Squatch Kick! - LEGENDS OF LOG giant size annual

LEGENDS OF LOG giant size annual
Project Creator: D.L. Suharski

What can I say? I love the imaginative! That lies at the very core of why I was attracted to this project in the first place.

There are all kinds of different comic book projects on Kickstarter, at any given moment. Long has been the virtual parade of comic book projects to come down the pike. It's not everyday, though, that one gets treated to the visual delight that is an ax-wielding log come to life.

Meet the hero and defender of the North Woods - meet Log.

I am a long time fan of the old Savage Sword of Conan and Conan magazines. The artwork on display for this Kickstarter project harkens back to those many tales of the most famous Cimmerian barbarian of all. Log lights the fires of imagination that burn deep within me. This is a project that I yearn to back - both heart and soul!

This comic book will feature this magnificent invention of the human mind - a log, as drawn by a variety of different artists and presented in story form, a variety of tales to regale the reader with the legends of Log.

Log is, I believe, the best thing to happen to trees since Treebeard in J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy.

As a kid growing up, I fell in love with comic books at an early age. Now, all these many years later, I find that comic books still form solid entertainment. They are, after all, storytelling via a combination of visual and narrative modes.

Log is a literary work of value, one that is served up with a degree of seriousness, as befits this creature of which I know very little about.

But, that's part of what makes things like this fun - the finding out.

It's is a great thing, to me, for a story to beckon unto me, to attract my eye in the first place, and to make me crave more. Log accomplishes that. There's so much out there that doesn't appeal to me, at all, which makes Legends of Log all that more notable.

When I browse the Legends of Log project page on the Kickstarter website, my eye drowns in the visuals. This kind of artistic eye-candy is addictive! The more that I see, the more that I want to see.

His mere presence on the page, alone, is more than sufficient for me to want to trek unto this place called the North Woods, that I might join Log in these tales, that I might get lost in the narrative that such fiction brings to life.

 

I think that this project creator knew exactly what he was doing, when he opted to not depict Log as a silly, humorous character. This character - this grand protector of the North Woods - deserved better than that.

And, he got it!

The end result of it all is that it is this serious treatment, itself, that makes me - as a reader - want to take this character and his legends seriously. It is one of the things that I think that this character has in common with Conan, as given to the world by sword and sorcery author Robert E. Howard.

How seriously can one take a living log, though?

At least as seriously as one can take any countless number of different characters that have appeared in tropes of fantasy writing down through the years.

Independent comic book creators always seem to reside somewhere between the proverbial rock and a hard place. They are a mother lode of imaginative writing, and all too often, the world ends up not seeing what they have to offer us.

Legends of Log is something that I think deserves to see the light of day, which crowd funding can make possible. In simplest terms, I chose to back this project for the very simple reason that I fell in love with the character of Log at first sight.

One of Log's foes, the Worm of Doom, strikes me as a very Lovecraftian type of creature. Surely, H.P. Lovecraft would be proud.

Not because Legends of Log is a descent into horror of a mind-boggling level, but rather, because it somehow manages to expand the Lovecraftian mythos, indirectly.

That's a very gritty Log who is just about to face off against this Worm of Doom, over on the left hand side of this article. Each bit, each piece, each nugget, each morsel of literary invention taps into - and expands - the mythos.

Yet, the trap that author Dave Suharski managed to avoid was the error of trying to emulate or to duplicate any existing mythos. Suharski isn't trying to take the reader anywhere except someplace new. It's a place that harkens back unto other places, unto other legends, involving other characters.

Which probably accounts for why I find Log to be so refreshing a character.

Why a log? Perhaps that question is best answered by asking, instead, why not?

This defender of the North Woods isn't perfect, by any stretch of the imagination. But, he seems to be hewn out of imagination of substance.

And that, my fine Kickstarter friend, is why I am Squatch Kicking the defender of the North Woods!

Log, consider yourself Squatch Kicked!

LEGENDS OF LOG giant size annual
Project Creator: D.L. Suharski

Kicktrak link

Crowdlogs link

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Hither came the Squatch

In the hype-crazy world of 21st Century crowd funding, a world dominated by the likes of Thunderclap and Salvador Briggman, one where all kinds of companies have sprung up purporting to be willing tweet you and tout you and share you to thousands or to millions - for a price, hither came the Squatch.

