Dream of a Thousand Cats: Tabby

Graphic Novel: A little romance, a little adventure, a lot of cats

Tabby

Kickstarter ending 2/8/15

One awesome thing about The “Tabby” Kickstarter: this is an artist that really knows how to work the system! With articles up on at least a dozen websites–probably more than, I just stopped searching after one or two screens of google hits, but “Sidney local news” is a particularly good one, and posts on comic review sites, crowdfunding sites…some amazing saturation bombing! Remember, launching a project on Kickstarter is its own full-time job, if you’re doing it right.

It helps that the author, Stephen Kok, is pretty interesting on his own. His blog, “Creating a Graphic Novel” goes back eight years, and is chock full of interviews, guest art, artist profiles…wow. Worth a read just for the passion in the subject.

Anyway, about Tabby! It’s a simple plot, and pretty human when you get down to it–a carefree bachelor, the rakish striped cat with a half-mask, happily lives one fish to the next, until his son, Tabby Jr, falls for the kitten next door. Interestingly, it’s a largely no-talking graphic novel, with the story told through expressions and action. It’s a 60+ page graphic novel so far, though the stretch goals may expand that somewhat–the $1500 stretch unlocked an extra three-page prologue, and there’s three more stretch goals ranging up to $5000 that could expand the content further (although project stretch is always a risk, Kok doesn’t seem very interested in expanding the core project, so he’s clearly got his head around the danger of the Cult of the Stretch Goal.)

A little scope stretch seems to be the only risk here. The art is already wrapped, with only lettering left to go, and Kok has been writing an “art and creation of the graphic novel” blog for most of a decade, so he knows the process.

This is a pretty solid Kickstarter, and one that I’m going to use for a model in the future. Pledge points: digital, print, print with poster, multipack, early bird specials, and a few different “Cadillac” options for the fans with sketches, and a fun “meet the artist” opportunity if you happen to live in Sidney. It’d be a great resource for anyone working on a graphic novel to look at and steal heavily from.

Check it out! Lots of process information on the Sigmate Studio blog, and you can meet the graphic artist, P.R. Dedelis, over on Deviant Art.

Follow @Furstarter on Twitter for dailyish updates from the world of furfunding! Note: Images used above are included to promote the work of crowdfunding artists, and are owned by the original creator.