Yonathan Saura's variant cover to Peerless #1:

Original artwork by Pablo Peppino from Peerless issue #1

LOGLINE: A Wing Chun master fights her way through NYC’s toughest gangs to stop the execution of her lover at the hands of an occult martial arts clan hell-bent on stealing her secret ancient martial art technique.

MASTER THEME: The past binds or braces, depending on how you choose to face it.

Having just completed a successful Kickstarter campaign for this project, we're here on Indiegogo to start our series as it was originally intended;

This Indiegogo is for a;

• 24 page (32 pages if we reach $3,000)
• Full color
• Standard size American floppy comic. 

Issue 1 of 8.

We plan to print this book in the U.S.A. (Canada is our backup.)

Peerless is the love child of a professional music guy (Kris), and long-time story guy and comic writer (Nick), brought to life by the extraordinary illustrative talents of our friend from Valencia (Pablo).  

A true love letter to four very distinct things;

1) Kung Fu. 

2) Walter Hill's '79 cult classic; The Warriors.

3) New York City.

4) Attitude from strong female lead movies like Coffy and Foxy Brown.

We grew up with Saturday and late night Kung Fu theater, copious viewings of Shaw Brothers flicks, and big cinema Kung Fu productions from good ole Bruce, like Game of Death and Enter the Dragon.

These movies sparked our imaginations as kids and directly influenced who we are today.

The Dragons - Messing with these guys is just asking for trouble.

Art Caanan White. Colors Brett Weldele.

The Seven Skulls.
These psycho creeps don't appear till issue 2, but these are the gangs that lurk our series.
Art Caanan White. Colors Brett Weldele.

Underneath, Peerless is a deep, complex story, with TONS of heart. On the surface, it's a group of young adults fighting their way through a bunch of crazy themed gangs from the South Bronx. This central motif is a direct influence from the Warriors. With Nick being born and raised in the Bronx, falling in love with this story was a no-brainer.

Of course, many other movies and stories influenced the conception and direction of Peerless, we're not gonna mention them all, but we couldn't sleep at night if we didn't shout to Big Trouble in Little China. Kurt Russel's cult classic forever impressed on us the value of a fun, fast-paced story, with a touch of the supernatural heebie-jeebies.

Lastly but not least in our primary list of influences, is Kiara herself. The lead protagonist in Peerless; a lady Kung Fu master, who in the vein of the above mentioned movies, brings serious attitude and style. 

A fierce heroine in a loud and powerful, in-your-face-raw, adventure on the mean streets of Fear City!

In progress penciled page of Peerless Issue #1, original art by Pablo Peppino.

We're comic fans too.

So when we sat down to assemble an art team for this project, our motto was simple, "We don't want acceptable art... we want exceptional art." 

Our goal is to create a series and support material with art you get lost in. A real visual treat that gives something more every time you revisit. 

REWARDS:

We're breaking our reward tiers into three levels;

DIGITAL ONLY.

PRINT ONLY.

and COMBO, which includes both digital and print components.

---

On the print side we've got;

MINI-PRINTS

5"x7" Character Cards of the main villain of the series, Hu Lei and his three boss-level Tiger Clan henchmen, illustrated by French artist, Gilbert Han.  

Only one villain in all of China is bad-ass enough to take on all the Fists of Fate, single-handedly (see what I did there?)  An occult sorcerer like Lo-Pan (BTLC), except he can actually kick your ass in a fist fight too.

Hu Lei's young prodigy. What he lacks in skill and experience he makes up for with relentless energy.

Jiao Zhu is as deadly as she is beautiful. If we get the stretch goal, you get to see just how much so in issue 1.

"B" or Black Saber has an Iron Hand technique... Literally. You have to get through him to reach Hu Lei and that's why nobody reaches Hu Lei.

We're so happy with the way these came out, we're gonna have a stretch goal for a set by Gilbert illustrating Valentine's crew! (that's the good guys for all you folks in the back.)

PIN-UPS

Next up, we're offering a choice between 2 dynamite 8"x10" pinups of Kiara, 

The first is a Comic Style Pinup reward of Kiara, illustrated by Ariel Medel, colored in  gorgeous water colors of Brett Weldele. 

OR

If you prefer something a little on the risqué side, we've got this 8"x10" Sexy Pinup of Kiara, by Finland artist, Teemu Taiga. 

VARIANT COVER

Yonathan Saura killed this variant cover for us. Showcasing Kiara, Hu Lei and Sandy, as well as representing the two key villainous forces of the series; the Dragons street gang, and Hu Lei's Tiger Clan!

The variant cover is the cover we're showcasing at the top of this page.

This variant is a $4 add on. Just pop your pledge up $4 and select the variant option when you get the email at the end of the campaign.  <Hey, we know it's not a Jim Lee or J. Scott Campbell Variant, but remember, these kind of extra funds are one of the biggest boosts to a campaign.> 

Our fantastic interior artist, Pablo Peppino, will be doing the core cover. We'll post an update on his version soon.

