A Sound of Thunder Presents Queen of Hell: Initium

Surveys going out! New stuff! Original art!
over 1 year ago – Mon, Nov 25, 2024 at 12:20:19 PM

HAIL, LEGION OF THUNDER!

Backer surveys are going out today! Here's an update from Josh and then we'll run down the basics for you:

• We had a great show on Friday night! Our new drummer Justin did great! For the first time in 13 months we are ready to go with a complete, fully functional band!
• BackerKit surveys are going out this afternoon!  Please fill yours out as soon as possible. 
• We are planning to lock surveys and charge backers this Friday: you can make changes to your survey until that time.
• ORIGINAL ART: We have a ton of amazing original art pages from Queen of Hell in the add-ons, plus we have added original pages from our It Was Metal graphic novel, including pages by Barry Kitson, Bob Hall and Joseph Schmalke!  Pages have been newly priced for this survey starting at $60! 
• METAL VARIANTS: These are brand new items that were not available on the main campaign except to Publisher tier backers. We are producing metal variants for each original piece of cover art on this project and there will only be ONE COPY of each cover! (Below is a mockup showing the metal texture. Final versions will be in full color!)

• QUEEN OF HELL PREVIEWS: We published Baltimore Comic-Con preview editions of Queen of Hell in 2019 and 2022. Both previews have been added to the add-ons.  Only four raw and two graded copies of the 2019 preview remain, and this is the first ever published Queen of Hell comic. 
• IT WAS METAL GRAPHIC NOVEL:  If you're new to the band you may not know that we published a comic anthology back in 2018. It Was Metal is a 72-page square bound book featuring 10 stories based on the songs from our album of the same name. Contributors include: Roberto de la Torre, Barry Kitson, Bob Hall, Joseph Schmalke, Rafer Roberts, Ben Templesmith, Lovern Kindzierski, Brian Reber, and more!  Main cover and blank sketch variant editions have been added to the survey add-ons. Only eight copies of the main cover remain in stock! 
• INTERNATIONAL BACKERS ON BOTH CAMPAIGNS: We will be combining shipping for international backers on both the original music campaign and this comic campaign.The BackerKit surveys are not capable of calculating a combined shipping rate between the two campaigns/surveys automatically. When you checkout of the new survey, you will see the full rate for separate shipping. But the survey does not charge you when you checkout. Josh will be calculating combined shipping discounts for international backers and issuing those discounts manually in the form of credit on the new campaign surveys before you are charged. 
• ISSUE #4 PROGRESS: We've just received the final colors for page 25 of the final issue of Queen of Hell: Initium. Below is a panel from that page. Only one page left to color! We have also just received the second (and hopefully final) draft of letters for issue four! Nearly done!

That's it for today, Legion! Fill out those surveys, and let us know if you have questions or run into any trouble!

Cheers,

Nina, Josh, Jesse & Justin

New color page! New METAL comics! Survey update! Show tomorrow!
over 1 year ago – Thu, Nov 21, 2024 at 11:40:40 AM

HAIL, LEGION OF THUNDER! 

We're getting ready for our first show with Justin tomorrow night in Fredericksburg, VA! But we thought we'd take a break to send a quick update!

• Surveys for this campaign are ready and have been submitted to BackerKit for approval. As soon as we get the green light we'll send those on to you!
• Look for a few new items on the survey for this campaign, including 1-of-1 brushed metal variant comics! We're producing one metal variant for each unique piece of cover art on the series. Two of these are already claimed by our Publisher backers, but that still leaves 10 metal covers to snap up! The covers are literally printed directly onto metal! We also have some different art prints, a Joseph Schmalke remark set, and a load of original artwork from Queen of Hell and our previous anthology It Was Metal - including pages by Bob Hall and Barry Kitson! And we found one more autographed cymbal used by Chris in the studio! The last one ever now that he's retired! So watch for those surveys!

• We received another new page of color art from Max Bayo! This is page 24 of 26 from issue #04. She only has two pages to go! (We also just received the second draft of lettering on issue #04. Fingers crossed this is the final draft!)

• We're all super excited for tomorrow night's show! If you can make it to Fredericksburg, Virginia on Friday come see the debut of our new lineup!

That's it for today, Legion! 

Cheers,

Nina, Josh, Jesse & Justin

Survey update and issue #4 lettering proof!
over 1 year ago – Mon, Nov 18, 2024 at 12:47:38 PM

HAIL, LEGION OF THUNDER! 

Just a quick update today to let everyone know that the backer surveys have gone out over on the original music category campaign for Queen of Hell. 

We're going to give the folks on the original campaign a few more days to reply, and the we'll lock those surveys and send surveys to everyone on this campaign.  There will be a bunch of awesome add-ons available in the survey, including t-shirts and a boatload of original artwork from Queen of Hell, plus some past projects! 

