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I am so excited to be sharing some exclusive updates with you all regarding upcoming projects and more importantly "KILL MY BOYFRIEND". I will be using this space to send out monthly updates to let you know what's been going on and the progress of projects. If you've been following me on social for a while you know that I tend to be tight lipped about everything until it's ready to be announced but I won't be doing that here. You'll be getting everything from the get-go (unless I signed an NDA lol)

But first! An announcement. 

So, remember Etheres? My first published comic book that came out in March from Source Point Press? Yes, that one. WELL... I am happy to report that we've officially sold out! AND Source Point Press will be doing a limited edition second printing that will be a webstore exclusive and features a brand new cover by the incredible Dennis Menheere! 

Never in a million years did I ever expect that my first published work would be getting a second printing and I'm extremely proud of this milestone. Working on this book with Dennis was such a dream come true and I'm so glad that the book resonated with so many. So keep your eyes peeled for that because we'll be dropping the new cover for Etheres as soon as we get approval from the publisher! 

 

Kill My Boyfriend #1

Now let's get to the meat of this update! I've teased this on twitter and instagram earlier this month but I'm going to share a lot more with you all (this stays between us right?). Kill My Boyfriend #1 is coming to Kickstarter this August! We will be launching the prelaunch page around mid-July and will begin funding in mid-August. I will also be designing exclusive stickers for backers if we hit our stretch goals! Here's one of the stickers I'm working on for the book:

Kill My Boyfriend will be illustrated and colored by Tench who is a brilliant artist and would recommend you all check out her work. Edited by Michele Abounader (of Color of Always and SWATCOW fame) and lettered by Nathan Kempf who is one of my favorite letterers in the industry right now.  And here's a tease at the logo and one of the banners I made for the KS campaign!

Soo what's KMB about? Well I've always loved whodunits. from Clue to Murder She Wrote to Knives Out to The Afterparty. I just love the genre! and I've been wanting to do something in that realm for quite a while. But I was just waiting for the right idea to come around to really differentiate the project from everything else. Because let's face it, the murder mystery genre is full of archetypes and tropes and while I love them so much. I don't think anything I could create would hold a candle to the greats. So instead I came up with a TWIST! Kill My Boyfriend won't be a WHOdunit per se. More so a HOWdun it and Will-They-Get-Away-With-It-dunit (if that makes sense).

The story follows Kim Wright, a passionate and driven woman working at a media agency with her boyfriend Ethan and she thinks she's got it all figured out. But when Ethan takes credit for her work to land a promotion that was rightfully hers. She's out for blood. And she'll use her impressive knowledge of whodunits to plot the perfect crime and get away with murder!

(from left to right: Kim Wright, Emily Splaine, Ethan Steele. Character Designs by Tench)

Kim will host a yacht party with all her friends and coworkers unknowingly acting as pawns in her perfect whodunit. But the question remains, how will she go about committing the crime and whether or not she'll be able to evade the authorities.

 

KMB is set in modern times. BUT the yacht party is 60s Americana themed. And as such, all the covers and concept art for the project will be 60s themed. Think Stepford Housewives meets Valley of the Dolls! Speaking of covers, the main covers of the book will be done by Tench! and the variant cover for the first issue is by none other than Dennis Menheere! Below is a rough sketch for the main cover!

The cover will feature Kim in a 60s housewife inspired dress and she will be presenting Ethan's head on a silver platter to all the other characters in the book. Note: This won't actually happen in the book lol. All the covers will feature Kim murdering Ethan in some fashion)

I played around with several concepts and themes for the book before landing on groovy 60s. Here are some of the other logo options I was considerinig:

So why KMB and why now?

Well, I guess you could tell KMB is very different from everything else I've put out so far. It's not meant to be high brow, it's not abstract, and it's definitely not poetic. It's just a fun revenge story. And that's really what I want it to be. I'd hate to be "typecast" in some way as the person who only writes weird niche comics. Because as much as I loved working on those projects, I have so many ideas that span different genres and styles. And what better medium to experiment and play with those genres? 

I have plenty of other projects in the pipeline and they're all very different from one another. I've got a Horror/Noir book, a Fantasy/Adventure, a Middle Grade Fantasy/Comedy. You'll be seeing lots of different things from me in the future! But all these projects are in "Pitch Limbo" as I wait to hear back about their fate. So I wanted to fast track KMB and put it out on Kickstarter so I can have another book out this year besides Etheres! Plus the story is so much fun. It's honestly been the most fun project to work on since Etheres and it makes me so excited to make comics again!

Finally, I want to thank you again for subscribing to this newsletter. I know EVERYONE and their cousin is doing newsletters now which can be very overwhelming. But honestly, with the state of twitter right now which was my main promotional platform and my main source of connecting with peers and friends, I didn't feel very confident about relying on twitter to get my work out there and share all this information. This way it's much more streamlined and you get all the good stuff in one place! So, THANK YOU for subscribing again. I promise I won't spam you too much  <3 And before I sign off, I'll leave you with rough sketches of some pages from KMB #1 that we'll be promoting the KS campaign with! Enjoy