Eric N. Bennett is a friend and one of my partners in G-Man Comics. He has a new project coming to Kickstarter to help promote Indie Comic publishers across the spectrum.
First Comics News: What is Indieversity?
Eric N. Bennett: Indiversity is a project I started during the lockdown phase of 2020 to help pass the time. After rereading Grant Morrison’s MULTIVERSITY, I thought it would be a fun exercise to apply that same kind of format to the universes of Independent comics. I would approach each creator, we’d agree on a designation for their world (I’m partial to the old school numeric or alphabet designations personally, but not everyone shared my nostalgia for that convention), and we’d place them where they’d fall in the listing. It also gave everyone a chance to see who their “neighbors” are, for lack of a better term.
1st: Who is involved?
Eric: Aside from myself and the individual universes’ creators, we’ve had a plethora of artists render some truly gorgeous art of each character world. FISH LEE and GILBERT MONSANTO had a friendly competition to see who could get more worlds under their belts.
1st: How were indie comics selected?
Eric: It started with me approaching folks I knew best who I thought would get a kick out of doing this. I’d post the completed entries online on Facebook, and as it started to be seen, I started to have folks approach me on their own about being included. I loved that because there were some fantastic creators with whose work I’ve not yet been familiar who are making some exceptional stuff. I was flattered they showed an interest in being involved. I’m honored that even some of the more well-known and ‘Big Name’ publishers agreed to participate. Naturally, there were some folks who I approached who declined, which is perfectly fine, but I still wish I could have gotten them to bite. XD
1st: It’s it just a Who’s Who or is there a story too?
Eric: It’s a bit of a who’s who, but there is an actual story as well. I could have very easily just compiled the entries and released them, but I thought adding an actual story element would make it much more enjoyable. So I wrote an eight-page framing sequence that FISH LEE has agreed to illustrate should the campaign fund. This story also allows me to tie into some other projects happening now and in the future. You’ll see some familiar faces in it.
1st: What is in the story?
Eric: Well, that’d be telling, wouldn’t it? 😉
1st: How much of the comic is finished?
Eric: I have 128 completed entries ready to go with another four in progress waiting for art. A gorgeous variant cover by MITCH BALLARD has been drawn and is fully ready to go, and the main story-based cover that Fish will be drawing has been paid for, and he’ll be jumping on that once he finishes some other obligations. So basically all I need to do is wait for a few more entries from the reward levels, then I can compile them onto their pages and be ready to go.
1st: When can backers expect to get a copy?
Eric: I’m shooting for a May 2022 release date ideally.
1st: What rewards do you have planned?
Eric: This is my first campaign, so the rewards might be considered fairly slim. Just the book, some “Be in the Book” rewards if you want to include a world of your own (I stopped taking submissions a while back), and some add-ons from my publishing arm ANGRY BEAR PRESS (STEEL WOLF, TARANIS THE THUNDERLORD, STELLAREX, and THE OFFICIAL HANDBOOK OF THE DEVIATION NATION).
1st: What is the minimum pledge for a digital copy?
Eric: A digital copy will run you $10.
1st: What is the minimum pledge for a print copy?
Eric: While I wanted to keep the price of a physical book as low as possible, printing costs are what they are, so the cost to get your hands on a copy will run you $25. My goal here is just to fund this so I can get the framing sequence paid for and get it into the hands of folks who participated. I hope everyone enjoys it.
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