Kickstarter

Ever since I heard Dream Theater's "Scenes From A Memory" I've wanted to draw a graphic novel adaptation.  The adaptation would be different enough to avoid copyright infringement but would still be a fan work and hopefully preserve the original feel of the album and story.

I've been drawing for many years, mostly comics, and have wanted to work on a full-scale graphic novel for a very long time.  However, I do my art digitally and the software I'm using barely cuts it for simplistic, cell-shaded comic pages.  In the trial period that I was able to use Adobe Photoshop CS5, I've been able to draw in a way that looks much, much cleaner.  Since CS6 is coming out soon, I want to jump on the ball and purchase a copy but I need a little help.

I don't want to make any profit off of the graphic novels; this is a fan work dedicated to the incredible artists in the band.  Therefore, the software component of my project is budgeted at $50 over the cost of the Higher Education version of CS6 Design Premium, which is $400 from Academic Superstore, including tax.  I am an eligible college student, so I'm trying to get the lowest price on this software that I can without breaking the law by torrenting it.  The additional $50 is to cover transaction fees and shipping for incentives.

For the actual drawing, I have an HP tablet PC with good pressure sensitivity that I've been using so far in my art.  It works ok now, but during the trial of CS5, the art that I made with it was phenomenally better.  Again, because I feel that getting high quality, expensive, and copyright software for free is wrong, I want to try to raise money so that I can legally and properly buy the software that I need to make this graphic novel look the best that I possibly can.