GEARING UP

Expect a custom printed bandanna as well as a couple of NYC centric patches to slam onto your gang vest! <Come on, you know you have one in the back of the closet.>

Stay tuned.

DIGITAL

For folks who like their comics digital, for the COMPLETE DIGITAL tier, Incarnate Games was cool with us bundling another project Nick scripted, the Ascended Kings: the Fall of Empyrnea, graphic novel.    

This story is about as far from the South Bronx as you can get, but if Fantasy is your jam, you're gonna dig the colorful art from Renae De Liz, illustrator of The Last Unicorn, Peter Pan, and many others. Here's a look;

1969 New York City.

KIARA, a teen from the South Bronx gets mixed up with the most notorious street gang in the city, THE DRAGONS.  Not willing to let her only daughter spiral down a life of crime and  hardship, Kiara’s mother reaches for a lifeline and sends Kiara to VALENTINE, a local Vietnam vet/bar owner, who runs a Kung Fu dojo,  teaching and mentoring street kids in self-discipline and self-respect.

But things between the Dragons and Kiara only escalate. Framed for a horrible crime she didn’t commit, Kiara escapes to the safety of China, to study under Valentine’s Kung Fu teacher.

Years later, the twenty-something street kid from the South Bronx rises to become one of five elite Kung Fu masters, known as the FISTS OF FATE. Legendary warriors of China dedicated to fighting the sinister forces of the far East.

When Kiara’s boyfriend, another member of the Fists of Fate,  disappears during a trip to NYC, Kiara reluctantly returns to her old hood, determined to find him.

If it's coming into NYC by boat, it's coming through Cast Aways turf!
Art Caanan White. Colors Brett Weldele.

But NYC circa 1977 hasn’t changed… In fact it’s gotten worse. Much worse.

A mortal enemy of the Fists of Fate has taken up with New York’s CHINESE TRIADS, undermining the South Bronx, to make way for a new Triad heroin hub. The old, formidable foe from China’s mainland obsesses over learning the Fists of Fate’s secret Kung Fu technique known as the PEERLESS FIST. And having taken Kiara’s boyfriend he’ll stop at nothing to discover it.

With nowhere to turn, Kiara teams up with her old mentor’s current group of teenage Kung Fu students to free her boyfriend. A task far easier said than done, as her arch nemesis has united all the South Bronx’s deadliest street gangs to wipe out Kiara’s old neighborhood and anyone who stands in his way.

Set against the historic NYC blackout of 1977; a kick ass Kung Fu master and a bunch of wanna be Kung Fu teens, take on every bad-ass gang in the South Bronx, Chinese Triads, an evil Kung Fu master of the dark supernatural arts, and his three boss-level baddies. 

A true love letter to New York City before it was gentrified, Peerless is a deeply engaging story, wrapped up in an impossible-to-put down package of fun that will transport you back to couch surfing Kung Fu theater on weekends as a kid.

Everybody who knows, knows Hip Hop started in the Boogie Down Town (that's the Bronx to you nerds). Well, just as the Bronx had tremendous significance to music, music has tremendous significance to Peerless. 

Peerless actually spawned from Kris' love of (and involvement in) music. Willie Hutch, and Ennio Morricone provided the soundtrack for the heroes we made up when playing with kids in the neighborhood. 

Kris Morron: "In 2017, I started writing music for what I thought was going to be a new album. As the writing process proceeded, a narrative emerged that I became increasingly excited about. The music was funky and had some Chinese influences. It was sounding a lot like a soundtrack for a 1970s Kung Fu movie. I decided if I was going to write music for a story, I should know what story I was going to tell. A year later I had a script for Peerless."

The original vision for this series included two original soundtrack songs to accompany each issue. Kris wrote the music and brought together an incredible group of musicians. This was going to be a part of the core reward.

Then Covid-19 hit.

Literally, right when the team was set to record the theme song for the series, "High Above the Pain" in March, everything shut down. 

Skinny's go to studio for performance recording, as of this Kickstarter launch, has not reopened. Leaving us to find a new place to record, in an environment with limited options and jacked up costs due to demand. 

The musical passion is a big part of this project and we'd love to fight through the pandemic obstacles to get you some sweet tunes to read by. We've gone ahead and added the cost to cover studio time and reassembling the musical team as a stretch goal. 

This is a tough time for independent musicians.

By helping us reach this stretch goal you will not only be helping us fully realize our vision for this project, you will be helping musicians who are out of work and working really hard to get by.

In the meantime, Kris has written, performed, and recorded demos (which are kinda like first draft versions for all you writers out there). Check em out on his Soundcloud Page here, and yes, that's them playing in the background of our video.

We feel confident these demos will have you looking forward to more!

