About
Project:
How to Destroy Civilization will be a 180 page action/comedy graphic novel co-authored by William Brinkman and Marc Osherson, with art to be completed by Elizabeth Gera. The story is hilarious, trust us.
Not the trusting type? Read on!
The Story:
In the near future, a horrible virus unleashed by an evil scientist kills everybody on the planet... well, almost everybody. The few that survive are very inconvenienced by this.
Did we mention they were separated along gender lines?
Unaware of each other's existence, the men and women continue a certain fashion of civilization for several years, each unsupervised by the opposite sex. Through cloning, they even manage to slowly start the human race moving forward again (and by slowly, we do of course mean, "barely").
By the time the men and women discover each other, an entire generation on each side has grown up in the absence of the opposite sex. At this point, incredibly different definitions of "manners" and "food" immediately start a conflict between the two groups which rapidly spirals out of control...
Which is what you would expect when "bathing" and "shaving" have stopped being words on only one side.
Follow the adventures of our intrepid heroes on both sides of the conflict as they battle starvation, wild animals, and rampant alcoholism! Marvel at their blunders! Watch as they strive for friendship, food, and love in a very imperfect world.
We've included the character bios of the main players in our tale. Also, here is a nibble of the script, if you'd like to take a look, go HERE!
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The graphic novel will be published digitally at first, through Comixology and Amazon. Adding printing to the cost of the art would have pushed the funding goal to unreasonable heights (see FAQ section for details), so we've decided to take things one step at a time: one campaign now to fund the creation of the graphic novel, and another in a little over a year from now to fund physical publishing.
The Writers:
Marc Osherson is a graduate student in Baltimore, studying particle physics at Johns Hopkins University (which wasn't very helpful while writing the script). Marc has been Will's best friend for just over 9 years.
William Brinkman is finishing a degree in computer science at Rutgers University. Will has been Marc's best friend for just over 5 years. Before that it was just weird.
Since high-school, when they met, they've been writing together for entertainment (and occasionally for friends). This is their first public project and they're tremendously excited about it. How to Destroy Civilization was originally written in 2006 and has gone through many drafts since.
The Artist:
We discovered Liz Gera one night while watching the 'Jaws Unleashed' episode of 'Continue?!' (which is an awesome show, you should watch it). On it, she's plugged for some very lovely art she did. We contacted her right away, showed her the script, and she fell in love with it immediately.
We'd like to point out that while we may not (yet) be professional writers, this is not Liz's first rodeo. Definitely check out some of her previous work here! Some among you may also know her as 'Bloody Lizzy' from the podcast 'Terror Troop'.
She graduated in 2005 from Art Instruction Schools (in Minneapolis), and the results are obvious in the art (see below)!
The Art!
Since the story has already been finished, all we need is the art! Over the last few months we've been concept creating, drafting, more often than not re-drafting, and finally, we've arrived at a style that we feel is representative of the final product (though they are works-in-progress). Here are four panels to give you an idea of the style:
The graphic novel will also contain a few full color pages to accentuate key moments in the plot. For example, this propaganda poster:
We also have a lot of concept art! From simple sketches to full page layouts. We want to show you a small snippet of what we're working on right now, so here, take a look:
What We Need:
The story is finished, the concept art is done, all we need is our artist's time. This unfortunately isn't free, and she won't be able to work seriously on this project if she isn't being compensated for her time. She's already put in a few hundred hours pro bono.
All of the money raised will go to her to pay for her time and art expenses (paper, ink, redbull, etc).
If we go past our funding goal, she will be able to spend more time on the project, and the overall quality can improve.
The Rewards:
The Graphic Novel:
$15 gets you a gorgeous pdf of the graphic novel upon it's release. Your name will also appear on a special 'Thank You' page at the end of the graphic novel.
