So people who have known me for making The Pride all these years might be asking ‘why is he doing something so different now?’
The simplest answer would be ‘because I want to’ (and yes, now I have that Billie song stuck in my head too), but there is of course more to it than that.
As much as I love The Pride and poured my heart and soul into it, and there is SO much more to come, there are other things I want to do, other stories I want to tell too.
Not to sound too pretentious, but I contain multitudes: there is more than just one tale in me, and I am interested in exploring so much more.
Acceptable Losses is an exploration of darker, more ‘mature’ superhero narratives. The idea, which was especially popularised in the last few decades, of grounding superheroes in reality.
The Pride is about heroes being fantastical and iconic. Acceptable Losses is about heroes that are as mired in the dust and dirt as we are.
It’s also about exploring topics outside of the general ‘representation matters’ notion, while not forgetting that. Which is why the lead characters are gay in this. However, the main point of this story is not about their sexuality and how it is dealt with in their world, but about the War on Terror, being a soldier and where notions like ‘an eye for an eye’ lead us.
Acceptable Losses is at times thought provoking (I hope), shocking (I expect) and entertaining. It’s brought to reality by Danny Flores, an artist whose gritty, solid stylings I enjoy; Moose Baumann, a wonderful creator who I’ve bonded with over our mutual victimhood from certain regions (I’m sure you can imagine) and to yet again work with Michael Stock, my long-time Master of Letters who puts up with my waffling nature.
It also, personally, is a good next step in my career. There’s already some pretty exciting things on the horizon for me in 2019, but I don’t want to rest on my laurels and I need to be able to show that I am so much more than just one kind of story. This book, in many ways, is the next important step for me after The Pride.
And I need your help to make it happen. I raise funds on Kickstarter not to get some huge personal pay-out like those that abuse crowdfunding platforms do, but to cover printing, posting and to pay my incredible creative team a good wage/page rate in a timely fashion. These people take time out of their lives to help me make my fantasies a reality to share with you all, it is imperative to me that they get recompensed for that to the best that can be offered.
So please. If you have followed me, if you have enjoyed my work in The Pride, if you’ve liked what I say, but wanted to see what else I could bring out, please support Acceptable Losses on Kickstarter now.
Help me make something new. Something different. Something that has just as important a message to share.
