THE O.Z. #1 - A Fantasy Classic Reimagined for Comics

TWO WEEKS LATER... DISPATCHES FROM THE FRONT LINES!
over 3 years ago – Fri, Sep 25, 2020 at 01:44:08 AM

Hi, Yellow Brick Road Warriors! Just wanted to touch base with everyone about the latest with The O.Z.!

As of yesterday, Kickstarter has officially collected everyone's pledges, which will be transferred our way in the next few days. Thank you to everyone who updated their credit card information, as we had an INCREDIBLY low cancelled pledge rate for a campaign of our size (less than 1%)! 

Now that all our pledges are in, Ruben and Whitney are hard at work adding in our backer cameos, and we're finishing up one final pinup before we send the book to the printer. 

Meanwhile, I'm putting the finishing touches on our BackerKit site now, so we're hoping to have backer surveys out relatively soon — I'll send everyone another update once I've sent those out. But keep your eyes peeled — BackerKit will be the place where you confirm rewards like your variant covers, purchase any extra add-ons, or buy our books if you happened to miss our Kickstarter campaign the first time!

While we're hard at work on getting The O.Z. into everyone's hands, I wanted to let our Emerald Army know that there's even MORE work coming from yours truly down the pipeline-- 

If you think the Power Rangers versus the Walking Dead are a comics matchup made in hell, you'll love our preview for DIE, DIE, DANGER RONIN!, my upcoming short story with artist Erica D'Urso, hitting Kickstarter as part of the Nightmare Theater Horror Anthology on October 20:

And last but not least, I've been told by my editors I'll have ANOTHER book getting announced next week — more news when I'm allowed to share, but I think you'll all dig this series! Keep your eyes peeled here, my Twitter, or at my PEP TALKS newsletter, and you'll get the latest news... (And in case anyone's worried — this new book is already LONG since written, and my editors are tackling the art production, so I'm still focused on overseeing the next installment of The O.Z. and getting rewards your way ASAP!)

Anyway, it's back to the trenches for us, but thank you again to all our Yellow Brick Road Warriors for making The O.Z. such an incredible success — we're excited to show you what we have in store soon!

P.S. Have you signed up for the Kickstarter prelaunch page for Urban Animal by my buddies Justin Jordan and John Amor? This is a terrific comic made by some seriously talented pros, so don't miss out.

POST-KICKSTARTER DEBRIEFING — BACKERKIT PAGE COMING SOON!
over 3 years ago – Sat, Sep 19, 2020 at 08:08:29 PM

Hello, Yellow Brick Road Warriors — and thank you again for all your INCREDIBLE support for The O.Z.!

Now that I spent yesterday afternoon taking a MUCH-needed nap, we wanted to let everyone know that if you didn't make it in time to pledge (or wanted to add extra to your purchase), DON'T WORRY — we'll have a BackerKit page open to all backers AND the general public in the coming weeks. 

I'll be sending another update once our BackerKit surveys go live, but if you AREN'T a backer yet, you can also follow me on Twitter and/or subscribe to my newsletter PEP TALKS at bit.ly/pepnews, and we'll make sure you're looped in when everything is available.

Finally, I sent some messages out this morning to a few backers — it sounds like Kickstarter had a hiccup collecting a few people's pledges, so if you can double-check your credit card info for expiration date, zip code, security code, etc. — especially anyone whose credit cards were due to expire August 2020, since our campaign crossed into September — we'd be tremendously grateful!

(And to be clear: If I DIDN'T message you about a collection hiccup this morning, you're ALL GOOD.) We want to make sure we get the right numbers, and everyone gets their rewards as soon as possible! :-)

Thank you all again to all our readers of The O.Z. for being the best comic book fans on the planet, and stay tuned for when we send our BackerKit surveys in the next few weeks!

THE EMERALD ARMY CONQUERS ALL! THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING THE O.Z. — AND UNLOCKING OUR SECRET FIFTH COVER!
over 3 years ago – Thu, Sep 17, 2020 at 04:42:26 PM

Good morning, Yellow Brick Road Warriors! As of this update, The O.Z.'s first campaign is officially over — and with more than 1,250 backers and $46,000 raised!

And surprising no one, our Emerald Army crushed our final stretch goal, unlocking a SECRET FIFTH COVER from artist Anna Wieszczyk — this will be available as an add-on purchase in your BackerKit surveys in just a few weeks! (And if you bought one of our single variant cover tiers, you'll also have the opportunity to choose Anna's cover as your final selection when the BackerKit surveys go out.)

One last bit of housekeeping — Kickstarter is charging everyone's pledges now, so if your credit card information isn't up-to-date, we'd appreciate it tremendously if you updated that as soon as possible. We want to make sure we get your books in your hands ASAP!

Finally, thank you to everyone who's pledged, shared, retweeted and spread the word — you are the true reason behind The O.Z.'s success, and we couldn't be more grateful to have the best fans on either side of the rainbow. So stay tuned, my Yellow Brick Road Warriors, because the best is still the come...

THE LAST 24 HOURS — LAST CHANCE TO JOIN THE EMERALD ARMY!
over 3 years ago – Tue, Sep 15, 2020 at 11:46:34 PM

Good morning, Yellow Brick Road Warriors — keep telling your friends about us, because we are officially in the home stretch, with less than 24 hours to go before our Kickstarter campaign wraps up!

With us being in the final hours of our campaign, I wanted to thank you all for supporting us and believing in us — we made The O.Z. because we love comics, but it isn't every day that comics love you back.

As a final thank-you, we're also slashing our final stretch goal — if we're lucky enough to make $45,000 before the campaign wraps, we'll unveil a SECRET FIFTH COVER as a BackerKit add-on!

From the Emerald City to the Deadly Desert to the mountaintops of Ix, we couldn't have gotten this far without each and every one of you spreading the word about our book. We are so proud to have you as a member of our Emerald Army, and from the bottom of our hearts, we thank you — we can't wait to show you what we have in store for The O.Z.!

48 HOURS LEFT! THE FINAL MISSION: NEW CAPSTONE STRETCH GOAL UNLOCKED!
over 3 years ago – Tue, Sep 15, 2020 at 05:21:23 AM

Good morning, Yellow Brick Road Warriors! With just 48 hours left in our campaign, we wanted to thank you all again for your incredible enthusiasm and support for The O.Z. — we're pleased to let you know that you've officially unlocked our Death From Above enamel pins!

Like I've said before, all physical backers who pledge for "All Four Covers" or higher will receive this enamel pin for FREE — we'll also be including these pins in our BackerKit page as a paid add-on if you've pledged for a different tier or want to buy additional pins.

With The O.Z.'s campaign officially in its last 48 hours, we have one final capstone stretch goal for our Yellow Brick Road Warriors — if we cross $50,000, we'll unveil our SECRET FIFTH COVER as an add-on on BackerKit. It's... pretty incredible. This is our final mission for The O.Z., so tell all your friends, so our Emerald Army can smash this last stretch goal!

Lastly, wanted to shout out two Kickstarter campaigns you should check out — my pal Mark Stack just launched his campaign for Young Offenders, featuring a group of maladjusted teen superheroes that are suddenly charged with saving the world after the "real" heroes disappear. If you like books like Young Avengers, Young Justice, or Danger Club, you'll dig this.

And don't miss my pal Lane Lloyd's God Puncher Vol. 1, which is an all-time great title. It's a fantasy comedy about Tim Finnly, the titular God-Puncher — this is a story about a man who's been betrayed by the gods he once protected, and he's gonna get his revenge using nothing more than his talking pair of fists. It's wild, it's hilarious, it's a book you shouldn't miss out on.