J. Torres and the usual list of True Patriot suspects are at it again to create a second volume featuring their original Canadian superheroes which officially launched on kickstarter on Friday, November 1.
“It’s all new! Everyone’s doing news stories. Of course, the creators from the first book are continuing their characters’ stories in some fashion so we’ll see more Superhero Girl, Family Dynamic, Dominion Jack, etc. But also expect Fred Kennedy and Adam Gorham to flip things around and present a Gull Girl story instead of featuring the Bluenoser. Also, Folwer’s introducting a new concept. As is Arthur Dela Cruz who helped with design and production last time but is doing a comic this time, which we haven’t seen him do in a while!”
With the introduction of Kickstarter to the Canadian public, Torres, project manager, editor, and creator, has made an interesting change of venue. Last year the Patriot team was funded via Indiegogo, then the only crowdfunding site available to Canadians. Since early September, the site has moved into Canada providing Canadian artists with a wider audience. Torres maintains there are pros and cons to both such as flexible funding options and slight differences in basic site set up, but when it comes down to it he says;
“Kickstarter is the biggest game in town. More eyes on your project means potentially more funding.”
Crowdfunding has ballooned recently in the publishing industry with both commercial and self-publishers. Torres says,
“It’s changed the game. It’s put more power in the creator’s hands and allowed them to go directly to their audience.”
Jason Bone chimed in with with this.
“I think the greatest benefit is the wider audience. Kickstarter puts your work out in front of a crowd that might not have seen it were you to self-publish locally.”
This is one of the projects that has come during an interesting influx or “renaissance” of Canadian heroes. Some of these include the Nelvana reprint project, the Captain Canuck web series and comics, Lemire’s Justice League Canada, Lost Heroes and last year’s Alpha Flight miniseries. There has always been an interest in Canadian Superheroes, but with the increase in comics in popular culture including film (Lost Heroes) and TV, the demand is increasing. Torres remembers,
“I loved Alpha Flight as a kid and I wanted to see more Canadian superheroes. It’s very rewarding to see people enjoy the stories we’re telling and if that inspires a kid to do something like this, create their own comics somewhere down the line, then we’ve done something right.”
Since the launch of the first volume this summer, the demand for more work by the True Patriot team has been constant.
“People wanted to know if we planned to do more. We’re still not sure if the second one will fly, so it’s hard for me to say. But yeah, if we had our way, we’d do more True Patriot in some way, shape or form.”
The “crew patriots” this year are Adrian Alphona, Andy Belanger, J. Bone, Jack Briglio, Scott Chantler, Tom Fowler, Adam Gorham, Faith Erin Hicks, Fred Kennedy, Tim Levins, Ron Salas, Jay Stephens, J. Torres, Howard Wong, Paul Rivoche, Jeff Lemire.
As it stands, they are about a third of the way through their campaign with over half of their funding goal of $20,000. The campaign will close on December 1, 2013.