HOPE Volume 2 : "Masks"

IMPORTANT: Start watching your mailboxes, friends...
almost 2 years ago – Sat, Jun 08, 2024 at 10:36:49 AM

All HOPE Volume 2 packages will finish shipping next week!

Hello friends!

I’m excited to announce that, as per Source Point Press and our fulfillment partner Whalebacker, all pledge packages for HOPE Volume 2: “Masks'' will officially be in the mail by this Tuesday… so start watching your mailboxes, friends!

If you pledged for a digital copy, it is now available for download via your BackerKit too! Huzzah!

Whalebacker is a valued shipping partner who offers excellent shipping services, but if upon receiving your package there are any damages to your package despite all their care, please contact them directly at [email protected]– and please include your contact into and a photo to make the process quicker for you and them.  :)
 

We HOPE you like the book… and that you’ll let us know!

While I’ve also gone over the digital files many times, in full transparency, I’ve only seen photos of the books themselves and have yet to hold a physical copy… but the photos I’ve seen are GORGEOUS, and I can’t wait to hear your thoughts on the books and the story itself as well! Feel free to tag me (@dirkmanning), artist Sally Scott (@tallnose), and/or our publisher Source Point Press (@sourcepointpress) on Instagram or your social media platform of choice if you’d like to share your thoughts publicly – just don’t post any spoilers, OK?

I know you might want to by the time you get to the end of the book… but just don’t. Seriously.

Maybe leave an Amazon review instead, though?

Looking ahead to what's ahead...

The files for my next book (a werewolf western horror graphic novel titled HOMESTEAD that, ironically, is also about people trying to protect and defend their families) are going to the printer next week. We had a very successful Kickstarter for this book, and if you missed it and would like to snag a copy of the TPB Edition (at least) you can snag one via the HOMESTEAD BackerKit right HEREwith FREE U.S. SHIPPING if you hurry.

In mid-July I’ll be launching the Kickstarter for my next original graphic novel, an expanded re-release of my long out of print graphic novel LOVE STORIES ABOUT DEATH, a collection of seven 22-page genre-hopping horror stories that revolve around the themes of the intertwined nature of love and death. Despite this book being so popular it was once even featured on the television series Chicago Fire, this will be the first – and only – time it will be available in a deluxe hardcover edition.

After that, we’re moving on to the officially licensed and definitive graphic novel adaptation of the classic lost Lon Chaney horror film LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT in October, and then another major horror project in February that we can’t officially announce until January 1st.

I’ll then be returning to continue some of my creator-owned titles after that… but no spoilers on which ones, or in what fashion, exactly. There are some characters who I’m very much itching to return to, though… and after you read HOPE Volume 2, I suspect you'll feel the same. Heh.

I’ll drop you all a note on each as they release, but I just wanted to give you a peek ahead at what’s ahead.

Again… THANK YOU!

Thank you all for your continued support, my friends. I cannot stress enough how much your support makes these books possible, how much gratefulness and appreciation I hold in my heart for each and every one of you, and how dedicated I am to continuing to pay your support forward with more great graphic novels. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Watch your mailboxes, message me directly at [email protected] if you need anything from me, and otherwise I”ll be in touch soon!

Your friend in comics,
Dirk Manning

THE BOOKS HAVE ARRIVED AT THE WAREHOUSE!
almost 2 years ago – Thu, May 30, 2024 at 09:36:06 PM

REJOICE... AND PREPARE YOUR "FEELS," FRIENDS!

Both the Kickstarter Exclusive Hardcovers and the TPB editions of HOPE Volume 2: "Masks" have arrived at the fulfillment center... and here's proof sent from them to me to you!

I almost also posted a photo showing a few interior pages of the book, but we're too close to delivery to spoil anything now!

According to our fulfillment partner Whalebacker, these should start shipping next week... so I'll keep you all posted once the shipping starts!

Again, though, for now... rejoice... and prepare yourselves for what should prove to be an equally exciting and heartfelt read!

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

Your friend in comics,
Dirk Manning

P.S. -- Obviously, if you didn't fill out your BackerKit yet, do it NOW!

Guess what's scheduled to arrive at the end of the month?
almost 2 years ago – Fri, May 03, 2024 at 07:29:42 AM

We're in the final countdown...

Hey all!

I spoke to our publisher Source Point Press's CCO Josh Werner the other day, and according to the printer the HOPE Volume 2: "Masks" books are scheduled to be delivered by the end of this month! Huzzah!

This means we'll be locking the shipping addresses in the BackerKit soon, so if you moved recently -- or haven't filled it out -- do so NOW, please! (It only takes a few minutes, I promise... and if you have any issues, message me through here directly.)

