Alert! Upgrade your book to the limited hardcover version for an extra $20 to your pledge! (And for book orders outside the United States, make sure to add $15 to your reward's pledge amount for international shipping costs!)
See the most recent update for details. But hurry, because the Kickstarter is ending soon...!
Goal Reached! Current level: 5
Wow! The initial goal of 10,000 Pokos reached in a single day?? You guys are outstanding! Thank you so much for the overwhelming support. At this rate, I'll have to add more sections to the book for each milestone, so let's make this thing as good as it can be!
Goal 1: $10,000 - Brawl in the Family: Volume One will be a reality! Wahey!
Goal 2: $20,000 - The book will be UPGRADED to include BitF's first 200 comics, as well as the 35 Waluigi in the Family comics! Also, many more books will be printed.
Goal 3: $25,000 - The book will have a full-color, multi-page (8-10) introduction storyline/poem about Kirby's monstrous appetite. All new, of course!
Goal 4: $30,000 - The book will be printed on higher-quality (most likely glossy) paper and will have new, character-filled art covering the front and back inside covers!
Goal 5: $40,000 - This goal has been reached! The numerous requests will be answered--Brawl in the Family: Volume One will be available in luxurious hardcover as well as paperback! For backers who have a book coming in already and would prefer the hardcover one, there will be an option to upgrade for a smallish boost to the pledge: $20. Check the updates for details.
Goal 6: $50,000 - For a final bonus, I'll take another couple dozen hours to craft and slam a bonus image into the book: a full-color, two-page spread of all 39 Smash Bros. Brawl characters facing off with each other, as well as characters prominently featured in the strip! Got a favorite that you've always wished had more comic time? He or she will definitely show up!
What's this project about?
Brawl in the Family is a video game parody webcomic that's been updating for over four years and 400 comics. It mostly centers on Nintendo characters such as Kirby, Mario, and Link! The humor ranges from universal to fairly specialized, but it's always lighthearted and fun, and mostly family-friendly (a light PG, I'd say). No blood or swear words here!
For a couple of years, I've wanted to print a nice, high-quality set of books for BitF, but until now, the money required for such an endeavor has been a bit out of my league, at least for the type of book I want to make. Basically, I want this to be the BitF "super-special version", with dozens of pages of extra content, behind-the-scenes stuff, extra commentary on many of the strips (including their reception from other fans), and more. I want to go all-out with goodies!
The goal right now is to get a full-color book containing the first 150 comics! These early strips contain the iconic, slightly lumpy doodle art, but the humor is as solid as ever, with fan-favorite strips such as HDF, Hitchin' a Ride, and Face-Off, as well as the Calvin and Hobbes-inspired Gooey Kablooie, and the caterpillar homage, The Very Hungry Kirby. Don't forget the classic first story arcs, How the King Stole Christmas and Gooey Bomb, each with all-new cover art!
With extra features included, I estimate the final book in this stage would be around 120 pages, including the bonus material listed above.
What's this about an "UPGRADE"?
I'd absolutely love to include the first 200 comics instead of 150! Due to the larger size of the comics at this point, and including the 35 extra Waluigi comics, this would make the book's page total equal something along the lines of a solid 160 pages! And since the costs grow higher and higher with more and more pages, that'd only be possible if we reach the secondary goal, so hopefully I can count on you guys!
Comics 151 - 200 include such classic moments as the Pokemon silliness of Security, the sheer madness of WitF and Waluigi Triloigi (together adding a full 35 comics to the book), my wife's favorite comic in Exercise, the continuity-conscious story arc Turnabout Kirby, and the enormous sight-gag-filled comics of A Metroid Adventure and Where's Waluigi!
Any other cool additional features of the book?
You bet! Depending on how much money we raise, I'd like to have several new sections full of content to really make this the ultimate BitF compendium:
- A "making of" featurette spanning several pages and containing details on the process of how a comic is made
- A revamped character section for several of the cast members of the strip, each getting a full page to themselves with extra doodles and info
- Scans of the very first BitF doodles I made in class (over a dozen strips)! Contains some early rejected comics that were just too weird to put in
- A section for the promotional art displayed on the site's gallery, such as the "One Million Hits" image
- A several-page, full-color, brand new comic story/poem in the early part of the book about Kirby's insatiable appetite!
- Extra care put into all the standard aspects of the book--Table of Contents, Index, Introduction, Special Thanks, etc--to make them as visually striking as possible. Here's an example:
Remember, book images at this point are all non-final.
And hey, who knows what else? I can guarantee that the more money we raise, the bigger and better the book will be! I'd love to include even more sections of the book, and quality upgrades to the paper and such if possible!
Okay, so how about those rewards?
First off, for those unfamiliar with Kickstarter, the money will only go through if the project goal is reached. In other words, by helping fund this project, you lose nothing--if the goal isn't reached, the money simply doesn't move at all, so there's not a risk involved of the money not going toward anything. Nice system they've got here, eh?
Now for those rewards! Besides the knowledge that you helped make one spiffy book, you can obtain several of the following awesome rewards, even for smaller pledges!
Every single person who makes a pledge will get a new thank-you-image from myself and the cast of BitF, as well as the lovely new Spring Wallpaper. A PDF of the entire book is available for all levels beyond the first few, and most reward levels also include high-quality (i.e. better than YouTube) MP3s of the very popular Brawl in the Family songs, such as the recently-released The History of Nintendo and the Christmas parodies like A Simple Request. We also have high-quality versions of said songs' videos to offer as well! And a new MP3 of a Mario-themed song sung by BitF janitor Eario!
Naturally, the book itself is a reward as well--donate 30 or more dollars and you get to take home one of the first copies of the book, hot off the presses! All book rewards also come with the PDF version as well. Go a little higher and I can individually sign your book and make a small sketch near the signature as well!
We're also offering two of our more popular merchandise items, the art-filled Brawl in the Family playing cards, and the adorably plush Dededoll for those of you that don't have them already. Act fast, though, as the merch rewards have a limited number.
It doesn't stop there though. There are also some slick, personalized rewards beyond that, such as a custom-made, for-you-only drawing of Kirby and Dedede, a custom drawing of ANY video game character of your choosing, a permanent spot in the Brawl in the Family book by having your favorite Smash Bros character smacking your least-favorite one, and a spot on the very colorful Special Thanks pages of the book:
Finally, the highest-end rewards involve major undertakings on my part: I'll write you your own song singing the praises of how awesome you are! I'll compose a medley of video game music from your favorite Nintendo series and play it on a keyboard (here's an example of a Mario medley I did)! I'll even "remake" a Nintendo scene of your choosing in comic form! For instance, if you want to see the final blow at the end of The Wind Waker, or "that part" with the baby Metroid in Super Metroid, I'm all up for drawing it!
So thank you guys for being such great fans over the years and for checking out this Kickstarter. Like with all of Brawl in the Family, I really want this book to be as good as possible, and I think we can definitely pull it off! It's only going to be running for 30 days total, so now's the time to jump on this bad boy!
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Funding period
- (30 days)