Kickstarter

What a team! To create the second book of the Silver Cord story, we’ve assembled a fantastic creative team. The script is in its final round of editing, and the artwork has begun.

To craft the concluding part of our story we enlisted Casey McCabe who was recommended by a friend at Pixar. Casey had sold a number of screenplays to Hollywood, although none have reached the screen yet. We could offer him a 100% chance of realization in a graphic novel, which is a great attraction for a creative. Casey, Steve and Kevin worked together to produce a script that combines action, emotion, big crazy ideas, and unexpected turns. We think you’ll love it.

The chief artist for the book is Michael Malbrough. Mike is a veteran graphic artist. His style is a perfect match with the first book, and he delivers a strong clear look. He’s been busy developing new characters and stunning scenes for this new book.

The finished drawn pages will go to Argentina, where colorist Gaston Zubeldia will flesh the lines out in painterly color, again to match the first book. Gaston has worked on a dozen previous graphic novels, and we are delighted he’s working on this one.

Here is a sample page, drawn by Mike and colored by Gaston, to give you an idea of what is to come. (Larger image here.) We are excited to be on schedule to delivering you a really great experience.

Kevin Kelly and Steve Masseroni will be hanging out at the Alternative Press Expo (APE) in San Francisco this weekend, Saturday and Sunday Oct 13-14. This is a expo of independent authors, artists and publishers. It is more like what Comic-Con used to be -- lots of small-time and personal work presented by the actual authors and artists sitting at tables. Edgy stuff. A bit underground and not mainstream. You'll like it.

We'll have a half a table with printed copies of Book One for sale. We'll also be doing readings from the book if anyone asks. And signings. And talking about the Silver Cord story. Maybe we'll sing!

A bunch of other artists and authors will be there including:

"Sergio Aragonés (MAD magazine, Groo the Wanderer) in his first-ever APE appearance; Eric Drooker (Flood, Blood Song); all three Hernandez Brothers in celebration of the 30th anniversary of Love & Rockets, Gilbert, Jaime, and Mario; Ben Katchor (Julius Knipl, The Cardboard Valise), Miriam Libicki (jobnik!); and Jim Woodring (Jim, Weathercraft). All of these superstar comics creators will be featured in programs and will be signing all weekend long."

This subculture extravaganza will be held in the Concourse Exhibition Center. Details here:

http://www.comic-con.org/ape/

The Silver Cord will be live at the San Francisco Alternative Press Expo (APE). This Expo is kind of what Comic-Con once was long ago -- a large hall full of indie art and authors and small-time publishers. Co-creators Kevin Kelly and Steve Masseroni will be manning a small table at the Expo in a few weeks, the weekend of October 13th and 14th to be exact. Come to the table to chat with us; we'd love to see you. We'll have a bunch of gloriously printed copies of Book One for inspection and for sale. Every hour on the hour we'll lead a dramatic reading from a different part of the graphic novel. Maybe you'd like to play a part! We'll be at table 132A, located in the East Hall of the Concourse Exhibition Center. See the APE website for more details. This is a really fun event, and we hope those fans in the SF Bay Area will join us.

Interested fans are also invited to join Steve and Kevin for a bite in the neighborhood after the show. We'll be riffing on book two and the broader Silver Cord universe starting at 7:30pm at Saffron 685. Sign-ups will be taken at our table during the expo on Saturday, and we can probably accommodate as many as 6 or 8 interested fans.

Hello, Kickstarter Backers! My name is Luke, and I am part of the creative team behind Silver Cord. I wanted to thank all of you for supporting our project. The response to Book 1 has been overwhelming, and that is in very large part because of all of you. I can't wait for you all to see Book 2!

I wanted to tell you about another graphic novel project that you might be interested in. It's called Paranormals, and as I write this, it's in the middle of it's own Kickstarter campaign. Paranormals is the brain child of my friend Diallo Jackson. I've known Diallo since I was 12. He is a talented writer, and has always been one of the kindest, most creative individuals I've known. He and his partner have previously independently published two issues of Paranormals via a print-on-demand service and the iBook Store, but with #3 his ambitions are a bit more grand. You can see his pitch here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/17393957/the-paranormals-3

His book has similar elements to ours in terms of angelic beings and such, but it's also a great noir-style thriller. I enjoyed the first two Paranormals books (available in the iBook Store) very much, and I am anxious to see what comes next. As a friend, but also as a fan, I want Paranormals to succeed. I think if you like Silver Cord, you'll also like Paranormals, so please take a look at Diallo's page. If you like what you see, please consider backing it and telling your friends about it as well.

Silver Cord fans are the best fans on the world. Thanks for everything.

The Silver Cord team is starting production on book two. We have some unpublished artwork we wanted to share. The first is from a "pilot" we did of the story many years ago and have been revisiting, and the other two are new pieces from our artists exploring possible moments from the next book.

On earth, robot ensoulment is about to dawn. Art by Steve Masseroni.

Meanwhile, Tasi, in astral sleep, hovers in between both realms. Art by Joe Harris.

She alone must battle the wrath of dreg behemoths to prevent the worst of angelic souls from inhabiting robotic bodies. Art by Rafael Rivera.

We're also working on revamping the Silver Cord website in the next couple weeks. The conversation in the comments has been really lively, so we've decided to add a set of forums where fans can extend these conversations. If you've been inspired to create any fan art or fanfic, we hope you'll share it in the forums.

Finally, we wanted to remind backers who will be receiving a copy of book one that we won't be shipping copies of book one until July 2014. The reason is that we're considering the possibility of printing book 1 and 2 as a single bound super edition, but that will depend on the printing options and prices available in early 2014. The goal is to deliver the most beautiful printed copy we can afford, and our expectation is that print quality will go up in the next year and half. In the mean time, we hope you'll enjoy at least one of the several digital editions of book one. You'll find all editions currently available listed here.