About this project

Hey there Kickstarter!

D.J. Kirkland is my name and creating comics is my game! I am the sole creator of an up and coming comic series called Aerial Rave. Aerial Rave is about a fumbling spoiled brat named Aiden Wingspan’s problematic first year on an up-and-coming team in a high-energy aerial contact sport that's called Aerial Rave. The sport of Aerial Rave can be best described as a roller derby...but trade the skates for those awesome hover boards you saw in Back To The Future and you've got Aerial Rave!

Aiden's world begins to unfold when he seizes a golden opportunity to join Team LightSync, an up and coming team for this year's tournament. Prior to Aiden joining Team LightSync, they were in a very stressful situation. Not all of the team members saw eye to eye, mainly their former leader Skye. Skye always has to be in control. Constantly barking orders, yelling at whichever teammate is messing up the attack formations and just total disrespect for his teammates. He is quite possibly the worst candidate for a team leader. At this point, Team LightSync is at their wits end with Skye. It’s time for a change. Reyna Sylvania, Team LightSync’s stern owner steps in making the last minute decision to kick Skye off the team with only four days left until the qualifying matches begin.

With one member down, Team LightSync had to find a new teammate and quick! Reyna sends out the three remaining team members out into the city pasting up flyers around Port Camden to find their new teammate. A cute and sporty young girl, Robin Sehai, the handsome sweet talking Casanova Katsuro Morisato and the gentle giant, Talan Hawkins. This may not be such an issue for a well known team, but for an unknown team like Team LightSync, this task would prove to be less effective. When the team was finally going to give up hope and put away their air boards for another year, they’re greeted by their one and only option.

Enter Aiden Wingspan. Our hero. This spoiled, cocky, messy haired kid was the only person to show up to Team LightSync’s open try-outs. This kid is all talk and now show, he can barely even stand on the hover board! With no alternative options, Reyna signs Aiden on to Team LightSync. Team LightSync can still compete. With only a few days to give Aiden the crash corse on Aerial Rave, one can only hope that Reyna didn’t set herself, and her team up to fail.

So here's the lowdown.

Comics take a lot of work to produce, especially when you're a one man show. Regardless of how much work it takes, I keep making comics because I LOVE visual storytelling. Now that I'm in Graduate School, I have the opportunity to work on this project AND get credit for it. I've been putting off production of the rest of the book after I completed the first chapter this summer and I've had a bunch of people wanting more. It took me around 2.5 months to create the first chapter; now is the time to deliver! I want to create the next 4 chapters of this comic within the next 8 months. I know I can do this and I want to prove not only myself but YOU that I can do it!

This is the part where YOU come in. Not only will you be helping me continue to pursue my dream of being a comic book artist, but you'll get to follow the process of the book from beginning to end. I'm talkin' thumbnails, pencils, inks, toning, lettering and ANYTHING ELSE that encompasses the creation of this book. I'll update the production blog weekly, ideally multiple times a week for anyone that donates. Donations of $5 dollars will get you a digital copy of the comic for your reading pleasure. Anything more than that, you'll get the comic both digitally AND physically. Trust me, you're gunna get a bunch of really awesome stuff for the more you choose to contribute. Check out the sidebar to the right for the nitty gritty on all that awesomeness.

So what's the book gunna be like?

I'm thinkin' somewhere around 140-180 pages. Maybe even 200! As you see the production of the book, you'll find out the final page count! Full color front and back cover with some character bio info and maybe some production sketches and maybe fan art from my friends. It's gunna be ballin' trust me. The money that you'll be donating will be going towards the production of the book, printing of promotional materials, your reward packs, cover expenses to getting to conventions to promote the book AND possibly even MEET YOU at the conventions! Now wouldn't that be awesome?! I promise I don't bite, I give awesome hugs.

I hope all you guys will consider gettin' yourself involved with this awesomeness. You'll get some sweet stuff out of it! I definitely wanna share the thing I love doing most with my friends, family, all of my (like 10) fans, and a new audience of people that love people that love to create. Thank you all so much for taking the time to read this super long description and check out what I do!

Much Love!
- D.J. Kirkland