Without Fear

Hi all,

I wanted to take a moment and discuss the AUDIO COMMENTARY pledge level because it’s the one I love the most – hit the campaign here to scope it out [LINK]

Y’see, I love process [those who know me already know this, and Paul Allor just eyerolled so hard his peepers are still spinning] but it’s true, I dig the world of and around writing as much as I love writing. I listen to writing podcasts all the time, I read interviews from creators I dig/trust, and I love getting my hands on back matter and extra material in comics, especially when it pertains to how the book was made – logistically as well as a peep inside the creative mind.

I grew up reading a lot of non-fiction about entertainment, books about slasher flicks, books about 70s cinema, Stan’s Soapbox [ha]. If you find the right stuff, and if you dig deep, you’ll learn and level up every single time. I read movie scripts, I love Stephen King’s Author’s Notes because they are all fascinating insights into great ideas and minds, and Ed Brubaker is my back matter northern light.

Then for me, I get specific with the process content I can find and will really inform me on a deep level. If Matt Fraction writes something on his tumblr, man, you best believe I’m all over that. This trend of writer’s writing Commentary on their works is great because it gets under the skin of the best – and it’s also why I choose to do it: it’s fun, hopefully someone learns something, and I usually get a new understanding on my own work/process, too [LINK]

Now, I’m not saying I’m a Fraction/Gillen in this world [Allor’s eyes just stopped rolling because he started nodding in agreement with me]. I will never be as good as them, and that’s fine, but I wish more people who were as good as them were as open with their process. I wish people shared scripts and notes and deconstructions and ways to do things. And I figure if I do it, then maybe someone else will get the idea to also do it. And then we have a culture of analytical sharing.

It’s why both of my Kickstarter campaigns so far have had thick script pdfs offered, and why Stretch Goals often unlock pitch material or other analytical works. I put out what I wish to see more of in the world.

And this is why I’m so excited about the Audio Commentary. It’s all this stuff I’d write but then also not afraid to go into crazy tangents, because it’s spoken and I can rattle this stuff off with only a thought. To type it all would be insanity. But to ramble into the mic, well, that’s just going to be fun. And hopefully informative.

I know if Fraction dropped an Audio Commentary for $20 I would be all over that business. But, again [yes, Paul, yes, I know] I’m not Fraction. And I’m aware of this. Which is why, for that $20, you will actually be buying:

• DEER EDITOR #1
• DEER EDITOR: FEARLESS [with full back matter activated]
• RKL Script PDF #2
• Down Under PDF – a short from Owen Gieni and I
• CHUM Preview Ashcan – the up-coming surf noir series from Sami and I from ComixTribe
• Blind Dates and Broken Hearts ebook – about Daredevil’s lovelife
• The Secret History of Paul Keating PDF – a comic short from Matt Lesniewski and I
• Noirvember ebook – 30 essays about noir
• HEADSPACE pitch doc – for the process junkies to see how Eric Zawadzki and I got that book off the ground
• STUCK IN THE GUTTERS #1 magazine pdf – made by Leo Johnson, feat. many comics and essays, incl. one from Dan Hill and I about FURY MAX: MY WAR GONE BY
• Audio Commentary files [hour/s of fun]

That’s 11 different things to download which works out to less than $2 per thing, not to mention that’s using the Monopoly money currency of Australia which converts into ~$15US. I gotta say, that’s some pretty wild value.

Not to mention, do us a solid and get us to this $3k zone and if you’ve backed $3+ then you get to submit a 6 word antler noir story and it’ll end up in the back matter [discretion allowed if you decide to be offensive of Allor-inflammatory].

OR, bump us to the $3500 stretch goal and I’ll also unlock a PDF download of the #1 issue of a new series from Sami Kivelä and I [and many friends] called CURRICULUM and it’s an absolute ripper.

I know the Audio Commentary sounds high end, and it is, but it’s going to be some serious back matter truth bomb strafing for your ears, and it comes with this absolute slate of other downloads from more comics to ebooks, magazines, pitches, and the chance to worm your own bad self into the comic.

I hope you see the value and the fun of it and consider this pledge level because at the end of the day, the lion’s share of this campaign’s funds will go to Sami and he deserves every single damn penny for the amazing job he’s done on this book.

OH, and there is now going to be an Antler Noir prose piece in that thick PDF for FEARLESS and it opens like this:

A Refined Palette for Murder

Written by Ryan K Lindsay, Illustrations by Sami Kivelä

Someone once asked me if I could smell human emotions. Like I’m some sort of freak. Or god.

I politely told them I couldn’t smell them, deer can only smell certain poisons and delicious meals, but I told him I could read them. I’d know if you were nervous from fifty yards. You couldn’t hide your seething frustration from me if I was driving 180 miles an hour past you.

I’m a journalist, I get to the truth every time, but I don’t use Super Olfactory Mojo to get there. I just sit down and watch and think.

It shocks me how many people don’t think anymore.

Take this party I went to last weekend, for instance.

I’m looking forward to bringing this campaign to a close, I can’t thank you enough for believing in our insanity, and we all here at The Truth HQ wish you an ace end to your day and week.

Believe in antler noir – [LINK]