Jason Coffee passed away at the age of 33 leaving behind many sci-fi movie scripts that will never see the light of day. Jason’s dying wish was for his voice to be heard, so his friends respected his wishes and adapted Coffee’s Warhawks screenplay into a comic book. Josh Grofain is back on the Kickstarter-horse after a unsuccessful attempt to fund the second issue of his creator owned series Meatspace. Will their comic book dreams become realities or ill-fated attempts? It’s all up to you.
Project: Meatspace Part 2 & 3 – a videogame revenge thriller comic
Talent/Project Manager: Josh Grofain
Days to Go: 15
Goal: $7,000
The spiel: If you’re a lover of the post apocalyptic future settings and MMORPG games, then this is for you. Fans of the series might notice the change in art style, that’s because Matthew Furber took over art duties. If you haven’t read the first issue and want a “Costco sample” then read the first issue –for free– right now.
Meatspace is the story of Lance Brighton, veteran of a future war who due to his injuries suffered on the battlefield, became one of the first brain-implanted robots in the world. After mustering out of the army, Lance spent his days indoors and engrossed in the massive multiplayer game that the world is playing, DungeonWorld, a co-creation of his son, Johnny and his friend, Anton Actos. Lance is forced into the real world, “meatspace” when his son dies mysteriously of a drug overdose. Aided by the latest member of Johnny’s team in the MMORPG, Rebecca, Lance seeks to find out what really happened to Johnny. Along the way, Lance reconnects with humanity and the real world at large.
If you live in the New York area and are tired of those delicious $1 New York pizzas, then let Grofain cook for you. For only $500 you will get digital copies of Meatspace, signed physical books, t-shirt, postcard, sticker and dinner for four. He’ll even throw in some chocolate cookies in for desert, and if you play your cards right who knows he might be willing to do for your money. Hello ladies or fellas! I hear comic book writers make great husbands.
Project: Jason Coffee’s Warhawks
Talent/Project Manager: Warhawk Comics
Days to Go: 5
Goal: $21,000
The spiel: Jason Coffee’s Warhawks (at the time I wrote this) is $3,271 away from becoming a reality.
Before he died, Jason was working his way up through the trenches of Hollywood. He was an assistant on numerous sci-fi televisions shows including Babylon 5 and Roswell, evaluated scripts for James Cameron, and had just written an episode of the documentary series, The Universe. He passed away at the age of 33, after surgery to remove a tumor from his brain. Jason was buried in a Spiderman t-shirt and a hat that simply said: WRITER.
After hearing the background for this project, Marvel artist Billy Tan contributed a cover for this book. Coffee’s brother, Mike Chiang provided the character designs and the creative talent on the book include: Joel Gomez; art, Rex Lokus; colors, Joshua Reed; letterer. Incentives include original art from issue one and signed X-Men Apocalypse prints by Tan. The project managers previewed the first five pages of the book if you’re still not convinced.
Keep those Kickstarter projects coming and send me a link at [email protected]
Henry Barajas is the co-creator, writer and letterer for El Loco and Captain Unikorn. He has also written and lettered short stories for two successful Kickstarter SpazDog Press projects: Unite and Take Over: Stories inspired by The Smiths and Break The Walls: Comic Stories inspired by The Pixies. He is the Newsroom Research Assistant for The Arizona Daily Star and was nominated for the Shel Dorf Blogger of the Year award for his work at The Beat. You can follow him on Twitter @HenryBarajas.
Jason attended Northwestern University and lived in the same dorm I did, the Communications Residential College. One of the chief organizers of this project was a classmate of mine, Todd Carney. It’s a labor of love for Todd and the other folks keeping Jason’s memory alive, and I’m glad to see the book getting attention.
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