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!
There seemed to be an issue with the compressed version of the PDF I linked earlier, so this new link to the book is uncompressed and seems to be working now. Sorry for any issues.
Hi folks. Since we last chatted about the book, I've been hard at work adding and rewriting and drawing and all the other things that go with making a really good graphic novel. We're up to over 100 pages now that I'm comfortable calling basically done, and I have the last third of the book plotted out and thumbed.
In all honesty, this has been the hardest thing I've ever done artistically, and I definitely underestimated how much time it was going to take me to realistically get it made and out the door. And now, roughly a year later, the world is so different economically and who knows how the tariffs and whatnot are going to impact all of the printing and shipping of the physical books. So I've been thinking about it a lot.
The last thing I want to do is make any of the folks who have supported me annoyed with me, but I also think we might need to encourage some more support in case more economically turbulent things happen. So what I'd like to do is start releasing a page a week of this book as a webcomic to get some more eyeballs on it. Before that happens, I'm releasing everything I've done so far to you folks (Patreon supporters and Backerkit supporters) so you'll be more than a year ahead of the general public.
Folks who backed the project for physical rewards will still be getting those things, and even backers who only backed for digital rewards will still be getting higher quality files and access to the completed story way before webcomic readers. Hopefully this will help us bring in some new readers and we can do even more with this project than I initially intended, but for now my focus is still on finishing the book and getting it to my supporters. I am also attaching the current 100+ pages draft of the book to this post so you can see where we're at if you'd like. (Or not, I know some of you want to wait to be able to read the whole thing in it's entirety.)
I hope that all makes sense and doesn't rankle anyone. Of course, I welcome all feedback, questions and opinions here. Please reach out, either here or on socials or whatever's easiest for you if you have concerns.
Sorry for the follow up email, but some folks were having issues with uncompressing the zipped version I sent out in the last update so here is a non-compressed copy of the PDF for you. Apologies again, please let me know if you have any issues with this one.
Alice: Lost In Wonderland 1-2 55% funded and we are just 6 backers from unlocking the first milestone reward which will unlock a new FREE gift for all physical backers! who will be the 50th? Help Alice unlock the next freebie by backing and sharing the campaign on social media! How will Alice track down the ever elusive Rabbit when he can travel throughout time and the multiverse? Can she catch him before the other bounty hunters? Will she deliver The man that saved her life to his death? Will she survive a confrontation with the psychotic Queen of hearts?! How did she end up with Rabbit's vorpal sword and how did it get broken?! Come along for the wild ride throughout reality to find out HERE!
Have you ever wondered what YOUR life would be like if you were a superhero?
Join us in this coming-of-age, action-packed, late 90's / early 2000's nostalgia-filled story!
Continue the journey with this group of friends.
TeenStrike #3 is a 36 page comic book continuing the weekend after the events of issues 1&2. TeenStrike #4 is a 28 page comic book picking up right after issue 3.
This is a total of 64 pages packed to the brim with action, adventure, humor, and teen drama!
This is a no-risk Kickstarter! The book is complete! Production funds for the entire 7-issue run are secure! Issues #3 and #4 are currently being printed and will be ready to ship as soon as the campaign is complete!
FOR FANS OF:
Teen Superhero books (Spiderman, Teen Titans)
Shonen Anime and Manga (My Hero Academia, Dan da Dan)
90s / Early 2000s Nostalgia
- Reviews for TeenStrike 1&2!
Score: 10/13 "Comics like TeenStrike are few and far between..." "TeenStrike is a deeply felt labor of love." - Paul, ThePullbox.com
Score: 7.5/10 "They look and act like real teenagers ..." "TeenStrike 1&2 pulls off a good ensemble story while avoiding most of the pitfalls." - Fracadactyl - Gutternaut.net
Project We Love - Kickstarter
Kickstarter honored Issue 1&2 with their "Project We Love" award!
Just a quick status update! Most progress in book production since the last update has been going back-and-forth with the printer on finer details of book dress, paper weights, bindings, et cetera before the presses are fired up. The airwaves are unfortunately quiet while the work is in progress. We’re currently waiting to hear from them on job updates and the production photos we requested.
Where fulfillment on non-book rewards is concerned, we’ve recently gotten bookplates and art boards to Marie in order for her to start on signing and sketching. Once this is complete, they’ll be mailed to us in the US where they’ll be compiled into appropriate bundles for fulfillment. We’re excited to see everything come together!
Mel Joy San Juan has finished work on the pencils and inks for Ascendant: Star-Spangled Squadron Volume II. It turned out to be an exceptionally complex project to draw that stretcher her skills - some scenes were so complex that we had to model them with 3D avatars to make sure we kept continuity of action. But it has come together gloriously.
Meanwhile, Pradeep Sherawat has finished 50 of the 64 pages of color. The remaining pages will get done over the next two weeks. The book will then be handed over to Kathryn Renta for layout and lettering, and then it'll be sent to you in PDF and sent to the printers for glorious full-color production.
