From the Static is Live!
This was supposed to be a slow couple months for us. After back-to-back Kickstarter campaigns that met their funding goals we intended to take a little breather and prep for order fulfillment.
But we’re hungry and decided to take a chance on the horror anthology that many of youse have been asking for. So here we are, in the middle of holiday season, getting Final Gamble and Prospects prepared for the printer, leaning forward on order fulfillment organization, and launching our first ever anthology.
From the Static is open for submission and off to a blazing start. I did a first pass over the submissions today. They blew me away. You’re certainly not making it easy on Chris and me to pick which stories will be accepted. Dare I say that some we will need to turn down might also be looked at for some kind of future BoB project??? It’s looking that way.
Initially nervous about taking on one more surprise title for 2022 I am feeling more and more confident about this anthology by the day. My concerns have shifted from wondering if we will garner enough quality material to produce a worthy anthology to being anxious about having to make such difficult selections. That’s a compliment to those who have submitted pitches, but also kind of a double edged sword. Would a 200-page anthology be too crazy? What about 300?
December is shaking out to be one hell of a month for BoB. We have some Kickstarter updates to send out on both Final Gamble and Prospects this week. Surveys will be going out. And we have some big announcements to make. Two for sure, possibly more. My hope is that we’ll be making special announcements every week in December. And regular live streaming every Friday starting on December 3rd!
More contracts are going out and being negotiated to get the 2022 line up solidified. After all the discourse the past couple months about predatory contracts in comics I am glad that the deals we have been making have been met with warm reception so far. Chris and I took great pains to work out a framework that is fair to both publisher and creator. Frankly I was nervous as the first few went out, wondering how well we did respective to our intent. There’s a not too fine line of tackiness in bragging about contracts, but there is certainly reason to take pride in building a reputation for being fair to creators and viewed as a partner in making comics. Knocking on wood that this continues.
At times I still can’t believe this is real. These 9 months have been flying by and I would’ve never imagined we’d be at the place we are already. Chris and I put a lot of work into building Band of Bards. It takes a village though. No amount of hardwork and will alone creates success without people believing in what you’re building and putting their energy behind you. Every day I am reminded of how important, and how wonderful the comics community is.
Thank you.
#ComicsDoingGood