About
UPDATE
At his request, Frank Cho (the more serious member of this team) wants to do more rewards, not fewer, and so we’ve added a few new things at different levels. Pay heed of this moment. When the artist on a project wants to do more work, it’s a rare occasion, worth marking. We’ve also taken out a couple of the silly bits that have no backers so far (and seriously, we never expected them to attract such).
Hello, my name is Bill Willingham. Some of you already know I write a comic book series called Fables, which has been published for about eleven years now and just shipped its 128th monthly issue. It’s won a few awards, and lost a few, which is the way of things. I’ve written other comics too, and a few novels.
Most of you also know of Frank Cho, an artist of astonishing talent, the creator, writer and artist of the syndicated comic strip Liberty Meadows, and illustrator of various Marvel comic books, along with far too many other comics and books, to mention here. We’ve posted a few select pieces of his previous work below, just so you know how much I’m not exaggerating when I praise his abilities.
But here’s the problem. For years Frank and I have wanted to do a project of some kind together, but were always stymied by the fact that I was often exclusive to DC Comics while Frank was exclusive to Marvel Comics. For those of you unsteeped in the lore of the funnybook business, that’s a lot like being family members of the Montagues and the Capulets, respectively.
The exclusives meant I couldn’t hop over to write a project for Marvel whenever I wanted, nor could Frank take a sabbatical to draw a DC project when he liked. Nevertheless, Frank and I were determined to get together, someday.
So look, someday is here.
I’m no longer exclusive to DC (or anyone) and even though Frank Cho is still exclusive to Marvel, that agreement covers comic book illustration only. It doesn’t prevent us from creating a lavishly illustrated novel, which is precisely what we’ve decided to do.
The Story
Our working (and probably final) title is BIFROST, which is the name of the fabled Rainbow Bridge of Norse legend.
This is a story about Mary Fimbul, illegitimate daughter of a Valkyrie and a certain hammer-wielding god of the north. Mary’s tough and strong, can see ghosts, and also happens to be the only survivor of Ragnarok, the final battle that ended the gods and their rule over mankind. As the sole surviving descendant of the royal line, Mary now controls Bifrost, the Rainbow Bridge, which still connects our world to Asgard and the other nine worlds, even though they’ve been unlivable wastelands for untold millennia.
Today Mary is a licensed private hero (still serving out her one-year probationary status), working out of Spokane, Washington.
Mary’s partner in the hero trade is Mr. Finn (short for Infinity Chimp), an immortal talking chimpanzee. He’s an amateur gourmet cook, a recovering biblioklept, and such a savant at pattern-recognition so as to make him quite possibly the greatest nonhuman detective who ever lived.
He’s the brains. She’s the muscle. Got it so far?
The fun starts when the two of them take on an easy assignment to find out who is killing sheep on one of the ranches owned by the Volusungs, the largest registered lycanthrope wolf pack in the greater Seattle metropolitan area. It’s a simple weekend job. It’ll put a little money in their pockets while allowing Mary to travel into the big city, on someone else’s dime, for her first annual Panthan Society Ball, now that she’s a newly minted member of the worldwide fraternity of heroes for hire.
But it turns out not to be just a simple weekend job. A handful of missing sheep is only the tip of the iceberg. In no time at all things spiral out of control, and our intrepid duo of paid heroes find themselves caught up in a desperate struggle for the safety and very existence of the known worlds. The question of who ends up with control of Bifrost is the key that will settle the matter, one way or another.
The Plan
Bifrost is going to be a novel-length work of prose fiction, written by me and lavishly illustrated by Frank Cho, in the tradition of Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess’ Stardust, or Berni Wrightson’s crowning version of Frankenstein.
We imagine twenty full-page illustrations at a minimum, but that number may rise, if and as we exceed our minimum funding goal.
At the moment Bifrost exists only in outline form. I still need to write it and Frank still needs to draw it. And while the writing part of the project can take place in the spaces between other publishing obligations, drawing that much material takes months of time, dedicated to a single project. That, and only that, is what this Kickstarter project was created to pay for.
The Goal
We need to raise thirty thousand dollars, so that Frank Cho will have an income while drawing this story.
Stretch Goals
If we raise $40 thousand dollars, the minimum number of full-page illustrations goes up to 25. At $50 thousand dollars, the minimum number of full-page illustrations goes up to 30. Other stretch goals will be posted if and as the situation calls for it.
The Illustrations
Since the art isn’t done yet, we want to show you examples of the style of illustrations Frank is going to produce for this story. Look at this:
This Frankenstein-esque fellow doesn’t appear in our book, but this is the style in which the illustrations will be done. Impressive, no?
And of course Spider-man isn’t in our story. We’ll get back to you though, if any angels plan on showing up. Spider-man is TM and © Marvel Comics.
This and the next one are from Frank’s Liberty Meadows days. If you’re beginning to suspect there will be at least one illustration of a woman in a nicely draped dress in our story, you’re right. It was the non-negotiable first condition of doing this tale together.
And finally, one of the actual Liberty Meadows strips. This is the one that caused Bill to swear an oath most holy that he’d work with Frank one day.
And now you can get a sense of the type of illustrations that will go into this project. We have one last one to show you. This is the first teaser image Frank produced for our story. It shows young Mary Fimbul, one of the two protagonists of the adventure. You might see this image showing up in one or two of the reward items listed above.
UPDATE
At his request, Frank Cho (the more serious member of this team) wants to do more rewards, not fewer, and so we’ve added a few new things at different levels. Pay heed of this moment. When the artist on a project wants to do more work, it’s a rare occasion, worth marking. We’ve also taken out a couple of the silly bits that have no backers so far (and seriously, we never expected them to attract such).
Risks and challenges
As with any publishing venture, there can always be delays. I expect the writing itself to take about six months. The illustrations will take longer, maybe as much as a year. After the writing and illustrations are complete, I will begin submitting the manuscript to publishers, and once it’s in their hands, final publication may take a year or longer. Basically this is a Kickstarter project for selecting out the inordinately patient from the rest.
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Funding period
- (30 days)