White Ash: Volume 1

THANK YOU!!!
about 5 years ago – Wed, Apr 10, 2019 at 11:23:28 PM

Hello White Ashians,

Wow, what a campaign. ALMOST $29,000!!! That’s a new record for us. We couldn’t be happier that so many of you have continued to support and spread the word about White Ash. Building a fanbase for an independent comic isn’t easy and we don’t take that loyalty lightly. With it comes a responsibility to deliver and rest assured, deliver we will.

Speaking of delivering, here’s a look at Nick Robles’ pin-up that you will find inside your book. I for one, can’t wait to see this in oversized print.  It is truly a work of art.

It's a cheekier peek at White Ash.  One that may portend things to come...

The other pin-ups you will have to wait on ( but not for much longer). I will regularly update you as we move along through production. Here’s a quick snapshot of the next couple of weeks. 

Week One — Kickstarter collects fees and backers who may have forgotten that their credit card has expired/was stolen/was maxed out on Uber Eats (I’m never leaving my house again), will be given a chance to update it.  PLEASE CHECK and see if you have a notification from KS. 

Week Three (around the 25th of April) — As soon as Kickstarter has transferred the funds to our account, we’ll send out our BackerKit Surveys. Please fill these out as quickly as possible. We’re looking to do a fast turnaround on White Ash, as we’d like to get your PDFs by the beginning of next month. 

Week Five (around May 8th) — Once we have all the surveys back and we have a list of backer names and addressed in hand, we’ll be sending out the PDF’s.

By then, we should also have a firm shipping schedule from the printer locked down and have a better sense of when exactly in July we’ll begin shipping the print copies of the books.  We look forward to sharing more info with you as soon as we have it. 

If you have any questions, always feel free to reach out to me here on Kickstarter or find us on the following social networks: 

Conor (and sometimes Charlie in chat) streams LIVE ON TWITCH (most) M-F from 12:30-5pm and 10:30pm-1am EST 

White Ash on Facebook. 

Charlie Stickney on Twitter  

Conor Hughes on Twitter  

Fin Cramb on Twitter

Thank you again, we’re so excited to get you White Ash: Vol 1. With your support we’re getting to make an incredible book. We look forward to sharing it with you and brining you Chapter Five of White Ash later this summer.

Be in touch very soon, 

Charlie and the rest of Team Ash (Conor and Fin)

BOOM, we are OVERSIZED!
about 5 years ago – Tue, Apr 09, 2019 at 05:05:51 PM

Thank you to everyone for helping us hit our our Oversized Stretch Goal. When we started this campaign, we really hoped we’d be able to reach that mark. And through your amazing support, we have. The White Ash Hardcover will now be printed in a OVERSIZED 11 x 7.5 format that will ensure Conor and Fin’s art, as well as our amazing pin ups, can be truly appreciated.  

And a little heads up, the clock is ticking. There are a little less than three days left  to the campaign, so please tell your friends about White Ash. We’d love to be able to add another larger than life pin-up before we close out this Kickstarter.  

Conor, Fin and I are incredibly grateful that our backers and Kickstarter continue to give us the chance to bring White Ash to life. We know that not everyone on the platform is lucky enough to have our fanbase (AKA the best backers in the world). That’s why I love to to give back to the greater Kickstarter community by highlighting a few projects at the end of most of our updates.  

To that end, I’d love to tell you about two projects that could use a little more love to get them across the finish line.

The first is DATURA which is also ending in three days.

Datura is the story of a Bounty Hunter who’s incredible good at what she does… despite her kid sister tagging along mucking up things as she goes. This is a beautiful-looking book drawn by Diego Olortegui who’s currently working on Marvel’s X-23. If you’re looking for a sci-fi action adventure comic with a blend of the film Blade Runner and Tokyo Ghost, this book might just be for you.

The other comic I’d like to mention is TALES FROM NOCTURNIA which just dropped onto Kickstarter a couple of days ago.  

TFN is written by Matt Knowles and Steph Cannon, two of the nicest people I’ve gotten to spend time with at conventions. This is their first book they’re bringing to Kickstarter, so let’s give them an amazing welcome and show them how friendly the community can be.

Tales from Nocturnia is part of the Heirs of Isildur Universe that Matt and Steph have spent years building. If you like fantasy with rich backstories and a well thought out history, you’ve got to spend some time in their world.

As a bonus, they have one of the coolest rewards I’ve seen from a comic book Kickstarter — these leather bracers.

As always, we couldn’t do any of this without you. We’ve got 65 hours left to make a little more magic happen.

All the VERY, very best from Team Ash,

Charlie, Conor and Fin.

Closing in on OVERSIZING (plus a new pin up sneak peek)
about 5 years ago – Thu, Apr 04, 2019 at 04:48:09 AM

Hello White Ashians,

Charlie here, this was my weekend at WonderCon.

I had such an incredible time. Thank you to all of our backers who stopped by, it was so nice meeting you in person. And thank you to all of the new backers who picked up books at the convention and decided to join us on Kickstarter. We are having an amazing campaign and as of this posting, we sit less than $800 from our Oversized Stretch Goal. Conor, Fin and I are thrilled that it looks like we have a real chance to hit that mark and get to present White Ash to you in the format it truly deserves.

