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Help this western comic full of steam, sorcery and secrets collect its first four chapters into a quality softcover collection.

Sometimes good and bad aren’t exactly black and white.

Weird western yarn Next Town Over needs your help unraveling its first four chapters’ worth of steam, sorcery and secrets!

Updating like clockwork since autumn of 2010, Next Town Over’s webcomic incarnation has picked up readers, popularity, and its fair share of kind words.

  • "If you haven't read Next Town Over before, then you may have just found your new favorite webcomic." -- Aaron Colter, Comics Alliance
  • "Next Town Over is an all action webcomic — with shoot-outs, chases, lassoing and the like — and it ain’t ashamed of what it is. It’s for folks who swill Tennessee whiskey and are in the mood for some rootin’, tootin’, shootin’, gun-totin’, sassafrassin’ Texas-sized brawls.... 4 stars." -- The Webcomic Overlook
  • "The comic’s artwork is gorgeous ... a must read." -- Shawn Gustafson, The Specialists
  • "Some comic book artists are great artists, but great comic book artists understand their medium and transcend drawing and move into storytelling... Mehlos really owns this in Next Town Over." -- Slap Bookleather
  • "I was immediately in a really unconventional astonishment state as soon as I saw the quality of the art of this comic. It didn’t take long for me to click that beautiful “First” button in order for me to start from the very beginning." -- Webcomic Alliance

What the comic hasn’t picked up a whole lot of is revenue, which is why I need your financial support to collect its first four chapters into a new book, chronicling the curious rivalry ‘twixt Vane Black and John Henry Hunter through Lookback, Sun Prairie, Whiskey Bend, and Baron's Crossing.

Who I Am & Why I Need Your Help

I’m Erin Mehlos, an independent comics creator from the farflung northwoods of Wisconsin. As such, I don’t get to many big cons and network as much as I probably ought to. I’m about to be a first time mom, and I just plain can’t afford to print the book out of my own pocket right now.

A minimum run of 1000 trade paperbacks of this first ever Next Town Over volume, when you factor in printing, shipping, ISBNing, etc. – nevermind my time collecting and prepressing the book – is going to run upwards of $5000 when all’s said and done -- $5000 my husband and I just spent replacing the boiler in our house. Not to mention Kickstarter funding is taxable income so the government'll surely take their share, and, of course, I'd like to thank you all with some cool incentives like exclusive T-shirts, prints and bookmarks, and that stuff doesn't come cheap, either.

But I can count on you guys to help me out, can’t I? A pretty middlin’ contribution basically amounts to a preorder of the book, and I've tried to throw in a little something special at every level.

If I can successfully fund and print this book without having to deal with print-on-demand services I can sell it via bigger outlets like Amazon, allowing folks to get it faster and cheaper and allowing me to make enough money to continue drawing the comic, and, hopefully, start to schlep out to the coasts to more cons to meet more of you.

The Book

As mentioned above, this book would collect the comic's first four chapters (which are already in the can, making this project a pretty safe bet!) into a quality trade paperback. I intend to pack this thing with extras, including guest pinups, conceptual sketches, bonus artwork, the short story Snake, in-depth guides to Next Town Over locations & characters, all the fantastic entries to the 2012 Next Town Over Art Contest, and more!

I will also be printing a shorter run (500 copies, total) of a hardcover edition, all of which I'll be signing & numbering and which will never be reprinted.

Stretch Goals

$7,500 - UNLOCKED! - I'd love to gussy up the covers of both the soft- and hardcover books with a little foilwork, and possibly turn the hardcover into an even nicer clothbound edition with a bound-in limitation page for serious book collectors. If you help me make it happen you'll not only get shinier (and/or clothier) books, but everyone over the $10 level (basically, anyone who's already getting something in the mail) will also receive a signed, exclusive print.

$8,500 - UNLOCKED! - The hardcover edition will gain a matching cloth slipcover and everyone will get a second signed, exclusive print.

$10,000 - WOW! UNLOCKED! - I can't even fathom this kind of generosity on your part but with $10K I could also print a 100ish page black and white digest of my 24 Hour Comics and offer it to everyone over the $25 level as an extra special thank you. 

What do you say?

Help me pay for the book, guarantee yourself an early copy, and guarantee the future of Next Town Over. 

Thanks, partner.

