Remember “Nonplayer” #1? That striking first issue of a new series that came out about a year and half ago, that disappeared when writer/artist Nate Simpson suffered an unfortunate accident – yet was still picked up for a feature film option? We remember.
Well, Nate Simpson took to his blog to give an update on what’s going on with the book, including the news that he may movie it to Kickstarter. It appears that between balancing a day job and the arrival of his son, there is less time than ever to work on the comic – but still an imperative to do so. Simpson estimates that it could take six years to a decade for the entire thing to be completed, but his primary concern is, as he says, “the freedom to create cool things without subjecting my loved ones to undue hardship.”
Simpson writes,
My friend Coop says “Kickstarter.” His proposal is simple: estimate the amount of time I need to finish the entire series, calculate how much money I’d have made at my current job over that amount of time, and set that as my goal. And since I live in the United States, add the cost of the health benefits I’d have been receiving over that period, as well. We’re talking about a 6-year delivery time and a fairly astronomical funding goal (something equivalent to the cost of a really nice house). I don’t know, but unless some rich dude comes along and just throws half a million dollars at me, I’m not really sure this is a workable model.
There may be a more piecemeal solution, however. Perhaps a two-year project to fund a large-format, hardback collection of every two issues. Maybe with some sort of making-of chapter at the end that collects concept sketches and pages-in-progress, so that the volume comes out to 60-70 pages. This is where I could really use your advice. What would you like to see, and at what price? Would a finished book be enough, or would you expect some frills? Posters? Original artwork?
The other path is the one I’m already taking: spend my days at the office, make my nightly offering, and release each issue when it’s finished. If that takes decades, so be it.
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’d happily back a “Nonplayer” Kickstarter, and the idea of having it come out in over-sized hardcovers of two-issues at a time sounds like an intriguing delivery method, like something you’d get from Humanoids.
Either way, we look forward to whenever this title is inevitably finished, and will continue following its production as it goes.
