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We are now in the final 24 hours of our Kickstarter fundraising campaign. And while we passed our target goal of 2K a few weeks back, we are of course still taking in donations right up until the very last minute!
For the last few days, we have been right at the precipice of crossing the 4K mark, which would mean we have achieved a full 200% funding! With so many different Ace Kilroy-related projects in various stages of development, we're extremely thrilled that many of them will now be funded thanks to all the money we raised past 2K.
As of this writing, we are just $189 away from hitting 4K. So to help inspire a few last-minute donations and get us past the 4K mark, we're sweetening the pot a bit!
In addition to all the various rewards already listed on the Kickstarter page, we are now offering a full set of brand-new Ace Kilroy trading cards to anyone who donates at the $40 (or more) level! This includes all 30 cards, wrapper, AND a one-of-a-kind "sketch card" drawn co-creator Dan O'Connor!
So if you were thinking of supporting Ace Kilroy, now's the perfect time to do it! Head on over to our Kickstarter page and JOIN THE FIGHT!
One of the things we're working on is a series of Ace Kilroy t-shirts. This preview of one possible design is courtesy our pal Misty Layne--stay tuned for further details!
This funky Ace Kilroy pin-up is by artist Steve Spatucci, part of a whole series Steve was experimenting with that he calls Vect-o-Grunge Illustrations.
Seeing this pin-up, it sort of inspires an Ace Kilroy story in my head. I imagine some group of baddies, maybe in the jungle, searching for Ace. They have one photo of him which they show around, asking people if they've seen this man. Person after person don't recognize him, then we get to the last panel of the strip, when someone points at this picture and exclaims, "Ace Kilroy!" We'll see, I guess...
Thanks Steve!
We are pleased to announce that Ace Kilroy is the featured strip this week on the awesome site ComicStripTees.com!
If you head over to the Ace Kilroy page on CST, you can purchase this nifty shirt (featuring one of, IMO, Dan's most awesome shots of Ace in action) in multiple sizes for men and women! Not only will you getting a cool shirt, but you will be supporting Ace Kilroy and the CST site, which in turn supports independent comics!
So what are you waiting for?!?
As promised today on the Ace Kilroy Facebook page, here is a piece of Bonus Kilroy art from the upcoming Free Comic Book Day all-new Ace adventure, May 5, 2012!
We started the day with 43 backers to our Kickstarter fundraising page, and I said that if we hit 45 backers I would post a piece of unseen art by Dan. Well, we did hit 45 backers, so here you go! As you'll see this Saturday, this sketch could be considered an "outtake."
We still have 13 days left in our campaign, so there's still lots of time to pledge and show your support for Ace Kilroy! JOIN THE FIGHT!
This is a photo of the Ace Kilroy Twitter Prize Pack won by Adam_Zero, who entered a RT'ing contest run by the AK Twitter feed a month or so ago.
Adam was kind enough to snap a pic of the whole magilla and post it on his feed yesterday. Pictured (from top) are an Ace Kilroy pulpboard coaster, bumper sticker, buttons, magnet, plus a letter from Ace himself!
We'll be doing more of these in the future, so sign up for Ace's Twitter feed for your chance to win!
As you can see on the Kickstarter app in the sidebar, yesterday we reached our fundraising goal of 2K, with still 18 days left to go! Dan and I am truly humbled and amazed that we reached our target so quickly. Our thanks to all who pledged and spread the word, we literally couldn't have done it without you.
We had planned to post some sort of celebratory image to commemorate the moment we hit 2K, which you see here. But as I started to work on it, I realized this drawing of Dan's was too good--too dramatic, too striking--for me to put some goofy balloon over, talking about Kickstarter and whatnot. (BTW, click to embiggen)
So just enjoy this sweet shot of Ace and our version (for the moment) of the Wolf Man, and thanks again for supporting Ace Kilroy!
This is a pic--the only one, I think--of Dan and me while we were first year students at the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art, 1989-1990.
Between us is a fellow Kubie, Sean Murphy, and seated is the legendary artist Tex Blaisdell, who was an instructor at the school and stayed overnight at the Clinton House, which is where Dan and I (and others, like our pal Sean Tiffany) lived.
Tex was a raconteur, a storyteller, a card, a character, and any number of other colorful terms. He would sit at our kitchen table (like he is here), working on comics pages, while chain smoking and eating yogurt. He would tells us amazing stories about his time in comics, illustration, and newspaper strips.
