TWO DAYS TO GO— !
over 7 years ago – Wed, Mar 13, 2019 at 01:59:22 AM

You and about 1,100 people like you pushed SECTION ZERO 1959 past $66,000! 

As one unforgettable movie character would say: INCONCEIVABLE!

And I'd add, in the immortal words of Elvis: Thank you. Thank you very much.

Next Stretch is a bit of a stretch— but also my personal favorite. We hit $68,000 and MICHAEL CHO will do a Kickstarter Exclusive dust jacket for SECTION ZERO 1959! Michael is an amazing talent and a great guy (we both love classic adventure strips like Steve Canyon and Johnny Hazard, so hit it off as soon as we met). If you don't know his work, here's a piece he did that I love:

See why I'm excited?

The dust jacket will only be available through this Kickstarter! Everyone getting a book will get it! After the Kickstarter ends, the SZ59 book will still be available, but the dust jacket will not.

So what do we do to top that? Glad you asked.

You know how "I HUNT MONSTERS!" will be presented in the book on "yellowed" paper with somewhat faded colors, as if it really was first printed in 1959?

At $70,000 we will add to the MYSTERY BAG a special 32-page comic with "I HUNT MONSTERS!" and the other three solo SZ member stories— all printed on white paper with fully saturated color— all the better to enjoy Tom and my lush line work and Bill Crabtree's captivating colors in all their glory!

These last days are going to be interesting ones. I can't wait to see how it all comes out myself.

IN OTHER NEWS…

As I said before, there are a lot of great comics on Kickstarter right now. Last time I mentioned DEATH SENTENCE LIBERTY. This time:

WHITE ASH

WHITE ASH is a small mining town in Pennsylvania. But "The smaller the town— the bigger the secrets!" Part fantasy, part horror, all great. Written with razor-sharp precision by Charlie Stickney, drawn in a bold-yet-amazingly-nuanced style by Conor Hughes, and with gloriously gutsy colors by Fin Cramb, WHITE ASH is a page-turner! I've already backed this hardcover edition and will be drawing a pin-up in it! Even better (as far as I'm concerned): Conor Hughes is drawing a pin-up for SECTION ZERO 1959!

You need this book. You really do.

There are two others on my "must get" list right now. I'll tell you all about them next time…

Never. Enough. Time.
over 7 years ago – Tue, Mar 12, 2019 at 01:14:58 AM

You'd think once we hit our goal I'd have a chance to catch my breath, right?

Wrong! Now I'm double-timing it so we can add more cool things to the MYSTERY BAG OF SPECIAL EDITION SWAG, and to make the book even better!

In case you haven't checked the SZ59 KS Page lately, we've already unlocked two Stretch Goals:

If there's anything that makes a book look classy, it's spot gloss. And we got class now!

Yes— a real brown paper Mystery Bag will be added to the MYSTERY BAG OF SPECIAL EDITION SWAG to keep, y'know, Special Edition Swag in!

My plan is to alternate between something that improves the SECTION ZERO 1959 book with something new added to the Mystery Bag reward level. In fact, next up is:

And after that:

But probably my favorite Stretch Goals are at $65K, $66K and especially $67K. Let's just that I say love the art of MICHAEL CHO. And if you love it even half as much as me, you'll really want us to hit that $67K Stretch Goal!

Again: THANK YOU for getting this project funded. I know I've said it before, but I simply can't say it enough. There may be no Section Zero… without Tom and me. But there's no Section Zero book with you!

IN OTHER NEWS…

If you're looking for more great comics on Kickstarter, I recommend:

DEATH SENTENCE LIBERTY is about an STD that gives people super-powers… but kills them in six months. A bit darker than SECTION ZERO 1959, obviously, but this book gets great reviews…

…and a number of people I know speak very highly of it. So I backed it, and can't wait to read it. Give it a look. You might feel the same way. Added bonus: already funded, with a lot of cool stretch goals already unlocked! 

