We are not slowing down...!
over 3 years ago – Sat, Oct 17, 2020 at 12:31:54 AM

Hey everyone!

Hope you're headed for a great weekend. We are going to be working through it ourselves -- we've got a PARIS 2119 artbook to finish up! We've got almost all of the guest pieces in, just waiting on one or two print-rez files, but check out these sneak peeks...!

The sketchbook is laid out and once the artbook is done (hopefully this weekend), both will go to press. Still aiming to have everything collected for fulfillment by Nov.1! Will keep you posted!

But in the meantime...

GET READY FOR OUR NEXT KICKSTARTER LAUNCHING TUESDAY!

Yes, we are launching our next Kickstarter campaign NEXT TUESDAY, this time for a beautiful dark fantasy hardcover graphic novel in a classic Nordic/LOTR tradition: WAHCOMMO, illustrated by the phenomenal LUIS NCT!

When we saw this book at the Astiberri booth in Angouleme this past January, it immediately shot to the top of our acquisition wishlist, and we raced to get the rights signed.

And to make this project even more exciting, we're absolutely over the moon to have gotten one of our most favorite artists ever, the multiple-award-winning co-creator of one of our favorite Eisner-nominated comics, ISOLA, to provide a campaign exclusive variant cover for the book: KARL KERSCHL!

In fact, we are so excited by Karl's cover art that we are giving away a FREE LINEN CARDSTOCK PRINT of his cover art to every backer who pre-registers their promise to pledge on our landing page at www.wahcommo.com!

Just visit that site, enter your email address, and when we see your pledge come in during the campaign, we'll mark you down to receive one of these beautiful pieces! (This is similar to our pre-registration offer for the Peach Momoko print for ASTER... if you missed that one, here's your chance to get in on this one!)

Visit the pre-reg landing page for more art and preview material, then also visit the pre-launch page on Kickstarter to be notified when it goes live on TUESDAY OCT. 20th at 10am CST!

But... another Kickstarter? So soon?

Yes. And these days, in this market and economy, you can't really blame us... :)

Kickstarter has proven to be a fantastic way to bring premium quality content to you, a very discerning and supportive audience, directly, with the built in ability to offer so much more for your support. You really have nothing to worry about as far as ASTER is concerned -- production is well-in-hand and sailing smoothly toward our planned shipping schedule. We're not going to disappear on you -- this is what we do, and have done for several years and multiple other campaigns so far! We love Kickstarter and the people we meet here. And as different as each project may be from the last, we think there is an underlying similarity that will hopefully appeal to everyone who has joined us along the way.

Hopefully that will include you on this next one, too! On WAHCOMMO and beyond!

So please pre-register for your FREE print today and mark the campaign page for launch notification! We really could use -- and totally appreciate -- all of your support for a great day one!

Weekend update - digital ETA
over 3 years ago – Mon, Oct 12, 2020 at 12:20:11 AM

Hi everyone!

Just a quick weekend update -- we're working on the artbook and sketchbook layouts and are expecting all of the guest art this week! Our hope is to have those off to the printer by early next week. We've also been working on the OST tracks in our free time, and they're sounding great (imho). Books are inbound, expected in our warehouse next week. Everything seems on track!

Frankly, the one piece I'm a little nervous about is getting the signed bookplates and original sketches back from Zep and Dominique in time. Zep has finished signing them all (1500 of them!) and I believe Dominique is now in the process of signing them, after which he'll ship them all back along with his original sketches. The sketches are all finished, it's really just a matter of the shipping time to get them all back here. There should be plenty of time, and a safe bet, but you just never know these days...

Of course, we'll keep you all posted!

BACKERKIT STATUS

We're still waiting on survey info from about 86 of you, so if you haven't filled out your survey, or don't remember if you did, please check your email inbox for your unique link, or message us directly and we'll look it up for you. Don't worry about being late -- as long as we have your information before we start fulfilling, its all good. :)

Contacting us

We've noticed a few of you have asked questions in the comments section of the main campaign page, or in the comments section of individual updates, and we apologize if we missed replying to any of those. Frankly, we don't get any sort of notification from Kickstarter when a comment is left, and since there are comment sections in so many different places, its hard for us to monitor each one regularly. But we DO get notification when a direct message is received. So if you have any pressing questions that you need a response to quickly, we strongly suggest messaging us instead of asking a question in the comments section. While some questions might be answered promptly by other backers (and we appreciate those who step in to help!), if you need to hear from us directly, messaging is the way to go.

"What about the digital stuff?"

