In Our Dreams Awake #3 - Comic Book Kickstarter | Interview with John McQuire - Go Fund This

Imagine walking into your boss's office and giving notice because your writing has become your primary revenue stream or your podcast is successful enough that you can quit your day job, or maybe having your marketing on autopilot so you can spend your time on the art career you love rather than on marketing. Are you a creative person who's great at what you do, but marketing makes you freeze? You're not alone. I help passionate, purpose driven creatives overcome fear, find their brand voice, and build a marketing strategy that works for them. Oh yeah, I also make it easy and painless. It's never too late to grow the business you've been dreaming about. Book an introductory call with me, Rob Southgate@southgatesmallbusiness.com today. And let's take the pain out of marketing together. Welcome to GoFund this. I am your host, Rob Saf. I have a exciting Kickstarter today. Not that we haven't had comics on here before, but I just read this series and I am telling you, you're gonna love it. It's so good. I've got the writer of the series, John McGuire with me who's gonna tell you all about it. John, speaking from the heart, man, I am so in. In fact, I almost want to swear at you because we're talking about issue three. It's a four part series. Don't tell me, how is this gonna end? Don't tell me. I loved it. I. I loved it. So, John, why don't we start off by tell people, oh, by the way, this is on Kickstarter and you'll find it in the show notes, but it is in our dreams Awake. If you type that in, you're gonna find this series. It's. It's number three, a dreampunk comic. That's the title, it says across there. So just type in in our dreams Awake and this will come up. And John, now I can turn it over to you. Why don't you tell people a little bit about yourself before we get into the book? Okay. Well, I'm John McGuire. I'm a writer. I write comic books. I write novels. I've done a tiny bit, even dabbling in some screenplays that never went anywhere. You know the age old story. Yeah, yeah. I started with doing comic books with a local company here. I'm based in Atlanta, Georgia and did some anthologies, you know, short stories. Kind of cut your teeth on that type stuff. And then at some point kind of realized, forgive me, artists. It's like herding cats sometimes with, with artists, you know, creative Types and did some novels because really, at the end of the day, if the novel doesn't get done, it's only my fault. There's no one else at fault. It's. If I didn't put my butt in the chair, that's. That's the person I can point at. So. Right, right. Started doing that. But obviously love doing comics as well. So, you know, happy to be able to do a few of those here and there in the midst of the long novel writing. Well, your comics are interesting. You're. You also have the Gilded Age, which I think is really fantastic. This one though, it, you know, sparked a lot of ideas. As I was reading it, I'm a big fan of like a Harlan Ellison, Neil Gaiman. You know, as I'm reading it, these are the people that I'm. And like the old DC comics even I'm like reading it, going, I'm seeing all of it here. But it doesn't, it doesn't feel like a ripoff of it. It feels like, oh, I got another one. Which is really cool. And I do mean that as a huge compliment. Well, no, I definitely appreciate that. That's. That's great that you picked up on that. So, John, let's tell people it's in Our Dreams Awake. This is issue three. Why don't you tell the audience basically what the series is about, give a little background, and then let's go right into what number three is. Don't spoil, but something that's gonna, you know, chum the water a little bit. So in Our Dreams Awake is a story about Jason Byron. Jason Byron is a painter in a fantasy world where magic has defeated technology and they've outlawed various forms of tech. And he has a forbidden piece of tech, a telescope. When he goes to sleep at night though, he wakes up and Jason Byron is in a cyberpunk drowned London futuristic. And he is a gang leader who basically is doing his best to navigate fish aliens, and trying to just carve out a piece of life for himself and his fish alien girlfriend as they plot to try to get off world. And then when he lays his head down, he wakes up and he's painter in a fantasy world again. And we flip between those two realities, basically. The key point though of this is Jason doesn't know which one is real and which one's the dream world. That's what got me. Yeah, that's what got me when I was reading it. And so the way we also do that is I have a co writer, his name's Ed Embry. We have two different art teams. So when you're in the fantasy world, there's no doubting that you're in the fantasy world. You're looking at Edgar Salazar's artwork. And when we then transition to the cyberpunk side, you're getting Egg Embry's writing and Roland's Calnus as your artist, which is a very more gritty and dark with some. A lot of neon in there to really show that difference of the two things. Because when we originally talked about doing the comic AG&I, he's great about kind of identifying what can we do with the story that'll like, kind of take it to that next step. And that was the key thing. It was like, well, if we're going to be writing these two things, and let's find two artists that, you know, are different enough that it really gives a unique feel to each of the stories. And so I think I. I feel like we've done that basically for the first two issues. We basically do 12 pages