It seems like every day there is a new, hugely successful Kickstarter campaign capturing the headlines, but not everyone brings the universal acclaim of comic fans. Thankfully, Greg Pak and Jonathan Coulton teamed up to bring something everyone can enjoy in “Code Monkey Save World.” This comic adaptation of one of Coulton’s tracks, “Code Monkey,” finds Pak being joined by previous collaborators in artist Takeshi Miyazawa, colorist Jessica Kholinne and letterer Simon Bowland, with their work to be released by Monkeybrain Comics, and it pretty much immediately decimated its goal of $39,000.
It now sits at more than $215,000 now, and with just 8 days to go, the team is looking to make a final push. As the team just announced, they now have added a stretch goal of $250,000. If they hit that number, everyone who backed the project at the $15 level and higher will get a digital download of an adaptation of Coulton’s song “The Princess Who Saved Herself” as a free bonus. The children’s book will have the same creative team, and from what I’ve seen it looks absolutely beautiful.
The current plan is to not have actual physical copies of the children’s book, but if people keep contributing, who knows what will happen?
In hopes to get people even more pumped about this project, today I have the entire team answering questions about the project, including Pak, Coulton, Miyazawa and Kholinne. Thanks to the team for chatting with me, and contribute people! I want my copy of “The Princess Who Saved Herself” to become real!
Let’s start from the beginning: how did this whole project come together, from the idea of creating a comic about one of Jonathan’s songs, to bringing people like Takeshi and Jessica in to the project?
Greg: Jonathan and I actually went to college together, but we’d lost touch over the years. Then I started hearing about his crazy “Thing a Week” project, wherein he recorded a new song every week for a year and released them for free on the internet. Eventually I bought all of his music and listened to it constantly. And then I started bumping into him randomly on the streets of New York and we started hanging out again. And then in November of last year, it occurred to me that he’s written a heck of a lot of songs with lovelorn supervillains and monster as protagonists. And I tweeted that you could make a pretty awesome supervillain comic book out of his songs. He tweeted back, “DO IT.” And here we are!
The great thing is that Jonathan owns all his songs. And I own the fruit of my labor. So if he says yes and I say yes, we can just go for it. I wrote up a story outline, and then refined it a few times. We pulled Takeshi Miyazawa on board to draw. Tak and I have worked together on a bunch of projects over the years, and I knew he’d totally nail the story. He’s got a tremendous sense for drawing everyday people in ridiculous circumstances. i knew he’d totally get the sad and the funny that’s so much a part of these characters. And it’s been insanely fun seeing the designs roll in.
I’d worked with colorist Jessica Kholinne on “X-Treme X-Men” and showed her work to Tak, who loved it. Jessica’s fearless about bold color. But at the same time, she’s got a great feel for the subtle tones that make people feel real. She’s a perfect match for the book, which has such crazy elements but is always grounded in its down-to-earth leads.
And then I asked Simon Bowland if he’d letter. Simon’s fantastic — we worked on dozens of comics together at Marvel and I loved what he did. He was one of the letterers with whom Fred Van Lente and I had so much fun with those crazy “Incredible Hercules” sound effects back in the day.
One of the things that floors me about this project is just how talented everyone that is involved happens to be. Can you speak to the strengths of the people involved, particularly the art team? I freaking love Takeshi’s work, and was really excited to see him involved.
Continued belowGreg: Oh, yeah. We’ve got a bunch of all-stars here. I couldn’t be happier. Seriously, every time new art comes in I just grin. I’m also blown away by how dedicated everyone is. The book’s incredibly special to all of us, and you can see the heart in every image.
Obviously this has…slightly…surpassed the goal. You’ve been really making the rounds and getting people’s eyes on this project. Are you surprised at all by how successful it’s been, and how thrilling has it been to tackle a Kickstarter project like this?
Greg: Jonathan and I kept calling each other up just to gasp wordlessly at each other that first week. It was kind of overwhelming. We made our first goal in just over seven hours on our first day. I remember Jonathan saying he fully expected to wake up and it would be the day before we launched. So, yes, it was surprising and thrilling and all of that. We’re ridiculously grateful to all our backers. And we’re determined to make the project as fanastic as we can for them.
The beautiful thing about Kickstarter is that the more backing we get, the more we can improve the whole package for everyone. We’ve already expanded the book from 60 to 96 pages, including 80 pages of story and a two page Fred Van Lente/Ryan Dunlavey story riffing on Jonathan’s “Mandelbrot Set” song. And everyone at the $35 level and above gets free mini-posters. And all mailed rewards get stickers. And since we hit our crazy $200,000 stretch goal, Jonathan will record a brand new acoustic album of the songs that inspired the book — and everyone at the $15 level and above will get a digital download of that album for free. It’s nuts!
With the massive success, you have a new addition to the rewards for the project being announced today in a Children’s Book from the team adapting Jonathan’s track “The Princess Who Saved Herself.” When did this stretch goal idea come together, and how did the song align itself with the children’s book concept so well?
