First Comics News: First Comics News: How does this Crossover work?
Holly Golightly: At one of our Bubble Bath Meetings, planning for Tarot’s 2015 stories- Jim brought up the idea of a Crossover between our titles and I LOVED it!!
1st: Tarot and School Bites don’t appear to be in the same genre, how do you thinks the fans will react?
Holly: MmmmmMMM I never thought of it that way- Jim and I both tell stories, and they are both fantasies. Granted, Tarot has more adventure and School Bites has more cute and romance, but they are all a part of our BroadSword Family. So the Shadow Academy Girls will be getting a New dose of Adventure! And the Tarot characters a healthy cup of cute!!
I think our Readers will enjoy the ride of Adventure, Cute and of course sexy!
1st: Is this essentially a School Bites story with Tarot entering their world, or vice versa?
Holly: No, we really merged our storytelling and our worlds. Jim has created some kick-ass battle scenes that I’d never tackle. Oooo, I love seeing my characters through his eyes! And I’ll be drawing the Tarot characters in chibi and my other ‘Holly’ styles.Then again Jim and I have so many styles so this is just a perfect place to incorporate them all!
1st: What made this the right time to do the crossover?
Holly: Honestly, we don’t plan stories or ideas based on an issue number, Jim had the idea and it felt right and just happened to fall on the 1st issue of 2015…so it ’s just meant to be!
For fans that have never read either book, what is the Tarot Universe about?
Jim’s Tarot, Witch of the Black Rose is a supernatural adventure set in the present time & is filled with the shadowy world of dark and light Magick.
We’re entering the 15th year of that title and during that time Jim has tackled many genre’s: Horror, fantasy, comedy, romance and drama. Tarot’s stories not only have many facets but they are also inspired by real life events, friends and personal experiences. I describe it sometimes as Xena meets Batman but for HBO. There is nudity in most of our issues, but it’s reflective of
being inspired by our heroes, Frazetta, Frank Thorne and the Sword & Sorcery that Jim & I grew up with.
1st: What is the School Bites Universe about?
Holly: School Bites? Just think of or Harry Potter with Fangs in an 80s movie… I love John Hughes movies and like Jim- I’m very inspired by my personal experiences and my pals, so I include a good helping of ‘real’ when I tell my stories. I created my book for girls- sharing what I went through in coming of age- body issues, love, friendship. But it seems that Jim and I do share a similar audience. Perhaps they relate or are curious about our character’s journeys or maybe they just like looking a smexy women.
1st: Which supporting characters are included in the crossover?
Holly: Jim’s Tarot , Raven Hex will be featured and of my characters: Cherri Creeper, Sugar Shock, Imp, CleoBatra, Fujiko and we’ll be introducing a brand NEW character of mine!
1st: Why crowd fund instead of direct publishing?
Holly: Well we are doing both because our Readers seem to really enjoy our past Kickstarters and have been emailing and face booking us to create a new one. Since our Crossover is the first time Jim has teamed up with another creator, we felt it was special enough to share as a Kickstarter event.
It’s so very exciting doing a project that goes direct to our Readers- It’s like a Comicon online.. the positive energy and happiness is shared by all involved- I LOVE the interaction!
There’s no better job as an artist as share with their audience and it’s wonderful that Kickstarter brings us together without any separation!
1st: Why Kickstarter instead of the other crowd funding platforms?
Holly: I started with Kickstarter- never tried the other platforms- I’m a pretty faithful kinda gal…Kickstarter has been a fun place to work so we’ll keep creating there.
1st: With Kickstarter, you are not just publishing a comics, there are tons of cool bonus gifts, what are the bonus items for this project?
Holly: Ah, Yes! the FUN stuff and we’re already creating those!!! For me, this is the FN of doing Crowdfunding- making Special goodies for our Readers! As Pledge packages we’ve created pen sets, calendar, art prints, stickers, of course an Exclusive Cover AND Jim is working on a KickStarter only, full color Storybook….well about me and my obsession with costumes- but that’s Mature Readers Only! We agreed that the adventure would be PG-13 but we know that our Backers are all grown ups- so we made sure that there are Goodies geared to them! Jim and I are also offering original art in the form of a Magickal or Monster Make-Over!! Yup- we’ll do portraits of you as a Vampire, Faerie or Zombie!! Ji is doing the groovy scary ones- I’ll be doin’ the pretty fantasy ones…. But now we’re doing our Sketch Goal Bonuses! We’ve already added extra stickers, a full color art print and as the event grows we will just keep adding more and more to our Backer’s’ parcels!
1st: When does the campaign end?
Holly: It ends December 9th. here’s the Link!! Come Join the Fun!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jimbalent/jim-balent-and-holly-gs-crossover-when-magick-meet
1st: Will this eventually be available through Diamond?
Holly: Yes of course! The Regular A/B Covers ( with the Store Incentive cover) will be in Stores January 28th, 2015
1st: I understand you have two new PVC Statues coming out from Diamond, what is the status on those?
Holly: Yes- We’re working with Diamond Select Toys on a New Tarot and a new Raven Hex! If things go well, we’ll also see Pooka, Tarot’s Goblin cat and Mudwart, Raven’s Goblin buddy!
We’re at the design stage- getting them just right! The Plan is that they will all fit together in a display!
1st: What is the price for each?
Holly: I’m not sure about that yet….that would be up to Diamond Select Toys.
Here’s a peek…
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