, many reasons! Comic artists in general are perhaps the most underrated artists working on this planet! No one can understand the complexities of what they do, and how they must do it!! It is extremely difficult even at the best of times! But….I LOVE IT!! For the Cape Fear Comic Book work, I basically finish the script, break it down into panels of action/dialogue, create roughs for each page, pecil eack page, ink each page. then scan and letter each page.

Chris: What have you been learning about crowdfunding. 

Robert: Well, the one thing that I’ve learned about crowd funding in present day, is that the internet is a MUCH different place than it was, 10 years ago. It’s incredibly difficult to reach a target audience now. Very hard to get the word out, promote, tell people that you are excited about a project, etc… I really want to do the second and third installment of Cape Fear, but I ‘fear’ it will be too difficult to crowd fund by then. The internet is less about social interaction than it is about instant gratification, and a money grab. It has become much more difficult to build yourself up and reach other like minded folks…At least, that’s how I perceive it versus the other times I have crowd funded projects.

Chris: Have you always been into comics?

Robert: I’ve been a comic book fan since I was a young boy! I have ALWAYS loved the medium, and have always wanted to do comics! ‘Thing is though, I really never wanted to necessarily work for a company…I’ve always wanted to tell the stories MY way, and use my own characters! I love Marvel and DC, and other comics and characters, but I really never wanted to draw Spider-Man or Batman unless I was ‘Zombifying’ them. To draw them in a comic with another person writing the words was never a ‘thing’ with me. I have SO MANY concepts and ideas floating around in my brain compartments, I would never live long enough to see them realized as comic books…But I had to try at least one! 

Chris: What does the future hold for Cape Fear? Where is this headed?

Robert: There are several more stories to tell! I only wish that I could reach more folks who want to see them! ‘Basically, like every other creator on the planet! In fact, the second Cape Fear graphic novel is written, entirely thumb-nailed and there are about twenty-five or so pages completed!

Chris: Thanks for chatting with us, Robert. Good luck with the campaign! 

Robert: I cannot express how much this means to me! Thank you so much for listening!!

Check out the campaign page here.

Check out the campaign here.

Chris Braly: Welcome to Indie Comics Showcase, Nicholas. Tell our readers your elevator pitch for your comic The Relentless Tin Soldier.

Nicholas Geer: Benjamin Pearson, a rookie cop who sets out to take down the most influential crime family plaguing Minneapolis… The Colletta Family. As expected, an organization with so much influence, was not going down without a fight and to stop him, the Colletta Family, might just have inadvertently created the one hero that can bring their criminal organization to a halt once and for all.  

CB: What was the genesis for this project, where did the idea for this comic come from, and what led to you deciding to crowdfund it?

NG:  I’ve always wanted to create my own hero’s and see them in print, but it became a possibility when I stumbled across Billy Tucci promoting his book (Shi Return of the warrior) on his youtube channel the Popxp! and through that discovered crowdfunding comics was a thing.

CB: What kind of comic fans do you expect this comic will entertain the most?

NG:  I grew up reading comics in the 90’s and believe a lot of what made 90’s comics great has stuck with me. So those who read comics wanting action and adventure should be please with The Relentless Tin Soldier. 

CB: Let’s get into the creative and production side a little. Did you write and draw it all? Tell us a bit about your creative team that have contributed to this project?

NG:  I an the writer/creator of The Relentless Tin Soldier. Siki Murti is the interior artist with Walter Pereyra doing colors. Eric Weathers in the letter. I was fortunate enough to be able to have Billy Tucci & Shelby Robertson do covers for me with Graham Nolan doing a back cover sketch.  

CB: How did you connect with industry pros like Billy Tucci, Mike S. Miller, and Graham Nolan? What is the workflow like?

NG: I connected with Billy through his youtube channel. Graham and Mike I connected with through their campaigns.  I work a full time job and try my best to coordinate with the artist to make sure that as soon as I’m getting penciled and inked pages in, I’m sending them off to the colorist and or letter.

CB: What is your purpose for telling this story and what are your plans beyond this book? Are there more stories to tell?

NG:  This book is a creative outlet for me and I would like to continue with the story as long as there is interest in the character. I would like The Relentless Tin Soldier to be my Spawn. Todd McFarlane did it right, he established Spawn as his flagship character before venturing off into other characters and books. I’d like to do the same.  