Greg: “The Princess Who Saved Herself” is an amazing song about a tough, tomboy princess who encounters a scary dragon and a creepy witch and ends up recruiting them for her rock band. And once you say that out loud, you kind of realize it was always destined to be a children’s book, right?
We’d had our eye on the song for a while, but couldn’t figure out how to make it work with “Code Monkey Save World” — the worlds the different projects live in are too different. But as we were discussing possible stretch goals, I became fixated on the idea of a children’s book. And Jonathan mentioned “The Princess Who Saved Herself” again, and all the lights came on.
So if we hit $250,000, we’ll make a children’s book based on “The Princess Who Saved Herself.” Tak will draw, Jessica will color, and Simon will letter. And every backer at the $15 level and above will get a free digital download of the book. If we go far enough over the stretch goal, we’ll consider the possibility of printing actual physical copies as well.
I really love the idea of adapting this song into a children’s book, as it’s a very fun and empowering track that already has such a visual narrative. When adapting something like a song from Jonathan that has that aforementioned visual narrative, how does your approach change as a writer?
Greg: It’s definitely a different undertaking from the main “Code Monkey Save World” graphic novel. For the graphic novel, we’re taking characters and situations from many different songs and using them in an entirely new story. But with “The Princess Who Saved Herself,” I’m considering something much more like an adaptation. The story of the song is so clear and strong. So the big, fun challenge right now is to figure out how much more background and character development and dramatization we’re going to include.
With 8 days remaining, do you have any other tricks up your sleeve, or is this the final salvo?
Greg: We’ll see! We definitely have some ideas. But it all depends on what happens day-to-day. We’re being very careful, double-checking everything on our spread sheets to make sure it all makes sense. And we want to make sure that any more stretch goals remain in the spirit of the project and add stuff that really make sense and that our backers will love.
Continued belowBut, yes, we have ideas.
This is both your first Kickstarter and Monkeybrain experience. I have to ask, with a project like Vision Machine already in your past, could you see yourself going this route again? It seems like for someone like you, this is a pretty ideal route to bringing a project to life.
Greg: I’m working on a few different creator-owned projects right now, and I’m trying a few different ways of getting them out into the world. Kickstarter made one thousand percent sense for this particular project. And it probably will make sense for other projects down the line. The nice thing is that we comics creators now have more options. As Jonathan likes to say, it’s nice living here in the future.
Jonathan Coulton
You’re a man who has been heavily involved with nerd culture over your career, but this is your first time being directly involved with the creation of a comic. How has the first experience been, and has it been the type that makes you want to try for more in the future?
Jonathan: So far so good! I feel like I’m in very capable hands with Greg. He’s got a great sense for story and character, and in particular he’s got some great ideas for how these personalities will rub up against each other. There’s room for both funny and sad, which is sort of my wheelhouse. I’m really excited to let these characters stretch out a little.
In your music, you’re a very visual storyteller with your words, yet this is – I believe – the first time one of your stories has been fully brought to life visually outside of a video. Is seeing songs of yours like both “Code Monkey” and “The Princess Who Saved Herself” come to life surreal? Can you describe the experience of seeing stellar comic talents like Greg, Takeshi and the rest bringing this project to life?
Jonathan: It’s totally bizarre. It’s one thing to talk about it, but we’ve been sending artwork for the Princess book back and forth over the last few days, and with every layer of work that’s added, I’m stunned all over again. When I write a song, I always know where it came from (i.e., inside my dumb head), so I don’t always get to feel the same thing everybody else does when they listen. It’s like a magician doing a trick – HE doesn’t think it’s magic. But when someone else gets a crack at turning them into something new, it’s really the first time ever that these songs seem like REAL THINGS to me. So it’s pretty exciting.
Takeshi Miyazawa
Previously, you had worked with Greg on a few projects, but this is a significantly different style of one. What made this a project that you knew you wanted to work on from the start?
Takeshi: As soon as I read Greg’s story breakdown I was hooked. It pretty much had every story element I could hope for, plus the freedom to design all the characters and settings. I couldn’t have hoped for a more generous project.
The new stretch goal finds the team adapting The Princess Who Saved Herself into children’s book form. Given the slightly different format and style typically associated with those stories, I have to ask: will your approach change at all for the format change?
Takeshi: I will definitely take into consideration the “children’s book” angle and draw accordingly. We’re still in the early stages of designing it all but I’m eager to try new things and really explore limits a normal comic would allow. I’m very excited.
Jessica Kholinne
Joining a Kickstarter project like this is never a sure shot to succeed. What made you want to work on this from the start, and how excited about the response have you been?
Jessica: I worked together with Greg on another title before, so when he contact me about creator owned project drawn by Takeshi Miyazawa, I just had to. I knew Tak’s work from “Mary Jane” and “Runaways” before and was already a fan myself.
When working on the main book and then on the children’s book adaptation of The Princess Who Saved Herself, what, if any, changes occur with your approach to coloring?
Jessica: Yes, there are changes definitely due to a different audience. I went for a brighter color, much more primary color, and also a different rendering style. How much change will probably depend on Tak’s pencils, too.
