#craighton berman

[lucybellwood]

Unbeknownst to many, I keep an informal podcast feed full of every panel I've ever done over on SoundCloud! Just uploaded this wonderful conversation from my tour stop in Chicago, featuring @craightonberman, @geekmelange, and Suzanne Walker. Tune in for discussions about Imposter Syndrome, belonging in minority communities, getting paid, and building resilient networks that push us to grow 💛💛💛

Follow the panelists: Suzanne Walker - www.suzannewakeenwalker.com/ Michi Trota - www.geekmelange.com/ Craighton Berman - craightonberman.com/ Lucy Bellwood - lucybellwood.com/

[lucybellwood]

WHAT’S UP CHICAGO. I’M THROWING A PARTY THIS THURSDAY (JUNE 14TH) AND YOU’RE ALL INVITED.

I've teamed up with the Chicago Nerd Social Club to bring you a fabulous roster of guests for a FREE variety show evening about imposter syndrome and makin’ art. The guests are...

Suzanne Walker ( @mooncakescomic ), badass editor and writer of Mooncakes!

Craighton Berman ( @craightonberman ), designer, educator, and illustrator extraordinaire!

Michi Trota ( @geekmelange ), Two-time Hugo Award-winning writer, firespinner, and Managing Editor of Uncanny!

We’ll be at a secret location from 6:30pm to 9:30pm. RSVP at this link to have the venue address sent to your inbox. No funny business, I promise. It’s just a city ordinance thing because we’re hosting the event somewhere private.

Really looking forward to this one. See you there!

(Not in Chicago? The dates for Leg 1 of my 100 Demon Dialogues Tour are all up on my website. I’ve got spots in New York, Massachusetts, D.C., North Carolina, and more. West Coast: I haven’t forgotten you! Dates coming soon.)

[westernpole]

Craighton Berman for Western Pole

[alexdrawsagain]

Strange/wonderful/terrifying/disheartening/triumph (Running a kickstarter pt.2)

So when momentum slowed down, thesis ramped up. Everything seemed to collide at once. Some people met runaway success or were wildly funded. I was with the other half of the class that still had ways to go. My classmates supported me by sending some pledges but it still didn’t feel like enough.

Patty (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/patrycjastalonczyk/b2-wall-binder) made a support group for our class to share our triumphs and misery. We seemed to spend a lot of time trying to see if the people who were sending us messages were legit or more scammers (87% were scams). It was there i was given a lot advice where they gave me the brilliant idea of:

-CHANGING MY CATEGORY FROM DESIGN TO COMICS

-SWITCHING THE COVER PICTURES IN ORDER TO KEEP INTEREST UP

I can’t stress how helpful these two bits of advice were helpful.

It wasn’t all doom and gloom. Whenever I got a backer who was someone I didn’t know it really did lift my spirits. The class agreed that getting someone you didn’t know was a badge of honor and it gave you some validation that your stuff might reach somebody who really appreciated not just your immediate circle of friends. And Craighton was there to calm me down because often I went up to talk to him looking like this. (Image courtesy of Matt Burnett)

[alexdrawsagain]

Strange/wonderful/terrifying/disheartening/triumph (Running a kickstarter pt.1)

So right now, i’m just going to give small bite sized reflections on what happened to me on my kickstarter.

So here’s what happened around the time i launched. I had spent an enormous amount of time trying to get my kickstarter off the ground (a semester and a christmas break to be exact). On the day we launched, I had hit the button to launch as Craighton had essentially ran towards me shouting “no!” (he just ambled over to me and nervously said “did you press the button yet cuz we have to talk”) In reality, he went over my numbers one last time and tried to warn me that my kickstarter was doomed to fail due to bad math.

Now me being a pigheaded fool explained to him that if I sold out everything I had, I’d be funded. He was cautious stating that I had unnecessarily chosen the hard route to being funded. Because I said if sold 7 robots, 43 comics, and 17 downloads I’ll be fine. It was all or nothing. I was just going to hustle like crazy and was overly confident of my success. I made teasers, spamming facebook, looking up blogs trying not to pay attention to what i percieved as my classmates rocketing success. And in reality I made a lot of progress in one week.

And that’s when momentum slowed down.

[alexdrawsagain]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2061800686/help-super-saturn-get-off-the-ground-and-into-orbi

Part 2 of my mini trailers for my kickstarter campaign (Super Saturn 6)

[alexdrawsagain]

Press Release V.1

Super Saturn 6 rockets out of the world of Alexander Cruz's comics and makes his physical debut! Saturn is a DIY toy robot made out of beautiful fluorescent acrylic aimed at those young at heart or those who enjoy flights of fancy. It comes with an origin story comic so everyone can truly immerse themselves in his world. Whether you just want to build something cool or be swept away in the stuff of saturday mornings, Saturn will be there.

With a heart of Gold and FISTS of STEEL!