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Kickstarter Spotlight: Hell, Nebraska

By | May 21st, 2013
Posted in Columns | % Comments

“Hell, Nebraska” is about one man’s bad reaction, to put it lightly, upon learning that Hell doesn’t exist. The demonic mask he finds doesn’t exactly help him channel his frustration in positively constructive ways, and instead gives him the ability to try his damndest to create Hell on Earth. So far, the comic has been published in eleven-page installments on Comixology, and the first issue can be read for free. With this Kickstarter project, writer Shaun Manning, artist Anna Wieszczyk and letterer Ed Brisson aim to print their work and distribute it at Cincy ComicCon’s debut — a stepping stone to perhaps wider distribution — but you can get it just by contributing a relatively small amount.

To paraphrase Shaun Manning’s project video for “Hell, Nebraska,” not everyone would take kindly to finding out that Hell doesn’t exist. Sure, there’s the reassurance that all those immoral mistakes that you regret won’t result in an eternity of punishment, but what about those who deserve it? Rapists, murderers, slavers — don’t they deserve to suffer endlessly? One can easily see how one who went through their entire life taking solace in the belief that the evil people in the world would eventually get what was coming to them might crack upon somehow learning that this lifelong belief isn’t true. From there it isn’t too big of a step to believe that such a person might take matters into their own hands and deliver punishment to those who deserve it — and this has been used as a hook in various slasher stories. The difference here, though, is the supernatural angle; rather than focusing on sinful individuals, the central character of “Hell, Nebraska” may very well have the means to create a Hell for everyone. It’s a neat hook with a lot of potential, and should result in an exciting read.

The project page for “Hell, Nebraska,” unfortunately doesn’t contain too much information about the story itself, but why does it need to when you can get the first eleven pages for free on Comixology? For a relatively new writer, Manning has an excellent sense of pace; there are a quite a few cuts back and forward through time, but Manning is able to keep a solid tempo down that results in an exciting read. His dialogue is very engaging, and while our main character may not exactly speak in a “normal” manner, the supernatural aspect allows the reader to suspend their disbelief and enjoy the gravitas of Manning’s text. Wieszczyk’s art is very creepy, but falls more into the visual styling of Japanese supernatural horror rather than American — which is just as well, because this does seem almost like the kind of plot that you would read in a horror manga (if you’ve read any horror manga, you know that’s a compliment). My one quibble is the “never mind how” in the first page, which can be seen on the project page, sets off a few red flags; even finding out that our endearing high school teacher didn’t really find out anything and just kind of snapped would be better than never learning “how” he came to his conclusion, but hopefully Manning won’t fall into that trap.

The project has a rather modest goal of $2,500, meaning the incentives are relatively low-risk. Five dollars, for example, is enough to get .pdfs of all six issues, which is half the price of buying them on Comixology (and all of that is actually going to the goal of printing, rather than supporting Comixology’s flawed business model). The trade that is the end goal of the project takes only a $15 donation, and if you bump it up to $18, then you get the digital issues as they come out as well. It also has one of the more reasonable t-shirt incentives, $30, which includes the trade. From that point on we are already heading into the “top dollar” incentives: for $50 you can either get five copies of the trade (hello retailers), an iPhone case, or sent to hell by Abaddon in the final issue by name only; $100 will actually allow you to appear on page as Abbadon condemns you. You name your crime, and Manning and Wieszczyk will decide your fate — though, as they warn, it might not be pretty.

All it takes is a free download of a great introduction to know that this project is worth your dinero. With very reasonable incentive tiers, it shouldn’t be any hassle to get this project to break its $2,500 goal — so let’s get cracking. Or, you know, you can go to hell.

I’m sorry, I had to fit that in somewhere.


//TAGS | Kickstarter Spotlight

Walt Richardson

Walt is a former editor for Multiversity Comics and current podcaster/ne'er-do-well. Follow him on Twitter @goodbyetoashoe... if you dare!

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