Risks and challenges Learn about accountability on Kickstarter

With virtually all the material set for inclusion in this project long since finished and the collection of it into a book already begun, the only real hurdle I face is the nuts and bolts of getting it printed. I've got a fair amount of prepress in my background and have printed a ton of comics via print-on-demand outlets but this is my first stab at full-on self-publishing. Armed with a pretty exhaustive spreadsheet full of quotes from printers both overseas and here in the U.S. I'm ready to do this, but simultaneously aware that there may be delays involved -- possibly relating as much to the coincidentally timed birth of our first kid as to overseas shipping.

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Funding period
Dec 6, 2012 - Jan 5, 2013 (30 days)

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  • Pledge $5 or more

    7 backers

    For $5 you'll get the first four chapters of NTO, digitally, as PDFs or CBZs, and my eternal gratitude. <3

    Estimated delivery: Jan 2013
  • Pledge $10 or more

    19 backers

    For $10 you'll get your choice of a PDF or CBZ of the final book, along with access to the NTO Grubstaker's Circle at the Grubstaker level and some neat NTO bookmarks and buttons in the mail (2 bookmarks, 3 buttons).

    Estimated delivery: Apr 2013
    Add $3 to ship outside the US
  • Pledge $25 or more

    52 backers Limited (848 of 900 left)

    For $25 you're essentially pre-ordering the paperback edition of the book (shipping included), but you'll be getting it ahead of everyone else, it'll come with its own NTO bookmarks & buttons (2 & 3 of each, respectively), and I'll be signing it, to boot.

    Estimated delivery: Apr 2013
    Add $5 to ship outside the US
  • Pledge $25 or more

    5 backers Limited (45 of 50 left)

    Alternately, for $25 you can opt for a PDF or CBZ of the final book, the bookmarks & buttons, and one of the all-new NTO graphic tees in your choice of Vane/Diamonds or Hunter/Outlaw flavor (shipping included).

    Estimated delivery: Apr 2013
    Add $5 to ship outside the US
  • Pledge $35 or more

    90 backers Limited (290 of 380 left)

    For $35 you're pre-ordering the limited, hardcover edition of the book (shipping included), but you'll be getting it ahead of everyone else, it'll come with its own NTO bookmark, and it'll be signed & numbered. These will never be reprinted!

    Estimated delivery: Apr 2013
    Add $5 to ship outside the US
  • Pledge $40 or more

    7 backers Limited (93 of 100 left)

    NEW! Envious of the $50 level's incredible value but don't quite want to commit that much and don't really need the limited edition hardcover? For $40 you can pick up a signed paperback and one of the Ts in your choice of Vane or Hunter flavor.

    Estimated delivery: Apr 2013
    Add $7 to ship outside the US
  • Pledge $50 or more

    46 backers Limited (14 of 60 left)

    For $50 you'll be getting the limited, hardcover edition of the book, signed & numbered, along with the bookmarks & buttons & an NTO T-shirt in your choice of Vane or Hunter. (This also happens to be a fantastic deal.)

    Estimated delivery: Apr 2013
    Add $7 to ship outside the US
  • Pledge $70 or more

    8 backers Limited (7 of 15 left)

    NEW! By popular request, folks unable to choose between the two T-shirt designs can pick up both, along with everything else from the $50 level, for $70.

    Estimated delivery: Apr 2013
    Add $7 to ship outside the US
  • Pledge $100 or more

    9 backers Limited (16 of 25 left)

    For $100 your extraordinary support will be credited in the book, which you'll also be getting, signed & numbered, in hardcover, along with the exclusive bookmark, T-shirt, and an original hand-drawn character sketch. You'll also be gaining access to the NTO Grubstaker's Circle at the Goldstaker level, allowing you download PDFs and CBZs of the comic as they become available. That's right: even in the FUTURE.

    Estimated delivery: Apr 2013
    Add $7 to ship outside the US
  • Pledge $120 or more

    13 backers Limited (2 of 15 left)

    NEW! By popular request, folks unable to choose between the two T-shirt designs can pick up both, along with everything else from the super supportive $100 level, for $120.

    Estimated delivery: Apr 2013
    Add $7 to ship outside the US
  • Pledge $500 or more

    1 backer Limited (4 of 5 left)

    At the $500 level you'll receive everything from the $100 level, but you'll also be entitled to a full-color digital illustration (Your choice of subject -- sorry, no pornographic or copyrighted material. To be delivered, by mail, as a print and electronically as a high resolution digital file.).

    Estimated delivery: Jul 2013