Don't know squat about crowd funding? What you need is a squatch.

Or, more specifically, what your crowd funding project needs is squatch. Squatch, within the context of crowd funding, is that which makes your project bigger and better. Squatch is the good stuff!

It might be a video. It might take the form of photographs or art. Heck, it may be something as simple as proof-reading the text on your project page. No two crowd funding projects are created equal, and neither are their potential audiences the same. Consequently, their reach may not be the same, and in fact, they may not have any actual reach, at all. There's an awful lot of newbies trying their hand at crowd funding all sorts of different projects, these days.

And every last one of them want to be successful in being funded!

While I readily confess that I am a fan of Sal Briggman, but that I have never used Thunderclap, and that I certainly lay no claim to being an expert on all things crowd funding-related, nonetheless, I believed that there was room for a new approach.

You see, the world is a really big place. How big? Big enough to fund YOUR project, that's how big!

Now, with every crowd funding promotion company out there stomping around and leaving their tracks all over the place, I know what you're asking - does the world really need anyone else out there trying to lay down new tracks on top of tracks that are already tracks on tracks? Isn't the world of crowd funding confusing, enough, already?

Sometimes, the obvious seems to elude us. It struck me, somewhere a while back, that crowd funding project creators needed more options, rather than fewer options. Better options, rather than the current status quo of options, be they good or bad, or a combination of both. Free options, rather than more pay-to-promote options - options that many times end up being more than a bit one sided, where the project creator pays out good money and their project ends up gaining no (or very few) new backers and pledges for their crowd funding project.

What was needed, it seemed to me, was for somebody to butt in, for somebody to find a better way, for somebody to perhaps leave less tracks in more places - but, hopefully, bigger tracks in less places. Something with more meat on the bones. Something with a tad more impact. A squatch!

Whether a given Kickstarter crowd funding project succeeds or fails is likely to due to a multitude of different considerations. The prospect for risk and failure to manifest themselves at any point in a crowd funding undertaking is a very real one. But, one thing that a lot of crowd funding project creators seem to have in common is a lack of self-confidence or a lack of experience. Many simply don't know what to do, or they would simply set about doing it. Heck, a lot of them don't even know who to turn to, nor where to even begin.

As soon as they hit the launch button on their crowd funding project, BAM!! The parade of solicitations to help you - for a price - begins. They feel inundated. They are confused. They spend good money on what turn out, in many instances, to be schemes that benefit others, rather than their own Kickstarter. Their crowd funding world, not to mention what may be their FIRST and ONLY time taking the crowd funding plunge, turns out to be a sour experience.

But, it wasn't simply the encounters that project creators had which served as the Genesis moment for the Squatch Kick in crowd funding concept. No, there was also something more at play, here, and that something was the interest that I had - that I felt - when I looked at Kickstarter projects, while browsing.

Someone had to pay at least some of these folks their due. Surely, many of these crowd funding projects warranted somebody saying something about that which they had wrought. I certainly couldn't back them all with pledges. Hell, it would cost a fortune - a king's ransom - to back as many projects as deserved to be backed. I had no access to Scrooge McDuck's money bin. So, there had to be a better way. I believed that there was.

So, I set about trying to put that thought into action - of trying to demonstrate that it was possible to make a meaningful difference. Not to every last crowd funding project creator, as there wouldn't be enough time in the world or in my life to accomplish that. Rather, I would focus my attention upon individual projects, rather than upon every last project that came down the crowd funding pike.

Now, granted, that would mean that some projects, many even, would get left out. But, for those that I did take opportunity to interact with, could I make a meaningful difference, in some small, yet tangible way - in some way that didn't entail a lot of money, or perhaps, in some way that involved no money, at all?

It has been said that the pen is mightier than the sword. So, could I just write something - lots of different little somethings - and in the process, use that simple thing to give project creators something that they could share with the world, if they wanted to? Project creators for crowd funding projects need people to talk about their projects. They need people talking and sharing. They need dialogue. After all, what they need is a crowd, if they are to crowd fund.

The crowd doesn't have to exist in a single spot, and neither does the dialogue about their project - but both crowds and dialogue are necessary ingredients to spreading the word, in getting the word out, in attracting even more people and more pledges.

One of the struggles that many new to the crowd funding scene face is the challenge that networking with other people presents to them. It's called social media, for a reason. It's social - as in social interactions involving other people.

