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!
All three of The Terminator omnibus editions are in approval at this time. We anticipate there could be minor changes required but expect that the books will be going to press soon. As the books make their way through the printing process we will keep you updated on expected shipping times from the factory. The production files for these volumes look incredible. Here's a quick preview of a few more design pages from the volumes.
Watch for more updates coming soon with additional details and more preview images. Thank you.
Wow, what a great final stretch! You unlocked the bonus challenge coin (which all physical pledges will get for FREE), and carried us nearly to $75k...! (Am I disappointed we came so shy of a nice round number...? NO. I'm thrilled with what we achieved together!)
We'll be transferring all of the campaign data and momentum into Backerkit's Pledge Manager system next week from where the surveys will be sent once that is ready. Stay tuned for information on that mailing as soon as we're ready.
Thank you SO MUCH for your support! We know you'll be very happy with these books when they arrive. Vincent's work is beautiful and these stories are classic.
We've got some updates to share with you all--don't worry, nothing too scary (we'll save that for the comics).
The News
With blessings from Corin, we've updated our release schedule for Lilith Arc 1. Issue #3 will release next month in March (3/26 for shops--a week early on 3/19 for BackerKit backers), Issue #4 will release in April (again, a week early for backers), and Issue #5 will be on sale in early June (late May for backers), with the BackerKit and Standard trade paperback editions shipping in July (as soon as they hit our warehouse for backers).
The Why
The comics market has been wonky lately, to say the least. Vault saw the writing on the wall and decided to slow our release schedule across the board near the end of 2024 to protect our creators from potentially unrecoverable losses. In January, Diamond Comic Distributors, the largest distributor of single-issue comics in the US, indeed did declare bankruptcy after months of instability and damage, so it seems that pausing was the correct call. Now that we've had time to assess the new landscape and re-solicit the series completely, we're finally able to proceed with completing Lilith's first arc as Corin intended.
What This Means for Backers
We've made no changes to the Lilith campaign except for the adjusted timing of our printing, distribution, and fulfillment. No other action is needed from you--all covers and rewards will still be shipping once we've got them printed and ready-to-ship in a package suitable for your tier. We completely understand that this unavoidable industry-wide upheaval and delay might have affected Lilith backers negatively--we'll be making some additional digital covers and rewards available as a thank you for your patience during this tumultuous time--but we're happy to assist with refunds if these adjustments have caused a hardship. Thanks for bearing with us as we've pivoted!
"But What About--?"
If you have any further questions about this update or about your rewards or tier, please write to us at [email protected] with your question, and we'll be happy to assist.
In the meantime, we will be releasing copies of Lilith Issue #3 to all backers in mid-March, so please keep an eye out for that.
We thank you again for bearing with us through one of the most, uh, dynamic periods in recent comics memory, and as always, we appreciate you for backing Lilith.
I ordered back in 2023 and still have yet to receive the Rocky plush I ordered for $50. I have contacted the seller via the help email and got no response, I’m getting really sick of waiting and just want a refund at this point. I’m done waiting for hope that I’ll magically get a response and rocky plush.
