Brief check in + MEZKAL
over 1 year ago – Fri, Jan 20, 2023 at 11:32:15 AM

Hello, everyone!

Happy Friday -- we don't really have anything new to report, but wanted to touch base briefly to let you know that things are rolling along as anticipated and are looking good. The printers have completed proofing all of the files and will begin production as soon as they reopen after Chinese New Year.

We also wanted to let you know that we will be traveling next week, so we may be unable or slow to respond to any comments, questions, or messages. We will try our best to stay in touch, but can't guarantee our connectivity on the road. We will be in Angouleme, France, for this year's FIBD ("Festival International de la Bande Dessinee"), a huge comic convention that we have attended for the past 10 years (minus the last two due to COVID). We are looking forward to seeing old friends, publishing partners, and authors. We will even have our own small display table in the Rights Tent this year, so that will be exciting. If you are, by chance, planning to attend and can get into the Rights Tent, stop by and say hi! 😊

In the meantime, if you haven't already, we'd love for you to check out our newest campaign for MEZKAL and CONVOY that launched on Tuesday. We’d love for everyone to please check it out! It is a pair of beautifully gritty and explosive noir/SF tales by Kevan Stevens and Jef that we’ve been excited to share for quite a while…

Thanks, everyone! More news to come!

Backerkit surveys away! Watch your inboxes!
over 1 year ago – Sat, Jan 07, 2023 at 08:20:37 PM

Happy Friday, everyone!

Just a quick update to let you know that the rest of the Backerkit surveys have been sent! Please watch for an email from "[email protected]" (I think) to your Kickstarter-associated email address. If you haven't received it in the next 12 hours or so, please check your spam folder. If you still haven't received it by Monday, message us here on Kickstarter and we'll send you your unique link directly. 

As mentioned in the previous update, we will leave the Backerkit open until March 17th (or thereabouts). You will be free to make any changes to your order until then: add to or modify your order, change the delivery address, update payment information, etc.  We will not actually charge Credit Cards until the orders are locked on that date. 

One benefit of using Backerkit is if you unfortunately missed Kickstarter's collection phase and weren't able to complete your pledge on Kickstarter, you should still get a Backerkit survey invitation which will provide an opportunity to complete your payment there. If you have any questions or concerns, message us and we'll do our best to answer them.

The print files have all been approved by the author and licensor, and the printer is running preflight proofing now! We'll keep you all posted along the way and share any interesting production photos as they come in. The turkey is in the oven... now we wait for it to cook! 😊

Thanks, again! More to come!

Backerkit approved, Smoke Test started!
over 1 year ago – Wed, Jan 04, 2023 at 09:33:43 PM

Happy New Year, everyone!

We hope you had a wonderful holiday and are settling into what will be an awesome 2023. We're readjusting to being back at the desk after some extended holiday travel, catching up on a ton of business and email that piled up in our absence. We apologize to anyone who had pressing questions while we were out -- we tried to monitor the inbox as best as we could, but you know how crazy the holidays can be, especially when traveling...😵

One of the things we had hoped to be able to report from the road was the status of the Backerkit Surveys -- our goal before leaving was to have it approved by Backerkit in time to launch on Dec 30th, but that plan admittedly did not take their own holiday schedule into account. They (understandably) were closed for quite a bit of that week, so getting their feedback and approval to launch took longer than expected. There was also a bit of confusion on their part as to how the +slipcase upgrade add-ons worked, so that took an extra bit to get sorted. But having said that, they gave it the green light this morning, and smoke test surveys have gone out!

For those new to the process, the smoke test is a "soft launch" of the surveys that are sent to a random ~5% of the total backer list to make sure that there are no confusing questions or bugs to be addressed. Assuming that the test run goes smoothly, we'll send the rest of the surveys within the next 24-48 hours. Backerkit recommends waiting until ~75% of the smoke test surveys have been completed before sending out the rest, so if you are one of those 128 randomly chosen few, please try to complete yours promptly! 👍

If you are not one of the smoke test backers, fear not -- your survey will likely go out before Friday (assuming no critical technical issues pop up).