How do you get other people interested in YOUR crowd funding project? Where do you even start, especially if you haven't a clue as to what to do? I mean, how does someone who has no basic, fundamental grasp of such terminology of the modern 21st Century vernacular get from the crowd funding here (the very beginning of their crowd funding campaign) to there (meeting their project's funding goal)?

Part of the social element that factors prominently in the crowd funding equation is that any crowd funding project can use help. Virtually every project NEEDS help. Crowd funding is easier, thus, if you've got help, rather than if you go it alone

Yet, how does someone like myself, someone who has made no real effort to attain a social media presence or following, even hope to make a meaningful difference, a difference of substance, in the crowd funding campaigns of others? Can it even be done, in fact?

By trying, that's how!

By wielding the pen that is mightier than the sword, and by taking a few moments out to sit down and write something.

Something. Anything. But, an anything with some substance to it, a something with some thought put into it. It doesn't have to be a novel, but neither does it have to be merely a tweet.

But, is it making any difference?

I'll leave that to others to decide.

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Squatch Kick! - Four-Legged Bird Public Mural Project

Four-Legged Bird Public Mural Project
Project Creator:  Jason Jones

Talk about fantastically delightful, this little Kickstarter project is a quaint, yet rousing, utilization of imagination writ large - a wall mural project that has a very functional use. It makes sense, it has a very achievable funding goal, and it is a wonderful example of using art to effectuate a positive change of the status quo.

Here, the status quo is a wall. Namely, it is the exterior wall of a building which enjoys the magnificent good fortune of being located right next to a fast flowing river of cars and trucks, smack dab beside a highway that is busy, busy, busy!

What can I say? My imagination loves robots! 'Twas the project image that caught my eye, but it is the mural concept, itself, that seized my enthusiasm.

The project page for this particular Kickstarter is a robust example of how to use imagery to capture the human eye, and to retain the attention of page visitors. My eye lingers, it darts across the tall page of images that cement my interest to this project. Kickstarter is a visual medium, and this particular project page just oozes with elements of visual interest.

Ironically enough, the proposed mural image was a bit less grand that I would have hoped for. I only wonder whether it will focus the attention of all of that traffic upon the shop, itself, which sits on the other side of that wall upon which the mural will grace with its forthcoming presence, or whether it will simply be a moment of visual grandeur on the way to somewhere else.

But, make no mistake - this is a crowd funding project that holds great merit. I am drawn to it, even beyond the visual variety of the project page, to the project, itself. Indeed, how can one not be drawn to a mural? It is art that is larger than life, art that not only aspires to be big, but is big. Big, I tell you! BIG!!

The people behind this project, both the mural artist and the shop owners, have a certain flair to them. They take a great picture!

Smiles, and youth, and color. They have the equivalent of visual vigor! They make a great video. They make a persuasive case. I am sold on what the four-legged bird has to say.

And, what about that name for their place of business? The Four-Legged Bird - Tell me that isn't cute. It's a fanciful name, and if a shop with a fanciful name doesn't warrant a mural project to be associated with it, then pray tell me, what manner of shop does?

None, that I can think of!

It is said that the early bird gets the worm. Well, what about the four-legged bird? I'll tell you what a bird of that nature gets - It gets backed!

But, even more than that, what this quadruped of the fowl variety gets is Squatch kicked!

You see that big mass of blank wall? That right there is the problem in need of a fix. The wall isn't falling apart, so don't make the mistake of assuming that, therefore, it isn't in need of anything. Indeed, it is, and what it needs is to be made better use of.

And it can do that by serving as host to a decorative, colorful mural, one with visual impact, one which catches the eye of passers-by. Because plain isn't good enough, that's why!

Why settle for visual mediocrity? That's not anyone's definition of beauty - not anyone that I ever met, anyway.

But, what of the muralist's other work, you ask? How do we know that he is up to the task at hand?

By taking a moment or three out to behold that which he has wrought, before. That's how!

How many buildings are in the world? And, of those, how many are plain Janes, bereft of visual delight? Art is a portal of infinite doorways to the mind, to the heart, and even to the uttermost depths of the human soul.

Art serves a purpose. It motivates. It inspires. It makes people feel better. It makes the world a far more beautiful place.

Indeed, imagine the world without it, if you can. I can't. Honestly, I really can't.

Nor would I want to!

