Backerkit is live! Watch for your link!
over 3 years ago – Wed, Jan 27, 2021 at 12:14:54 AM

Hi everyone!

It has been a busy week -- normally by this time in January, we'd be in France for the annual FIBD (Festival International de la Bande Dessinée) in Angouleme, sort of the San Diego ComicCon of Europe, but thanks to COVID, the show is virtual this year. We'll still be "attending" but from a 7-hour time difference online. Not nearly as much fun. We've scheduled a lot of meetings to look at new stuff to pick up, as well as preparing our notes for a couple of panels that we've been invited to speak on. (The first one is at 2p CET / 8a EST bright and early tomorrow... I don't have a link to that one, but we'll also be part of a second panel on Thursday at 4p CET / 10a EST -- if you're interested in checking it out, here's a link: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/965506861421553931 )

Even with all of that going on this week, we still managed to get the Backerkit for BRINDILLE and /LOVE: THE MASTIFF set up and turned on as of this afternoon!

BACKERKIT SURVEYS ARE ROLLING OUT STARTING TONIGHT!

If you're not familiar with Backerkit, it is a third-party website that helps us coordinate and manage all of your pledge items, shipping information, add-ons, etc. You will each receive a link to your personal Backerkit account for this project shortly. They recommend that we run a "smoke test" first -- sending out only 5% of the invitation surveys first to make sure there are no bugs or questions to address before sending out the rest. Usually, the "smoke test" goes pretty smoothly and the rest of the surveys are sent within 24 hours, so if you aren't part of the lucky 5%, you should receive your notification tomorrow.

We have included a lot of extra add-on items this time around: digital copies of all the LOVE and LITTLE TAILS books, as well as copies of books from our previous Kickstarters, in case you may have missed those campaigns and would like to catch up (and save on shipping). We even added a handful of remaining bonus items leftover from earlier campaigns. (Not everything, but some cool stuff...!)

We will leave Backerkit open for you to manage and modify your order for several weeks. So if you're undecided about any add-ons, you've got plenty of time to think it over. And if you aren't sure where you'll be in May, you'll have until April to confirm your shipping address. That's when we will lock down the orders for processing and charge for any remaining balances due.

If you haven't gotten your survey from Backerkit by the end of this week, let us know and we'll manually send you your link.

A couple of you have been along for the ride on the last few campaigns, so you might be starting to wonder what's next on the drawing board... it's usually about this time that we hint at our next campaign... 

...well, stay tuned -- it's gonna be a blockbuster!

Backerkit nearly ready to open + Post-campaign interest survey
over 3 years ago – Sun, Jan 24, 2021 at 01:42:30 PM

Hi everyone!

Hope you are all doing well these days. We've been busy (as usual) getting the Backerkit set up and ready to reveal. We have everything entered into the system, including all of the extra Add-ons and shipping regions. Now we just need to get it cleared through Backerkit's support team so that we can make it live and send out the surveys. They're usually pretty quick with feedback, so we expect you'll start seeing your Backerkit survey links THIS WEEK!

Once inside, you will find a LOT of additional Add-ons available -- we not only made digital editions of everything available but also (by public request) have included many core items from our previous three Kickstarters. This way, anyone who may have missed out can bundle in those earlier items to save on some shipping costs.  We'll explain more in an update once Backerkit is officially open.

In the meantime, we're hoping you might be willing to fill out a feedback survey answering a few questions about your thoughts and experience during this campaign, what you liked or didn't like, what we could do better or what you think we might have done right. It's only 30 or so questions, but some of them are conditional so you might not see that many.

If you could take 5-10 short minutes to fill it out, we'll add $.50 cents in credit to your Backerkit account. That may not sound like much, but it'll chip away at any shipping costs or add-ons you might like to throw into your cart. And to further sweeten the deal, we'll randomly select one person from all survey responses to receive a $25 Amazon Gift Card. Yes, we want to hear from you that bad.

NOTE: this is not the official "fulfillment survey" that Kickstarter mentions where you submit your address and stuff. That will be sent by Backerkit directly hopefully later this week.

