Everland #1 is a 31 page full-colour digital comic created and illustrated by Dan Lee. It contains 26 pages of story plus a back-up comic strip by John Atkinson.

 

Everland is an ongoing digital comic book series aimed at mature readers. It’s an idea I have had for many years but was unable to commit to fully due to the need to take on freelance work to support myself. I recently stopped accepting freelance work, deciding to live off my savings and give my full attention to Everland and I now need the help of Kickstarter to push the first issue over the finish line.

"Slow burn as the mystery builds. All points lead to something explosive, hopefully in the most crushing way possible."

Michel Fiffe (COPRA, All-New Ultimates) 

 

 Everland is a high-concept, character-driven comic book series, taking inspiration from long form comics and television shows such as Y: The Last Man, Scalped, Lost and Breaking Bad as well as stories and myths surrounding the world of Walt Disney and the animation industry. Everland uses its bright and colourful utopian backdrop to contrast the darker inner lives of the people who live there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Where did the idea come from?

Since about 2005 I’ve had an idea in some form or another about a community completely walled off from the rest of the world. The idea changed over time from one that dealt with a religious group living in a commune built around the remains of Noah’s ark during WWII, to another walled community a la The O.C. where every resident was once an experiment to cure cancer that now had to be quarantined. The setting and concept was always there, but never the characters or the heart.

Fast-forward to 2013 and I’m on a drive with my theme-park obsessed brother. He’s telling me all about the secrets of Disneyland; everything from abandoned attractions and parks (one of which that was on a small island!) to the underground corridors the parks were built on so employees could transition seamlessly to the various themed areas. The list of these quirky little details goes on and on, but the one that struck the biggest chord with me was when my brother said: “Hey! Did you know Walt Disney apparently wanted people to live in Disneyland?”

Boom.

I didn’t care if any of the above was true, it didn’t need to be. All I could think about is how messed up people would be if they lived in a Disney-like paradise and knew nothing of the outside world. What would those people be like? And what would that place seem like to a complete outsider? These thoughts consumed me and quickly became the basis for Everland.

 In the 1970s, the world-renowned animation pioneer Rupert N. Ever grew tired with the world he lived in. He dreamed of a utopia. A wealthy man, he bought a vast amount of land in the Middle-East and built Everland, a wonderful amalgamation of American culture, ranging from the 1910s right up to the 1960s, completely walled off from the rest of the world.

Decades later, the reclusive Ever smells rot in the financial foundations of Everland and it emanates from the head of his secret police. With no one to be trusted, Mr. Ever and his people are forced to bring in an outsider to go undercover; ex-PMC soldier, Hadrian Vark.

On the run from a darkened past himself, the deeper Vark delves into this fairytale world, the more he realises that utopia comes at a price.

 

 

 Digital Rewards

The bulk of the rewards will be delivered digitally, allowing backers to receive them as early as 1 week after the campaign. Everland #1 is the chief product of this Kickstarter, but we’re also offering a special edition of my previous short comic, The Sent exclusive to this Kickstarter. It comes packed with a brand new cover, raw scans of the original artwork, development sketches, the original script and, of course, the comic itself. Also available are creator commentary podcasts for both Everland and The Sent, where I will take the reader through each comic page by page and talk about what went into writing and drawing the comics, scenes that were cut, etc. The final digital reward is a download of the ‘Everland Theme’ – a piece of music written and produced by Windmill.

Physical Rewards

The physical rewards we have on offer are a gorgeous signed and numbered 12” x 16” gallery-quality giclée art print on 100% cotton rag archival paper, printed with archival inks as well as a signed 7” x 9” (approx) pencil and watercolour sketch by Dan. The sketch will be Everland themed unless otherwise requested by backers in the backer surveys submitted at the end of the campaign. Requests can be from other existing properties, but please keep them to single characters only. All the physical rewards are of a limited supply and shipping costs will be added to the pledge amount.

TIER 1 - DIGITAL COMIC 

A pdf copy of ‘Everland’ #1.