Kris "skinnyk" Morron: Kris has been a professional musician for nearly 25 years. His time in bands such as Mifuné and Revolution Brass Band (and many more) provided opportunities to tour the country and make music with a long list of incredibly talented people. While new to writing comics, this story is a direct result of years of working to tell compelling stories through music. For more information about "skinnyk" and to hear some of his music please visit www.skinnykmusic.com

Nick Macari: Nick is a freelance story consultant, developmental editor, narrative designer and writer–working primarily in indie comics and games for over two decades. His wide creative range can be seen in his novel works which include a prequel to King Arthur, Jidaigeki & Manga inspired Samurai fiction, Cyberpunk, and his current WIP, a Noir Horror circa 1940's. More recently noted for the award winning Tower of Time video game, translated into 9 languages. When Nick isn't working scripting and story mechanic'ing, he teaches creative writing craft on his two websites, http://NickMacari.com and http://StoryToScript.com

Pablo Peppino: Pablo is an artist from Argentina, focused on comic books. His work can be found in many well known publishers including Marvel, Vertigo, BOOM! Studios, Mythopoeia and others. He holds a degree in Fine Arts and enjoys approaching illustration and sequential art in a strong cinematic way.

We've successfully completed a Kickstarter campaign that ensures we have the funds to create and a 24-page print version of issue #1. Our initial goal for this campaign is to raise $3,000. When we reach that amount we will have the funds necessary to print the 32-page version of the issue #1. Once we surpass that amount we will start putting funds towards the following:

STRETCH GOAL #1 - $4,500:     Gilbert Han's, Valentine's Crew card collection. Digital version going to all backers. Print version available to everyone purchasing a printed copy of the book. 

STRETCH GOAL #2 - $7,500:     As explained in the MUSIC section above, we were prepared to record original music for the first issue in March. Then Corona Virus hit and closed down production. The studio we originally booked is not open yet. If we reach this stretch goal, not only will we be able to book studio time elsewhere, we will also be able to pay the musicians more. We have assembled an incredible group of professional musicians who are all working hard to get by. By paying them more we will all be helping them make ends meet.

STRETCH GOAL #3 - $17,500:    Anything we raise above $7,500 will be put in the bank and used as funds to start production on issue #2. $10,000 would cover most of the production costs and would allow us to set up a production schedule.

*** Before we get into it, for quick clarification; our discussion on budget below is not a sob story. We're not complaining how expensive indie comics are. We're not trying to gain sympathy showcasing how much money we've spent on this series.

We're sharing this information strictly for the independent comic creators who want more direct insight into the costs of OUR comic publishing journey.

There's more than one way to skin a cat. For us two writer creators, this is how we did it. ***


All that said, Nick always tells new comic creators, "makin' top quality indie comics is expensive." If you're not paying in cash, you're paying in time (but it's usually both).

As an active member of the indie comic community, he feels it's particularly important to be transparent and let folks see the money on this project. If you're a comic creator, buckle up, it's not pretty.

Here’s a breakdown of our costs:

$13,000.   Comic interior production based on full 32p issue. (Does not include a page rate to the writers and we saps have been working on this for over 2 years!)

$02,000.   Comic covers and reward art.

$02,500.   Printing (projected run of 2,000 books. We don't expect to get 2,000 backers, but printing costs drop significantly the more you print. More importantly, something many first time creators don't realize, overall production cost doubles each time you cut your print run by half. Comics are, and always will be, a numbers game.

$02,000.   10% Crowdfund fees (based on a $20k fund)

$02,000.   10% "Shit, we Fucked Up Our Math" Contingency

Sub total -   $21,500.

$21,500 / 2000 books = $10.75 cost per book  (YES, Indie comics are this expensive.)

The big elephant in the room is always shipping. One of the hardest things about crowdfund budgeting is that you don't know at the beginning what the actual units backed will be by the end. 

We're assessing packing materials and U.S. shipping costs at $4.50 per unit. 

This brings the total shipped cost per book to $15.25 per book. 

That's right, we're making .75 cents per print issue sold at the $16 tier. Or if we managed an entire sell through of all books, $1500 total profit. (Though in reality, it's even less, as there are a few ancillary costs unique to this project, we didn't bother to list above.)

This is the reality, or at least our reality, in indie comics. 

So there are really only 2 ways to reach sustainability in indie comics at this production level; 

1) get a killer audience and print more books, reducing your cost per book by half each time you double up your print run... or 

2) sell through a bunch of higher reward tiers that hopefully have a better profit margin.

We humbly request and hope for your support on both these fronts.

We've internally assessed the budget of this first issue at $20,000 and we're 100% committed to producing this series. So what we've done as creators, is basically funded the lion's share of the budget upfront. We'll make up the difference through crowdfunding and apply any additional money towards the next $20,000 investment, in order to fund the next issue. 

Peerless is coming at you as a completely independent venture. Our publisher is YOU, the fans. We are not looking to be picked up by a publisher along the way. Instead we hope the fans drive the series supporting comics as they'd like to see them; fun, exciting and meaningful.