Starlight Cats: Merlion Rising
Starlight Cats is an intergalactic action-adventure 48 pages graphic novel that chronicles the exploits of a little girl named Rebecca and the street cat Barnaby. The vicious rat-like aliens known as the Verkins are bent on conquering Earth, and only Rebecca and an elite team of cosmic-powered cats known as the Starlight Cats stand between them and universal infestation.
Starlight Cats is a project that Shane Davis and Yanzi Lin have been planning to work on since 2017. Shane brings to this project almost 20 years of experience as a professional comic book penciller and writer on projects such as DC Comic's Superman: Earth One, Batman, New Gods and more. He also co-created almost every member of DC Comic's Red Lanterns, including the world famous fan-favorite cat Dex-Starr the Red Lantern.
Update: Lunch Box & Baseball T-Shirts Now Available!
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Stretch Goals
UNLOCKED! $40,000: The interior pages for the main Graphic Novel will have a heavier, better quality paper stock!
UNLOCKED! $50,000: All Graphic Novels will now be SIGNED by both Shane Davis & Yanzi Lin!
UNLOCKED! $60,000: The interior pages for the Story Ashcan/Making-of Book will now be in FULL COLOR!
UNLOCKED! $70,000: Every backer gets an Exclusive Salty Trading Card. One card per book backer!
UNLOCKED $80,000: More book upgrades - better quality cover stock and all Graphic Novels will now be perfect-bound! Also, every backer gets an Exclusive Catimus Prime Trading Card. One card per book backer!
UNLOCKED! $90,000: Every backer gets an Exclusive Barnaby Trading Card and an Exclusive Rebecca Trading Card. One of each card per book backer!
UNLOCKED! $100,000: Every book backer gets an Exclusive 'Hang in There!' Salty Fold-Out Poster!
$110,000: Every book backer gets an Exclusive 'Project Rex' (our next comic project) Mini Print/Postcard!
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The Cast
REBECCA CHOW
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Little Singaporean girl Rebecca is on the adventure of her lifetime when her grandmother's heirloom necklace turned out to hold the final Starlight Jewel, and it gets impossibly stuck to her. Now she finds herself to be the newest member of the Starlight Cats, which is led by...
BARNABY
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Barnaby is the leader of the Starlight Cats. Tasked with locating the final Starlight Jewel, he finds himself on the streets of Singapore and inexplicably drawn to Rebecca. He would soon find himself responsible for Rebecca's well-being as he bring her before...
PRINCESS L'AMOUR
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Princess L'Amour is a member of the Catz royalty, an alien cat-like species. She finds herself torn between her obligations to her people and the need to save her friends, which includes...
SALTY
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Salty is an American celebrity cat for the world famous cat treats, Salty Balls™. No one knows how a prima donna like him ended up a member of an intergalactic defense force, except for...
JELLYBEAN
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Jellybean the kitten is small, but don't let his size fool you. He keeps Salty on his toes (beans), and he may hold the answer to ending the Verkin threat once and for all!
The Perks!
The Vol. 1 Cover
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48 pages of cats adventure goodness, available as either our VOL 1 cover featuring Rebecca and the Starlight Cats flying in front of Marina Bay Sands, or
The LIMITED EDITION Merlion Cover
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The limited edition cover featuring the Merlion Cat God and Rebecca. This cover is EXCLUSIVE to this campaign. This is your only chance to get this cover!
The LIMITED Merlion Line Art Cover
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Limited to only 500 copies! This exclusive line art, B&W version of the Merlion cover is now available, only in our FEATURED TIER. All previous backers for this tier will have this exclusive cover added to your order for no extra charge.
Kenneth Rocafort Variant Cover
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From DC Comic artist Kenneth Rocafort comes this amazing Starlight Cats: Merlion Rising cover! Available in a 2-pack with the Jon Malin Variant Cover.
Jon Malin Variant Cover
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Get this awesome Jon Malin Variant Cover for Starlight Cats: Merlion Rising. Also available as a 2-pack with the Kenneth Rocafort variant!
COLLECTOR'S EDITION PIN SET OF 4
Do you like enamel pins? Then you will love this Collector's Edition Set of 4 Pins featuring all 4 cat members of the Starlight Cats team: Barnaby, Princess L'Amour, Salty and Jellybean.
These are gold-color enamel pins with glitter effect for their Starlight Jewels.
Barnaby and Princess L'Amour measure 1.5 inches tall.
Salty and Jellybean measure 1 inch tall.
This pin set comes on a galaxy-themed backing card with the Starlight Cats logo!
LIMITED TO 500 SETS ONLY!
Story Ashcan/Making-Of Book
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Want to get more cat content and learn how a comic book comes together? Then you will not want to miss this EXCLUSIVE Story Ashcan/Making of Book! This ashcan includes an EXCLUSIVE Supplemental Story that expands on the lore of the Starlight Cats.
All story pages in this ashcan will be drawn by Shane Davis, so that is an additional 10-20 pages of Shane artwork!
We will be also be including an assortment of page layouts, page progress and even some never-before-seen early developmental art! This book is being produced ONLY for this campaign and will not be reproduced for subsequent campaigns.
Metal Lunch Box + 'Then I Met Barnaby' Magnet![]()
Get a Starlight Cats Lunch Box with the 'Then I Met Barnaby' meme on the front! Featuring artwork by Kenneth Rocafort.
Each lunch box also comes with a 4" 'Then I Met Barnaby' magnet.
There is no additional shipping charge if you back a baseball t-shirt as an add-on to this lunch box.
Barnaby Baseball T-Shirt + Salty Balls Baseball T-Shirt![]()
Get either the Barnaby Baseball T-Shirt with Kenneth Rocafort artwork, or a Salty Balls Baseball T-Shirt with Shane Davis artwork!
Baseball t-shirts are made of 100% cotton and come in sizes from XS to 3XL.
Limited Edition 16oz Merlion Glass Tumbler![]()
We have added 16oz Exclusive Merlion glass tumblers to the campaign! This will most likely be first in the series of Starlight Cats glass tumblers.
Each glass also comes with a 4" holographic Merlion sticker.
Glasses will only ship within USA due to the fragile nature of the item. There is no combined shipping discount even if you back the glass as an add-on as it ships separately from the books.
Character Ink Sketch
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Get an Inked Character Sketch from Shane Davis! You can choose which character you want from Starlight Cats: Barnaby, Princess L'Amour, Salty, Jellybean, Rebecca or a Verkin. Your sketch will be done on a 5x7 bristol board in inks that will be shipped to you in pristine condition!
Have Your Cat Drawn into Starlight Cats: Merlion Rising!
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You have a chance to have your pet cat drawn into Starlight Cats: Merlion Rising as a member of the Elite Palace Guard for the Catz royal family. There are 8 slots available, first-come-first-served.
Original Pages
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If collecting original art is more your speed, we have a limited number of original inked pages available for purchase! First come first served. Backer #1 for original art will get to choose the page they want first, then Backer #2, etc.
Original ONE-OF-A-KIND Covers
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Here is your chance to own the original inked covers - available only for this campaign! We will ship the covers worldwide safely with a masonite backing board.