We know we mentioned 'early October' for those digital items, but in full transparency, many of them just aren't finished yet -- the Sketchbook and Artbook are still being laid out, and the Soundtrack is still being mixed and mastered. They will all be ready very soon, and of course the main book itself is finished, but our goal is to release everything in the same process, at the same time, through the same channel. We fully anticipate that will be by (or hopefully before) the time we start fulfillment shipping, so that is the date we're holding production to keeping. 

But again... we'll keep you all posted!

And again... THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

Locking Down Backerkit in 48hours!
over 3 years ago – Tue, Oct 06, 2020 at 06:08:05 PM

Hi everyone!

As mentioned in the last update, we have initiated the lock down process with Backerkit. This means that you should receive an email notification giving you 48 hours to make any final changes to your pledge package, including any adjustments or add-ons you wish to apply. Once that 48 hours has passed (on Wednesday afternoon), they will automatically lock your orders and begin charging your credit cards for any remaining balances due. 

Much like Kickstarter, if they have trouble running the charge, they will ask you to address the issue as soon as possible. If the issue isn't addressed and they cannot charge your card, we cannot send your package! So please keep your eyes peeled for those messages and be ready to address things if necessary.

While this lock down does confirm your order amount, you will still have time to adjust your mailing address up until we actually begin shipping in early November.We will be sure to let everyone know just ahead of that time in case you need to make any last-minute changes.

There are still about 100 of you who have not filled out your Backerkit surveys!

We have pushed reminder emails to those of you who still haven't filled them out... please watch your inbox for those messages! If you don't fill out your survey, we have no way of knowing where to send your stuff! And if you don't fill it out before the lockdown on Wednesday, you won't be able to add on any extra items! 

This really is your last chance to grab those limited edition exclusive items!

One last update for today: 

Congratulations to Greg Allen, backer #1072, who was randomly selected from the 435 of you who filled out our post-campaign interest survey to win the $25 Amazon Gift Card! Congrats, Greg! And thank you to everyone who filled out the survey! The $.50 Backerkit credit has been applied to all of your accounts, so you should see that reflected in your totals now that they are being locked down. (Certainly let us know if you don't see any credit that you feel is due.)

Thanks everyone!

Status report: things are coming together...! Backerkit locking Oct 5th!
over 3 years ago – Sun, Sep 27, 2020 at 10:04:58 PM

Hi everyone!

Hope you're all doing okay these days -- a huge apology for the recent silence! We really do mean to update you at least once a week, but last week got completely away from us, and we didn't realize how much time had lapsed since the last update until just this morning! Unforgivable... sorry!

But rest assured things are progressing nicely!

• The books are on their way from the printer (on a literal slow boat from China), and we should have them the last week of October.
• The coins are in-hand (and they are SWEET).
• We mastered another track for the OST (and mastering is always the hardest part).
• Tony Sandoval turned in his piece for the art book (and it's awesome). The others are all aiming to have theirs done in the next couple of weeks. Unfortunately, 'Fane had to drop out so we're seeing if we can find a replacement, but as it is a tribute book (and on a tight deadline), we make no guarantees... it'll still be a sweet book, tho!
• Dominique is finishing up the sketches, while the book plates are on their way to Zep for signing.

So barring any unforeseen hiccups, we're on track to fulfill in November!

Backerkit update

We will be locking the Backerkit orders on Monday October 5th!

That is when Backerkit will actually charge your credit cards, so we can confirm our item counts for printing. So if you want to make any changes to your order, please do so by then! 

NOTE: you will still be able to update your shipping address until we begin shipping! Addresses will be locked down in a separate update at the end of the month, once all items are at our warehouse and ready to ship.

If Backerkit has trouble running your charges, they will send you frequent reminders to address the issue, similar to how Kickstarter does it.

There are still about 100 of you who haven't filled out your Surveys. We will send reminders via Backerkit, but if you haven't received anything yet, please let us know. Perhaps they are being sent to a different email address (they go to the one associated with your Kickstarter account). Regardless, we can help you out if you let us know. If you don't fill out your survey before we begin fulfillment, we won't know where to send your stuff...! :)

Thanks, everyone! More news soon!

Advance proofs are in... and they're GORGEOUS...
over 3 years ago – Tue, Sep 15, 2020 at 12:55:02 AM

Hi Everyone!

We got a very special package in the mail from the printer today... advance copies of the book arrived! And it turned out SWEET!

We couldn't be more thrilled with how it turned out. It is definitely a SPECIAL edition of a special book!

We've coordinated the printing and signing of the book plates with Zep and Dom now. By the time Dom has finished all the sketches, they'll send the whole batch back with sketches. As it stands, we're still on track to have everything ready to start fulfillment by the end of October!

We'll keep you posted as more cool stuff shows up!