Greetings Poprikans, and comic book fans alike, my name is Darryl Mansel, and I have a story to tell.

Before we get into that, a little about me. I love comics. It's one of the purest forms of storytelling there is. The creative team doesn't have the same budgetary constraints that, say, television and film producers do. The only limit is the imagination, and I firmly believe that imagination is something an alarming number of adults severely lack. At some point life becomes work, bills, family, Little Timmy's soccer game, and back to work on Monday. Adults stuck in the everyday struggle don't dare to dream anymore. Comic books, and the stories within, are that escape into the wondrous; they make us feel young again. They can make you weep at the death of a beloved character or whoop in delight as the hero conquers his or her greatest conflict. If you can marry the right writer with the right artist, you can create a story that will resonate with the reader long after the final page has been turned. 

That's where I come in.

Like I said, I have a story to tell. It's been rattling around in the old junk drawer I call a brain since 2013. Much like your junk drawer at home contains all sorts of oddities - paperclips, thumbtacks, an old Phillips head screwdriver, a few discarded packets of salsa from Taco Bell - my brain has held random scenes from this story that's been slowly building in my head over the years. I believe a comic book is the best way for me to spin this story, Rumplestiltskin style, and hopefully when it's all said and done you'll be holding an issue of literary gold at the end.

I'm no artist, however, so my campaign is this: I need you guys and gals to help me raise funds to commission an artist to pencil and ink (and hopefully letter) the cover and the first six pages of issue one of my comic book, Pineville. The plan is to take those seven pages and submit them to various comic book companies (Image, IDW, Dark Horse, Oni Press, Boom, Avatar, etc) in hopes of getting picked up to tell the story. Clear out that old junk drawer, if you will. Your contributions whether only $1 or $100 is the difference between me delivering this story in the only medium it deserves, or keeping that drawer cluttered with mere ideas.

I've already picked out and contacted an artist, Jordi Pérez*, over in Spain and he's all ready to put pencil to page and work like the Madman Spaniard he is. Only problem is, he likes money. He's charging $70/page to pencil and ink (and if we can't find anyone to letter it, he'll do it for free). Like I said, we plan on doing six pages, plus the cover. So with that right there, we're looking at $490. If we can find a decent letterer, we can bring him/her on for about $30/page. That puts us at $670, with a little bit of room to spare. We might be able to use that room to hire a better letterer or coax a few more pages out of Jordi.

I have a few perks lined up for you guys to whet your donation appetites! Check these bad boys out:

• A $20 donation gets a handwritten Thank You card from Yours Truly, accompanied by a character description and background info. But let's be honest, you have enough cards from your parents and grandparents piling up you don't know what to do with. So you probably want to kick it up to:
• A $50 donation gets your name all up in the story! That's right, if you put $50 in the pot, there will be a character in my story with your name. Don't get mad if something happens to that character. I'm merely a vessel.
• A $100 donation will get not only your name but a character with your name and likeness in the book! THAT'S RIGHT, YOU COULD BE ALL UP IN MY STORY, DOING AWESOME SHIT LIKE GETTING INTO SHOOTOUTS AND TAKING OUT BAD GUYS! Unless you end up being a bad guy, which is pretty cool too, because don't they usually get all the monologues?
• Lastly, a toss in of $150 or more will get you all that, plus I'll ring you up on the horn and let you in on the entire arc of volume one of the story.