Kickstarter project: SQUARRIORS: Teeth & Nails

This is a project that has quality written all over it. From concept to realization to execution, Squarriors just oozes quality at every turn.

Squarriors: Teeth & Nails is a Kickstarter project that I have visited on multiple different occasions. It appealed to me, the very first time that I laid eyes on it, and it still appeals to me, even now, well after that first encounter.

This is a tale that takes place in a post-human world. Gulp!!

Yep, that means that you and I are no more, and in this tale, animals have developed intellect with the capacity to reason. Thus, human qualities combined with savage instinct, all presented in a cute - yet serious - style.

Imagine a world where there are thousands upon thousands of kingdoms - kingdoms comprised of animal life, scattered across a world where they war with both other animals and with their own kind.

The art is beautifully rendered. These are squirrels that you can cheer for - on looks, alone, if not in spirit. Lush details for their fur help to bring these animals alive. The artistic details set the stage for suspension of disbelief.

It's this very same quality that brings alive magical places within great tomes of fiction, including J.R.R. Tolkien's world of Middle-earth and Robert E. Howard's Hyboria.

Because these animals are imbued with human qualities, they become all the easier to relate to. Thus, it makes the journey with them through their tale - and through all of the adventure and dangers that such entails - all the more possible.

There's just so much to love, here. Everywhere that my eye darts across the artwork, it finds pleasing things to see. Already, I find myself wanting to take sides, to join the Tin Kin tribe in their struggle. It's a wonderful thing, to feel that kind of connection to a work of fiction, especially fiction crafted in the modern day.

That tells me that there's something quintessentially right about this project. Squarriors call out to me, they summon me, through their beautiful palette of colors and their intricate attention to detail. The story appeals to me on multiple levels. It harkens to my sense of adventure!

On my treks across the Kickstarter website, I encounter all kinds of projects. Squarriors: Teeth & Nails is a stark reminder of why I gravitate towards the comics section of Kickstarter.

Ideas like this, concepts of such a grand scale as this, deserve our support. They warrant our backing.

Here, we have a world fleshed out, one populated with all sorts of new characters - characters that we can fall in love with, characters that we can sympathize with, characters that we can relate to.

Thousands of people have launched projects on Kickstarter, in the time span that Kickstarter has been in existence. In that amount of time, many very deserving projects have come about, because of support from the public masses. This project is already well on its way to becoming the next in a line of great and worthwhile undertakings.

To behold it is to realize what success is! I encourage you, in these remaining hours that remain on this Kickstarter project's campaign cycle, to give it a look. I believe that you, like myself, will find very much to admire!

I am one with the Tin Kin, as I Squatch Kick the Squarriors!

Project: SQUARRIORS: Teeth & Nails
Project Creator: Devil's Due Entertainment
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Kickstarter project: Tales of the good, the bad and the ugly

The primary interest of mine that attracted me to Kickstarter in the first place was comic books - and one extension of that is the art associated with comic books. One project that has caught my eye is Tales of the good, the bad and the ugly.

This project is an anthology created by the trio of Eric Allard, Julie Ferron, and Lydia Ferron. My first impression of this project is that it is a quality production.

One of the things that this particular anthology has going for it is the variety of the individual tales that collectively comprise the anthology. An anthology is a collection, and what this collection forebodes is a visual delight.

Three separate stories form this comic anthology. One is about Bluebeard, another is about HP Lovecraft, and the third one is about a little boy that makes an amazing discovery.

I really like the diversity of styles that under gird these stories. Each style is delightful, in their own way, and they are simultaneously diverse, yet cute.

It was less than a week ago (5 days) that another HP Lovecraft Kickstarter program that I was tracking ended. That one was HP Lovecraft Versus Aleister Crowley, and its creator was Monty Borror. So, as I began to scroll this other Kickstarter project page, the Lovecraftian element reached out and grabbed my eye. I was immediately struck by how Eric Allard crafted his version of Lovecraft, compared to how Monty Borror had crafted his.

The project page for Tales of the good, the bad and the ugly features a video that is interesting. Eric Allard retained my interest for the duration of the video. The start of the video, especially, grabbed my eye, and it set the stage for me to want to see the rest of what Eric had to say. Disappointingly, the two ladies associated with this project were nowhere to be found in the project video, but Eric got the job done, anyway. If I wore a hat, it would be off to him for a job well done. The video quality was a tad off, but the content was there, and I think that it will get the job done for this trio of artists and this anthology.

From the sequentials on display on the project page, the Bluebeard tale features a heavy reliance upon the color blue, with the background being saturated with it. Even the characters are imbued with their own fair share of blue, but beholding it as it has been rendered, I don't think that Julie Ferron's artistic touch is anything to be blue about.

Eric Allard has opted to give HP Lovecraft a talking cat. I really love his rendering of that cat, with ears of exaggerated length. If you're a cat lover, then you really need to check this out!

And did I mention the automobile that HP Lovecraft gets around in? I'm liking what I see, Eric! The artist crafts a ethereal look for the outside scenes of this tale, from what little that I have browsed on their Kickstarter project page. It is a very nice visual treatment of fog, and it retains a light-hearted look with a touch of eerie.

I have a feeling, though, that the cat will steal the show. Heck, it's already stealing my attention, and I think that Eric Allard is spot on with how he has approached the whole look of this setting. I will say this for Allard's Lovecraft - he certainly strikes a dashing pose!

But, whatever compliments that I might toss out about the first two tales, the third tale by Lydia Ferron is not overshadowed by what precedes her moment in the spotlight of this undertaking.

Lydia Ferron has presented a wonderful page of sequentials on the Kickstarter page for this project, one that is a cornucopia of panels that immediately leave me wanting more.

She does a fine job of making her work stand out in this anthology, and I get the feeling that her tale will end up being a bodacious tale of adventure, as the reader follows along with the telling of this story.

If you're looking for a good project to back, then you could certainly do a lot worse than give this project a look.

Project: Tales of the good, the bad and the ugly
Project Creators:  Eric Allard, Julie Ferron, and Lydia Ferron
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