The Kickstarter Diaries (part 3) | More Phantom
Battling on through the Gourmand Go campaign, plus, more of the Phantom.
Today, more of my Kickstarter Diaries as the Gourmand Go campaign proceeds, plus another issue of the Phantom.
The Kickstarter Diaries
Day 14: 07/11/2023
Woke up this morning to discover that we hit 115% funding overnight. Ah, the highs and lows. Is this getting banal yet?
We had absolutely perfect weather today—our last day here on the Gold Coast—so we hit the beach again, this time with a bodyboard provided by the hotel. Today, all the surf was behind a sandbar, and we had to cross a deep area to access it from the beach. My kid was pretty nervous, but once we hit the waves, he had a lot of fun—although he refused to listen to any of of my advice or safety precautions. I guess the surfing coaches are much wiser (well, certainly much younger and blonder) than his old man.
It only took one wipe-out to change his mood. That was the end of the beach. We spent most of the rest of the day at the hotel pool, where he befriended some other small hoodlums and learned to play Marco Polo.
The Reserve Bank of Australia pushed up interest rates today, which is going to put more financial pressure on everyone. How very uncouth of them not to consider what this might do to my Kickstarter. Right before Xmas, but who even cares about that?
We’re leaving on a red-eye flight tomorrow, so early to bed tonight. It’d be lovely to wake up to some new backers, but I’m not sure I’ll be getting a whole lot of sleep with a 3:30 alarm.
Day 15: 08/11/2023
My phone woke me up before the alarm to inform me that I’d lost signal. Optus—Australia’s second largest telco—had a massive outage that lasted well into the afternoon. I have not been an Optus customer for years, but my new provider resells bandwidth on Optus’ network. Luckily I was able to access our boarding details on the hotel wifi.
We made it to the airport in pretty good time and I was able to print out hardcopy boarding passes at the check-in kiosk there. The line for coffee was not a joke, but everything else went pretty smoothly and we were home by noon.
It was hot and sunny in Melbourne—exactly the weather we wanted on our holiday. Useful for hanging laundry, I guess.
An editor got back to me regarding a short story I was nervous about and looks like it works, so that was very nice. I sold a piece over the weekend, too, so I’m feeling quite good about that. Just a few years ago I was unhappy with my short story output but now I’ve got enough pieces for a collection. Perhaps next year I’ll look into that.
Darren and I posted X/Twitter, Facebook, Bluesky and Instagram today. We made another 3% on Gourmand Go, which was nice, but not anything to write home about. Luckily I am already back home. Back to work tomorrow, and the big push to get this Kickstarter where it needs to go.
Day 16: 09/11/2023
Busy at work, as expected. I spent a half day answering email and sitting in meetings. One new Gourmand Go backer came overnight, but that was it for the day. I posted on every social media platform in the evening but I didn’t get any traction.
I try to share new information every time, but it’s increasingly uncomfortable to spam social media like this. It’s what I dreaded about doing this in the first place. Perhaps I should try to leverage Substack more.
Reluctantly hit the gym in the evening, and that took the edge off. Let’s see what happens tomorrow.
Day 17: 10/112023
Suddenly it’s summer. Sweltering hot. By tomorrow night it will be winter again. Bloody hell, Melbourne.
Work is frantic. My holiday has already worn off.
Couple of new backers today. We’re sitting on 120%, about $200 shy of the stretch goal. Getting much better engagement on socials today. I hope that will yield some gains in the closing days.
Gourmand Go Artist Spotlight
I’ve known Aly Faye since her debut comic, LARD, in 2012. Aly immediately impressed me with a rare ability to convey dry humour.
I had already worked with Aly a couple of times when I put together the Gourmand Go team and she was one of the first artists I thought of bringing on board. Aly always delivers great looking work, on time. She has a satirist’s eye for body language and is a deft hand at comedy storytelling, whether it’s pratfalls-and-cream-pies or a passive-aggressive argument, which made her perfect for this story.
Aly’s chapter, “Master of Reality”, is about a TV cooking contest with Chef in the starring role. If you dislike reality TV as much as I do you will enjoy this one.
More Phantom
Part 2 of my Phantom story, “The Pinstripe Wizards”, is out now, in Frew’s Phantom #1957. I’m really keen to see how this is received by the phans, now that the story is complete. This episode is a lot less talk and a lot more punching—as you can see, we open with a silent page. I’ve really tried to amp up the cinematic storytelling here, as well as to deliver some classic superhero fisticuffs. Kay has produced some really innovative fight scene choreography and I’m really proud of this one.
Letters for Creatives
Finally,
was kind enough to interview me on her own Substack. We spoke about how my day job in data reflects on my creative work, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, horror, and comics. Celeste asked some really insightful questions and I very much enjoyed answering them. You can read the interview here:
Supanova
Darren is at Supanova in Brisbane this week, selling and signing his comics. If you’re in the area, look for him under the Killeroo banner. He has some sweet Gourmand Go postcards to give away as well. Go say hi!
That’s it for today. If you noticed this post is early—you’re right! I’m going to try writer shorter posts, more frequently, and see how that goes. I’ll talk to you again next week, just before the Gourmand Go campaign ends.
Live wrong and prosper,
— Jason