Some notes on the surveys:

DUPLICATE COMICS

If you are a backer on the original campaign AND this campaign, and you are getting a duplicate comic that is supposed to be switched out for a different comic, you will not see that change in the survey. DON'T WORRY. Those changes will be made manually by Josh when packing each order!  

For example if you got issues #1, 2 & 3 on the original campaign, and another copy of #1 on this campaign, we will switch out the duplicate of #1 for a #4 so you have a complete set.

If you have the full set of 4 issues and also have a duplicate comic in addition to the full series, we will switch that out for something top secret. ;)

INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING

For international backers who backed both campaigns, you will see postage rates for separate shipping when you check-out of each survey, but we will combine shipping and issue a postage discount. The backer surveys between the two campaigns do not interact or "talk to" each other at all. We have to make this change manually after you submit your surveys. 

You are not charged immediately when you submit your survey. We have to manually lock your order and charge you. Before we do that we will go in and manually apply the combined shipping discount. You will see the higher rate when you check out, but we will change it before we charge you. 

In short, international backers should go ahead and submit their survey response, and expect a lower postage charge than what is shown on screen!

You will only see this discount on this campaign. You'll pay the full rate on the original campaign, and then the discount will be applied to shipping on this campaign. 

ORIGINAL ART

We have a huge treasure trove of original art coming in the survey of this campaign! We made a bulk deal with Queen of Hell artist Mike Ratera to acquire half of all pages for the project. That's 46 total pages! 

Plus we'll offer original art pages from the It Was Metal graphic novel, including pages by Bob Hall, Barry Kitson, and the Els Segadors pages by Mike Ratera!

There will be some other one-of-a-kind items available in the surveys, so be ready to dive in when they hit your in-box! 

ISSUE #04 LETTERING PROOF

Colorist Max Bayo is still finishing up the final three pages of the final issue of Initium, but we had our letterer Crank! work ahead on the black and white pages to save some time. Below you can see his lettering proof (there will be one more round of revisions and approvals) on one color page and one black & white page from issue #4:

Ok gang, watch for your surveys around Wednesday!

We think it will probably take about a week after that to get all the stragglers to answer the surveys, and then we can finally order the comics, t-shirts, pins & patches, etc., and start getting ready for shipping!

We'll update you again later this week when the surveys go out!

Cheers,

Nina, Josh, Jesse & Justin

Survey update, new color page & surprise bonus song!
over 1 year ago – Tue, Nov 05, 2024 at 01:08:49 PM

HAIL, LEGION OF THUNDER! 

Short update today. Here's a video from Josh with the latest, and we'll summarize below as usual!

• BackerKit surveys will be ready tonight or tomorrow but we're going to hold onto them for a few days until the US election is behind us.
• This won't cost us any time because we are still waiting for our Kickstarter funds to clear. 
• Here's a portion of a new color page from Max Bayo:

• We're adding an extra brand new song to the Demons bonus CD! It's called "Lord Shiteater"! (You'll understand when you read issue four of the comic!) That will make the Demons CD 16 songs instead of 15. 
• Rehearsals are going great and we're nearly ready for our first show with Justin on November 22nd at Reclaim Arcade in Fredericksburg, VA!
• We hope you liked "Chainsaw Witch"!!!  Go playlist it...and "Only One Can Rule" too while you're at it! You'll have downloads and physical copies coming your way soon, but it helps us reach new people when you stream our tunes!  
• Streaming links are in the descriptions of both videos:

That's it for now, Legion! We'll be back at you with more updates and those surveys soon!

Cheers,

Nina, Josh, Jesse & Justin

Here's a present for Halloween...
over 1 year ago – Thu, Oct 31, 2024 at 04:50:24 AM

HAIL, LEGION OF THUNDER!

It's Halloween, that means it's time for...

CHAINSAW WITCH!

It's our first song with Justin on drums! The music video premieres at 1pm EST today and the band will be in the live chat, so be sure to join us!  (Click "Notify Me" to get a reminder when the premier is coming up!)

We'll have the digital downloads for you when the surveys go out, but for now you can stream the song on whatever service you use!

Spotify: 

Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/chainsaw-witch/1774252957?i=1774252958

Amazon Music: https://amazon.com/music/player/albums/B0DK5W4BL6?marketplaceId=ATVPDKIKX0DER&musicTerritory=US&ref=dm_sh_yoUUDQMwUF94YrRycA7D7aOSj&trackAsin=B0DK5WZGR1

And remember Chainsaw Witch is inspired by the story "Death Duel of the Chainsaw Witches" by writer Cullen Bunn! Check out the badass and very metal comic here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cullenbunn/cullen-bunns-triple-threat-of-terror

The backer surveys are under construction in BackerKit. That will be our focus for the next week. BackerKit is very powerful and will make fulfilling this project easier and better for both you and us...but boy is it complicated!  We'll get there...

Hope you like the new song! Let us know what you think!

Cheers,

Nina, Josh, Jesse & Justin