What a month it’s been. I didn’t want to spam the Substack subscribers since you didn’t all sign up for Kickstarter notifications—so if the updates here are slower than for the Kickstarter pre-launch group there’s the reason.
But with less than 10 hours to go now, I wanted to send a heads-up to let you know that our Kickstarter campaign will be closing up at 8AM US Eastern time / 8PM Philippine time today, October 2!
And here’s a recap of how far we’ve come so far:
COMPLETIONIST POST-CAMPAIGN UPGRADE
By popular demand: all backers will have the ability to upgrade to a COMPLETIONIST tier that includes ALL our available Kickstarter variants, plus a secret 5th cover, at a discounted price!
This upgrade will be handled during the post-campaign survey, so no need to do anything right now.
We’ll be sending a survey after the end of the campaign to collect shipping details and your variant selections. At that point you’ll also be given the option to upgrade your pledge to the Completionist tier.
The Completionist tier will also include:
a FULL SET of RAYGUN gacha collectible cards (Series One, i.e. the currently available cards shown on our campaign page)
a FULL SET of Borg Sinaban art prints
There will also be a Completionist add-on option w/ a greater discount for backers at the Duo, Founding Figure, and Living Legend tiers.
While we’re all here, I wanted to share a bit about why we’re doing this.
If you scan around the room of serialized original Filipino stories in the comics format, you’ll see—with just a handful of exceptions—that everyone in the game is either doing this on top of their day job or running their own indie press. It’s not a coincidence: the truth is that right now, there’s no real institutional money to fund full-time original artistry and storytelling in the Philippines.
It’s only going to get harder, especially with the accelerating development of A.I. art. Yet even in the midst of that, we believe that Filipino storytelling is severely underestimated: that our culture and history provides a deep well of inspiration for stories that can capture global imaginations. As storytellers, our instinct is to show, not tell, how it can be done.
We’re lucky to have learned some of the skills to publish and market this story that we are passionate about. Our goal is first and foremost is to deliver this story to you, because we really think it’s something you’ll enjoy or even come to love.
But we also set out a goal to learn by doing: how to organize a campaign that can introduce this kind of Filipino story to a global audience. Because it’s not just about Maharlika; we want more of these stories to exist. We want more Filipino sagas.
For our RAYGUN imprint, which focuses on multi-volume Filipino sci-fi and fantasy stories in the comics and manga format, that mission starts with the success of this campaign.
So if you decide to back this campaign, do it first and foremost for yourself as a reader. We believe that this story is something special and worth experiencing.
But while you’re doing that: know that by backing us, you’re sending a signal to the world that these kinds of stories, from places like the Philippines, are worth making and paying attention to.
And lastly: know that by doing this you’re backing our growth and learning not just as creatives, but also as publishers and champions of more stories like this, from Filipino writers and artists with talent that exceeds our own.
For all those reasons, thank you and thank you and thank you.
Rexy