Okay, guys!
Thanks for your patience and patronage up to this point. SuperHeroes After Dark 5 is completed and off to the printers. For those who don't know, After Dark 5 was funded on Kickstarter directly prior to Neon Dreams 2, so I had to finish it first. Now that it's done, I'm working exclusively on Neon Dreams 2.
NEON DREAMS 2 CONFUSION
So, to quickly summarize, the first Neon Dreams Kickstarter funded at over $45k, which is my second-highest funding project to date. Neon Dreams 2 funded at $25k and then added another $9k for the "second chance" campaign. I tried to understand why the disparity in funding amounts. I came up with a few things:
Maybe people didn't enjoy Neon Dreams 1 and didn't feel the need to fund Neon Dreams 2
The narrative design of Neon Dreams 2 strayed from the original's uncensored adult parody scenes and made it appear to be more of a sexy but not explicit original story inspired by 80s pop culture.
Neon Dreams backers' simply wanted short scenes parodying well-known 80s brands
The marketing for Neon Dreams 2 didn't make it as appealing as the first
The focus of my pink-haired mascot, Jeggy, in the marketing for Neon Dreams 2 didn't appeal to as many people as desired.
Perhaps one of these are true or a little bit of everything. HOWEVER, I do want to make the best graphic novel for my customers as possible, so I decided to amend the narrative design of Neon Dreams 2. Let's see if you like it.
I did several preview sequential pages for Neon Dreams 2 that didn't really imply any kind of explicit adult content and I think people were confused and disappointed. "SHADE, WE WANT SOME SMUT! WHAT'S THIS?!" and I completely understand.
THE NUT TO CRACK
Taking into account what the disappointment and relative lack of interest in Neon Dreams 2 as originally pitched, I decided to go in the following narrative direction. Let me know what you think.
Neon Dreams 2 will open with my mascot Jeggy in an 80s-style bedroom. She turns on the TV, looking for something fun to watch. Each "channel" she turns it to will show one of the preview pages of art originally pitched for the first Kickstarter campaign. Jeggy will then say, "No." and change the channel. She'll do this multiple times going from preview page to preview page as if each one is a random point in some movie that she's come upon.
After several times, she'll land on one of the several stretch goal scenes as previewed below:
So, there would be four major explicit scenes based on The Smurfs, The Terminator, Aliens and TMNT. These four scenes would make up the bulk of Neon Dreams 2. Jeggy would look on in fascinated wonder as each scene plays to completion on her TV before moving onto the next one. We'd even see some commentary from her from time to time as the scenes play out.
SUMMARY
Think of Neon Dreams 2 as being a kind of erotic version of Mystery Science Theater 3000 but focusing entirely on 80s properties. What do you think?
I'm working on the page layouts now. I'm thinking Neon Dreams 2 will be around 48-50+ pages before I get to the Hardbody Hustlers calendar art, which will also be included among some other miscellaneous content.
A new update is coming soon.
Check out the rough layouts for the first few pages of a scene to be featured in “SuperHeroes After Dark TRILOGY Vol. 2: Second Coming”! You can see the uncensored preview pages in the link below.
UNCENSORED PREVIEW: https://ibb.co/QQqJ60d
PRE-ORDER HERE: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shadedraws/superheroes-after-dark-trilogy-vol-2-second-coming
SuperHeroes After Dark TRILOGY Vol. 2: Second Coming is a 150+ page adult superhero graphic novel that combines three previous comics:
SuperHeroes After Dark 4: Afterglow
SuperHeroes After Dark 5: Midnight Masquerade
SuperHeroes After Dark 6: Infernal Affairs
...into one awesome collection!
PRE-ORDER HERE: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shadedraws/superheroes-after-dark-trilogy-vol-2-second-coming
Speaking only for myself... it kinda feels like you do kickstarters like well in advance of what you're actually working on, and it can be a little hard to keep track. Getting updates on here, updates through kickstarter from past campaigns... sometimes it's like "Did I back that?" I don't know. Maybe. I'll check what I have, and what's still in the pipeline. Later. Maybe. If I remember. For what it's worth, I meant to back Neon Dreams 2. Maybe I actually did, I'll have to go look.
Good analysis of the Neon Dreams 2 funding situation and a very creative solution and direction for the “New” New Neon Dreams 2. Bravo, I love it!