It was also wonderful to spend time with a large group of indie creators and other comic book professionals. Kickstarter was well represented in the small press section including Ray Chou’s Skies of Fire, Madeleine Holly-Rosing’s Boston Metaphysical, Andrew Maxwell’s Lazlo Cale and Terry Mayo’s The Wicked Righteous.  

On Friday, I was fortunate enough to be invited to be part of a panel on Kickstarting comics moderated by Ryeland Grant with Mayo, Russell Nohelty, Christie Shinn, Jeff Leeds and David Shrader (whose Baby Badass is currently live on KS). One of the bits of advice I gave out in that panel was to get to know the Kickstarter creator community. The pack of writers and artists who put out quality indie books on KS runs tightly together. We all try to support each other because we know the better the quality of comics that get made on Kickstarter, the more people that will come to the platform. The more people that come, the better (and hopefully cheaper) we can make the books.

One of the lead dogs in the Kickstarter pack is Pat Shand. Pat consistently puts out some of the best books anywhere that he chooses to distribute on Kickstarter. His newest tour de force is LITTLE GIRL — a terrifying, emotional powerhouse horror story about a haunting... told from the ghost's POV. 

Check out the hauntingly gorgeous art (pun intended) from OLIVIA PELAEZ. If you like horror, this is one book you will immediately want to add to your collection. I was a day one backer on this comic and I can’t wait to hold it in my hands.

Speaking of things I’m thrilled to be adding to my collection, take a gander at this stunning piece of artwork from Karl Kesel and Bill Crabtree that’s going to be included in the pin-up section of White Ash: Volume 1.  

It’s thanks to the support of amazing backers like you, that we’re able to keep adding pin-ups like this.  The book is getting better by the day. So if you have friends who like comics... or fantasy... or Scottish Colorists... help us spread the word and let’s see how much we can pack into this volume.

Thanks again, we couldn’t do any of this without you,

Charlie, Conor and Fin 

WonderCon
about 5 years ago – Tue, Apr 02, 2019 at 08:52:39 PM

 Hello White Ashians,

Just wanted to send out a very quick update this am as I'm (Charlie) bundling up the car and heading down to WonderCon.  White Ash has a booth there, SP-37, so if you're at the convention please say hello.

Also, we passed the 22K stretch goal.  (THANK YOU) As such we are very proud to welcome illustrator extraordinaire Kristen Perry to the pin-up parade.  Kristen is an amazing artist who works in a variety of media including creating a lot of the looks for Overwatch that you all eagerly use to blow each other to pieces. 

Welcome aboard, Kristen.  We can't wait to see your take on White Ash.

And Thank You all again.  We're getting closer to that 25K stretch goal.  I think we have a real chance of getting an oversized White Ash: Vol 1.

All the very best,

Charlie and the rest of Team Ash

And one more thing...
about 5 years ago – Mon, Mar 25, 2019 at 01:26:13 AM

Hello White Ashians,

We’re at 20K with over two weeks to go. That’s amazing. Thank you! 

Conor, Fin and I are over the moon as we think we have a very decent chance to hit our 25K stretch goal and supersize the book. And we’d love to be able to do that for you, so you can get a better look at the art and the pin ups drawn by our amazing bullpen of artists. 

Speaking of amazing artists, Conor LOVED what Fin and Nick did with his cover. So much so, he caught the coloring bug and wanted to jump in on that action too. And this is what he came up with…

As such, we’ve decided to offer up the Hughes on Hughes version of the dust jacket too. This is a limited print run. We’re only going to put 25 unsigned copies on KS. However, if you’re getting a signed copy, you’ll be able to choose the Hughes cover (or the Cramb/ Filliardi version) when you fill out your survey.  

And, because a couple of you have asked, (and THANK YOU for your interest) while aren’t adding a tier where you can get multiple versions, you will be able to add on extra copies of the Hardcover post-campaign when you check out through Backerkit.

Speaking of checking out, two friends of mine currently have projects on Kickstarter. One of which is nearing the finish line.  Charlie here, I had the pleasure of meeting Steve Bryant last year at SDCC. Steve writes and draws the incredible Athena Voltaire series which is currently published by Action Lab. THE CATCH, described as Elmore Leonard meets Gotham Central and Powers,  is Steve’s new book.

Fans of genre mixing (like say those who like tales of Fantasy, Horror and Forbidden Romance) will love the way that Steve blends together the tropes to create a crime-superhero-caper-romance comic. There are only 5 days left to back this book, so CATCH IT NOW!

The other book that I wanted to mention, just launched on Monday. I tweeted this out earlier this week… 

If you woke up this am and thought, I need a comic that captures the best of Troma Films crossed with the Terminator and a dash of Muppet Babies, this might not be that, but it's close. 

And having read the book, I’m sticking with that description.

Baby Badass is totally nuts. Some of you might find it offensive, but I think a lot of you will find it hilarious. Even if it’s not your cup of tea, I urge you to watch the hysterical video on the project page. You can see how much work (and commitment) David Schrader has put into this book. David is also a wonderful guy to say hello to at conventions. So say hello.

Thanks again for all the support. Be back soon with another tease from Vol: 1

All the very best from Team Ash