Sorghum & Spear - Book One
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Good day everyone,
Another month, and another step closer to our book SORGHUM & SPEAR being ready to share! It has been surreal to say the least, as the time frame of getting this thing ready has been a series of peaks and valleys, with the talented group of creatives we have doing their part to make this something special.
As we initially had a delivery date of August 2017 at close of our project, looking at what it would take to keep the quality of this book high and the expectations of the project's future higher, I will have to push the delivery date to November 2017 instead. I'm a huge fan of Kickstarter, as a consumer and as a creative, and don't want to do anything to tarnish the platform on either side, so in weighing giving you a good book by month's end, it's best to let our team make this the right way and take just a bit more time. I hope that is understandable and apologize for this delay.
Just the other day, I was looking at how Namazzi has grown in these months, where she is this powerful Mino ancestral, but first of all, she she should be a person. Someone worth knowing and caring what happens to her and those around her. It's something I've been contemplating, the not making her too single-focused on being a warrior and off to her first fight as we tell follow her as an audience. I think it behooves us all to allow her to be that young woman first, and then let the tale grow around those experiences.
So the shift of this book has taken a step into a prequel. whose layout we had in the first book anyway, but takes us into a glimpse of how it was before, and what was at stake when things changed. Below is one of Tim Geather's comic pages, now colored by Omi Remalante and off to Saida Temofonte for lettering. We see Namazzi and Kett sneaking away from the village celebration to visit their favorite spot along the mountain ridge, to be girls once more before the rites of womanhood call them down.
I'm happy that this book is almost done, in may ways and I have to thank our team for the creative and life lessons in taking this endeavor on. The growth process of doing this the right way has been fantastic, and the processes of today will surely serve us well in the books to come.
Speaking of which, we are already into the next book, and hope to have some of it ready to share as we move into the heart of what's going on in the Eternal Realm in Marduri village and beyond. Keep with us here at SORGHUM & SPEAR and our team at Greene County Creative. Thank you for your love and support!
Good day Eternal Realm Faithful!
A great July to you all, and I appreciate everyone's patience as this project has grown and expanded our horizons as a creative team more than we could have imagined. If anything, it's been a lot more work that I would have expected in dealing with the successful endeavor. Such is a burden I'm glad to carry in any case. Now on to what's been going on with Greene County Creative and our work with SORGHUM AND SPEAR:
The team and I have been on the road in June to raise awareness of our project at two conventions; HeroesCon in Charlotte, North Carolina as well as the inaugural BlerDCon in Washington, DC. Both were great experiences to helpget us fine-tuned with both showcasing our work and evaluating what we needed to work on as we plan to continue this as a sequential series that we self-publish. Both were amazing experiences that definitely helped our team grow. We learned a lot of Do's (and a few Dont's) along the way, and the convention circuit is grueling, but rewarding, if for nothing else but to personally connect with our fans.
It was also a delightful treat to meet some our actual Kickstarter backers at BlerDCon, who we gifted some of our original Kickstarter Promo prints and of course, hugs! (I'm a hugger, everyone!)
Also, since last we spoke, our lead Art Director and page artist Tim Geathers got a call-up from MARVEL to work on some Guardians Of The Galaxy 2 cards with Upper Deck, and we couldn't be prouder of his ascension as a professional artist. Here's a sneak peak at some of his card submissions on the project:
And for our colorist extraordinaire Omi Remalante Jr, seems like Dynamite Entertainment couldn't get of his palette and asked him to come on board with their GAME OF THRONES comic series! Another super congratulations is definitely in order!
Marvel. Game Of Thrones. Wow. So it's surreal how our little club has been getting pulled in different directions from major projects since we funded, but hopefully speaks to the quality of our team and the level of talent that SORGHUM AND SPEAR is bringing to the table.
What's next now is for yours truly to ** FINALLY ** send out our Backer Kit-led surveys, as we are setting up printing and recalculation of shipping to add and get things moving. I'm still working on a couple of the more personal tiers (ex. Marlannah's Hand Journal) and Mr. Sanford Greene has reached out that his variant cover is almost ready to share. As for our endeavor with PROJECT HAVE HOPE, we just spoke with their Director who is back from Uganda and we are just figuring out the right way to apply our Stretch Goal promise to engage in sponsorship with them for a child's education. I'm so happy we will be able to do this! As you can see, the art posters are done, and from the excitement of our first run we had available at our tables, the artwork and print quality are where we want to be!
