We Did It!
over 4 years ago – Wed, Dec 08, 2021 at 04:20:13 PM

Hey Everyone,

Skies of Fire #8 is officially funded with another campaign over 1,000 backers and nearly $37,000 raised. Goes without saying (but I'll say it anyway) - you are all incredible. Thank you so much for supporting our little comic all the way through to the end. 

We'll be sending out BackerKit Surveys shortly - once the funds have cleared. From then, expect another 1-2 weeks before we release digitally before the end of the year. 

Fulfillment will occur as soon as surge shipping has settled from the holiday season, which we're hearing is sometime towards the end of January. 

This has been an amazing end to a year filled with change and growth. Thank you all again. Have a wonderful holiday season and talk when the surveys go out! 

- Ray and Vince

Happy Thanksgiving
over 4 years ago – Mon, Nov 29, 2021 at 01:59:58 PM

Happy Thanksgiving! 

This Thanksgiving I ate tacos, lost a dog and met a bird. 

 We're over 1,000 strong in this campaign. We're thankful to each and every one of you. 

Be well everybody. See you next week! 

- Ray 

Week 3 - Codexes, Myth Monthly, and an Interview!
over 4 years ago – Sun, Nov 28, 2021 at 03:49:56 PM

Hey Everyone,

Welcome to your week three update! Over at Mythopoeia HQ we are working on the most fun and stimulating part of creating comics - packaging and shipping! 

For the past eight years we've shipped every single comic ordered ourselves, but no longer. This year we've been making the transition to fulfillment services, and boy what a transition it's been. The learning curve has been steep, but we finally see light at the end of the tunnel. Wish us luck as we go through! 

Codex Documents

On the production front, we're wrapping up the last few back matter pages that will go at the end of this issue. Here's a couple of awesome badge designs artist extraordinaire Alex Bucur sent us:

A lot of the format you see for Skies of Fire started out as a whim, including the codexes. Back in our first campaign we were brainstorming stretch goals and decided to add one including back matter into the issue, told from the perspective of the world itself. 

This issue allows us to 'close the loop' on not just the story, but the back matter as well! We'll finally get the second part of Unraveling the Expanse, all these years after the first...

Mythopoeia Monthly

Do you know that we publish a monthly magazine that goes into the behind the scenes of the creative process? It's called Mythopoeia Monthly and we just released the November issue! In it, you'll find lots 

Skies #8 content, including a look at the letters and an interview with series artist Pablo Peppino.

Mythopoeia Monthly is supported by our lovely patrons on Patreon. If you'd like to see more great content like it, consider supporting us there! 

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Alright folks! That's it for now! Talk next week! 

- Ray and Vince

Week Two Update!
over 4 years ago – Wed, Nov 10, 2021 at 06:19:37 PM

Hey Everyone,

Hope you're all having a great start of the month. Over here things are nice and overcast with plenty of fog. Here's an ominous picture I took the other day on my morning walk:

Don't you love falling forward :D Onwards to the update! 

FAQ

We've gotten a lot of the same questions this campaign, enough so to warrant an FAQ! It's been a while since we've done one of these, but here we go: 

1. Does the Book 1 Tier come with the digital collection?

Yes! This is an oversight on our part. All tiers $25 and over come with the digital collection. :)

2. Does the Original Art comes with Skies #8?

Yes! Another oversight on our part. You get Issue #8 along with your Original Art piece. 

3. Are you going to collect Skies of Fire #5-8 into a collected edition?

Yes! We are definitely going to publish Skies of Fire: Book 2 and are already working on it behind the scenes. Expect a March 2022 launch :D

4. Why not (Book II) now?

We've been publishing Skies of Fire as single issues ever since our first issue! At first it began out of necessity - we would've much rather finished the series in one go, but obviously given our resources (at the time) we weren't able to do that. Even though we could've technically just gone to trade for this last issue, we wanted a chance for our longtime fans that have been collecting the comic series to complete their run. 

