Polterguys is a Xeric Grant 2012 Winner!

I am very pleased and humbled to announce that Polterguys Vol. 1 was awarded a $5,000 grant by the Xeric Foundation. We received a phone call on Friday afternoon and are awaiting the official letter by mail.

The Xeric Foundation is a private, nonprofit corporation established by Peter A. Laird, co-creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Planet Racers. The Foundation offers financial assistance to committed, self-publishing comic book creators who produce original works with literary and artistic merit.

Nathan and I are incredibly grateful to Mr. Laird and the Xeric Foundation for choosing to award Polterguys. We could not have imagined joining the roster of Xeric award winners. Congratulations as well to our fellow recipients this year (though we don’t know who they are yet).

Special thanks to Lars Martinson and Jason Brubaker for recommending the grant to self-publishers like ourselves and for providing  guidance on the submission process on their websites.

What does this mean for Polterguys Vol. 1’s Kickstarter campaign?

When we applied for this award back in February, we did so to take advantage of every opportunity available to self-publishers. But the grant was still a shot in the dark for us. We didn’t know if Polterguys would fit what they were looking for.  Because of the timing of the printing, the Kickstarter campaign was launched before we could hear back from the foundation.

With the funds from the grant, we are extremely happy to say that Polterguys Vol. 1’s initial print run is now completely covered. From now on, every dollar that goes into the Kickstarter campaign will go towards funding the Polterguys series, instead of just one book. This would include seed money for printing Vol. 2, reprints of Vol. 1, and other expenses such as promotion, marketing, convention fees, etc. that are not covered by the Xeric grant.

The story we are so excited to share is one that will be spanning across approximately six books and keeping these books in print, having them available for purchase and getting them into people’s hands is going to be a financial challenge.

Nathan and I continue to be amazed and utterly indebted to friends, family, fellow comic artists, followers and kind strangers who have supported Polterguys Vol. 1 so far. If not pledges, your tweets, likes, shares and reblogs have been helping Polterguys reach new readers and this means so much for our little project.

From the bottom of our hearts, THANK YOU SO MUCH!