Here at Fanbase Press, we strive to provide an outlet for up-and-coming creators to promote and showcase their incredible works. With thousands of creators utilizing crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo to make those works a reality, we will highlight these talented creators and their noteworthy campaigns through #CrowfundingFridays! We hope that you will join us in giving these projects a moment of your time (and possibly your support)!

Project #1: Pinocchio: The Illuminated Edition

What it’s about: Pinocchio: The Illuminated Edition from Philadelphia-based boutique publisher Beehive Books teams up Mike Mignola (creator of Hellboy) and Lemony Snicket (author of A Series of Unfortunate Events) to devise a newly illustrated, annotated, and designed edition of a classic. The all-new, deluxe hardcover edition of includes exquisite original illustrations from Mignola, which breathe new life to the charm, gloom, and chaos of the seminal novel, alongside over 100 full text annotations by Snicket, presented as slipped-in typewritten sheets produced by Snicket during his Pinocchio-induced descent into madness.

The project is part of Beehive Book’s acclaimed Illuminated Editions imprint, the company’s distinctive line of book art editions of literary classics which reimagine literary masterworks with all-new covers and illustrations from the world’s greatest graphic artists, including the Balbusso Twins, Rebekka Dunlap, Brecht Evens, Dave McKean, Paul Pope, Yuko Shimizu, Bill Sienkiewicz, Kent Williams, and Jim Woodring, alongside original essays from the likes of Academy Award-winning filmmakers Guillermo Del Toro and Darren Aronofsky and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Michael Cunningham.

This week, Beehive Books announced a series of three watercolor prints of Pinnochio by Mike Mignola. The three 8″x11″ fine art prints are exclusively available as part of this Kickstarter campaign! The prints—of Mignola’s Pinocchio paintings currently not already included in the book—are available as their own $50 tier, an add-on with every other tier, and as a free bonus item with every special edition of the book on Kickstarter. The full-color paintings were created by Mignola as part of the New York’s Society of Illustrators exhibition, live now in NYC, which features full portfolio of yet-to-be-published Pinocchio illustrations, including all the drawings done for the book, as well as additional art not included in the book, process work for the project, and an original puppet from Red Nose Studios.

Click here to visit the Kickstarter campaign.

Project #2: Palomino: Volumes 2 & 3

What it’s about: Acclaimed cartoonist and award-nominated animator, writer, and director Stephan Franck has worked with some of the most popular characters of all time—including Spider-Man and the Smurfs — and has contributed to classic contemporary animation projects, including Despicable Me, How to Train Your Dragon, The Iron Giant, and Marvel Studios’ What If…? as head of animation and director.

This spring, the LA-based creator is returning to a passion project: writing and drawing the graphic novel series, Palomino, a neo-noir graphic novel series set in the lost culture of Los Angeles’ country music clubs. Franck and his company, Dark Planet Comics, are returning to Kickstarter to crowdfund volumes 2 and 3 of the planned 4-volume graphic novel series.

Set in Los Angeles in the year 1981, Palomino is perfect for fans of mysteries, hard-boiled dialogue, music, lived-in slice-of-life, and Los Angeles’ weird and forgotten history. The American Century is running on fumes, but the end isn’t anywhere in sight. The cowboy is still America’s most central symbol—and from movies, to music, to the President himself, it all hails from Southern California. Across LA, six nights a week, working musicians, TV actors, stuntmen, cops, hustlers, and broken souls all play their part in the cultural myth making. Most of them are just trying to survive—on the B-side of the City of Angels. This is Palomino — where Farrah Fawcett hair reigns supreme, where Ronald Reagan is beginning his first term as President, and where LA’s hottest music spot is North Hollywood’s historic Palomino Club.

Click here to visit the Kickstarter campaign.

Project #3: Detached: Volume 1

What it’s about: After Casey’s personal demons manifest in the real world as creatures called Oddlings, she must learn to embrace and love herself or risk spiraling back into the captivity of her troubled past. The first book of Detached introduces our protagonist Casey a year after her suicide attempt. After being saved by a mysterious creature, she’s thrown back into her life and faced with the things she had been trying to escape. Casey must navigate a world that’s now sprinkled with strange creatures and unpredictable magic while trying to heal the heart-shaped hole left in her body. Volume One sets the pace for Casey’s slow-burning (and awkward) journey as she learns that she’s worthy of love from both herself and her friends and that her past does not define her.

Click here to visit the Kickstarter campaign.

If you have a crowdfunding campaign that you would like to have included in Fanbase Press’ #CrowdfundingFridays series, please contact barbra (at) fanbasepress (dot) com for details.