Also of note, HOPE Volume 2 artist Sally Scott and I got to table next to each other in Artist Alley last weekend, and that allowed me to get to see her remarking the bookplates that will be included with every KS Exclusive Hardcover first hand! Here's a peek..

How cool is it that the limited edition hardcover versions of the graphic novel come not only with a KS Exclusive wrap-around cover, but also double-signatures and a quick remark sketch from the artist? This is why I love Kickstarter so much... and appreciate being able to pay it forward in this way to all of you!

Bookplates aside, the shirts and pins are also currently in production, so once the books arrive Whalebacker will begin fulfillment from the warehouse in Michigan fairly immediately.

I can't wait for all of you to get to read this book, as I can't wait to get your reactions to it... and we're almost there!

Thanks so much for your support! I'll be in touch again soon!

Your friend in comics,
Dirk Manning

P.S. -- Tomorrow is Free Comic Book Day, and I'll be making my annual signing appearance at Packrat Comics in Hilliard, Ohio, so if you're close, swing by and say hello! If it's a bit too far away, though, and you have a closer local comic shop, consider swinging by there to not only discover some new books (that's how many of you may have first discovered HOPE, after all), and also do what you can to make a purchase of some sort when you're there, too. Remember, the free comic books the comic shop owners are distributing are NOT free to them... so try to pay it forward to them if you can! 

Closer and closer...
almost 2 years ago – Mon, Apr 15, 2024 at 09:17:15 PM

Or: Tom Petty was right.

Hello everyone!

We're in that point in the campaign when the book is at the printer, the book plates and shirts and all the other extras have been ordered... and we're all waiting together.

And while Tom Petty was right around the waiting being the hardest part, that's not to say that our HOPE Volume 2 team has been standing still.

I just had the pleasure of being a guest at the always-amazing Astronomiconin Livonia, Michigan this past weekend (you can see a bunch of photos over on my Instagram page HEREand -- if you're not faint of heart -- my metal karaoke performance HERE), and the weekend after this one both myself and HOPE Volume 2: "Masks" artist Sally Scott will be in Artist Alley at C2E2 in Chicago at tables H8 ("Hate!") and H7 ("Heaven!") respectively.

I'm sure it's not too hard to figure out which one of us is at which table, respectively... ha-ha.

If you can't make it out to C2E2 (which, as far as I'm concerned, is legit among the very best of the "giant" comic cons in the country), you can see my full schedule of convention and signing appearances as it stands at the moment at www.DirkManning.com under the "Signings and Appearances" tab.

Despite "convention season" now being in full swing for the spring, we're still on track to get the HOPE Volume 2 packages on schedule (as we can't wait for you to get to read it), and I'll be in touch soon with another update as the bookplates and such arrive!

Thanks, all! I genuinely and sincerely appreciate you and we will be talking again soon as the time for waiting gets shorter and shorter...

Your friend in comics,
Dirk Manning

HOPE BackerKit closes next week... and have you seen our werewolves?
about 2 years ago – Wed, Mar 06, 2024 at 08:26:09 PM

Hello friends!

As mentioned in the last update, HOPE Volume 2: "Masks" is currently at the printer as I type this, and the expectation is that the books will be here and ready to be delivered within about 60 days! I'll be keeping you all posted, of course... so keep an eye on these updates!

In the meantime...

Have you completed your BackerKit?

We'll be locking the BackerKit for HOPE Volume 2 next week, so if you haven't secured your order and mailing address through there yet, please take a moment to do so now by going HERE. Remember, our shipping partner at Whalebacker will be using BackerKit to fulfill the orders once the book arrives... so please get that filled out right away if you haven't yet!

And do you, by chance, like werewolves? Or westerns? Or both?

With HOPE Volume 2: "Masks" now well into production, we recently launched the Kickstarter for our next project, a Native American/Western werewolf graphic novel titled HOMESTEAD which you can check out on and explore on Kickstarter at www.HomesteadComic.com. Here's a peek at the cover:

Like HOPE, HOMESTEAD is a very emotionally investing story about how far someone will go to protect their family... exploring this theme (among others) through a much more directly horror lens.

We're offering a lot of cool Pledge Levels on this campaign (including T-shirts, mini werewolf busts, and even full werewolf statues) and as of this writing we've unlocked SIX Stretch Goals and counting!

We'd all be extremely appreciative if you'd give the campaign a look and consider joining us for this one too. As was the case with HOPE Volume 2, we're even offering FREE U.S. SHIPPING too!

Thanks, friends -- for everything!

I'll be in touch again soon! In the meantime, make sure your HOPE Volume 2  BackerKit is completed... and then consider joining-us for HOMESTEAD!

Your friend in comics,
Dirk Manning