Alright folks, gather 'round! Your friendly neighborhood artist, Steve Rude (the one with the crippling art supply habit!), is back with a brand new sketchbook project: The Art of Steve Rude 2025 Sketchbook!
This bad boy's hitting crowdfunding in January, and lemme tell ya, art supplies ain't cheap. That's why your support is golden!
Speaking of gold, be sure to check out our Patreon page – those dedicated dudes and dudettes get some special deals during the launch.
And hey, while you're at it, head over to our launch page (www.steverude.com/2025skb) and sign up for the Backerkit livestream! We'll be dishing all the juicy details about the sketchbook and maybe even throw in a few laughs.
Now, to keep this humble dude motivated, let's hear it! What kind of goodies would make YOU excited for the next crowdfunder? Hit that poll and let your freak flag fly! (Select all that apply)
We just wanted to let everyone know that work on the comic is currently underway, and to say thank you to everyone for their patience. We joined onto the comictopia project on rather short notice, but during the campaign it became clear that while we love Backerkit for our fulfillment solution, we've just built up too much of a an audience on Kickstarter to try and move everyone over here. So we will be launching issue 1, the full issue, over on Kickstarter next month, and we will have enough art to finalize assembly of the ashcan very soon.
Artist Antonio Baldari also had to take on another gig unexpectedly but is back working on CSR, and also contributed this awesome cover for the upcoming full length issue.
So hopefully if everything lines up right, you will have the ashcans in hand just as everyone is starting to talk about the first issue, before it goes to press. This will also get a wide circulation through comic book stores nation/world-wide, making this limited ashcan release something special. As soon as the new kickstarter pre-launch page is live we will share that too. More to come soon!
The Rook
Hi folks. Been hard at work on The Unfamiliars, but I recently finished up a section I wanted to share. It's one of the most detailed pages I've done to date, and the finished piece is the image at the top of the page here. It's a prison for familiars and other criminals in the book and this full page image establishes the scale of the place.
Magical Prison
My first crack at designing the interior of The Rook was this thumbnail, which worked as a placeholder while I was working out layouts but I knew I would need to come up with something showing a grander sort of scale when I came back to it.
Thumbnail
There's no real perspective here, but you can see I had the idea of a bee-hive like, organic shaped thing. When I went back and sketched it again I really tried to force perspective more and made the cells smaller.
Refined sketch
Ok, getting there. This definitely felt bigger. I kinda cheated a bit and made the thing like an x-ray vision into the building, or maybe peering in through an opening, looking down. The ropes help bringing your eyes to the right spots and with establishing some more perspective. I started to ink to get a feel for how I wanted the line weights.
Initial inking
Without getting too fiddly with the inks, I just wanted to lay down where the thickness needed to be. Those foreground outcrops are right, some of the other stuff is off still.
Inmate sketches
Next I started sketching out the inmates, and I ended up putting a few little easter eggs in there.
Final piece
All told this thing took me several weeks to work out, which is crazy for me, since I tend to average a page every day or two, but I think it came out pretty cool and should make for a really nice full pager in the book!
While this was all going on, I also commissioned my friend Sid Moncrief to do a cover for the book and I have to say she absolutely nailed it. I am still fiddling with the graphic design but look at how cool this is!
The Unfamiliars Cover
I'm as tired of updates as you are but let's not allow that fatigue to get in the way of a robust THANK YOU to all of you that made this campaign a success. People say you should never admit to having a favorite child but Daybreak! is my favorite project as a creator. Your support of the book means an awful lot.
"WHAT'S NEXT? You may ask.
The files are all zipped up and ready to go to print. Trade Paperbacks tend to take a little longer to have printed than floppies so while Backerkit processes the pledges over the next two weeks, I'm going to jump the gun and send the book to print early next week. In the meantime, if there's an issue with your pledge, please follow Backerkit's instructions on how to correct and process it.
We anticipate fulfilling this campaign in April, as stated on the campaign page. There shouldn't be any hiccups along the way but if there are, I'll let you know ASAP what to expect.
If you've backed Daybreak! but haven't backed The Defense #1, there are still a few days left to back both and receive free copies of JUMP #1, UNcovered #1 and THE OFFICIAL HANDBOOK OF THE NEW PAIN UNIVERSE. We're also very close to unlocking the first Defense stretch goal where all backers will receive a free copy of P.U.N.C.H. #1. If we make it far enough in that campaign, there will be another free comic included (we haven't decided which yet) so by backing both, you may also receive 4-5 FREE New Pain books.
Here's the link if you've been meaning to check it out: bit.ly/thedefense1. Make sure to leave the comment "DEFENDING DAYBREAK!" on that page so we can verify and keep track of everyone.
Thanks again for the support, shares and encouragement, guys. When there's more news about this project, you'll hear about it here first.
When I backed this project, I added on the VOLUME 1 Sejic cover to my pledge of the VOLUME 2 Sejic cover (it shows this in my confirmation e-mail). Now my survey indicates that I pledged for the VOLUME 2 Sejic cover and added on the VOLUME 2 Sejic cover--can someone please help me with this issue?
Check out behind the scenes art from Todor Hristov for The Book of Nosferatu!
Some Backers have not completed the Backerkit Survey. If you have not done so yet please take the time to do so. This helps make the fulfillment process run more smoothly.
BackerKit team reached back out to me and said they need to work with the Creator to update something for our surveys to work properly. I'll post a follow up when done.
If you contact BackerKit support, apparently on their end it looks right unless you send them screenshots. I'll add a message to this when it is resolved for me and any steps you might need to do to get the Book 1 add-on to show properly. Unless it just fixes it for everyone.
There are less than three hours remaining in the campaign for DAYBREAK! THE COMPLETE SERIES. The campaign ends at 3:00 PM EST today!
We're sending out this final reminder because we don't want you to miss out. You've supported New Pain in the past for a reason: We tell great stories. DAYBREAK! is our flagship title and if you haven't checked it out yet, you're missing out on an exceptional graphic novel.
The project is fully funded and the campaign is close to being able to add eight more pages of content. Check it out at this link while there's still time: bit.ly/completedaybreak.
Back with more after the bell rings and the dust clears.
The campaign for the second issue of Soul Food Wars met its goal. And on the last day of Black History Month too?! Y'all did my heart some good. I can't thank those who pledged enough for believing in this comic. I appreciate each an every one of you.
What now?
Well, there's still two more weeks in the campaign so there's still a chance to preorder if you haven't. And don't be afraid to brag that you've already secured your copy (i.e. share the campaign as much as possible). You're in the cool kids club. Be sure to let folks know.
I'll be able to start on the art soon and I'll be sharing it with all of my lovely backers as I'm working over these next few months. I can't wait to show y'all.
