Hard to believe it’s almost a month since Greg Pak and Jonathan Coulton launched their latest Kickstarter endeavor—The Princess Who Saved Her Friends children’s book, a sequel to their previous The Princess Who Saved Herself based on Coulton’s titular song.
After blowing past their initial $39,000 goal within two days, during this final week before the Kickstarter campaign ends, Pak and Coulton announced a final set of stretch goal. Be sure to donate if you haven’t already!
Three weeks ago, comics writer Greg Pak and internet superstar musician Jonathan Coulton launched a children’s book Kickstarter for THE PRINCESS WHO SAVED HER FRIENDS, the sequel to their beloved children’s book THE PRINCESS WHO SAVED HERSELF. With five days left in the campaign, they’ve almost doubled their original target goal and are closing in on an $80,000 stretch goal to make Korean and Spanish digital editions of the book for backers.
“We’ve been absolutely blown away by the support,” says Pak. “Genuinely independent projects like this only live and breathe because folks step up and spread the word, and our backers have really come through. Thank you, thank you, and thank you!”
The book tells the continuing adventures of Gloria Cheng Epstein Takahara de la Garza Champion, the hero of the original PRINCESS WHO SAVED HERSELF book, and is co-written by Pak and Coulton with gorgeous art by Takeshi Miyazawa, colors by Jessica Kholinne, and letters by Simon Bowland. The campaign will continue until October 17 and the finished book is scheduled to be delivered to backers by the end of February 2019.
The campaign hit its initial $39,000 goal within two days and has since hit two stretch goals, unlocking a digital bonus pack of books and music for all backers at the $12 level and above and signed bookplates for all backers at the $35 level and above.
If the campaign hits $80,000, every backer at the $12 level and above will get PDFs of the Korean and Spanish translations of the book.
“The translations are near and dear to my heart,” says Pak. “Whenever I’ve sold the original book at comic book conventions, people of all conceivable backgrounds pick it up. So I’m excited about the idea that the translations could make the book accessible to even more people.”
The original book celebrated a scrappy kid who stuck up for herself but was always able to open the circle and find reconciliation with the monsters and witch she came into conflict with.
“We absolutely loved that story of determination, bravery, and understanding,” said Pak. “But for the sequel, we’re asking what happens next, when our heroine discovers that the witch she befriended might not be such a great friend after all.”
THE PRINCESS WHO SAVED HER FRIENDS tackles the kind of tricky personal conflict that kids — and adults — grapple with every day in the real world. In this case, the mean queen makes the dragon cry by haranguing him about his bad guitar playing, and suddenly Glory has to figure out how to manage the conflict. Things get amped up to the next level when a group of ultra cool, ultra mean kids who call themselves the Royals show up — and the queen ditches Glory’s band for theirs!
For more about the story and to back the project, please visit
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gregpak/the-princess-who-saved-her-friends