There are a ton of great comics on Kickstarter right now. I have two more I'm really excited about. Tell you about them in the next couple updates…

THANKS TO YOU— !
over 7 years ago – Sun, Mar 10, 2019 at 12:55:11 AM

SECTION ZERO 1959 is FUNDED!

I am humbled, thrilled, thankful— and pretty much thunderstruck.

I'm taking care of my kids today, so I don't have time to say everything I'd like. So until I do have the time, let's just leave it at:

THANK YOU.

And I mean that more deeply and sincerely than you can ever imagine.

Got Coffee. Time to Check the Kickstarter and… Wait. WHAT—?!?!?
over 7 years ago – Sat, Mar 09, 2019 at 08:22:06 PM

I woke up this morning thinking maybe we would have hit 1000 Backers overnight— and was shocked to see not only had that been blown out of the water, but we'd also rocketed past $59,000! 

THANK YOU! (And about 1004 other people like you!)

Few specific call-outs:

DREW BEHSEREST is our 1000th Backer, officially. But Kickstarter counts everyone who pledges as a Backer, even if they then cancel their pledge. So doing a little math...

ROBERT KRYGIER is our 1000th active Backer. That position can change if anyone else cancels their pledge, but right now Robert is #1000 in our line of people firmly and fiercely supporting SECTION ZERO 1959.

And let's not forget JAN ELVSÉN— the one who put us over $59,000!

I hereby award Drew, Robert and Jan the coveted FEZ Award!

They are, for now and forever, a FRIEND EVERLASTING of ZERO! They receive this (virtual) fez— which I encourage them to wear proudly, but not ostentatiously.

And now…

WE ARE ONLY $900 AWAY FROM OUR GOAL!

I think we can hit this— this weekend! Hell, maybe even today!

But I need your help.

You have to let your friends know about SECTION ZERO 1959. As I've said before: you know people I don't. People who like the same things you do. People who don't follow me or Tom (they can't follow Tom— he's not even on social media!) but who maybe liked our work on Superboy. Or Superman. Or my run on Harley Quinn. Or Tom's issues of Avengers Academy. 

If you've talked up SZ59 before— THANK YOU! And please do so again. Because not all of your friends saw that post. Even after nearly four weeks and endless posts and never shutting up about SZ59, I still have people say "You're doing a Kickstarter? First I've heard of it!"

You help me with the legwork this weekend, and we won't just reach our goal, we'll shatter it. Unlock a couple Stretch Goals, too. I know we will.

Okay. I gotta get to work...

The Fantastic and Unknown!
over 7 years ago – Wed, Mar 06, 2019 at 10:35:23 PM

Wow!

You're making this happen, aren't you? Thanks to you (and around 950 of your close, personal friends) SECTION ZERO 1959 has less than $4,000 to raise in a little more than one week! And then we're funded!

That is FANTASTIC! Far beyond where we were the first time around, and where I thought we'd be at this point. 

I can't thank you enough.

Wouldn't it be great if we could hit our goal this week?

We can do it— if you continue to share posts and links to SECTION ZERO 1959! 

We need at least 100 more people like you supporting us and, like I've said before, you know people I don't. People who like the same things you do. Heck, they'll probably thank you for turning them on to SZ59, maybe even take you out to dinner! Never know, right?

When I started this campaign, I had grand plans and clever schemes to promote the book— most of which didn't happen when I came down with pneumonia. Which only underscores the fact that our success is more because of you than me.

One of the things I was hoping to do was create a number of old Marvel Monster-style covers featuring the original SECTION ZERO members in pre-SZ solo stories. And Tom did pencil a couple of them...

These pieces will be finished and used as chapter breaks in the book, and postcards in the MYSTERY BAG. I just thought you'd enjoy seeing Tom's wonderful pencils here.

LASTLY…

Dan Brereton's GIANTKILLER Kickstarter ends very soon! I know I've talked it up before, but in many ways it's somewhat of a cousin to SECTION ZERO 1959— there's a certain retro-monster vibe to both of them— and I think if you check it out, you'll like what you see.

Until next week— when things really heat up! (Yeah, I've still got a few tricks up my sleeve...)