“Night of the Living Vidiots” is a new collection of the comics of Andy Ristaino, lead designer of the hit television show Adventure Time. Readers may be familiar with Ristaino’s comics work from a previous project featured in Kickstarter Spotlight, “Tales of Hot Rod Horror,” in which he contributed the two excellent stories ‘Life’s a Gas’ and ‘Tunnel.’ This anthology collects both previously published comics and ones that have not yet seen print, counting up to a total of 128 pages of comic goodness. Each previously published story has been, so to speak, remastered, some by the addition of color, others by almost tripling in length, others being completely redrawn, insuring that this book is a great addition to your collection even if you have managed to acquire every in-print collection including Ristaino’s work.
Anyone familiar with Adventure Time should know how well designed Ristaino’s characters are, but he also makes damn good comics. Fans of the relaunched “Prophet” may remember his excellent backup comic ‘Game Over’ from issue 29, one of the best backups the book has recently had (which is saying something). Ristaino’s style is constantly shifting while working from the same base; while one could look at ‘Life’s a Gas’ and ‘Game Over’ and recognize them as the work of the same artist, it is clear that he puts forward a significant effort to modify his visual style according to the type of story he’s telling. Likewise, his writing can shift from — to use the same two examples — the darkly comical mania of ‘Life’s a Gas’ to the ethereal whimsy and determination of ‘Game Over.’ With some creators, an anthology of solely their works is a bad idea — after a while, it all starts to bleed together into a big mess of same-stuff — but Ristaino has the versatility that is required to make his own anthology. Just take a glance at the thumbnails for each story to see for yourself.
It only requires a donation of $10.00 to get yourself a .pdf copy of “Night of the Living Vidiots,” and $25.00 to get the hard copy. Among the incentives, Ristaino is also offering previously published zines and graphic novels, available in different combinations at a variety of pledge levels. Those who want the most Ristaino comics for their Kickstarter buck can donate $75.00 to get both digital and physical copies of “Night of the Living Vidiots,” Ristaino’s previous comics “The Babysitter” and “Escape from Dullsville,” plus the zines “123 Creature” and “Future People.” Not a bad deal, if I may say so. Retailers may also be interested in the $85.00 pledge level, which nets you six copies of the printed book. Beyond that, the lower levels have other normal incentives such as stickers, t-shirts, and prints available, but personally, I am more interested in the comics.
Ristaino has taken an interesting approach to the artwork related incentives; as well as a choice for either a small or large sketch ($50.00 and $100.00, respectively), he is selling every single page of the comic through this Kickstarter. Rather than giving a flat rate for original art and leaving your choice of page to lady luck, like some projects do, Ristaino has organized the artwork into four levels, grouped by complexity and general coolness. Each level has their own pledge value, at $70.00, $150.00, $300.00, and $500.00, and interested pledgers can view and choose the artwork from this page here. Pretty neat, right?
As I type this, “Night of the Living Vidiots” is only a little less than $2,000 away from meeting its goal, and it still has 23 days to go. As has happened before, it is entirely possible that by the time this post goes live, this project will be fully funded, but that’s okay — this is one of those projects you’re going to want to support either way. As of yet, Ristaino hasn’t added any potential stretch goals, but I’d be entirely fine with this coming out exactly as advertised.
