The Soulsborne graphic novel that explores the depths of horror and humanity. Lordran & Beyond 1st Edition is now available for pre-order. This four story collection combines 58 pages of Soulsy comics drawn by Veitstanz, plus 20 pages of extras including character profiles, trivia, and an art gallery!
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
In its purest form, Lordran & Beyond was created to appeal to the most hardcore of Souls fans. Specifically the die hard niche committed to plucking away at even the most granular of lore tidbits and hints to extrapolate new discoveries and tie together existing story threads.
Helping us along in this venture to see L&B brought to print are of course dozens of those most ardent Souls fans and longtime L&B readers, but also new faces who might not have delved into the depths of lore and story for these titles when they released. To help along new readers and provide some ample refreshing for Souls veterans who maybe haven't played these games in a while, L&B 1st Edition will include some handy additions!
After the conclusion of each story will be a page highlighting the notable traits and significance of each featured character. Readers who haven't played Bloodborne: The Old Hunters since it released in 2015 can have some key details reminded of the nefarious Brador:
Church Assassin Brador
A murderous assassin tasked by the healing church to guarantee the horrific truth guarded deep within the Hunter’s Nightmare would not be discovered by prying eyes. His specially crafted bell allows him to repeatedly stalk and hunt any target he so chooses.
These character profiles are intended to be brief, and provide only broad strokes about the characters' identities without revealing esoteric aspects of their lore or offering heavy-handed explanations for the stories they're featured in.
At the back of the book however will be another new addition in the form of trivia pages. There IS a lot of interesting nuance and detail to how the player can interact with these characters in the actual games, and I wanted to include a fun section to spotlight the minutiae of the mechanics surrounding the main characters of 1st Edition. For example, how the player can handle Navlaan's NPC assassination quest, the reactivity and possible outcomes for the player dealing with Creighton, and how Djura is an exceedingly rare example of a Soulsborne character who can be converted from hostile to friendly.
This trivia section is where I want to reveal more of the core appeal of each character on a game mechanics level, and why they're so fun to interact with on each playthrough of their respective game. I also hope I can use this addition to inform even experienced players of some things they might not have known!
Also, as we reach $7,000USD and close in on the final planned stretch goal, I wanted to mention Veitstanz and myself HAVE come up with plans for bonus stretch goals beyond the art gallery! Before launching this campaign, I considered $7,500USD to be lofty and ambitious, but with that goal very clearly in view and still over two weeks left in the campaign, we decided to explore some other cool items to reward everyone! I'll be keeping all backers updated and sharing more details on bonus stretch goals as soon as we've got visuals ironed out.
As always, thank you again everyone!
Hey all! Since the absolutely killer success of the Kickstarter being funded, I've been hard at work on re-lettering, reformatting, and retuning all of the comic pages to be properly suitable for print.
I've made sure to include more connecting "tubes" between dialog bubbles to more clearly illustrate the pattern of who's speaking, while also establishing a more defined flow and pacing to the dialog. Text size has also been enlarged across all pages to help with readability.
In some dramatic shots, the presentation of the dialog has been stylized differently to help convey the tone more naturally, such as conveying a character's distress. The proportions of each dialog bubble are also tweaked so they frame the larger words more attractively and consistently.
I've nearly finished updating all of the comic pages, and plan to have a printed proof to verify as soon as possible!
Thanks to the incredible and genuinely stunning support and enthusiasm for L&B 1st Edition within just the first week, the project has been funded but there's also three stretch goals in the bag so far! As of now, ALL backers receiving a shipped reward will receive the free character sticker shit AND have the option to choose between the default 1st Edition cover or the all new Bloodborne-inspired variant cover, plus backers receiving the poster bundle will get an extra "Amygdala" poster print for free as well!
When plotting out the stretch goals, Veitstanz and I decided on goals that would benefit as many of the backers as possible. As funding would ramp up, more backers would benefit from the project's success instead of being inclined to pay for more expensive options. To continue this value, the next stretch goal at $7,500USD will add a 10 page art gallery included in all PDF and print copies of 1st Edition! Veitstanz has drawn quite a lot gorgeous non-comic Soulsborne art that we're really excited to be able to include.
If there's any Soulsborne fans you know who would be interested, please be sure to share the Kickstarter! Thank you so much for all your support everyone~
The campaign is quickly progressing through its stretch goals; thank you so much everyone! The third stretch goal looks like it will be reached pretty soon, so Veitstanz has already started on the sketch for the variant cover.
The existing cover focuses on Creighton from Dark Souls II, but since two of the four stories in 1st Edition are inspired by Bloodborne, we decided the variant cover should reflect that. In its finished version, this melancholic cover will be traditionally water colored, and focus on dramatic lighting and a somber tone. It'll also be a wrap-around cover to embellish both the front and back of the book.
We'll be sharing more updates regularly on the progress of the cover, the lettering, and production of the volume.