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Doc Unknown Volume 2 Launches on Kickstarter [Interview]

By | March 10th, 2014
Posted in Interviews | % Comments

After a successful first round on Kickstarter and launching online today, “Doc Unknown” by Fabian Rangel Jr and Ryan Cody returns to Kickstarter. But this time it’s a little different — they’re Kickstarting a whole volume.

“Doc Unknown” is a self-published comic that has been making the rounds for a while now, earning all kinds of praise for its fun and fresh take on the pulp genre. Now with its second Kickstarter, you have the opportunity to help fund the next four issues of the series to then be collected into a single trade volume. This Kickstarter will allow you to pre-order the collected edition, set for release in July — and it all comes wrapped up nicely with a beautiful Eric Powell cover (above) and with a gallery of pin-ups by folks like Nick Pitarra, Aaron Conley, Artyom Trakhanov and more.

And if you’ve never read “Doc Uknown” before, then good news: you can get every issue of the series on Comixology for 99 cents a pop.

We chatted a bit about the project with series writer Fabian Rangel Jr, which you can see below. The Kickstarter is live now, with $20 netting you a copy of the book. If you up it another $10 you’ll get the first print volume as well, and for $5 more you get the “Boss Snake” one-shot that was Kickstartered last year.

What can you tell me about the new Kickstarter? What are you guys putting together?

Fabian Rangel Jr: We’re Kickstarting “Doc Unknown” Volume 2, which consists of issues 5-8. We figured instead of trying to Kickstart each issue separately it’d be better if we just went for the whole thing.

Each issue is a self contained story (#5 is a small antho that was part of the stretch goal for the “Boss Snake” Kickstarter), and will also collect the 12 pager currently appearing in “Five Ghosts,” as well as a 7 pager Ryan Cody is writing and drawing.

I’m super excited for it, one of the many reasons is that we got Eric Powell to do the cover and it’s AWESOME.

Yeah, how did that work out? Because that is a pretty darn great get, I think.

FRJ: I’ve actually know Eric for a while. I “met” him in 2007 back when I was in a hardcore band. We hired him to do the cover to our first album (I can send that over later) and of course I’ve been a fan before that and since.

We were both at New Orleans Wizard World last month and I brought up maybe doing something together again since I make comics now. I just got lucky that he had a small opening in his schedule, and I couldn’t be happier with the result. He’s an awesome dude.

Winter of the Damned Excerpt

That’s pretty awesome. What can you tease about the stories contained in this second volume? We sort of touched on it earlier and the collected “Five Ghosts” back-up is great, but lets get into the meat! What can fans expect to see?

FRJ: “Doc Unknown” #5 is the ‘Ghosts of Gate City’ one-shot antho we put out with the last Kickstarter, which features short stories written by me and drawn by three different artists. 20 pages.

“Doc Unknown” #6 is called ‘The Songs of the Forgotten’ and finds Doc Unknown investigating a strange murder, where the victim has a strange egg protruding from his chest. As the mystery unfolds Doc discovers a new enemy with ties to Gate City’s ancient past. 22 pages.

“Doc Unknown” #7 is called ‘The Frequency of Fear’, and we’re introduced to a dangerous new villain called the Gray Gremlin, who is using a high tech weapon to cause madness in Gate City. Doc has his hands full, but luckily we’re also bringing a new ally for Doc, a man with a rocket pack named The Machinist who has answers to Gray Gremlins origin. Meanwhile, even more enemies begin to emerge from the shadows. 32 pages.

“Doc Unknown” #8 collects the ‘Winter of the Damned’ 12 pager currently appearing in Five Ghosts, as well as a new 7 page Doc Unknown story written and drawn by series artist Ryan Cody.

Continued below

We’ll also have pin-ups from Scott Godlewski, John Broglia, Artyom Trakhanov, Aaron Conley, and Nick Pitarra.

And how has the working relationship between you and Ryan evolved over working on the different incarnations of “Doc Unknown” now?

FRJ: I love working with Ryan. That dude puts on paper exactly what I see in my brain when I’m writing the panel descriptions.

When I was coming up with the idea for “Doc” I totally went to his DeviantArt gallery and just let it influence me. In the year that we’ve been doing “Doc,” it’s gotten to the point where I totally trust him. When he asked if he could write a “Doc” short I was stoked, even more so when I read it. The dude is great writer as well, so it’s gonna be fun. Even after “Doc” I plan on working with Ryan on other projects.

