Over Halfway to our Pin Stretch Goal!
about 4 years ago – Fri, Mar 13, 2020 at 04:33:45 PM

We're coming up fast on $24K, and are currently 132% funded! We're also over HALFWAY to our next big stretch goal: the Kenosh pin!

If we reach that $25K number, every backer who pledged to receive a Hardin pin will find their order MAGICALLY UPGRADED to sport both a Hardin AND a Kenosh pin on the same backing board, similar to the way Quinlan and Dakkan were paired up in our first campaign.

And Since You're Clearly a Fan of All-Ages Comics...

We've got a Kickstarter campaign to recommend to you! Russell Nohelty is currently running a campaign to print a deliciously eldritch collection of cartoon monstrosities: CTHULHU IS HARD TO SPELL: THE TERRIBLE TWOS! You can check the campaign out right here:  https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/russellnohelty/cthulhu-is-hard-to-spell-a-2nd-lovecraft-comic-anthology 

Cthulhu is Hard to Spell: The Terrible Twos contains thirty-eight all-ages appropriate stories from 73 creators about the gods and monsters of the Lovecraft universe. Featuring stories by Paul Jenkins (Spider-Man), Ray-Anthony Height (Wakanda Forever), Tony Donley (Myths and Legends), Christian Gossett (The Red Star), plus dozens of artists who have worked for My Little Pony, Invader Zim, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Image, Vertigo, DC, and many more of your indie favorites!

Second Stretch Goal Reached! MORE Tiers Added!
about 4 years ago – Thu, Mar 12, 2020 at 10:56:43 AM

We sailed past $22.5K raised yesterday, which means we have officially cleared Stretch Goal #2 and every backer who pledged to a physical tier is getting a free CHARACTER EMOTE STICKER SHEET!

We're really excited to be able to produce these for folks--we just got into the sticker biz this past San Diego Comic Con (the same design we're including in most of the physical tiers!) and we really do love how Rachel's artwork translates to the medium!

Speaking of things we're excited about, there are officially FOUR MORE of them to talk about in this Kickstarter update.

FIRST, let's go over the next stretch goal. If we can raise $25K, every backer who pledged to a tier that includes the Hardin pin will get automatically upgraded to include a SECOND, ALL-NEW pin featuring everyone's super-mad-otter-dad, Kenosh!

We REALLY want everyone to get this pin, so let's try and hit it!

SECOND and THIRD, we added two brand new tiers for folks to check out, specifically geared towards music lovers!

Nolan Markey, Hollywood composer extraordinaire (whose work can be heard in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels), wrote an incredible main theme for our Kickstarter pitch video, and to celebrate it, he's produced some cool limited merch for backers!

This is an oversized 11x17" printout of the first page of our Main Theme for orchestra, signed by Nolan Markey himself. We're offering 15 of these, included with a Limited Edition bundle at $140. These will look positively gorgeous framed up on your wall!

Nolan's other surprise tier reward is a full spiral-bound copy of the entire Main Theme score for orchestra! We're producing only three of these, and including them with a Limited Edition Bundle for $200.

Weighing in at 13 pages, this 8.5x11" score book contains the very same score that was handed out to Budapest Recording for their beautiful performance, seen here:

That's three things, so what's the FOURTH thing I'm excited about?

Well, yesterday we passed a special number: $22,845. That was the total amount we earned in our first Kickstarter, and we passed it in exactly 1/4 of the time! We started these campaigns to produce the books we wanted to produce, but we also wanted to use them as an opportunity to spread awareness of the world of Beyond the Western Deep. 

With so many new readers coming on board and checking out both Volume One and Two this campaign, it seems that's actually happening! And we couldn't be more excited to share it all with you.

Thank you all so much for your continued support, and let's keep working to hit those new stretch goals!

First Stretch Goal Unlocked! New Tiers Added!
about 4 years ago – Tue, Mar 10, 2020 at 09:33:30 PM

Thank you EVERYONE for your incredible support! With your help, we've cleared our first stretch goal, and are well on our way to stretch goal number two: a pack of FREE EMOTE STICKERS for every backer who pledged to a physical reward tier!

Speaking of reward tiers, we're pleased to announce a few additions to the listings!

More Volume One + Volume Two Standard Bundles!

First, with the postponement of Emerald City Comic Con, the Western Deep creative team has decided to take some of those Volume One hardcovers and make them available to Kickstarter backers in the form of our Volume One and Two Hardcover Bundle. It's been a surprisingly popular tier, so we've gone and added a total of 30 more sets for backers to pledge to (15 remaining as of this update).

