Though you may not know him by name, you may be familiar with the work of writer Ken Lowery. Maybe you’re one of the over 300,000 followers of his Fake AP Stylebook twitter account, a fan of his co-creation The Variants, a webseries about running a comic shop, or perhaps a friend gave you a copy of the book he co-edited, Write More Good. Maybe you also checked out Monkeybrain’s “Knuckleheads” after reading Michelle’s very positive review, and enjoyed the top-notch artwork of Robert Wilson IV. Whether or not any or all of those maybes are actually yesses, “Like A Virus,” a new comic by these two talented creators, certainly looks like a project worth your donation.
One problem that I’ve found with many Kickstarter projects (and comic solicits, movie trailers, book back-covers, etc) is that they give too much information. In their efforts to inform would-be investors, the creators show their hand too much, giving away bits about the plot or execution that would have had more weight were they a surprise. On the other hand, some creators are too shy, and only give information that is far too succinct. Seriously, people, “A charming tale of friendship and imagination!” isn’t enough for people to put money on the line. Lowery, on the other hand, has made a smart choice in describing his and Wilson’s project. In terms of plot, we are given very little: a young woman with some smidgin of otherworldly power decides to investigate a local haunting. Unless you’re a huge fan of paranormal investigation, to the point where you read everything that falls within that genre, that probably won’t be too enticing on its own. Rather than spill the beans on what exactly happens with said ghost, though, Lowery then proceeds to outline the basic tone and themes of the book, the idea of guilt, fear, and other bad vibes spreading like a disease (hence the name). Those who know a thing or two about ghost basics is that they’re often characterized as someone who died with extremely negative feelings. Already, without having read a single page, we can see that Lowery is a sharp writer: the overlap of tropic and thematic awareness shows an organic approach that is sure to interest tentative supporters much more than a full-blown synopsis would.
The preview pages of this comic look excellent. Wilson’s line work appears to be built on bold lines, not necessarily lacking in detail, but sticking primarily to those lines that define structure, movement, and expression. The preview pages provided present an artist with a solid grasp on sequentials; it’s subtle, but I love how the view rotates around the train in the first provided preview page. Wilson also is a smooth operator when it comes to facial expression. You can easily read his characters even when they’re in thumbnails, but they are not at all overdone at full-size. Colorist Jordan Boyd truly brings the comic to life; each page has enough vibrancy to be interesting, but still conveys the subdued, somber tone that, assumedly, Lowery and Wilson are going for. Take a look at the black and white and colored versions of the ghost in question to see that extra something that Boyd brings to the book. It seems like a back-handed compliment, and I’ve said it before, but even if Lowery falls flat on his face in the writing department — which I doubt — at least this will be a great looking book.
The project has a very reasonable goal of $4,000, with the intent of printing 1,500 copies of the 23-page comic, and you can have one of those copies, plus a digital one, for a ten dollar donation. If you’d rather have a digital copy only, the donation mark is dropped to five bucks. The twenty-five dollar “Book Bundle” is very promising: for your donation, you receive physical and digital copies of the comic, Lowery’s book Write More Good, and a copy of the script, all of which will be signed. For those of you who, like myself, like Lowery’s Fake AP work but have yet to read his book, this seems like a nice target goal. There is also a very nice incentive for retailers, who can get ten copies of the comic for a $25 donation, one of the better retailer incentives I have seen. T-shirts and posters are also available, but in the sub-$100 incentives, the fifty dollar reward is worth noting: for this donation, you get a 4″x6″ sketch by Wilson. It may not be large, but $50 is pretty damn good for original art. The incentives over $100 are all art-related, whether it be sketches or original art from the comic, and are perfect for art collectors of various budgets. Each incentive also comes with a computer wallpaper, and most of the higher tiers include the digital and physical copies of the comic. Not a bad spread, so see what tier suits your fancy and let’s get this to its goal within a week so we can find out what its stretch goals are!
