36 Hours Left on Nessie!
(I'd have posted this at 48, but this is a more convenient time for both the US and UK!)
There are only 36 hours left to back my crowdfunding project with the great cartoonist Rachael Smith, the graphic novel Who Killed Nessie?
I’d like to take a moment to try to sell it to you.
So there’s this annual convention for cryptids and other mysterious and legendary creatures. The human staff of the hotel go away for that weekend, but they have to leave someone, so they leave the intern, the unsuspecting Lindsay Grockle, who’s getting over a bad break-up with a boyfriend who told her she was too unaccepting of the wonders of the unknown.
She doesn’t know what the convention is, leaves them to it. But then she’s woken up by Bob, the Beast of Bodmin Moor, a talking cat who tells her the Loch Ness Monster has been murdered. The only being on-site the cryptids will trust to solve the mystery is neutral third party Lindsay. And she has to do it before check-out time on Monday.
So Lindsay finds her rationality is needed amongst a community whose very existence she’d denied. As Bob puts it: ‘you may not believe in us, but we believe in you’.
WKN? is a silly comedy with heart, a genuine whodunnit where the culprit will be revealed by the end of the book. A lot of the fun comes out of the rivalries between the various mysterious creatures.
I’ve taken my cue from Asterix, so I had to put in a whole-page spread with arrows that displays the location from above.
(Rachael loves that judgemental unicorn.)
If you look at our crowdfunding site, you’ll see more art, and some lovely backer rewards, including:
Original art pages.
Signed bookplates.
Signed bookplates with Rachael doodles on. (‘Remarqued Bookplates’ is what they’re officially callled.)
And even a Zoom meet-up with us where you get to watch Rachael draw the book!
Here’s that bookplate.
(I love that happy Sasquatch!)
The book is all-ages, in that we blank out swearwords, and the only act of violence is the off-panel murder of a giant lake monster. If you like Wallace & Gromit or the Muppets you might enjoy this.
We have a couple of big name author endorsements:
‘It’s like you dreamed up a comic just for me’ - JOE HILL (creator of Locke & Key).
‘I need to know who killed Nessie!!!’ - MARY ROBINETTE KOWAL (author of the Lady Astronaut novels).
If you’re in the US, you get domestic shipping. If you’re in the UK we’ve partnered with two comic shops, Codex Books in Cirencester and Destination Venus in Harrogate, to give you a very low postage rate of ‘a couple of bucks’. (And if you’re going to the Thought Bubble convention, Destination Venus will keep your book until you attend the con.)
If we’re funded, we aim to release the book by the end of the year.
If any of the above sounds good to you, please take a look at our Zoop site where you’ll find all the details and how to back us.
And whether or not you support us, please help by spreading the word!
Thank you!