Literary Agent Announces Fundraiser for Limited Edition Comix Opus
From the press release:
Literary Agency aims to raise funds for a limited edition printing of 900-page comix opus.
Killing the Grizzly Literary Agency aims to raise funds for a professionally-packaged limited edition run of Armageddonquest by Ronald Russell Roach.
AQ is a 900-page comix magnum opus written over a 20-year period by the author, who now resides in Copenhagen, Denmark and is largely retired from the comics world. While his Armageddonquet has flirted with brief publication in the past, circumstances have left his work largely unnoticed by readers and professionals alike. Read a thorough write-up on AQ.
Everyone who contributes to the project, even at the lowest possible level, will receive the entire 900-page opus in digital format (both CBZ & PDF). At higher levels, backers will receive copies of the new edition, original art, and more. For more details and for those who wish to contribute, updates will be posted regularly.
Why a Kickstarter Project?
Armageddonquest is a difficult to describe body of work. The style is unpretentiously childlike, while the subject matter decidedly adult, the final result falling somewhere between Tezuka, Ditko, and R. Crumb.
AQ is going to need more than a snazzy write-up and a killer pitch to turn the heads of would-be publishers and producers. And what better way to introduce a oddball work to a new audience than with a professionally-packaged printed edition, displaying the comic in the manner it was always intended to be read?
Armageddonquest: The Limited Edition “One Book”
KTG hopes to raise a minimum amount for a 320-page OGN collecting roughly the first third of the saga. However, our ultimate aim, if possible, is try to raise a larger sum to print the entire 900-page epic in one massive tome a la Bone: The One Volume Edition. Monies raised will be used to cover printing, shipping, and storage costs, and additionally this new edition will be professionally designed by Ronnie Casson (who designed the gorgeously packaged Cat-Eye Boy trades from Viz), and sport a new cover by GØDLAND’s Thomas Scioli and Bill Crabtree. Printing will be handled by Malloy, who have handled graphic novel editions of such high profile projects as Jeff Smith’s Bone and Batton Lash & Jackie Estrada’s Supernatural Law.
Read Armageddonquest For Free
For the three weeks leading up to and for the duration of the fundraiser, KTG has posted the first 300 pages of Armageddonquest in CBZ format. Any interested individuals can download the files and enjoy reading them on free CBZ readers such as ComicRack and LongBox Digital. Please note that these CBZ editions are the unpolished pages, scanned from Roach’s originals, and do not reflect the design of the planned new edition.
As mentioned above, when the Kickstarter fundraiser begins, anyone who contributes even the lowest amount to the project will receive the entire 900-page saga in CBZ format.
VIDEO: Ron Roach Talks the History of Armageddonquest
Armageddonquest‘s history is a long and fascinating story, and now anyone can listen to the creator, Ron Roach himself, tell the whole tale in a 12-minute video on our Vimeo Page (or just click below).
VIDEO: Ronald Russell Roach Talks Armageddonquest
Weekly Live TinyChat
KTG president and senior agent, Dave Baxter, and vice president, Dallas Miller, will host a weekly, live TINYCHAT event every Thursday at 4:30pm PST, beginning this Thursday August 5th and continuing for the three weeks leading up to the launch of the Kickstarter project. During the live chat, Dave will converse with anyone who cares to attend about Armageddonquest, Ron Roach, the Kickstarter project, the Killing the Grizzly agency, and even KTG’s upcoming production platform for indie comic creators as hinted at in our previous PR.
Most importantly, Dave will want readers to help KTG choose high-end incentives for the Kickstarter project and place them at specific price points, and also get readers’ feedback on what they’d like to see included as extras in the new edition. KTG has worked closely with Ron Roach to create a long and impressive list of incentives ready to go, but enough is never enough – the more ideas we get, the more we’ll be able to give!
Follow Along
Anyone interested in finding out more, getting the latest updates, and being notified when the Kickstarter fundraiser begins, can subscribe here.
Praise For Armageddonquest
ARMAGEDDONQUEST squirms and thrashes in a crawlspace it dug out with its bare talons, partway between the early graphic novel and classic “outsider” art. It’s the comics version of the demon-haunted work of the young Daniel Johnston, raw, passionate, demented, electric.
–Warren Ellis (Transmetropolitan, Planetary)
A completely overlooked trilogy of graphic novels about the Antichrist. Drawn by Roach over a 20-year period on anything from typing paper to napkins to worse, from what I understand, it’s brilliant. Printed before its time; the right publisher could make a nice killing on its quirkiness. (While Googling, I found it’s now a webcomic. Still needs a reprinting, though)
–TOM SPURGEON, ComicsReporter.com
I welcome those of you lucky enough to be discovering AQ for the first time. In 1993 there were just two issues available, covering about 160 pages of the story. The print runs were humble and the book was very hard to find. I was jealous of Starhead [Comics] for publishing such an important new comic. Believe the hype. You have never, ever seen a comic like AQ.
–ROBB HORAN, publisher, SIRIUS
Wow, that looks crazy, and perhaps awesome. At first glance it reminds me a bit of Jack Katz’s First Kingdom, a fully-realized epic fantasy story with outsider art appeal. [But] outsider art seems like an unfair way to characterize this book. It’s actually very accomplished…The artwork reminds me of Tezuka and something about it, maybe the lettering, makes me think of Ditko.”
-TOM SCIOLI (GØDLAND)
Preview Pages
About Killing the Grizzly
Killing the Grizzly is a traditional Literary Agency specializing in graphic works, as well as a production studio interested in crowd funding, interactive marketing, community engagement, and transmedia promotion.
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