Hi, everyone, and thank you for joining Comictopia in support of BANKED #1. This is a new platform for me, and I'm happy to be part of such an amazing and large group of indie comics creators and fans trying to raise money for their incredible comic projects. I've done a lot of crowdfunding on Kickstarter and have personally backed almost 450 campaigns, so you know I'm a fan and a believer in making indie comic dreams come true. One of the things that I wanted to make specific to this BackerKit campaign is the Speed Stop logo I designed for Branko's cover. Should we hit the funding goal, this is the only place for that element in the cover. It is also a fun bonus reward in the form of a sticker. I thought that might be a fun tie-in to the comic, even if the Speed Stop is a catalyst for a whole bunch of violence down the road. Hey, it is a crime comic, after all.
 

If you're unfamiliar with my work, I tend to be the kind of writer who loves and writes all kinds of stories in multiple genres, sometimes mashing them together for crazy results. One such story is Dude-Bro the Barbarian, which was illustrated by my good friend Antonio Brandao (no relation to Thyago, the colorist on several of my projects). Annelise Sauvêtre colors the first third of the book, and Sean Forney colors the remaining two-thirds. I asked Antonio to do his best Ernie Chan/John Buscema homage, and he killed it. For those of you unfamiliar with the late Mr. Chan's amazing work:

Obviously, this is a very different comic than Banked, being a sword and sorcery comic full of raunchy humor, but I like to offer a variety of comics and styles. Dude-Bro is a mature comic for language, nudity, and the appearance of a Lovecraftian sex god. I consider it a kind of dessert to the seriousness of Banked and some of the other offerings. I wanted Dude-Bro to resemble a mash-up of Conan, DC Comics' Warlord, and finish him off with the Fred Flintstone loincloth. It is a self-contained story that first appeared as a serialized story in the pages of my Spicy Pulp anthology. This is the first time the story has been collected on its own in digital format.  If you like barbarians fighting giant monsters, then I've got you covered.

You're probably thinking, "Lovecraftian sex god? What's that look like?"

That is it for now. Have an amazing weekend, and thank you again for supporting Banked! 

Justin