We are so close in getting this first comic book out there. Again let me Thank YOU for believing in this project. While I know we are flashing swords, sorcery and monsters as the name of the series (and it is), the direction of Book One really is more about discovery and self-awareness. In this scene, there's a peak of the mountain crag that Marduri village rests in, that is a climb to get to, but is a brilliant view of the world that both Namazzi and Kett have never ventured into. There's a decision here, to be safe and head back, or to go on. I likened this many of life's decisions we've all had to make at some point, or eventually will be challenged to make. Here's to all of us making the decision to explore and expand our worlds. Much love to everyone for your support.!
We are still razor-thin with our schedule of an August delivery, but we are also done with the book's development and art and the main tiers of rewards, so we'll know more in the next two weeks of any need to update.
Good evening Sorghum & Spear Faithful,
Thanks for your patience as we've been working hard behind the scenes to get to this point in June where we can share more on where we are with the book.
The good work of Project Have Hope is going on in Uganda, and as we await the US Director's return from Africa, we are set to connect and share more about our overall support effort to their program that YOU helped to make possible. We are eternally grateful for this opportunity to do something greater than our project and ourselves, and make a positive change through art with everyone's support.
As for the comic, the pen and inks for Sorghum and Spear, each page hand drawn by Timothy Geathers are rounding out and we are moving fully onto the next stage of the book, which is color. As we stated, due to some other commitments, we did have to expand our group to add more hands to keep our schedule.
With that, we are pleased to announce that we have Omi Remalante joining us on colors with Sorghum & Spear: Book One! His many credits includes work with Dynamite and Titan comics and is an industry talent on several completed projects. We are happy to have him on board!
Here is an initial color test we did on a page, and if this is the rough, we can't wait to see the final result!
Want to see more of Omi's work along with an awesome storyline? Then check out the amazing indie series Kickstarter Route 3: Volume 1 going on right now!
We are getting the other backer goodies daily, and it is exciting to see the progress of may years of work and effort shaping into our first printed book in just a few months! g I'm already looking forward to planting my own Sorghum stalks in my backyard this summer!
Things are looking great, and as we get into a couple of conventions in June, we will be focusing on getting more updates, artwork and reveals going forward until we have our book ready to share with you. We appreciate everyone, and for the individuals we need to link up with on their rewards, those conversations are coming up next. Thanks as always for your love and support of Greene County Creative and of SORGHUM & SPEAR!
Best,
Dedren Snead
P.S. also a signal boost to a cool RPG project , Lost Artifacts of Greyghast - A 5e Magic Item Compendium, which we are supporting in our never-ending search for great gaming! Check them out!
At 7PM Eastern Standard Time, we will be closing out our SORGHUM AND SPEAR Kickstarter campaign to print our first comic book. Every high and low comes with running a 30 day endeavor like this, and our team has been privileged to have great supporters like you all with us every step of the way. So, in this last day, we humbly thank everyone who has pledged to lend their support of our Kickstarter!
A quick update, we got some color to our new GDBee Poster, looks great doesn't it?
And to everyone who have already backed us, just a reminder below of some of the amazing tier updates we've had during this campaign. Please consider updating your pledge nowto gain one of these fabulous rewards:
Cosplay Connection with Panterona Cosplay
Custom Art Commission with Timothy Geathers
Variant Cover Comic Book by Sanford Greene
Amazing Poster Unlocked by Sheeba Maya
And most importantly, supporting Project: Have Hope,
And as expect to finalize a successful campaign tonight, we will be in position to continue to build our brand and our network of artists, collaborators and creatives to expand our reach and influence to be the change we want to see. It's a lot of moving parts and the hard work of a lot of talented people that goes into making just one independently published comic book. To be able to take this first step with you, and be able to make a difference in the lives of others while doing it, is a fantastic feeling. And as we sincerity say in closing is that appreciate your Love and Support in giving us a chance to tell our story our way with SORGHUM & SPEAR. The Eternal Realm is forever in your debt!
Thank YOU for being a part of the Sorghum & Spear: Book One Kickstarter!
Best,
Dedren Snead
Greene County Creative