So please follow this link and let us know what you think!

http://www.magnetic-press.com/brindille-kickstarter-feedback-survey/

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
over 3 years ago – Mon, Jan 11, 2021 at 09:24:01 PM

Hi everyone!

With all of the many uncertainties in the world and news these past couple of days, we are so very humbled and happy to have so many supportive followers in our little corner. Thank you. We closed on our highest note yet, despite our oversight ending the campaign at 10am instead of 5pm as we usually do. Those 7 hours could have carried us a bit further, but we are in no position to complain! Not only did we cross the finish line in spectacular fashion, we unlocked one last FREE BONUS EXCLUSIVE in the process!

So everyone at a physical reward tier will now be getting a TON of collectible FREE STUFF:

• Bonus 8.5x11" linen cardstock BRINDILLE print ($10 SRP)
• Bonus BRINDILLE production sketchbook  ($15 SRP)
• Bonus 2" Collectible BRINDILLE Metal Coin ($12 SRP)
• Bonus LITTLE TAILS cloisonné pin set  ($10 SRP)
• Bonus 4" Faux-leather BRINDILLE patch ($8 SRP)
• Bonus LOVE logo cloisonné pin ($8 SRP)
• Bonus 4" embroidered LOVE Explorer patch ($8 SRP)

Y'know, we should probably rethink the spacing and frequency of all of these extra goodies on future campaigns... it's like we're giving away extra lemons with every glass of lemonade we sell! We should probably be more mindful to save some lemons to make more lemonade down the road... ;)

And now, the requisite "What happens next" portion...

If any of you are new to Kickstarter, here's the process moving forward:

• Kickstarter will start running your credit cards to collect your pledges sometime in the next day or so. (I've even heard from some friends that their pledges have already been collected.) If Kickstarter runs into an issue with your payment method, they will email you a notification to please provide an alternate payment method. They'll keep that up for about 7 days at which point (after a final notification), they will officially close the campaign. Anyone whose payment was unable to go through will be dropped. Everyone else's pledge will then move into Backerkit.
• We'll be using Backerkit for fulfillment again this time, and will get that set up while Kickstarter does their collection thing. By the time they finish their part, we'll pull back the curtains on Backerkit and get the surveys sent out. That'll probably be sometime around January 20th or so. We'll keep you posted. These surveys will ask for your shipping address, but don't worry -- you will be able to update your address before we ship, in case you aren't sure where you might be in May.
• The books are all finished and are in final proofing now. Our goal is to send them to the printer by the 18th, ahead of Chinese New Year. While that holiday will mean a slight delay in production, we expect to have the finished books in-hand and ready to start shipping by the end of April. All of the other bits (the sketchbook, coin, pins, patches, etc) are all simple designs that we will begin proofing next week, so we have no worries about hitting the date with those items.
• As mentioned in the campaign itself, we will be shipping international orders with our new worldwide partner to keep those costs as low as possible. As each vendor seems to have different rate benefits in different countries, a few regions might still a bit more expensive (Israel and South America are notably absent from their list). This should mean MUCH better rates for Europe, Australia, and even Canada. More on that in the days to come... Just know that we're doing what we can to make shipping as reasonable as possible for EVERYONE. :)
• Digital rewards will be distributed those through Backerkit directly, with the book itself being distributed through Gumroad. We will announce the release date for those when we are close to fulfillment so that all orders can be processed at once. To set expectations early: it'll be closer to when we start shipping the books themselves in late-April/early-May. But we'll keep everyone updated as it draws near.

About Add-ons

While add-ons were offered through Kickstarter directly in this campaign -- a beta-test feature they are slowly rolling out -- we will continue to offer the same add-ons afterward through Backerkit. Since this was a new feature in Kickstarter, we're not entirely sure how those extra items will import into your Backerkit account, but rest assured you will be able to add-to and modify your order well before we ship.

Many of you have asked about digital versions of the previous volumes of LOVE and LITTLE TAILS, since they were not included in the slipcase bundles. We will be offering digital versions of LITTLE TAILS as add-ons, and are looking into our licenses to insure that we can also offer the previous LOVE books as well. Stay tuned for news about that.