"Battle-Damaged" Limited Edition Volume One Hardcovers Available in a New Special Bundle Set!

Now, if you missed our first campaign and wanted to get in on the Limited Edition Volume One, we've added a brand new tier you might be interested in. But first, a quick preamble: 

When we produced the original Limited Edition Volume One books, many copies were scuffed in transit, resulting in aesthetically unpleasant covers. The printer was kind enough to offer us free dust jackets to... well, "cover" the issue, but we still never felt comfortable selling them at full price.

BUT, because there's been such an interest in Volume One throughout this campaign, we've decided to part with these 15 remaining copies at a discounted price in our brand new LIMITED EDITION VOLUME ONE AND TWO COLLECTOR'S BUNDLE, which contains the Limited Edition of Volume One (with the dust jacket, of course), as well as everything in the Kickstarter-Limited Edition Volume Two set.

New Leah Briere Original Watercolor Painting Bundle!

Lastly, we've added a brand new ART TIER!

For the second campaign in a row, Leah Briere's original artwork was the very first tier to get backed. So, Leah's decided to make available a brand new original watercolor painting for one more lucky backer! This piece, featuring the canid soldier and aviary master Sigrid, measures 4.75x6.75" and comes set into an archival fabric mat appropriate for a standard 8x10 frame!

We're not even a week into this campaign and we're already stunned beyond belief. But you can bet we're going to keep trying to hit as many stretch goals as possible! We want to grow the world of the Western Deep as much as possible, and these campaigns are the best opportunity for us to do so. Please help us by spreading the word far and wide, to as many people as you can!

100% FUNDED! Also, New Stretch Goal Reward!
about 4 years ago – Sun, Mar 08, 2020 at 01:12:31 PM

WOW! Less than 72 hours after launching, we cruised right past our initial campaign goal of $18,000--which, I should add, is HIGHER than our first campaign's goal! It took us 17 days to hit our goal last time around!

I, Rachel, and the whole Western Deep team want to thank EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU who's helped to get us this far, and helped by spreading the word far and wide. We've reached our goal, and now we can focus on honing in on those STRETCH GOALS!

We've got quite a selection, of course! Check them out:

Now obviously the point of stretch goals is to come up with fun things that backers can strive for, but believe me when I say we consider these stretch goals to be no less important than the core of the initial campaign goal! The Kenosh pin, the emote stickers, the flag iron-ons, even the bonus prints are all things we want to make sure our backers receive, so we'll be working extra hard to spread the word even further in the coming weeks--and we hope you will too!

I'm proud to announce that we're actually going to be ADDING a print to that first stretch goal tier, featuring Leah Briere's adorable Volume 2 print of characters Bevan and Eira:

The pencil art for this piece was actually the very first pledge tier in our campaign to get backed, so clearly folks like seeing these two together!

This print will join Tracy Butler's own in addition to the MP3 download of our orchestral main theme if we can get the campaign goal over $20,000! I think we can do it!

Let's keep up this incredible momentum and see how many of these stretch goals we can clear! Thank you again for all your support, and we're excited to put all this wonderful stuff together for you!

97% Funded, $482 to Go! Also: New Vol 1+2 Sets Added!
about 4 years ago – Fri, Mar 06, 2020 at 04:54:40 PM

Your support has just completely blown us away! We're not even 72 hours into the campaign and we've hit numbers we didn't reach in our first campaign for WEEKS! Even Quin and Dakkan are surprised! Look at their faces!

If you've been following along but haven't pledged yet, now's the perfect time to help us leap across the finish line!

Also, due to their high demand, we've dug around our stock to pull out ten more copies of Volume One for the Vol 1+Vol 2 hardcover set. If you're new to the world of the Western Deep, this is a perfect starter set to catch you up on the story, and it also looks mighty nice on a bookshelf.

Don't forget that even if you don't get the Vol 1 hardcover, every single pledge tier includes the Volume 1 PDF, which has all the pages and extras you'd find in the hardcover. And hey! If we can clear our stretch goals, we'll even be able to do a BRAND NEW RUN of Volume 1 hardcovers that you can get at a discount via BackerKit post-campaign.

I and the entire Western Deep team want to thank everyone who's supported us these last few days! We literally could not do this without you!

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go back to staring at our Kickstarter page hitting REFRESH every ten seconds :)