in one story. And then he goes to sleep and we go to the other story and we flip flop which one we start with in issue two. But when we come to issue three, things are starting to spiral out of control a little bit. Those dreams that were very separate at first are beginning to kind of spin and collide into one another. And as a result of that, the story itself, the way we tell the story is now we're spending two to three pages in one world, flipping to the other one. So hopefully as a reader, you feel that little bit of chaotic energy now that's happening, you know, as we go quick more to each thing. And that's just going to build as we approach the fourth issue and the final issue to figure out which one really is the reality, which one really is the. The dream. And was it the one you thought all along? So, you know, I. I do think it's interesting and I guess this is feedback for you. As I was reading it in that first issue when you first switch. First of all, my first thought was, oh, he did a double feature. Because, like, right, Phil Moocci does these books where he's got a double feature. And I was like, oh, it's like that. Very quickly I realized it's not. But you are right, the, the distinct art style, even though it's like they're complementary, but they're very different. It. It made me think it was a double feature. And then that's when it kicked in that I realized, oh, this one of these is a Dream. And what's cool is you're not tipped off by the art. Either one of them could be the dream. If you're dreaming from the one perspective, you might dream in this more cartoony. Not even cartoony. And then. Or if you're in this, you know, cartoony, it's not the right word for it. You might dream in this more sketched, rough feel. I loved that I, it was, I was all in as I was reading it. So. Okay. I think we've told people how much I love it. I think people understand this is one you want to back. Before we get into what the, what's going on with this as far as tears, this project has 23 days to go. As of the recording of this, it might be 22 by the time it actually gets to you, the listener. Or if you listen to it late, it'll be even less. So don't sit on this. Get in there. As of right now, the goal is $500. You're at 393. We've got 20 backers, so we know the risks are low because this is going to hit. There's no question. And as I've said before, especially with comic things like this, you want to make sure it gets funded because it's what, it's the fuel that keeps a project like this going. And using two artists and this big a team, this can get pricey. So you want to support this to keep this type of creativity going. And we want to get to that fourth issue. I'm telling you, you start reading it, you're going to understand why I'm saying this. This has got to be funded because I have got to know what happens. But we're, we're, I mean you're, you're what, a hundred and seven dollars away at this moment? And we've got 23 days to go. It's going to be a safe bet we're going to get there. So let's talk about how we get there. Why don't you focus on a couple of tiers that you think like they're the most popular or everybody's going to want to get in on. Sure. Well, I think, you know, if you're. I know when I support Kickstarters, a lot of times it's hard to deal with, maybe shipping and handling or if you're overseas, that sort of thing. So we have a, we not only have a catch up tier if you're just interested in our dreams awake for the digital side, but then we also have at $15, we kind of have all the PDFs. So you mentioned I also had a comic called the Gilded Age, which is four issues. It was a graphic novel. So if you get that $15 level, you get all three issues of in Our Dreams Awake, plus you get the Gilded Age. And I believe we have the Dreamer, which is a role playing accessory that kind of ties in not directly to this In Our Dreams Awake project, but kind of thematically ties into that as well. So I feel like that's kind of maybe the most bang for your buck because you're going to get three issues worth of Inner Dreams. You're going to get four issues of the Gilded Age on top of everything else. That's, you know, over 150 pages of comic book reading at that point. Yeah. And at 15 bucks, that is quite a value. I. I think that's a fabulous tier. Yeah. And then, you know, we also have a print catch up at 25, so you can get the. The first three issues, the fantasy covers that we did for each of those again, so that, like, if you do want to have that physical, that tactile sensation, you're holding the book, smelling the pages, all that sort of thing. And everything is signed by both Egg and myself. He's a local to Atlanta as well. Sadly, the artists are all spread out, so that's impossible. But. So, yeah, I feel like that's another a good one if you're looking to collect the whole series in physical form. Form. Well, and it just makes it fun. So eventually, you know, you get those physical books. You've got all these different artists and writers involved now it's a Pokemon situation. People buy these and they go around to the cons around the world trying to catch these guys and get everything signed. Sure. We'll see if that happens. Okay. And. And why don't you give me. I mean, the one I'm looking at is your top tier. Yeah. So we have the draw the drawn in the comic one. Now that's at 200. Obviously that's a big ask, but the one of the cool stories that has come out of that is we did. We've done that for each issue. We had a woman who supported us through that for issue one, and she said, I don't want to be in