At the time, we called this picture "The Master and the Three Young Jedis." I have to think that, in some small way, Ace Kilroy was born when this photo was taken.
Here's another Ace Kilroy pin-up, courtesy artist Andrew Kapellusch!
I love the old school approach, with the classic comic book "floating heads" reacting to the action--in this case, Ace looking like he's about to whallop someone upside the head!
Thanks Andrew!
We're barely 36 hours into our Kickstarter campaign, and we've already reached the 50% funded mark, with 21 backers! Our thanks to you all!
As promised, here's a little bonus content as a way to say "thanks" for supporting Ace Kilroy: this is a pin-up of Ace by our pal and comics entrepreneur extraordinaire Jay Piscopo, who does The Undersea Adventures of Capt'N Eli, among others. How awesome is this?
Ace has yet to fight a giant Nazi robot, but this pin-up makes me want to write it up, stat. Also--I absolutely want a giant Nazi robot as part of the the inevitable Ace Kilroy toy line. With real machine gun action!
Today is the first day of our Kickstarter campaign, which will run until Wednesday, May 16. Head on over to the Ace Kilroy Kickstarter page, where you can pledge to receive any of the following rewards:
$10:
--Membership in "Ace's Allies", which earns you a permanent listing as a member of AA on the Ace Kilroy website and blog, and entitles you to any and all AA member premiums (AK button, drink coasters, bumper stickers, and more!).
$40:
--Membership in Ace's Allies
--Signed copy of the first Ace Kilroy TPB collection, standard comic book size
$75:
--Membership in Ace's Allies
--Signed copy of the first Ace Kilroy TPB collection, TREASURY FORMAT--oversized, 10x13"!
$125:
--Membership in Ace's Allies
--Signed copy of the first Ace Kilroy TPB collection (standard or treasury format)
--Signed original art from one Ace Kilroy daily strip
$250:
--Membership in Ace's Allies
--Signed original art for one Ace Kilroy daily strip
--Signed copy of the first Ace Kilroy TPB collection (standard or treasury format) with a custom-drawn b/w Ace Kilroy sketch drawn into the book! ONLY FIVE AVAILABLE
$1,000:
--Membership in Ace's Allies
--Signed copy of the first Ace Kilroy TPB collection (standard or treasury format)
--Receive artist/co-creator Dan O'Connor's original sketchbook for Ace Kilroy, which features dozens of pencil and ink concept illustrations! ONLY ONE AVAILABLE
Be sure to check back here regularly, for as we achieve various levels of funding, we'll be posting pin-ups, behind-the-scenes material, and more fun stuff as a way to say "thank you" for supporting Ace Kilroy.
Join the fight!
Announcing Phase II of the Ace Kilroy Fundraising Campaign!
We launched our initial Kickstarter effort the same day as Ace Kilroy went live--October 31, 2011--and while we received many high-profile raves (from places like The Onion's A.V. Club, Robot 6, and Geekadelphia), in the end we just didn't have time to get the word out to enough people to reach our financial goal.
On April 16, we will be starting another Kickstarter drive, where you'll have the chance to pre-order a copy of Ace Kilroy, Volume 1, featuring the complete Dracula story arc plus bonus, behind-the-scenes material. And of course there will be other goodies offered, as well!
Ace Kilroy will be going on hiatus during that time, to give new readers a chance to catch up on the strip and see what it's all about. But we will be returning before you know it, the date of which will be announced here and on AceKilroy.com on April 16.
During the hiatus, and concurrent with the new Kickstarter drive, we plan to try and get Ace Kilroy mentioned in as many comic book news sites, blogs, and print outlets as possible, hopefully connecting with a whole new audience that have yet to check us out. And that's where you come in!
If there's a blog or news site (print or web) that you think would be interested in talking to Dan and me and/or reviewing Ace Kilroy, drop us a line with that site's contact info, and we'll do the rest. Any tip that leads to a mention--no matter how small--will earn you a special mention here on the blog and a hearty thanks from Ace himself!
Dan and I cannot thank you enough for your support and enthusiasm for Ace Kilroy. We are having an absolute blast doing the strip and, judging by the overwhelmingly positive responses we've been getting, we think that comes across in the final product. And if we can get just enough people to support what we're doing, we plan to do Ace Kilroy for a long, long time.
Keep 'em flying, boys and girls!
