[UPDATE] TO ALL CURRENT AND POTENTIAL BACKERS PLEASE READ: We had a terrible mishap with our shipping estimates and must request that domestic backers add $5 to their pledge amount to account for shipping. A number of backers requested that they receive a discount off of shipping rather than receiving the "free" t-shirt, so we have arranged for an alternative. If you would like to receive the "free" t-shirt (I apologize about this because I guess at this point it is no longer free) please add $5 to your order for a total of $40. If you would like to opt out of receiving the t-shirt, please add $2 to your order for a total of $37. This was a horrible rookie mistake on our part and we beg for your understanding and forgiveness.
Backers Located Outside of the US - please see the chart contained in the link below for information regarding the cost of shipping abroad.
Our first mistake was putting a $35 MSRP on this book rather than a higher amount ($50 or $60). We do not have the ability to change this as per our contract with Tezuka Productions.
Once we realized that we could not afford to pay for all domestic shipping, we had to make a choice. Our options as we saw it were to either (1) make a lesser quality book, (2) restart the Kickstarter campaign to account for shipping expenses, or (3) ask that backers add money for shipping. For this first book, we did NOT want to compromise the quality, as our vision was to literally publish one of the highest quality manga ever released in English. Also, we have put way too many hours into this Kickstarter campaign and received too much support from the online community of Osamu Tezuka fans to start it all over again.
Please read updates #2, #3 and #4 for more details. Feel free to send us a message or email me personally at andrew@thekansaiclub.com with ANY questions or concerns. I will respond as soon as possible. Thanks for your amazing support!
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We would like to bring the joy of owning one of Osamu Tezuka’s most charming and powerful collections of short stories to American Tezuka aficionados. Of the numerous short story collections created by the late and great “Godfather of Japanese Comics,” “The Crater” stands out as the perfect blend of mystery, suspense, horror, fantasy and comedy. This is the first time that one of Tezuka-sensei’s short story collections will be published in English.
“The Crater” first appeared in Japan’s “Weekly Shonen Champion” and ran from August 10, 1969 to April 1, 1970. It has since been reprinted in Japanese on numerous occasions, but this is the first time that “The Crater” will be published in English. Kansai Club will be publishing a SINGLE EDITION of this amazing book which will include all 17 short stories from the original publication. We are ONLY printing 2,000 copies of this book and each book will be individually numbered out of 2,000. Any books not sold on Kickstarter will be sold at our booth at the upcoming Florida Supercon in Miami, Florida from July 4-7th. If there are any books still available after the convention, we will be shipping the remainder to select comic book and specialty book stores throughout the country (where they will likely charge more than $35 a book). The books will be printed in a large high quality Hardcover format (7 x 10 inches) and will come with 3 different 7 in x 10 in art prints inspired by content from “The Crater" (see pictures below).
I am incredibly PROUD to announce that the books will also include a foreword by the award winning historian and author, Frederik Schodt, as well as an introduction by renowned historian and manga academic, Dr. Ada Palmer.To learn more about Frederik Schodt and his newest book, "Professor Risley and the Imperial Japanese Troupe: How an American Acrobat Introduced Circus to Japan - and Japan to the West," check out his website at http://www.jai2.com/. To learn more about the fascinating world of Dr. Ada Palmer, please visit http://www.adapalmer.com/ and http://tezukainenglish.com/.
Ada is also currently running a Kickstarter campaign of her own, promoting her musical group Sassafrass' newest album/play, "Sundown: Whispers of Ragnorak - Norse Myth Song Cycle." Sassafrass is an a cappella group, specializing in sci-fi, fantasy and mythology-themed songs, and complex polyphony. Sounds interesting right? Everyone should check out their Kickstarter campaign at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/648994832/sundown-whispers-of-ragnarok-norse-myth-song-cycle?ref=live.
Any person who pledges any amount of money for this Kickstarter campaign will automatically gain membership to our "Kansai Club." You will receive access to an invite only message board on our website where we will be holding regular contests with prizes and you can communicate directly with Andrew and Yuka. Members of the "Kansai Club" will also receive our quarterly newsletter and be privy to promotional offers, discounts and be the first to hear about our future projects.
We will also be randomly including a T-shirt inspired by content from The Crater for every 50 books sold through Kickstarter. If we reach our extended goal of selling 1,000 books through this campaign, then EVERY person who pledged $35 or more will receive a FREE t-shirt with their order. If your pledge amount already included a t-shirt then we will send you 2! If we reach our super-duper-God-bless-the-internet goal of selling 1,500 copies of our book through Kickstarter, then we promise that the Kickstarter campaign for our next book will include 2 different books!
This project of ours is all or nothing. It took us over 6 months to convince Tezuka Productions to allow us to print The Crater. As an upstart publishing company with no street cred, we were required to pay the royalties for each of the 2,000 copies of the book in advance. It took us another few months to come up with this money. Almost $25,000 and well over 1,000 hours of sweat equity later, the project is just about reaching the end. This book will be published regardless of Kickstarter; too much time and money have already been invested into this project. At the same time, as a brand new publishing company, we NEED Kickstarter and the support of Osamu Tezuka fans in order to make our first project successful. If we are forced to sell this book through Amazon we may actually lose money on each book sold.
Everyone needs to start somewhere and this is where it begins for us. EVERY penny made through the sales of this book and ALL related goods will go right back into our next project. If this Kickstarter campaign fails, then we will likely become defunct, never to see our dreams realized. However, if we succeed, then our future holds no boundaries. We have faith in you, so please have faith in us.
If you have any questions or concerns, you can post them on this Kickstarter page and our website, or feel free to email me personally at andrew@thekansaiclub.com.
Information to Take Into Consideration:
- This book is not intended for young children. There are a few short stories that are appropriate for children under the age of 13, but the majority of them are not. Some of the stories include brief nudity, graphic scenes of violence, and content that children may have trouble understanding. However, all of this is done very tastefully. The short stories in The Crater bring to mind episodes of the original Twilight Zone series. Most are thought provoking, some contain political/social messages, and others are downright creepy. All of the stories contain Osamu Tezuka’s signature sense of humor.
- This book reads from right to left. Why did we do this? Because we prefer to read manga this way (and we also realize that many people would be angry with us if we printed left to right).
- EVERYTHING offered in the reward categories are EXCLUSIVE to this Kickstarter campaign. Once the campaign ends, these items will no longer be available for sale anywhere.
Art Print #1
Art Print #2
Art Print #3
T-Shirt
Sticker
Risks and challenges
We don't foresee the possibility of many setbacks to this project. The worst case scenario is that this book will not be published until August (rather than July), and the only reason for this would be if Tezuka Productions takes too long to approve our copy of the book for publication. Similarly, we are still waiting on approval from Tezuka Productions for the content on the t-shirts.
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Funding period
- (35 days)