JUST LAUNCHED: Kickstarter for Deluxe Print Edition of DCL001!
Well folks, this is an exciting night! The Kickstarter for the deluxe, expanded print edition of DCL001 has JUST LAUNCHED!
WHAT ARE WE KICKSTARTING?
This is the deluxe, full size print edition of the award-winning first chapter of Dead City Lullabies, expanded with new content including:
Brand new wraparound cover art (seen above)
A brand new, 10-page mini-comic Winter in the Gardens of Steel
AERES II Map
Character Dossier
Concept art gallery
Thumbnails to final page comparisons
Original music manuscript pages from the score
That’s all going to be in the book!
Your support for this Kickstarter campaign will go directly towards printing the premiere physical edition of this special expanded edition of the first issue.
There’s a stack of amazing rewards at the various tiers too. Everything from digital files (included at all tiers) right through to the entire Wild North Comics catalogue, limited art prints, original commissioned DCL art pieces, and more…
If we go beyond the funding goal, we’ll introduce some cool stretch goals too. Supporting this Kickstarter means you will be instrumental in getting DCL on the shelf.
A BIT OF BACKGROUND…
I started writing DCL as a series of very short stories in 2006, after an idea that came to me late one night on a train across the harbour bridge. It’s taken many twists and turns in its gestation and writing, and now, 18 years on, I am so excited that it’s found its place in the form of a full colour serialised graphic novel.
The original concept for this story was a series of vignettes, depicting a lone character’s experience of the end of a fictional civilization. I wanted to tell a big story with few words.
Then I had the idea of creating an art book to go with the short stories, and a music score to accompany all that.
The larger canvas of DCL takes place over many different time periods – but the central story I’ve narrowed it down to follows the experience of Dr Elena Alpin, who is on a routine survey of the Outlands of Aeres II. She encounters something deep in a canyon that will set in motion a series of events that will change things forever. It’s a big story.
Each issue will open with a vignette from the wider lens of the DCL universe; glimpses into the past and future of this alternate Earth named Aeres… the reader will eventually be able to piece these fragments together to paint a complete picture of the fate of this civilisation. All the while, we’ll be following Elena on her very personal journey.
I’ve been thrilled with the response to the first chapter, which I released on Substack in November 2022. That first issue has gone on to win the Gold Ledger at the 2023 Comic Arts Awards of Australia, and now we’re going to have physical books published by Wild North Comics! There’s so much in store as this story and the larger universe of DCL unfolds… the comics themselves, art, prose, poetry, and music. There’s a whole extended repository of material here on the Substack that you can read too.
I care very deeply about this project. It’s my big one. It’s slow in the making – but I’m treating it with great care, and I hope that you will treasure it as much as I do. So - thank you in advance for being on board with this first chapter, and I can’t wait to share this and so many future instalments with you all.
Your support means the world to me.
Thank you.
xx Aidan, 22 January 2024
