Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, entertainment, kickstarter

Legends Of Marithia – Rising From A Kickstarter Failure, With Attitude

Former Punisher artist, Frank Percy, veteran letterer HdE, and Battlestar Galactica's colourist, Davi Correia, join forces with fantasy author, Peter Koevari, to create a hard hitting, adult, fantasy comic. We need your help to fund it into reality, and there are excellent rewards along the way.

Peter Koevari writes,

What is the story about? With 4.5/5 stars on Amazon, Legends of Marithia's readers attest to a fantastic story that is a strong suit to comic and film formats.

Hollywood Book Trailers said it best, and here is an introduction to the storyline.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQ8szja9KcU[/youtube]

How did we get here? And why did I say Legends Of Marithia is rising from a Kickstarter failure?

Well, that was a pretty strong title for this article, right? Well, maybe so, but as someone who went into my first Kickstarter with my head held high, it certainly was a tough hit when I reached the finish line, and was nowhere near my 100% funded goal.

The first thing that happens is you question yourself. You think, hold on a minute… What did I do wrong?

Thee are many phases after failure, but in this case, Kickstarter was my second attempt at getting the comic book adaptation of my fantasy novels, Legends of Marithia series, to life. The first was on Patreon, but their model was not a great fit.

So, as well as focusing on rewriting my second novel into a new edition, and finishing the third, I did a lot of soul searching and asking a lot of people, a lot of hard questions.

I had a great team! They were not bad artists, and quite the contrary. Tyler Sowles is a great talent, upcoming, but solid. And I had a great colourist and letterer. But as many pointed out, I lacked name recognition, and many felt that I was missing an edge in the delivery.

I also was told that while there were good things about my video, that people really wanted to see me and feel my passion for the project, and my then Kickstarter was missing that.

Lastly, I was told that my rewards were far too complicated.

This had me thinking. What was I going to do? Do I just throw in the towel? Never! Although I already had some existing artwork for the project.

Do I just run the project again? No. If you keep trying the same thing and it is not working, then it is time to change something. The hard part was that all the artists were very passionate about the project, and that made me have to bite a few bullets internally.

About this time, I had met Frank Percy, and we struck up many conversations about comics, his time at Marvel, and my books entered the conversation, and all the great things he wanted to do with them.

So, I made a very hard call, and then picked the brains of many artists, authors, and successful Kickstarter owners, and tried to get some advice.

The end result is that I now have a mostly new team for Legends of Marithia, and a new style. I decided that although I liked the video I had, that I would change it to be just about having a chat with the backer and explaining what I and the project is about. Then I simplified the rewards system.

About this time, I had just finished writing the War of Prophecies trilogy, and published the third Legends of Marithia book along with the War of Prophecies ebook box set and paperback trilogy edition. It all kind of connected in timing.

It is not all easy, as making the huge art direction change and project change decision was tough, but key decisions are never easy.

The Chinese say it well: "Failure is the mother of success", and this is true. I have failed before, and hope to succeed this time, and I hope you can help make that happen.

Legends of Marithia is a perfect shoe fit for comic medium. It is dark, adult, fantasy that will be a feast for the eyes. I have an amazing story to tell, and this is evident, even in the few preview pages we have already created.

Our Kickstarter is live now, and ends 1st April 2015. There is even a special Bleeding Bool reward!

Come in and check it out, and we hope you can help us make Legends of Marithia Issue 1.

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