5. Omnibus when?

We're looking into this as well! We might do it as a special Collector's Edition for the Book II campaign, or we may run it as its own campaign further down the line. 

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Let us know if you have any other questions down below. We'll do our best to answer them! Just FYI we're a little slammed these days so check Kickstarter about once every 3-4 days. Sorry for the delay in response - it gets harder the more you do! 

Good problems to have though... 

Variant Spotlight: Paul Roman Martinez

To kick off, we'd love to talk about the excellent variant Paul Roman Martinez drew for us for the issue. When we were first starting out Skies of Fire, Paul was one of the artists we looked to for inspiration. His series, 19XX, is one of the must-reads of the dieselpunk genre. 

We even tried to get him to do the cover for Skies of Fire #1! Paul was also one of the early pioneers of the Kickstarter Comics. Back then, he provided a blog analyzing successful Kickstarters, breaking down what he saw worked and didn't - that was an immeasurable resource for us while putting together our first run.

When floating ideas for Variant Artists, we thought it would be fitting if Paul closed out the series in his signature art deco style. He turned in a peach of a piece, one that really captures the mood of the finale. 

Oftentimes, our job as Creators comes down to framing things as best we can. Vince was tasked with the letters and graphics of the covers. The final cover is ad for Imperial Airways, the largest commercial transport fleet in all of Aventine.

When flying, be sure to choose Imperial Airways! 

Projects We Love! 

We got a Projects We Love Badge! Hurray! Thank you Kickstarter, for the recognition. In celebration, here are some projects that we love from Creators we love! 

Monkey and Peach from David Chun and Hamm Ling has to be one of the most underrated comics on Kickstarter. It's a yokai epic that is sure to be sprawling. The story and art are both incredibly high quality. Give this comic a look! You won't regret it. 

Duplicant is a long running Kickstarter series that is also about to complete it's first story arch! Creator Karla Nappi has been cranking issues at an astonishing rate, putting us old heads to shame! It's always great to be able to hop on board a series with a beginning, middle, and end - I'm here for it!

Felipe Cagno is at it again with Few and the Cursed! Felipe is one of the creators we've been coming up with, and he's definitely taught us a thing or two along the way :D Check it out if you haven't already! 

The Witch of Wickerson was created by Derek Laufman over the course of Inktober 2021. That means this book was completed in 31 days! That's insane! Look at it! It's amazing! 

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Right, thanks for tuning in! Enjoy the rest of your week and don't forget to layer up! 

- Ray and Vince

The Journey Thus Far...
over 4 years ago – Fri, Nov 05, 2021 at 02:50:34 AM

Hey Everyone! 

Ray and Vince here. Thank you for joining us on one of our most meaningful campaigns.  Skies of Fire has been a labor of love since 2008, a project that started out as one of those film school dreams that would not die.  We began work on the comic in earnest in 2012, and in 2014 we launched our first Kickstarter...

After day one, we were ecstatic that we managed to crowdfund $1,129 and 25% of our overall goal. 

Today, we managed to raise over $20,000 and smash our fundraising goal in the process. You rock :P 

As I write this, Vince and I are currently on a call remotely in our respective HQs, Los Angeles and London, telecommuting like we have been since we began collaborating back in 2013. It was strange and new back then, working remotely, but I guess it's pretty common now. A lot has changed! 

What hasn't is our dedication to the story, the craft, and the work. We got into comics because we wanted to tell stories.  Along the way we've learned more of our craft, and the work has never ceased.  This issue represents the end of the original story we laid out back in 2012. That by no means we're finished with Skies of Fire, but it does mean that this particular issue is special...

We're finally here. Where we envisioned to be, all those years ago. Comic Creators, with a full story - a full narrative - fully notched on their belt.  

Here's to the journey thus far, and all the stops along the rode. 

Thank you for providing the ride. 

Let's keep it going through to the end :)

- Ray and Vince