CB: Thanks for chatting with us! Good luck and we are rooting for you!

NG:  Thank you for taking the time to talk with me! 

Check out the campaign here.

Check out the campaign link here.

 Chris Braly: Tell our readers your elevator pitch for Airith Saga – Briefly tell our readers the pitch for your comic project.

Airith Saga: I usually tell people I have no real pitch because this story is more of an exaggerated autobiography. The stories, dialog, characters, and environment are all based on things that happened in my life. But if you want a cooler version, I just say Airith is an 80s inspired action-packed cyberrock space opera love story with gnarly swords…and tacos!

CB: What was the genesis for this project, where did the idea for this comic come from, and what led to you deciding to crowdfund it?

AS:  So Airith actually started around 1989. I went to schools that really sucked and got bullied a lot, so to deal with the crap from school I’d go home and write these quick short stories turning the bad things that happened to me into these weird superhero stories where I was the hero beating up bad guys. Over the years I collected hundreds and hundreds of notes. Around 2005 I started to move those notes on to digital and I totally forgot about them until around 2010, it was then I tried to make a story out of it so I wrote a small book called Airith and self-published it. It did pretty well and sold more than I thought it would, but it wasn’t really the story I wanted. Life came along and it wasn’t until 2018 that I went back and tried my hand at it and wrote a full novel.

Around this time I was also diagnosed with high functioning Aspergers and a lot of things in my life started to make sense. How I saw things, how I reacted to things and how I internalized trama. I really wanted the novel to be this weird projection from my mind, but our editor thought it would be too much for readers. Again, I self-published and it did well, but it wasn’t the story I had from years and years of note-taking. I then made a quick animatic of the novel and stopped when I figured out how expensive and time-consuming animation was, so that is when a friend suggested doing a comic. Once I started the process I fell in love with it. I have control of EVERYTHING and could spend time on details and storytelling without spending tens of thousands of dollars or needing a studio with a team to create it.

CB: With such a clear 80s aesthetic, what kind of comic fans do you expect this comic will entertain the most?

AS: I know the 80s thing will draw in people who dig that look and feel, but our story also hits a demo that people forget about and that is our Spanish-speaking readers. We do have A LOT of Spanish and Latino culture hat tips in the comic, so we are hoping to draw in that crowd as well. I do that because it is the world I grew up in.

CB: What is your purpose for telling this story and what are your plans beyond this book? Are there more stories to tell?

AS:   This story is more of therapy through art and creativity. It is a story I’ve had in my head for so long, that getting it out will finally allow me to release a lot of pain, sorrow, and anger. We have a mini-series that comes with each main issue to allow readers to explore the main story’s backstory and are already working on more universe expanding comic projects for Airith including a game. Also, each issue comes with a soundtrack that gives the reader a more immersed experience.

CB: Let’s get into the creative and production side a little. Tell us a bit about your creative team that has contributed to this project?

AS:   Yea, so we are super blessed and honored to work with a few badasses. Nicolás Colacitti or NC is the main artist and only artist for our main story. He does all our promo artwork and is working on the animation we plan to launch with our new issue. We also have been working with Gabriel “Eskivo” Santos, Thiago Gomes da Costa, and Steve Canon for our mini-series comics.

CB: You’ve had other campaigns for this property before, some not as successful. What do you attribute the traction you seem to be getting now, and what have you been learning from crowdfunding and creating through this process?

AS:   Our last comic campaign was a disaster. We had spent 6 months tracking and building ads and campaigns for social media and on the day OF launch we get an email from FB saying our ad account has been banned for influencing the 2020 election. So we thought ok maybe we can do this on Twitter. BAM! Banned for violence and pornography. To this day Twitter has not responded to me for how the hell we got flagged for that. Anyways, we were able to get 1500 bucks from friends and family but knew there was no way we could get the other 1500 without social media so we pulled it. And of course, the next day that we pulled the campaign Facebook messaged us saying our account was banned by accident. Just wasn’t meant to happen.

This time around we learned there is this INSANE community that is all about promoting and pushing indie comics and we got lucky enough to be accepted by it. It started off with Eric July saying he loved our first issue and just snowballed from there.