A four-legged bird might just have one heck of a kick. This one does, anyway. It has a kick with the visual heft of a Squatch behind it!

To the trio involved with this project, I just had to toss my two cents worth in about this project with four legs.

If you happen upon this article and do nothing else, at least take a few moments out to watch the project video for this Kickstarter. This mural needs to take flight! You can join me in helping that to happen.

To help this four-legged bird fly a little higher in the Kickstarter sky, I'm Squatch Kicking this thing!

Do the right thing, and ruffle both wallet and purse feathers, alike, that this project - this mural - may take flight!

Project: Four-Legged Bird Public Mural Project
Project Creator: Jason Jones
Kicktraq Link
Kickspy Link

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Squatch Kick! - Ichabod Jones: Monster Hunter Print Run

Ichabod Jones: Monster Hunter Print Run

Project Creator: Russell Nohelty

It's late at night, approximately 1:30 a.m. in the morning, and I should be in bed. But, what am I doing, instead?

For some seemingly inexplicable reason, I found it "necessary" to back a Kickstarter graphic novel project called Ichabod Jones: Monster Hunter. Apparently, Ichabod Jones isn't the only one who's gone crazy.

This one had me at the video. Damn that project creator, Russell Nohelty, and his artist sidekick, Renzo Podesta for putting this thing together! Ultimately, though, it was listening to Russell in the video talking about the comic book that really commandeered my attention and made me want to support this project.

The combination of Russell narrating what this book was about, while simultaneously showing us the pages from the book, was more than I could resist. What can I say? I'm just the latest victim of this Ichabod Jones fellow. He didn't kill me, but he is apparently Hell bent on killing my wallet.

But, honest-to-God, I've been trying to do better, about not backing so many Kickstarter projects. My pledges are always low amounts, anyway, but my wife has started quizzing me about what all these Kickstarter charges are. They just keep showing up on our electronic statement, apparently. Fortunately, this experience has provided me an excellent opportunity to practice my mumbling skills

Ichabod Jones is a murderer. He's been sentenced to an insane asylum. Really, this is not the kind of person that I should be hanging out with, but I keep reassuring myself that he's only a fictional character. It's just a comic book. OK, OK, so technically speaking, it's a graphic novel. Far be it from me to deny a psycho-killer in comic form his due.

Did I mention that Issue # 1 is available to read for free, online?

Personally, I hate reading comic books in this manner. But, I just had to check this one out. I was curious, see, and you would think that at some point, I would learn my lesson about checking out interesting sounding comic books. Quickly, this graphic novel had me in a visual stranglehold!

As a gesture to my wife, I decided that I would only pledge the bare minimum to this crowd funding campaign. It was either that or nothing, and I really think that this project deserves to be funded. So, while my wife slept peacefully in our bed, I hit the pledge button ever so quietly.

Ichabod Jones is a psycho-killer, one who apparently finds himself in the Apocalypse. In a sharp and strange twist of fate, this inhumane monster of a man becomes the monster hunter. And to think, all this time you've been wondering why they say that fate is fickle.

The art has a gritty feeling to it, but the coloring is solid, and it helps to set the mood for this graphic novel.

The characters have a bit of a cartoony feel to them, but they are portrayed in a serious vein, so the end result is that with each turn of the page, you want to find out what happened.

Issue # 1 is a solid read, or it was for me, anyway. This is a nice little product that Russel Nohelty has put together for us. It is so much better than a lot of stuff that is on the market, these days. It truly is!

If this book was lying around on a coffee table, people would pick it up. They would do so, just to see what it was about. Ichabod standing there, knife in hand, just staring back at the reader. You only find out about Ichabod's history as a murderer after you turn the page - or, unless you stumble across the Kickstarter project page for this project.

Like any good book, if you pick this one up, it will be hard to put down, until you've finished it. It's a fast read, and it gets into the action quickly and effectively.

These days, there's a lot of competition amongst various Kickstarter projects from all kinds of different categories, all competing for attention and support. I can honestly say that I think that this project deserves to be looked at, deserves to be supported

Of course, what caused the Apocalypse to come about, I don't know, yet. Dangle that fruit of interest right under our noses, leaving us wanting to know, wanting to find out what happens to Ichabod and to everyone else.

Russell Nohelty shamelessly plugs this book, and I find his own enthusiasm for this item to be contagious.

