This week’s crowdfunding watch is brought to you by my childhood. I dreamed of living inside books or having them somehow magically become part of my real world. I longed to experience the thrill and dangers of time travel and longed to immerse myself in the magical realms of Fairy Tales. Paying homage to my childhood imagination this week, I’ve found three crowdfunding projects that will hopefully tickle and delight your imagination.

The Author’s Apprentice

A library with secrets? Characters and books who come to life? Say no more. Just take my money. I have dreamed about this exact kind of scenario since I was about six years old.

The Author’s Apprentice is a graphic novel three years in the making. It began as a collaboration between freelance illustrator, Chechula and author, Jessi Eichberger. Eichberger is also a costume designer and knows more about historical fashion than I could ever dream of learning. *Fangirl alert.*

But I digress, The Author’s Apprentice originally began as a web comic which follows the story of a young girl named Johanna Petit. Petit picks up a strange book which allows her to access a library unlike any I’ve ever been to called the Athenaeum. This discovery brings an entire world to life, one with secrets and escaped characters and a vampire assistant (naturally).

This Kickstarter is hoping to bring together the four chapters of the web-comic in soft-cover as well as an additional 14 mini-comics by various contributors. The full-color novel will run at 250 pages and features the work of Ama Gomes (amasugiru), the lovely papercraft artist, Yutann and Sunmi, who co-runs the Dandelion Vine Collective.

There’s some pretty nifty rewards available including enamel pins, sticker sets, and a plushie named Daisy which is so cute I had to suppress an actual squeal of delight. The Author’s Apprentice is funding through Feb 5, 2018 over on Kickstarter.

Valor Anthology: Volume II

The second volume of the Valor Anthology from creative team Isabelle Melançon and Megan Lavey-Heaton has now launched on Kickstarter. Valor reimagines the fairy tales of our youth with young girls and women who are their own heroes with the ability to take charge of their own destiny with the agency and autonomy associated with being a human.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1987386669/valor-anthology-volume-2?ref=discovery

Megan Lavey-Heaton explains it better on their Kickstarter:

The purpose of the stories is to pay homage to the strength, resourcefulness, and cunning of female heroines in fairy tales. Although fairy tales are often presented as a “feminine” form of literature due to the abundance of princesses, a lot of classic princess archetypes are passive, asleep, imprisoned, or offered as a prize. Valor, and all the creators participating in it, want to give female heroines the roles they deserve, to inspire young and old readers alike.

This anthology will be full-color with 19 comics, four prose stories, ten illustrations and will have around 200 pages of material. Valor‘s Kickstarter page has information about each of the stories the anthology will contain along with their respective creators, but here’s a few:

• The Prince’s New Clothes by Isabelle Melançon & Megan Lavey-Heaton
• The Orc who Dreamed of Elves by Isabelle Melançon & Megan Lavey-Heaton
• The Princess with no Reflection by Camila Fortuna
• Swan Lake by Natalie Riess
• The Six by Faye Simms
• Lizard King by Abby Howard

Valor is planned as a trilogy with the first being published back in 2014 after a successful Kickstarter campaign. The second anthology (Valor: Wands) is the one currently seeking funding. The third volume (Valor: Cups) has a tentative release date of 2019. Valor is edited and published by the small press shop, Fairylogue Press.

There’s a slew of reward goodies for backers at every financial level, which is always nice to see. If you haven’t guessed it by now, I’m a big enamel pin fan and thankfully the team behind Valor has satiated my desire for beautifully designed pins and stickers.

The Valor: Volume II Kickstarter is hoping to raise money to cover artist payment, publishing and shipping costs. Funding will continue through February 10, 2018.

Tabi No Hana Issue 1: In all its Forms

From first-time creators James Smith and Brandon Lee Kitajchuk comes a Steampunk swamp story (yes, you read that correctly) about a family who is trying to reunite after a time travel accident. The father, Kaiashi, and mother, Todaia, become separated from their children Utsu and Oku.

Here’s a synopsis of the story:

The father Kaiashi, once a military man, discovers time travel. Kaiashi then moves his family to an outskirt farming village to avoid having his experiments stolen by the government. Living in Hiyokuna Shitchi he continues to carry out his endeavors. One day by complete accident, Kaiashi triggers the time travel device sending him and his wife Todaia into the future. Kaiashi and Todaia’s two children, Oku and Utsu are left alone to fend for themselves. Tabi is about the Numa family struggling to get back to each other with little care or understanding of how every action they make creates chaos in its wake. Careful Numa family, there is a dark presence lurking over you.

The first comic, the one currently seeking funding, will be combined but if the Kickstarter is successful the plan is to follow the stories of the parents and children separately in subsequent releases.

The creators will be publishing Tabi No Hana through their independent press, Popsicle Propaganda. While there aren’t many reward tiers or backer goodies available, $5 dollars does snag you a digital copy. Funding for this Kickstarter will run through January 31, 2018. The duo is currently seeking enough financial support to help cover the costs of printing, shipping and marketing.

Until next week, ta-ta for now!