Howdy {name},

How are you holding up? 

It’s been a wild Autumn and I’m honestly glad I stopped adding to my 2024 list of goals sometime in the Summer. That hasn’t kept things off my to-do list though, projects I’ve been quietly working on - kind of in the background, continue to surface. So let me share a little of that with you today in hopes of amusing and inspiring –

• Active Project Update!

• Summoning Dragons!

• IMPERFEcomics 

• Cool Stuff Dept: Kids Comics Unite

BOX OF TAPES: A Rock Opera is still on Kickstarter for one final week. This YA Graphic Novel represents my most ambitious project yet;16 original songs tell this story of loss, rebellion, family and revelation across the 60 comic pages illustrated by Argentinian artist Luis Santamarina & myself. Created from the ground up to be an immersive experience, the double-album is available on all music formats - from cassette tapes to digital, but we think its best presentation will be on two vinyl records.

Beyond the hope for the project’s success (that depends on readers like you), there've been opportunities and rewards to be found over the course of the campaign itself. For BOX OF TAPES, these include –

• A Radio Interview on WJFF 90.5 FM 
• The History Making Debut of a Rock Opera Live in a Comic Shop!
• Featured on COMICSWATCH
• Featured on The Creative Cranium
• Coming Soon - A feature on the official Kickstarter Newsletter

Also of Interest: our growing list of backers is encouraging, these are the folks who appreciate an ambitious project that is also a unique artistic expression. I smile while recognizing key names and am excited to see so many new ones. But that also means just 7 days remain for you to cast your own vote of confidence for these kinds of projects which I seek to draw a career from.

One dollar of support will be multiplied over this final week because of the algorithm - especially in light of Kickstarter’s choice to feature us on their forthcoming newsletter. Naturally, I’d prefer the chance to send you something physical. Actually, let me make that offer. A quick look at the campaign page will reveal a big ticket item (original art for the serious collector). There's also a very cool get a song written for you option. But what if I sent you a dragon?

You’ve seen the kinds that spontaneously leap from my pen or brush. If you’re on this list and you back the BOX OF TAPES campaign for a physical reward, I’ll make sure one of my one-of-a-kind dragons is included. If you’ve backed it already and you’d Iike a dragon - just let me know. Add a sticker or something to modify your pledge - or just send me a reply saying so.

That’s how driven I am to see this project succeed, I’m summoning dragons!

I have more GO DOGGO comics for you and a new one will be back in my next missive. But today, I want to share these comics which have come into being over the course of my work developing a middle-grade comic anthology for the community at Kids Comics Unite.

Over the past 10 months I’ve been meeting regularly with our collective of approximately 40 comic creators planning a comic anthology which we’ll seek to publish in 2025. Not only have we been developing the comic but we’re striving to invent a whole new model for collectively creating one. The key concept being collective, as opposed to a top down editorial mandate common with most publishing.

We’ve come up with a theme, a promotional campaign, an official mascot and more! We’ve also launched a newsletter with a focus on sharing what we’ve learned along the way. As you know, I’ve curated this newsletter for about four years now. I've also launched an additional handful since. I’ve done this for the official A Tiger’s Tale newsletter Tiger Talk, and for clients as well. This lets me keep testing and refining my launch and campaigning methods – making sure they still work.

Consequently, KCU asked that I lead the development of our Anthology Newsletter. Working with a stellar team of fellow creators, we built our platform. I also ended up authoring its premiere missive – How to Launch a Newsletter. That How-To was also featured on the official KidsComicsUnite.com blog and their social media platforms as well.

All very fun and gratifying. Especially when the official KCU social media platform spotlighted the work on my latest YA graphic novel BOX OF TAPES: A Rock Opera. This is something they did with-out my asking, and that matters. As you know, I’ve mostly gotten over my shyness for self-promotions and tendency to let others have the spotlight, so having such a spotlight be offered (rather than requesting one) indicates some value for the work I do. And in times such as these, every bit of encouragement counts.

This is my second to last word on BOX OF TAPES, I'll share a final one next time; announcing whether the campaign succeeded to fund or not. So this will make for a great chance to practice optimism. Optimism and gratitude, how about we end this missive on that?

until next time...

–BEST!
PLUGO