Backerkit will stay open until we lock orders in mid-March (estimated March 17th), so you will be able to make any adjustments to your order until then, including address and payment information.  Credit Cards will not be charged until the orders are locked. Shipping is on track to begin in mid-May, so think about where you will be at that time when entering your delivery address. (And if you don't know for sure, don't worry -- there will be ample opportunities to update that info up to a week before Quartermaster actually starts shipping.)

That's all for now. Thanks again for your wonderful support!

CASE CLOSED! THANK YOU!
over 1 year ago – Sat, Dec 17, 2022 at 07:15:28 PM

Hi everyone! We did it! THANK YOU for a great campaign! 🥳

This has been another exciting ride, and we can't wait to get these into your hands next year! 🤩 This really has been a lovely way to bookend 2022, with ARSENE being our first successful campaign of the year and this being our last. It is always a rollercoaster, and next year is promising to be just as exhilarating... 😎

We will start building the Backerkit surveys next week and hope to have them out before the New Year. With all of this falling right on top of the holidays, we'll do our best to keep you all updated quickly as those stages and milestones come together. We will be doing a bit of traveling to see family, but if anything of note comes up, we'll report as best as we can (even if from our smartphones...)

In the meantime, enjoy the DISNEY CHRISTMAS PARADE streamline LIVE RIGHT NOW! 😃🎅 (We're not affiliated with these guys, but its kinda fun, full of cheer, and LIVE RIGHT NOW! 😊)

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH! We think you'll be really happy when everything reaches you! 

Gilding unlocked! Here's the deal...
over 1 year ago – Sat, Dec 10, 2022 at 10:34:09 PM

Hi everyone!

Thanks for your comments on the last update, particularly you (wonderful) Original Backers from the previous ARSENE LUPIN campaign. Together, we have unlocked the page-gilding stretch goal mentioned earlier, and after some consulting with our vendors and consideration of the situation, here's what we are doing:

The gilding will be a single PMS ink color to match the color of the book spine, so those slipcase copies of the book will ultimately look something like this:

This will be applied to ALL SLIPCASE COPIES -- both the full HOLMES/LUPIN Deluxe Tier Sets and the +spacer upgrade Addon copies. Since both of those slipcase configurations will be packaged within shrinkwrapping, both editions really must be the same.

After much consideration, as well as discussion with our retail distributor, we have decided that the copies of ARSENE LUPIN included in the HOLMES/LUPIN Deluxe Tier sets will NOT have gilding added to them. This is for several reasons: 1) Edition consistency -- adding such a feature to an existing, solicited title already in stores could cause confusion at retail (unless we assign a new, separate ISBN number and barcode, which just gets complicated), 2) Original Backers will need not worry about having a "substandard" copy of ARSENE since all copies will now be identical, and 3) our warehouse will not have to worry about tracking multiple, separate editions of ARSENE.  This really is the best solution for us internally while also keeping the "bonus reward enhancement" aspect fair and equitable between new and Original Backers. 😊

We have also revealed the next TWO stretch goals:

The first of the two (the next goal) was introduced as the details of the gilding were discussed with our printer and retail distributor. For reasons similar to ARSENE, we would be better off if all copies of the book were consistent, to avoid any potential confusion in the marketplace. To that end, we would love to gild ALL copies of SCARLET if we can hit that goal! 🤩 

With less than a week left in the campaign, we felt it was fair to also reveal the next goal after that: a set of three 4x6" linen cardstock postcards/mini-prints featuring scenes from the Great American Alkali Plain where much of the second half of the book takes place. These beautifully illustrated cards by Vincent Mallie will have standard addressing guides on the back like actual postcards, in case you are generous enough to want to actually send one to somebody. 😉

That's all for now. We hope this step and direction are as exciting and fulfilling to all of you as they are to us! We really can't wait to put all of these beautiful artifacts in your hands! 😃

THANKS, EVERYONE! Keep spreading the word!