 

TIER 2 - DIGITAL DELUXE PACK 

 A pdf copy of ‘Everland’ #1, a pdf copy of ‘The Sent: Special Edition’, a creator’s commentary podcast to ‘Everland’, a creator’s commentary podcast to ‘The Sent’ and an mp3 copy of the ‘Everland Theme’ music.

 

TIER 3 - PRINT & DIGITAL DELUXE PACK 

Large Size ‘Everland’ print, ‘Everland’ #1 digital comic, ‘The Sent: Special Edition’ digital comic, commentary podcasts on both ‘Everland’ and ‘The Sent’ and a copy of the ‘Everland Theme’ by Windmill.

 

TIER 4 - SKETCH, PRINT & DIGITAL DELUXE PACK 

Water Colour Sketch, Large Size ‘Everland’ print, ‘Everland’ #1 digital comic, ‘The Sent: Special Edition’ digital comic, commentary podcasts on both ‘Everland’ and ‘The Sent’ and a copy of the ‘Everland Theme’ by Windmill

The book will be finalised by mid-July, making it available for delivery the day the campaign ends. Higher reward tiers of the print and the watercolour sketches will be produced and shipped within eight weeks of the campaign's end.

Why a ‘Digital Only’ comic?

When I had to start moving on a regular basis for freelance animation work, lugging my long boxes full of comics around became a real chore. Eventually, and at first reluctantly, I decided to sell off the bulk of my collection and buy a Kindle Fire, replacing all my comics digitally. I liked it a lot more than I thought I would and found myself reading more comics than I ever had and from a wider range of creators too. Picking up the hard to find or super indy books became much easier, and buying or backing a PDF copy of an independent creator's work online or on Kickstarter has become my favourite way to support them.

Also there is the issue of delivery. Being based in Japan and with the comic written in English, I can’t imagine I will get a lot of domestic backers. Pretty much all my backers will be international which means higher shipping costs for everyone as well as the potential of packages getting lost or just taking a really long time to be delivered. This is the reason for there being a limited the amount of physical rewards that are available.

Most importantly, I just want as many people to read the comic as possible. Getting printing quotes, prepping the book for print, going through printing approvals, waiting for the books to be delivered to me, packaging the books, shipping the books, etc. will take a lot of time away from me doing what I love most, which is writing and drawing the story. And almost everyone these days has a tablet device, computer or smartphone that will handle the digital comic just fine.

This is not to say that there will never ever be a print edition. I would like to collect the story arcs into nice hard back volumes one day, but for the moment I just want to tell the story.

Up until now, I have been supporting myself and funding Everland from personal savings – covering fees for software, fonts, some graphic design and editorial assistance, as well as office space. Living in a small and very hot building in Japan, I rent a shared office space for work. This has proven invaluable for my focus and productivity. The target fund will be put towards these costs, allowing me to retain the office space as I put the finishing touches on the first issue, with any extra funds being put straight into covering costs for producing Everland #2.

I have a background in animation, working on several children’s cartoons and in advertising. Some of the children’s shows I have worked on are the Mr. Bean animated series, The Numtums, Iconicles and Soli and Mo, airing across BBC and ITV networks.

I studied animation at university and have been working on scripts and comics since my teens.

Additional Creators

John Atkinson - John helped to design the mascot characters, and contributed the back-up comic strip ‘The Merry Mishaps of Fiddle D. Flea’. He is an animator and cartoonist currently based in Manchester. You can check out more of his brilliant work at www.johnned.com

Windmill (Matthew Dillon) - Matthew grew up in the English suburbs. For his 16th Birthday he asked for an Electronic Keyboard as an outlet for his imagination. Over the next few years, he set about teaching himself everything he could about experimental music and composition, creating countless recordings. It would be these recordings that would see Matthew leaving suburbia, and travelling the world, sharing billings with acts such as The National, St. Vincent, Smashing Pumpkins and Vampire Weekend. Matthew's albums have gained mass critical acclaim and his songs have featured across TV Shows, Commercials and Radio Playlists the world over. For more on Matthew visit www.matthewthomasdillon.com