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Hi all. Real quick, the campaign was obviously supposed to launch about 20 minutes ago. We are still waiting for final review from BackerKit. As soon as the review is good, we will launch!

Hey all!

We're inching ever closer to our crowdfund launch date, and I'm so thankful for your support so far. I wanted to take a moment to highlight two other projects current raising funds that might pique your interests. Both are comics that fall under the broad category of historical fiction (which I hope you have realized is what The New Amsterdam Game is)!

The first one is a collected volume of the long-running and well-received series by Madeleine Holly-Rosing, The Boston Metaphysical Society. Madeleine is a wonderful writer, a pillar of both the indie comics and historical fiction communities, and just a super nice person to boot. Her current Kickstarter is for the third volume of the series, subtitled Mystery at Pike's Peak. I'll let her own words describe the series and volume:

"[T]he original six issue mini-series is about an ex-Pinkerton detective, a spirit photographer, and a genius scientist who battle supernatural forces in late 1800’s Boston. They live in an alternate steampunk history where ghosts and demons are a normal part of life. Families known as the Great Houses control the economy of the Great States of America while the middle class and lower classes sole purpose are to serve the Great Houses.

Mystery at Pikes Peak is about the team (Samuel, Caitlin, Granville, and Alma), fearing arrest, flee Boston to arrive at the only safe haven they have--Tesla's Experimental Station in Colorado Springs. There they meet Tesla’s most unlikely partner, Meihui Zhou, a scientist from the Great House Zhou in California. Life gets more complicated when an attempt is made on Tesla’s life and Caitlin’s psychic abilities take a dangerous turn. Now, they must figure out who is trying to kill Tesla and what Caitlin’s visions are trying to tell her before anyone else dies."

Madeleine is well past her initial goal and is currently in the stretch goal phase with 15 days remaining as of this post. If you want a brilliantly spooky, steampunky story by a master of the craft (in a high-quality hardcover edition or otherwise), please take a moment to go over and support her!

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Next is another volume of a series I love: Athena Voltaire, by Steve Bryant. Steve is a extremely talented writer who I had the pleasure of meeting at HeroesCon last summer (after sort of being ships passing in the night for years). This series is extremely well-reviewed (having garnered multiple nominations of major awards), and so chock-full of pulpy Nazi-punching goodness that you cannot miss it. If you like The Rocketeer (I do) or The Mummy (I do) or Indiana Jones (who doesn't), you absolutely must pick up Volume 1 of Athena Voltaire: The Complete Adventures.

As Steve describes Athena Voltaire: "In the knuckle-dusting style of classic pulp adventure comes Athena Voltaire, the globetrotting aviatrix who takes on Nazis, secret societies, mythical beasts, and unspeakable occult creatures! From sunken galleons to haunted mountain-top lairs to hidden jungle temples, our heroine faces peril at every turn as she races to save the world!"

If that cover doesn't do it for you, I can't help you. Steve is also well into the stretch goals of his campaign, so you can get yourself a 256-page, five-story, hardcover-bound collection! Don't miss it!

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So please take a moment to check out two very different but both very excellent and engaging reads! I'll try to update this post with more project as they come to my attention,

Again, thank you for your support and I hope you are all getting excited for The New Amsterdam Game!

Hi all! We've reached 30 pre-launch followers - thank you, and welcome to our new friends!

As promised, here is the fully-inked version of artist Michael Bruland's cover for The New Amsterdam Game: Gooseberry's Counterfeit Caper!

Man, that is so cool. Look at that face! I love Michael's face-work (that's the proper term that I'm going with. Face-work).

Thank you all for following us and believing in this project! Get a friend or two to join, and we'll hit 50 followers soon - I'll have to have some reward for that, too!

-- Paul

Happy Thursday, everyone! Before I get into today's post about occupied New York City, I want to welcome our new followers (hello) and urge you to find a friend or two to follow this campaign along with you! We are less than 50 days until launch, and the more followers we have, the better our chances of success. Plus, there's those pre-launch follower and Early Bird rewards out there - some of you have already claimed them! Thanks for that.

