Daybreak! #1-4

Final stretch goal revealed!
about 2 years ago – Sat, Feb 24, 2024 at 12:46:15 PM

Daymakers!

Sorry to interrupt your weekend but I wanted to share the exciting news that, barring any major cancels over the next few days (and cancels ALWAYS happen), we have officially unlocked the Daybreak! #1 motion comic from Bewildered Biscuit Studios! 

Thanks so much for making this happen, guys. The Biscuiteers do amazing work and we're really excited to unleash the fruits of their labor upon all of you. You're gonna love it, I promise! 

While I've got your attention, we also wanted to officially announce our FINAL stretch goal. Announcing it today instead of Monday will hopefully give us more time to reach it.

If we're lucky enough to reach 12K over these last 3 days, I'm going to sign every single physical backer's copy of Daybreak! #4. In order to fulfill the campaign in the promised time (because Stefan and I are still putting the final touches on this giant issue over the next several weeks), this will involve my actually flying to our print/fulfillment house in Tennessee with a Sharpee in hand, scribbling like a madman, then turning around and heading home.  I'm tired just thinking about it but it seems like the least I can do for you amazing supporters to thank you for making this our biggest and best campaign yet.

What about the digital backers, you may ask? 

Our digital ONLY-backers will be receiving a 12-page ashcan preview edition of an upcoming New Pain title called The Defense. Right now, the first issue has been penciled and lettered, which is the raw form this ashcan will be released in.

It's difficult to come up with rewards that equally acknowledge the contribution of our digital backers and something like a digital wallpaper doesn't feel like quite enough. Anyway, here's the cover, by Rags Morales and Rich Stahnke. If you backed the Two-In-One campaign, you will have seen this as part of UNcovered #1.

Let's see if we can stretch all the way to this final goal, fellas. Sharing is caring, don't forget!

Your bestie,

Keith Champagne

Four days left!
about 2 years ago – Fri, Feb 23, 2024 at 04:23:57 AM

Daymakers! 

Happy Friday, guys and gals. 

It's a super hectic morning so please find yourselves relieved at this much shorter-than-usual update. You're welcome! 

We've made some tremendous progress towards unlocking the FREE motion comic adaptation of Daybreak! #1. With a little over 4 days remaining, we're less than $500 away from the 10k benchmark and are cautiously optimistic that we're gonna get there. 

If you want to help the cause a little more, feel free to direct your comic book-loving friends to our campaign. We'd love to hit at least 200 backers on this campaign. Or please take another skim through the campaign page and add-ons if you haven't already. There are some great original art rewards remaining (Doug Mahnke and Netho Diaz covers!), a namesake reward, even some very rare bootleg items just waiting to join your personal collection.

If we have a strong weekend, knock on wood, I'll catch all of you Monday morning to reveal our final stretch goal. Thanks for all your help, team!

Your bestie,

Keith Champagne

The final week begins!
about 2 years ago – Tue, Feb 20, 2024 at 07:39:56 AM

Daymakers! How's everyone feeling this week? All good here, thanks for asking.

If you're keeping score at home, you'll have realized that the FINAL week of our campaign for Daybreak! #4 has officially begun. To mark this hallowed occasion, I thought I'd finally answer THE #1 MOST ASKED QUESTION I get about our comic (aside from, "what does Tom Nguyen smell like?" Answer: baby oil and awesomeness). 

WHY IS THERE AN EXCLAMATION POINT IN THE TITLE AFTER DAYBREAK?!

A couple of reasons, actually. One practical and one personal. The practical reason is that as we were producing the first issue of Daybreak!, Stefan Tosheff pointed out to me that there was another comic several years ago already using that title, which had been adapted into a zombie flick on Netflix. Never heard of it but not the biggest deal in the world; this probably won't even be the last project called Daybreak! but I was already creatively invested in the name Daybreak and there was no way I was changing it. So, if only for the purposes of trademarking, I added the exclamation point to differentiate. Easy peasy, right?

The personal reason is that I just like it that way. I think the exclamation point adds a sense of excitement to the title: it's not Daybreak, It's DAYBREAK! In fact, I like the "F*CK YEAH" factor it subtly implies so much that I think I'm going to call my next project BATMAN! 

So...mystery solved!

TWO NEW REWARDS

Also for our final week, the final two new rewards have been added to the campaign page. 

We've added a NAMESAKE reward, where you can have a new mystery character in the Daybreak! mythos named after you (or a friend or loved one). It's hard to explain too much about this new character because doing so would at least heavily flirt with spoiler territory but suffice to say, there's a new character introduced at some point in the 4th issue that will need a name. Maybe you can help provide one? 

The second new reward is this splash page from Daybreak! #2 by Stefan and myself. I don't exactly mind having it in my personal collection but for the good of the campaign, it's listed- and also includes all five cover variants of Daybreak! #4 (so does the namesake reward, btw). 

If anyone wants to upgrade their package or share out these exciting new rewards, we appreciate the help. We're making solid progress towards unlocking the motion comic adaption of Daybreak! #1. Check out the preview video on the campaign page if you haven't yet done so, Bewildered Biscuit Productions is cooking up a very cool experience for Daybreak! fans. We've also finalized one more stretch goal to be announced if we're lucky enough to unlock the motion comic that I think everyone will enjoy, but I'm biased. 