So since this is a whole collection rather than just one issue, what are you taking from your previous Kickstarter experience to apply to this scenario?

FRJ: Mostly that the audience is there to keep this thing going. We did the “Boss Snake” Kickstarter as a way to test the waters, and we were 300% funded. We sent out all the rewards just two months after the campaign ended, when we said we would. I’m hoping that people see that we are a reliable team delivering an exciting, fun comic. I also raised some of the pricing on some rewards now that I know what shipping actually costs. [Laughs]

We’ve also got some new rewards, like retailer deals and free prints for first day backers.

And how have you found the challenges of self-publishing so far? I know you did the first run of “Doc Unknown” on your own — how has Kickstarter changed your publishing methods?

FRJ: Self-publishing can kick your ass. [Laughs]

It’s a constant struggle to get noticed, to get your name and book out there. The financial drain had left me at a place where I couldn’t (and can’t) afford to do this on my own.

Luckily, with ComiXology Submit I had reached a wider audience, and that, plus new people from Kickstarter has allowed us to keep going.

If it wasn’t for ComiXology and Kickstarter, “Doc Unknown” would have just been that first mini-series. Assuming we make our goal on Volume 2, we plan on doing a Volume 3, which will be the conclusion.

I’d also like to add that Kickstarter also gives us a wider audience, we had backers who were complete strangers.

It’s definitely pretty interesting that these new platforms give creators a brand new potential to have their voice heard.

Obviously there are some things with comic Kickstarters that are getting people a bit down as of late, though, so what’s your take on that sort of thing? What makes Kickstarters go wrong, and how do you prevent that?

FRJ: Yeah, I’ve seen some of the horror stories coming out of Kickstarter lately and it’s a bummer for sure.

All I can say about that is that with every service there will be people who abuse it or don’t follow through. That’s with anything, though. Bands cancel gigs, your food at a restaurant comes out wrong, the car you just bought breaks down. People can be shitty. But just because I’ve been burned on a Kickstarter in the past doesn’t mean I totally give up on it, you know? It’s like being burned in a relationship. Do you then decide to never date again? No. Maybe you’re a little more careful, but I think it’s silly to write off KS because of a few bad apples.

I mean, our last Kickstarter came out great, we delivered the goods, but “‘Boss Snake’ Kickstarter delivers rewards on time” isn’t as interesting a headline as “Dumb Asshole Burns His Own Books.”

As far as preventing a KS from going south, you gotta work with someone you trust, someone reliable. You have to factor in that you might have to spend some money out of pocket.

At the end of the day I’m still very much a comic reader and fan, I do my best to make sure we treat the people who are reading “Doc Unknown” with the same level of professionalism and respect I hope to get myself. That’s what it all comes down to for me. Treat others the way you want to be treated. I want to get what I pad for, so I make sure people get what they paid ME for. [Laughs]Continued below



So can you tell me about the plan for this Kickstarter? You’re Kickstarting a trade, but are you going to be giving out single issues as well? How are you hoping to do distribution for this one?

FRJ: Yeah, we’re Kickstarting the trade. We won’t be doing single issues anymore, they’re too costly. Especially since I’m self publishing.

As far as distro, it’ll be mailing them out myself to the backers. I have no plans to try and go through Diamond if that’s what you mean. If a a publisher wanted to pick it up, I’d have no problem with that, but I’m not holding my breath.

Did you plan to split them up via Comixology Submit or anything like that? Or are you more interested in larger collected volumes in general?

FRJ: Oh, that’s another thing I should mention! ComiXology will be handling the digital rewards for our Kickstarter. So people will pledge, then when the book is ready, they’ll be able to get it off of ComiXology. I’m really happy to be working with them on this.

But yeah, when the Kickstarter is over, I’ll probably offer them as single issues on Submit.

I love single issues, I buy single issues, but for a self-publisher, a trade is way easier to sell to someone, and way more cost effective.

“Doc Unknown” Volume 2 is live on Kickstarter now.


Matthew Meylikhov

Once upon a time, Matthew Meylikhov became the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Multiversity Comics, where he was known for his beard and fondness for cats. Then he became only one of those things. Now, if you listen really carefully at night, you may still hear from whispers on the wind a faint voice saying, "X-Men Origins: Wolverine is not as bad as everyone says it issss."

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