Stickers and a Postcard:
Every pledge of $20 or more will get you five extremely manly 'bear-eatin'-bacon-'n-guns' stickers to adorn your laptop with, or the walls of your hole under the train tracks, whatever the occasion may be. Alternatively, the elegant beehive logo will also be available for the more sophisticated among us who wish to decorate their foyers and dining halls (with stickers).
Every tier that includes the stickers will also include a full-color postcard signed by the team, featuring a greeting and a location from within the graphic novel.
Poster:
$30 or more will earn you an 11x17" full-color glossy poster of a panel from the graphic novel! Plus everything listed above.
T-shirts:
At $50, we'll be digitally printing these swanky T-shirts in 100% cotton. They're made in America by trained Kodiak bears (we can't verify the second part of that sentence). As you can see, they've been scientifically designed (that is to say, literally designed by two scientists) to make you look as awesome as is humanly, legally possible. They look like this:
Maybe you don't want to be wearing this at all times? Or at all? Maybe you're looking for something that makes you look like a human being worth speaking to. Then for you, we have:
Original Art:
$75 and above gets you an original, signed, finished page of art from the graphic novel (hot off the drawing board!), as well as all of its concepts and marginalia (which is a word Marc doesn't understand), and the script for that particular page. You'll get to see a snapshot of the development process as it actually happened, and get a sense of how we approached the creation of a single page in How to Destroy Civilization.
Character Tiers!:
All Tiers Within This Section are Non-Cumulative
Pledging at the $80 level will get your face in the comic, as well as everything listed above! You'll appear in an in-comic propaganda poster, plus you'll receive an 11x17" glossy print of the poster, itself! This does not replace the poster from the $30 tier; you'll be getting both!
$100 will get you a place on the stage as a minor character! We'll send you an email to personally let you know exactly who and where you'll be (you'll probably die).
$200 will get you an even bigger role, appearing in several panels throughout the graphic novel and interacting with the protagonists!
$250: Notice those faceless character cards? Those people are epic, awesome people. Imagine your face up there. Yeah. We know. That's what this tier gets you. You'll appear throughout the graphic novel, have tons of meaningful dialogue, and impact the story in a real, irreplaceable way. If you do die, you'll take a bunch of bad guys down with you.
Bunches of Art:
$300 gets you the $75 tier on steroids. You get 5 pages of original art, all their concepts and marginalia, and the script associated with the pages, all bound for you into a lovely paperback art book signed by the team. This tier includes all rewards up to and including the $80 'Appear in a Propaganda Poster' tier!
Be our Friend!:
For $500 dollars, you'll get the pdf of the graphic novel on release, the stickers, the postcard, the t-shirt, the poster, the bound art book, your face in the comic on a propaganda poster, a print of the propaganda poster, and a day with the authors! Will and Marc will spend the day with you, discuss future projects, care about how your day was, try to remember your name, etc. They'll also take you out to dinner and generally treat you like the God that you are! This can be fulfilled either in Baltimore, MD or in Princeton, NJ, depending on which is more convenient for you. Word to the wise, however: Princeton has the all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant. Just saying.
Risks and challenges
We understand that being asked to wait a year for a product is a drag. That's why all the physical merchandise (save the art and in-comic poster prints) will be sent over as soon as the funding goal is reached, plus time for us to assemble, safety-test, fire-proof and ship the various rewards.
The only major risk is delays. We've given ourselves a year to finish the project: a deadline we arrived at based on how long it took to create the four panels and other artwork we've shown you already. The year mark includes some cushion for unexpected delays, hangovers and messy breakups.
Since the script is entirely written out, the most likely scenario for a problem is that something should happen to Liz. She has promised not to go hang-gliding or backward-skeet-shooting (certainly not both) until the project is finished.
As for risks regarding merchandise, we are only using well-known and vetted printing companies, and have priced the rewards in such a way that even in the worst case scenario we can still cover all the costs and complete the project.
If a major geopolitical conflict were to break out, we ask that you understand that we can only work at half-speed from our bunker.
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Funding period
- (38 days)