Or, maybe it's just the voice inside of me going to all kinds of lengths to persuade me to up my ante, and pony up some additional pledge dollars. Did I mention that Russell has created a ten dollar pledge level, if you prefer PDF format to print format?

That's for ALL FOUR ISSUES, too!

Damn that Russell Nohelty! Confound his hide! There's something more sinister afoot, here, than just a psychotic murderer transforming into a savior during the Apocalypse. Russell knows EXACTLY what he's doing - He's tempting me, just like he's going to tempt you.

The real question, of course, is whether Ichabod ends up killing monsters, or whether it's all in his mind, and he's just brutally killing other people?

Again, Russell Nohelty is bent on keeping us in suspense. How brazenly he milks the Cow of Suspense! How dare he make it so enticing!

Yet, I'm glad that he did make it enticing. I like comic books. I like them, a lot. I also like what I am seeing, where Ichabod Jones: Monster Hunter is concerned.

I joined in, becoming Backer # 89 for this project, and bringing the fund pledge total to $2,818 on a goal of $3,500. With twenty-six days left to go in this crowd funding campaign, I simply can't imagine this particular project not meeting it's funding goal. Like Ichabod would do to one of his victims, I can easily envision this Kickstarter butchering its funding goal, and fleeing well into stretch goal territory.

Regardless of what you're drawn to, reading-wise, I would encourage you to drop by this Kickstarter's project page, and at least give it a quick look-see. But, be forewarned!

You, too, might just become a victim, Ichabod Jones' latest, as this item lulls you in, only to then go in for the kill on your wallet or purse, as the desire to see what happens begins to grow.

But, to be absolutely certain, there are far worse fates in life than to fall prey to reading Ichabod Jones: Monster Hunter.

Indeed, fate being what it is, backing this project and reading this graphic novel (the first chapter, if nothing else) might just turn out to be a true pleasure in life.

Check it out! Me? I'm still struggling to not take that ten buck pledge plunge, and sacrifice a little more moolah, so that I won't be left in the lurch with having read only that very first issue! A little voice inside my head keeps assuring me that it will be OK, if I do that.

Surely, my wife will understand?! Whether she does or not, I'm Squatch Kicking this project!

Take that, Ichabod Jones: Monster Hunter!!

Project: Ichabod Jones: Monster Hunter Print Run
Project Creator: Russell Nohelty
Kicktraq Link
Kickspy Link

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Welcome to Squatch Kick!

Well, hello, and welcome to Squatch Kick!

This blog site has come about from me discovering a desire deep within me to delve into the realm of the Kickstarter - not as a creator of Kickstarter projects so much as from the perspective of the backer side of things.

That's not to say that I will never try and use Kickstarter to fund a project of my own with, but for now, at least, what I post here on this blog will come from the backer bleachers.

The blog will double as sort of an ongoing documentary of my explorations of various Kickstarter projects that I encounter, and as a repository of advice and analysis of the same.

Apparently, I didn't have enough things gobbling up my time, so creating this blog site was a natural step in the evolution of my growing interest in crowd funding. I have to point the Finger of Blame at Salvador Briggman, the crowd funding uber guru whose KickstarterForum.Org site snared me one day out of the blue, quite unexpectedly. I've been a prisoner of interest of the forum, there, ever since, with no sign of my interest in gaining a better grasp of what gives Kickstarter projects their "kick" abating anytime soon.

Going forward, the intention is to create and compile a series of articles on the subject of crowdfunding, particularly as it relates to Kickstarter projects. My personal sympathy is always with the newbie to crowdfunding, and I hope to be able to turn this site into a destination that is useful to people that are new to launching and running Kickstarter campaigns.

The Internet is a vast place, of course, and this site is barely a speck on the horizon of what Kickstarter creators are looking for, advice-wise. But, sometimes, maybe a speck of information is all that you really need.

Squatch Kick is a hybrid term that embodies two of my personal interests - Sasquatch and Kickstarter. This site is NOT associated with Kickstarter Inc., in any way. Like most of you, we're just fans - of both crowd funding, in general, and of Kickstarter, specifically.

Be sure to check back with us, from time to time, if you don't find what you're looking for, on today's visit.

In the meantime, we'll keep on trying to find ways to help you to SQUATCH KICK your Kickstarter, because every project could always use a bigger and better kick!

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