A few of you also asked about the possibility of picking up some of our previous Kickstarter books, to save on shipping costs (rather than ordering them separately). We will be adding all of our previous campaign titles (at least what we still have in stock) as available add-ons. So if you missed out on the exclusive editions of PARIS 2119, ASTER OF PAN, or WAHCOMMO, you will be able to add those to your package. Probably not all of the extra items from those campaigns, but certainly the main books themselves.

A few of the bonus stretch goal items from this campaign will be available as add-ons, but perhaps not all of them. In particular, the coins will be one-per-backer. Anything else that we have extras of will be put up for sale in case anyone wants extras.

What else? I think that's it for now... nothing else comes immediately to mind (but then my mind is a bit frayed today...)

Oh yeah --

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

16 hours left!
over 3 years ago – Wed, Jan 06, 2021 at 10:54:34 PM

Hi everyone!

We are soooooooo close to unlocking the $68k embroidered Explorer patch...! Will we make it? (I wanna say "yes", but its up to you...!)

As crazy as today has been (you know what I mean if you've been watching the news here in the states), we're hopeful to wake up to a peaceful morning. All things considered, it feels weird to focus on the final hours of silly graphic novel Kickstarter with such frightening events unfolding in our nation's capital, but we're firm believers in being Champions of Positivity, and what's more positive than wildlife appreciation and beautiful (dark) fairy tales? :) 

Sometimes its easy to forget that we're just one of 8.7 Million species of animals on this Earth, and our drama casts long-lasting ripples that travel far beyond our narrow view. So even if we can't do anything about the insanity in the headlines, we can do our part to offer some hope and warmth as an alternative. :)

And so can you! It's not too late to spread the word to bring more people to the campaign! 

Please share the link www.brindille-comic.com and help us end on a high note!

Final 48 hours! LOVE pin unlocked! Final stretch goals revealed!
over 3 years ago – Wed, Jan 06, 2021 at 08:24:34 PM

Hi everyone!

Woke up to some nice surprises this morning! Well, one wasn't a huge surprise, and the other one wasn't exactly "nice," but worth mentioning here...

First, the "not-really-a-" surprise: 

You unlocked the LOVE cloisonné pin! 

This spiffy pin will look good on anything (and send a message that the world could surely use these days...). And since we have less than 48 hours left, we're gonna go ahead and pull the curtain back on the last two stretch goals we have planned:

The Explorer patch will be a sweet, fully-embroidered 10-color fabric patch with iron-on backing featuring an illustration from THE TIGER by Federico Bertolucci. By our calculations, this goal should be obtainable at the current trajectory, but only if we keep up (and build?) some final momentum.

The MASTIFF coin will be similar to the others we've offered (including the one unlocked earlier for BRINDILLE) featuring a bas relief of the MASTIFF cover image by Federico. Can we actually make it to $80k in the next 46 hours...? Who knows! This campaign has surpassed expectations so far, so we want to be hopeful...!

Like all of the other stretch goals, these will all be included FREE with all physical reward tiers.

But only if we make it before the campaign ends! Which leads to the "not-exactly-nice" surprise -- 

The End Time...

No, not the end of the world. The end of the campaign coming up on Thursday. Normally we set these campaigns to end at 5pm CST so that we have the majority of that last day to do a final push. But we realized after we had launched that we failed to set that specific end time this time around, so Kickstarter defaulted to the same time we launched -- 10am CST. And once launched, we cannot change the duration.

So that means the campaign will be ending at 10am CST this Thursday (the day after tomorrow). That's 10 o'clock in the morning (Central Time). So if you're watching the campaign thinking about jumping in during your lunch break on the last day, please think about doing that a tad bit earlier! 

10am CST (which is 8am Pacific Time/11am Eastern) is kind of early on a workday morning, so it can come and go before you've even had your first cup of coffee. Not usually the peak traffic hour.

We feel like we may have cheated ourselves out of a solid day's worth of campaign with this accidental oversight, but it is what it is and hopefully we'll still end on a high note. It sure would be nice to add that MASTIFF coin to the growing collection, though...!

Once again, thanks for your attention and support everyone! We're really excited to get these items produced and into your hands!