Artist Norm Breyfogle passed away in 2018, leaving a legacy that includes a large and impressive body of work. Now a big part of that legacy is coming back to print. A Kickstarter campaign launched today for a 400-page omnibus of Of Bitter Souls, the nine-issue independent project that Breyfogle illustrated in the mid-’00s. The series is written by Chuck Satterlee, colored by Mike Kowalczyk and Jason Newcomb, and lettered by Chuck Maly, Simon Bowland, and Thomas Mauer.
Of Bitter Souls follows a quartet of unlikely heroes who are given abilities by a mysterious pastor, which they use, as the campaign describes it, “to deal with the ghosts and spirits that are so prevalent in their home town of New Orleans, Louisiana.” The series launched in 2005, with the first issue published by Speakeasy Comics and subsequent issues coming from Markosia following the previous publisher’s shuttering.
Satterlee, who created Of Bitter Souls and is running the Kickstarter campaign, describes the new omnibus of the series as including not just all nine issues of the series, but additional sketch material from Breyfogle, as well as Satterlee’s original scripts. The 9″x12″ omnibus, which sports a new cover by Tim Seeley and Nicholas Burgdorf, also includes nearly three-dozen pinups by artists including Michael Avon Oeming, Ryan Stegman, and Dick Giordano, as well as short stories by Andrew Foley, Nathan Norman, and the series’ original editor, the recently-passed Brian Augustyn, all packaged in one slipcased volume.
In a tweet, Satterlee said that a portion of the money raised from the Kickstarter, depending on its success, would go to The Hero Initiative in Breyfogle’s honor. “I hope it will be used for Life Insurance, Disability Insurance & Long Term care awareness, all things freelancers can have to protect themselves,” Satterlee wrote. On the campaign page, the writer also described how the Kickstarter is a tribute to his friend:
Put simply, this project is a labor of love. A love of making comics to be sure but mainly, it is to bring this large body of work to more people because I love Norm Breyfogle’s art… and I love Norm Breyfogle. He was a wonderful artist and an even better person.
You can read the full first issue of Of Bitter Souls on the omnibus’s Kickstarter page right now. The campaign is set to run until Wednesday, May 11th.