Ok, time for a history lesson.

While 300 dishes were served at the Queen's ball, thousands were freezing in the ruins of Trinity Church. Welcome to occupied New York.
 
The British successfully attacked and occupied New York City early in the war, in late August of 1776. They would remain in control of the city until "Evacuation Day" at the end of the war in 1783 (but that is a story for another day...). Not long after the occupation began, a fifth to a quarter of the city went up in smoke in the Great Fire of New York. We are still uncertain of the exact cause of the fire - Loyalists and the British blamed Patriot saboteurs, Patriots blamed wantonly cruel British soldiers. Circumstantial evidence does indeed lean towards Patriots as the arsonists, but the Continental Congress denied any such claims.
 

The Ruins of "Canvas Town"
Regardless of who set fire to what, the consequence was a city that was deeply divided both politically and visually. The charred ruins left behind by the fire were never cleared until after the war, and a shanty town emerged around what remained of Trinity Church as now-homeless refugees put up tents or pinned scrap wood to the remaining skeletons of buildings. In what became a long-standing NYC tradition, rents doubled and doubled again in light of the new housing shortage and the fact that British soldiers were occupying as many standing homes as possible. This "Canvas Town" was exactly as you could imagine it: freezing in winter, boiling in summer, a cesspool of disease. Food prices skyrocketed as the British forces consumed more supplies, and hard currency was in increasingly short supply. Loyalists from around the region swarmed into the city, seeking safety from Patriot neighbors. Additionally, approximately 10,000 escaped slaves settled in the city, as the British promised freedom for any that joined the military (notably among them, Harvey and Deborah Squash, who escaped from slave master George Washington). The sudden population growth (it more than doubled from 1777 to 1779) exacerbated the situation.

Lawlessness Under Martial Law
For their part, the British seemed unconcerned with the well-being of the Loyalists of New York City (unless they had money and status, but we'll get to that). British soldiers preyed on the residents. Robberies, beatings, rapes, and murders grew increasingly common (I touched on this point in Gooseberry's Midnight Ride, which you should read), and soldiers faced minimal discipline for these actions. Civilians were forcibly recruited into the Royal Navy by "press gangs." Violence was common in the Canvas Town as those with nothing fought with each other for what little was available. As civilian courts were suspended, the only legal recourse people had were courts martial. As you can expect, these courts regularly found in favor of the British and their soldiers. Dissenters were quicky arrested and stuffed into a "sugar house" (a stone warehouse used to store...you can guess), if you were lucky. The unlucky ones were sent to the HMS Jersey, a prison ship in Wallabout Bay near Brooklyn. Conditions there were a living hell, to say the least (and it's a story for another day).

The Gentry's Playground
For British officers and Loyalists of means, however, life in "Torytown" was exceedingly pleasant. They occupied the finest houses and mansions still standing in the city. Cricket, croquet, and theater were the order of the day, and balls and feasts filled the evenings. Elites held a birthday feast for Queen Charlotte (yeah, the one from Bridgerton) in January 1780. Local Reverend Ewald Shewkirk noted “great festivities for the gentry, carried too far in excess during times of distress and calamity. Over 300 dishes were served for supper.” This went on while the majority of the city starved and froze to death.

With such a stark contrast, combined with heavy-handed rule by the British, it's no wonder that New York City became the world's hotbed for espionage. Fed-up Loyalists switched sides and supplied information to the Continental Army. Patriot spies, such as the Culper Ring, engaged in their own activities in the area, gathering intel on British plans and troop movements. Into this world steps our own Gooseberry, to bring his own particular talents to bear against the British.

Hopefully this give you a good sense of what New York is actually like during the era of The New Amsterdam Game; I have always loved showcasing settings as characters unto themselves in my stories, and this location is no different!

Stay tuned for more insights like this as we get closer to the campaign launch!