the comic, but could you draw my cats into the. Oh, fantastic. So the only reason the cats are in the cyberpunk side of things the way they are is because she wanted us to draw some cats in there. And. And Egg went, I've got some ideas for this. And so it really helped shape the story in some ways to give us another antagonist and, you know, group to kind of tie in things, and they have their own particular way of talking and. And that sort of thing. So I thought it was a. I would have never come up with that on my own. So it's one of those happy, you know, I don't know, synchronicities, you know, that came out of this. This rewards. You never know. You might be able to help determine which is the dream world, which is the. The real world, if you support that level for the last issue, you know. Well, you know, I. I love that type of tear and I love that story. You know, it shows how important the engagement with the audience is. It takes you in these other directions. Not on here. Afterwards. I've got a story for you. Okay. Once again for the audience. You'll get to hear this story when we have John back because he has written novels, he's got a lot of comics. I'm going to have him back in a couple of months on the show Alley chats. People that listen to this, I know often listen to that show. And we're going to get into this stuff and I'll tell the story then, I promise you. But, John, I'll tell you after we're off of here, it's nothing dirty. I just don't want to waste your time on. Go fund this. So, yeah, that top tier 200, I think that's a deal to get in there and get drawn in the comics. You have quite a keepsake for that. And it is such a cool story and such a cool book that I could see. Now, do you only have one person per. I know it's not. It's not technically limited. It's. I mean, you know, over the course of three issues, we've had two different people choose that. So if somehow there's a run on things, then maybe. Maybe I got to go in there and add a limit to it. But that might be a good problem to have. I want it to be like the all you can eat challenge. I want. I want. I want you to go in there. So many people do this that we. Teach John a lesson. Yes, yes. Teach me a lesson, please. It's a welcome lesson. Yes. Right. Okay. So, John, I don't know if you have this. You don't have it on here, but you're going to hit your goal. Do you have any stretch goals set up? Is there anything to look forward to here? Yeah, so, I mean, we're still kind of working out Some of the details, but one of the thoughts that I had was doing kind of a digital, kind of a special. I want to call it an ash can, but that's. But basically kind of take you through the process. So show you the pencils, the ink to. To the script and kind of just walk you through some of the pages. So you can kind of be a behind the scenes. And that would be an add on obviously, for everybody who's backed at whatever level. Just a digital kind of thing. And that was, that was kind of the first one. And then we have some other. We've talked about a few things, but I'm not ready to reveal anything else. Okay. Again, it'll be a good problem to have. You know, we start pushing that envelope. So we need people to go and support this. It's on Kickstarter. It's in our dreams awake. You can see it scrolling along the bottom. I know you can't click that, but at least you get the idea of what it is. It's in our dreams awake. And we want to not only get this funded, but help put the fuel in there that helps pay for book four and helps John continue this ride that we're on. John, where can people interact with you? Typically, I have. My website is johnr McGuire.com you can find me there. I'm on Blue Sky, Instagram X. So any of those places, I'm. I'll put that in the show notes. I'm only so. I'm only so. I'd like. If you reach out to me, you definitely will get a response. But I sometimes have to remind myself that I need to share things and put stuff out there. You know, it's, it's. It's like a second job sometimes. You got to remember to do it. It's an important one, though. I get it. I get it. All right, John, well, thank you so much for being on. Best of luck with this. The marching orders. I say it on every show and I'm going to say it here, too. Whether you support it or not. What? You should support it, but whether you do or not, share it. Let people know about this. Share this episode with them. If you're like, well, I can't really explain it. There is going to be somebody in your friend group that loves this. It's the reason I had John on. I read this and went, oh, my God, I love this. There's going to be somebody and you don't know what they're going to do with it. If they're going to be one of them that gets their picture in the book or if they're going to be one that tells 10 friends and all 10 friends come in. I mean, spread the word, help the artist out, help the writer out. That's what we do here. And support it yourself. You know, for 15 bucks you get that many comics and they're great. Well worth it. Well worth it. So there we go. John, thank you again for being on and I will have you back for GoFundMe this when issue four is coming out. And like I said, we're going to let people know coming up in the beginning of the new year, I'm going to have you on Ally Chats. We're going to get more in detail about your books and your other comics. And then there's another show that we might have you on. But let's start with Ally Chats. Well, thank you, Rob, for having me on. Thank you for being on. This was really great. Have a great day, man. You too. Here.