Kickstarter

Hi all!

The last few weeks have been crazier than even we expected. The books have arrived and are exactly what we wanted (new book smell included). We've been hard at work ever since. Last week, we had our official launch at the Weisman Award Exhibit, which, by all accounts, seems to have been a success. Lots of awesome grant-funded projects were presented and will be on show until Oct. 19 (stop by The Arcade at 618 S. Michigan Ave. to take a look).

We went from that first launch to our "launch party," which was absolutely amazing. Thanks to all of you who came out to both or either event. We definitely appreciate the continued support.

Now that the shows are over, we will concentrate on getting the books out there and, equally as important, getting all of your remaining rewards out in the mail (thanks to our fellow Weisman Award winner Caro Griffin for sending us a pic of her postcard reward—currently living happily on her fridge).

If anyone wants to purchase a copy of the book, they can be found here and via our site (we've also added a tab featuring various ongoing press and reviews).

Please keep an eye out for more Illustrated Press projects, including one we're working on now with our local NPR station, WBEZ's Curious City.

And thanks again.

Oh, so many new happenings to share...

Let's start with the goodies: August is around the corner and it is a BIG month for us. For one, we plan to have the book into and back from the printer by the end of the month. We've recently begun laying out a PDF version of the pages and I've gotta say, it's lookin' good (BIG ups to my partner, Erik, for coming with the goods on a regular basis).

I've sent out new info requests to the $25 and $60 tier folks. You may notice when you get your rewards in the mail that there's a postcard instead of a sticker. DON'T PANIC. Because we went over our original goal, we decided to up the ante and print the p-cards instead. Personally, I think they're far more useful and substantial than stickers. You can mail them to your friends if you'd like! Or keep them for your records... (Feel free to lodge any complaints/concerns at illuspress@gmail.com if, for some reason, you disagree).

Lastly (for now), we'll be featured in an installation/exhibition as part of our Weisman Award from Sept. 6 through November 4. More info on that later, but *Chicago people* mark your calendars.

If you haven't already, why not follow us on Facebook? And, as always, our site is updated regularly.

P.S. We were recently interviewed by the good people at Sixty Inches From Center. Below are a couple sketches of Erik and I by the lovely and talented Sierra Nicole Rhoden. You can read the interview with Nicole here.

It's go time.

We're getting into the final publication stretch and it is A LOT of work. But equally exciting! After winding down from the AAN convention in Detroit we began laying out pages for the book (pic #4), writing/illustrating new stories and planning our next moves. So, we'll be posting new updates on our site soon.

Another round of postcards will be going out this Thursday (pic #1) AND we recently got our posters in the mail (pics #2 and 3)! So, as soon as the book is closer to the big finale, we'll send out more requests for mailing info, etc. 

Lastly, we recently joined the world of Facebook and hope you'll all take a sec to join our page. We'll be posting updates on the book, general tidbits and other comics journalism news. Just another way to keep in touch with us.

And let us know when you get your postcards, por favor! It's been great to hear from everyone who's gotten their Kickstarter goodies so far.

Not only here, but busy busy...

We just got back from the Association of Alternative Newsmedia Convention in Detroit, where we were invited to speak on our very own comics journalism panel. Super exciting! Neither of us had done anything similar in the past, so it was a really interesting experience. We also had a great time biking around the D. That place is a trip...

Here's more info on the event and our presentation.

As usual, we've been hard at work on more stories. We just got a few done for The Progressive magazine, Echo Magazine, TruthOut(.org) and are currently working on a mini for the McCormick Foundation. 

That, of course, is in addition to work on our book (which we are still on schedule for. EARLY AUGUST!)

Some of you have gotten your postcards in the mail. Some of you will be receiving yours (+haikus) very soon. If you haven't sent us your address ($10 tier only), please do. The rest of the goodies will be sent out to higher reward tiers by August.

You can still keep up with us at illuspress.com and our Twitter @TheIllPress.

Thanks again!

I don't know about you, but I'm relieved this all worked out. In the last 28 days we've exceeded our original goal by 8 percent, which works out to a total of $3,788.

Erik has spent nearly the entirety of these last two weeks at his desk, hammering out the last panels of our latest stories (one of which will be featured in Echo Magazine this summer—more info on the other later). During that same time, I had my eyes glued to the Kickstarter fever chart and our communication/social media outlets.

The best part about this month is that we both did exactly what we set out to do, despite almost getting thrown off the rollercoaster a few times. Two new stories down and the funding to print our book: double check.

We've also made a bunch of new friends (many of whom we couldn't have done without) and raised quite a bit of public interest in our project. Case in point, we've had more than 1,000 visits to illuspress.com in the 30 days since it launched.

Also, here's a short list of places we've been featured in the last month:

Interviews:

The Columbia Journalism Review

The Cartoon Picayune

WCRX-Columbia College Chicago

Reviews/The Grapevine:

Gapersblock

MattBors.com

SymboliaMag.com

The Chicago Reader

This summer:

AAN annual convention in June (We'll be speaking on a panel)

That list doesn't include all of our friends and family who've vouched for us on their Facebook, Twitter, at their jobs, in their classes, so on ... I've been keeping a close watch on the metrics for all of our online pages, and it's clear that all of that support is what made this possible.

So, now we're back to reporting and drawing full time (with the exception of printing, writing 88 personalized haikus and sending out rewards to our backers).  We'll be sending out final mailing info to all backers in the next couple days (Bonus: we've got a surprise for everyone in addition to what we promised on the Kickstarter rewards page).

Thanks again to everyone. This is only the beginning, so check back with us soon.

Darryl and Erik