HOW ABOUT SOME OTHER COMICS ON KS?

Aside from Michael Katz and Darryl Banks' HORROR SHOW, a couple of more projects that are worth your time and attention.

First up, HAUNTED TOWER from Thane Frederick Benson.

I dig the "choose your own adventure" aspect of this graphic novel, something that I'm sure is a logistical nightmare to pull off. In this massive book, you're the main character, QUICK THE CLOCKWORK NIGHT, and whether you make it through the adventure is completely up to the choices you make along the way. It's also very reasonably priced, $30 for a 148-page book on Kickstarter is a deal and a half. So check it out by clicking that link above or the one embedded in the cover art. Fun stuff!

And finally today, the new IMPOSSIBLE JONES collection by the great Karl Kesel and David Hahn. 

One of my favorite comics on Kickstarter is IMPOSSIBLE JONES. Karl and David just produce homerun after homerun with this series about a thief pretending to be a hero and this hardcover collected edition brings all those stories together and in the darkness, binds them. Plus it's got new material, behind-the-scenes sketches and even a fold out spread by ARTHUR ADAMS. 

I can't pretend I'm not biased. Karl and I are friendly and I've admired his creative output for years. His inks over David's crystal clear storytelling are CHEF'S KISS, as they say. But even if I hated these guys, it doesn't change the fact that they produce some really great, fun comics. Check 'em out!

And let's make this last week matter, team! 

Your pal,

Keith Champagne

10K stretch goal revealed! Plus 2 new add-ons!
about 2 years ago – Tue, Feb 13, 2024 at 08:22:31 AM

Daymakers!

In the middle of a massive snowstorm here on the East Coast, someone send a plow over, please!

While I wait for a crack squad of snowblowers (and yes, there's a Tom Nguyen joke RIGHT HERE but I'm going to be mature for once), I'm really excited to unveil our 10K stretch goal. 

Thanks to the creative geniuses at Bewildered Biscuit Productions, if we reach that next threshold all backers, physical and digital, will receive the Daybreak! #1 motion comic adaptation. Cutting edge graphic effects, professional voice actors, top of the line production quality...this preview only scratches the surface, take a couple of minutes and watch this now!

I've been lucky enough to see a bit more than this preview and trust me, guys- this thing is wild! We've got a couple of new add-ons to help push us closer to unlocking this bad boy but in the meantime, check out and follow Bewildered Biscuit on youtube and the socials. These guys are amazing!

NEW ADD-ONS

Three full graphic novels: The Switch: Electricia, The Mighty (written w/ Peter Tomasi) and Frank N. Stein: Private Eye, all written by me, available as a bundle at the shockingly low price of $40 for all three. Plus, I'll sign 'em!

Too good to be true? Not really, because there are only SIX bundles available. So if you want over 500 pages of pretty effin' good comics, hit that add-on section so you don't miss out. 

For 48 hours ONLY, the astonishing Neil Edwards (with Rich Stahnke colors) variant cover is available as an add-on. Come Thurday the 15th at 11:00 AM, there will never be another chance to get one because we are NEVER, EVER reprinting it, not even in a trade paperback cover collection. Much like the beautiful Darryl Banks variant to Daybreak! #3, it'll never be offered again.  

We're only printing enough to cover orders so if 8 of you grab a copy, we're printing 8. Also, because we're a-holes, these covers are limited to 1 per backer. Several people, including our beloved Stefan Tosheff, feel Neil's cover is the best of all the variants we've produced for this entire series. I find it hard to disagree! So don't miss out!

That's all for today, friends. I mean, that's more than enough, right? Week 3 kicks off today so let's make the most of it. Sharing is caring, don't forget!

Your pal,

Keith Champagne 

2nd Stretch Goal unlocked!
about 2 years ago – Mon, Feb 12, 2024 at 06:58:34 AM

Daymakers! 

Happy Monday to all of you! Hope everyone enjoyed that giant sporting event last night. If your team didn't win, at the very least the Superbowl is always a good chance to have some snacks and spend time with family/friends, which is the most important thing. 

The snacks, I mean.

We had the tremendous good fortune to unlock our 2nd stretch goal right about the same time as the Chiefs clinched their OT victory last night and we're thrilled to be able to confirm that two more Handbook-style entries for The Custodian and The Machine will be added to the book. I'll get to work writing those up, they're incredibly fun to do, and if you're keeping score at home, that brings our page count up to 60! 

I have a meeting tonight with a production company to finalize our next stretch goal and we'll be announcing that in an update and adding it to the page tomorrow, along with a couple of other items of interest. So stay tuned!

Thanks for the incredible support, gang! And don't sleep on Michael Katz's HORROR SHOW. What if Rambo and Bigfoot fought to the death? I mean, not literally Bigfoot but close enough for our purposes here. And check out this great art from Darryl Banks!

Back tomorrow with another quick update. 

Your bestie,

Keith Champagne