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Friggstarter: Blunt Fantasy Heroine Punches Her Way Into Print, Animation

Published Sat, 29 Jun 2013 16:30:08 -0500

T Campbell writes;

It's hard out there for a working-class fantasy hero.

From a distance, the job looks like so much fun. You get to kill dragons, beat up other warriors, and look good doing it. But like many dream occupations, it gets trickier when you try to do it for a living. That's a major theme of the comics series Guilded Age, and it's a problem that T Campbell and Phil Kahn understand. After all, they're comics scriptwriters looking to Kickstart their next book.

"We started this volume trying to bear in mind the commercial concerns we often tend to ignore, and those concerns ended up becoming a big part of the story," says Campbell. Kahn adds, "Not just in the real world, but also in virtual worlds where you can buy gold or items, we saw the widening gap between rich and poor. The idea of a similar gap between an aristocracy and the sword-swingers they employ really spoke to us."

In a sense, it also spoke for them. The fundraising video's keynote speaker is not any of its creators, but the foul-mouthed Frigg, the comic's "furious female fighter who'll f@#$ you up if you look at her funny, fool." She clobbers Kahn and Campbell offstage within seconds. She may have some problems with authority.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVc2KJuzbdA[/youtube]

A proof-of-concept video available below the fundraising video better reflects Guilded Age's fantasy setting and epic sweep, but the "Friggstarter" video features more of its sense of humor and enthusiasm, and the voice acting of Kimlinh Tran. Both are energetically animated by Phi "The Great Phitus" Tran Kahn, who's helped fund over 100 projects himself, isn't surprised the video is the fundraiser's biggest hook. He recently posted a recording of Kimlinh Tran at work which should only heighten pledgers' appreciation of its craft.

Campbell admits that the working-class focus risks attracting an audience without much money to spend. To compensate, at Kahn's urging, the team refuses to skimp on production values: each book of Guilded Age is a full-color, oversized album. Volume 2 itself features the transition from the third co-creator, Erica Henderson to new artist John Waltrip. "Fortune favors the bold," Campbell says. "We think a whole lot of people who see this video are going to be happy to give Phi and Kimlinh a chance to reprise their roles."

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/philkahn/guilded-age-vol-2-and-animated-shorts

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/philkahn/guilded-age-vol-2-and-animated-shorts/posts

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