Kevin Eastman is Kickstarting a semi-autobiographical comic called DRAWING BLOOD

You wouldn’t necessarily think that Kevin Eastman, who has made and lost many fortunes as the co-creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles would need to go to Kickstarter, but hey it’s a publishing tool so why not? Along with co-writer David Avallone, and artists Ben Bishop and Troy Little, Eastman is Kickstarting DRAWING BLOOD, a series about a comics artist who makes and loses several fortunes and…hey wait a minute! It’s a roman a clef isn’t it?

The actual campaign doesn’t start until August 1, but here’s the storyline before then. This one should have tons of fodder for comics history enthusiasts. The story of Eastman and Laird’s fortunes and misfortunes has enough twists and turns for a TV mini series – Netflix are you listening?

Who is Shane Bookman? 

Creators Kevin Eastman and David Avallone, with Artists Ben Bishop and Troy Little, want to tell you his story with their new comic book series, DRAWING BLOOD. 

In 1992, Shane “Books” Bookman, and his brother Paul, released their scrappy indie creation on the unsuspecting comic book universe: The Radically Rearranged Ronin Ragdolls. To their great surprise, everyone went wild for the adventures of three feline Katana wielding mutant cats, and a multi-million dollar franchise was born. 

After more than a decade and a half of global success – comics/action figures/movies and just about anything else you could sell with a Ragdoll on it — the creators imploded. Too young and too naïve to know how to handle the sudden pressures of wealth and fame, they split up, and the franchise eventually sold. 

Now “Books” is hitting his forties (hard), his money all gone, his artistic inspiration tapped out, and his very life in danger from the loan sharks his crooked business partner failed to tell him about before committing suicide. It’s hard enough to recover from a catastrophic encounter with the hit and run driver called “early success,” without having to worry about killers chasing you all over town. 

Drawing Blood is a dark-comic-drama (dramadey?), the story behind the stories, a look inside the twisted life of a professional cartoonist. A roller-coaster of show biz and sex, fame and infamy, controlled substances and uncontrolled artists, genius and goons, this series takes you into the darkest corners of a mad world only talked about in the hotel bars of a Comic Con. 

Drawing Blood is co-created by Eastman and Avallone, with scripts by Avallone. Primary art by Ben Bishop, with some sequences by Kevin Eastman and Troy Little and a Radically Rearranged Ronin Ragdolls one-shot drawn by Little. Variant covers will be by Kevin Eastman and a constellation of comic book stars. 

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