Patreon is here!

Today we have launched the Patreon! 

If "Patreon" is new to you, put simply it's a way to donate $1/month (or more) to an artist to allow them to continue making art. In exchange, you get rewards! 

In this case, you can see the pages of the Gospel of Mark as they are completed which will be up to a year before they are in print!  And at a high tier, a "behind the scenes" video every two weeks about those pages, the historical research, bible insights and process. (Example at bottom of the pages) 

Check out the page! See the video! Find out about the other rewards and more here...

https://www.patreon.com/WordforWordBibleComic

Please consider being a patron and share the link with your friends! 

July Newsletter

Happy July everyone!

Progress

We are starting the ball rolling on creating pages for the Book of Mark now. As ever, getting the ball rolling often feels slow to start, every new place researched, every new character needing character design and with such "minor" characters of the Bible as Peter the Apostle, the Devil and Jesus one needs to be careful to depict them right. 

It will be the summer "holidays" in a few days, which will mean the kid not being at school and under our foot. The plan is that I will still be working the same amount but this is alway a challenge. 


Joshua Launch and Pre-Order Now!

The date is fixed to the first of September! I have a few places lined up to promote it. One that I'm really excited about is Christianity Magazine August issue. It is going to be an interview rather just a review and it was going to be a page and now as they had some room they are expanding it to three pages! Such a blessing!

If you have any contacts with magazines, radio stations or podcasts that I should be asking, please let me know. 

You can pre-order Joshua NOW on our website! This means you pay now and we will send it to get to you on September the 1st.

(If you buy a Joshua bundle the whole set will be sent together at that time.)

https://wordforwordbiblecomic.squarespace.com/buy
 

Preorder Joshua Now

This Month's Blessings

We are constantly relying on the Lord for the funding of this project, this month we were donated £1,000 by someone in our local church who wanted to support us and £300 by someone who found us online and wanted to donate. We are super grateful for the generous spirit of these wonderful people but also to God for putting this project on their heart.

Also, we attended a Christian Men's conference called "The Gathering" in a field near Swindon. We did really well and again got some more funds to keep this crazy project rolling. 

A friend through Christian Comic Art Society and backer Luis contacted me and offered to have a copy of each of our books and our leaflets on their stand and the CCAS stand at...only the bloomin' San Deigo Comic Con International starting this Thursday! 


Patreon

We are excited to be launching our very own Patreon next month! It will give you the opportunity to become even more involved with the work, still more up to date with the newly created pages and of course financially support the work. If you've already supported as a Kickstarter backer who has given a big pledge or donation in advance this is probably not for you, but for everyone else it's a small monthly subscription of $1 or so that gives you special benefits.

You will get to see the pages as they are completed each month, about 10 or so, and you can comment on them and be among the first people to see them. This means you can also suggest changes if necessary and point out of anything is confusing or could be misinterpreted. If we get several Patrons and they are keen we might even do a monthly "Google Hangout" thing. 

Running a Patreon takes a little effort with uploading pictures and answering comments and questions so I'll need several Patrons to make it worth while, so if you can spare a dollar or more a month we'd be super grateful.

The next newsletter will come out when it launches.

The New Facebook Group

The new "Word for Word Bible Comic: Research, discussion and community" group is proving very useful, with many people enjoying finding out all about the historical research but also discussing the Bible and helping me to research things where I have hit a brick wall. 

If you haven't already joined please do so... 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/wordforwordbiblecomiccommunity/


Prayer Requests

Please continue to pray for the comic to get out there more and more, that it does well at the San Diego Comin Con, and many people read the article in Premier. Please pray this book launch goes well and we sell lots of copies. As ever please pray for the financial provision and good health of the team and family and for us to have a stress free summer "holiday". 

Why is there an Angel in Joshua 1:1

Kickstarter Backers are starting to get their copies of Joshua in the post. Someone has asked "What was the image in the sky based upon, on the first page?"

View fullsize

"Now after the death of Moses the servant of Yahweh..." 

You might be thinking "What's this heresy, adding to the scriptures?!"... but no... This is the Archangel Michael (who is one of the Cherubim) and he is there because of Jude 1:9 -

"But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, "The Lord rebuke you!" "

...So it's Michael standing guard over the body before this event.

Why it looks the way it does is detailed in our other blog... 

https://wordforwordbiblecomic.squarespace.com/blog/the-appearance-of-cherubim

"I'll make you fishers of men" ... again?

In this 20m video, I ask you to give your opinion on how to present this event from the life of Jesus on the gospel of Mark graphic novel. I tell you about my research on the encounter between Jesus, Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John and the differing accounts from Mark, Matthew and Luke. You can see the layout pages and give your opinion.  

Please Note: my skills are in drawing not oration or reading aloud see please bear with me. ;)

Verses: 

MARK 1

16 Passing along by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.17 Jesus said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you into fishers for men.”

18 Immediately they left their nets, and followed him. 19 Going on a little further from there, he saw James the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, who were also in the boat mending the nets. 20 Immediately he called them, and they left their father, Zebedee, in the boat with the hired servants, and went after him. 

MATTHEW 4

18 Walking by the sea of Galilee, he[g]saw two brothers: Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. 19 He said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers for men.”

20 They immediately left their nets and followed him. 21 Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. He called them. 22 They immediately left the boat and their father, and followed him.

LUKE 5

Now while the multitude pressed on him and heard the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret. 2 He saw two boats standing by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them, and were washing their nets. 3 He entered into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little from the land. He sat down and taught the multitudes from the boat. 4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep, and let down your nets for a catch.”

5 Simon answered him, “Master, we worked all night, and took nothing; but at your word I will let down the net.” 6 When they had done this, they caught a great multitude of fish, and their net was breaking. 7 They beckoned to their partners in the other boat, that they should come and help them. They came, and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But Simon Peter, when he saw it, fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, Lord.” 9 For he was amazed, and all who were with him, at the catch of fish which they had caught; 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon.

Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid. From now on you will be catching people alive.”

TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THE "PALM SUNDAY" COMPETITION

We have created an exciting new competition!

WIN!! Be in the crowd at Jesus' triumphal entry in the new graphic novel on the Gospel of Mark! In this competition, you can have the likeness of you and a friend drawn into this crowd scene in The Gospel of Mark: Word for Word Bible Comic. Just retweet or tag a friend in the comments of the facebook post and you will both be in the running to win this prize. Tag multiple friends for multiple entries. Winner announced April 9th - Palm Sunday.

This competition is to promote our Kickstarter campaign, which you can support at: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/word4wordbiblecomic/the-gospel-of-mark-word-for-word-bible-comic-book

Terms and Conditions below.

Find the post here :

FB : https://www.facebook.com/wordforwordbiblecomic/videos/1325063117531944/

Tweet : https://twitter.com/WforWBibleComic/status/844228077358108672

Here's the video. Find it here and start retweeting and tagging those friends

TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THE "PALM SUNDAY" COMPETITION 

Conditions: The Crowd-funding on Kickstarter must hit it's goal, or else there may be not Gospel of Mark comic for you to be drawn into. 

If you pledged to recieve the Kickstarter reward "You in the Bible" and win this prize, this will not give you a refund but extra faces to elect to have as well. 

Entries: FACEBOOK : Each time you tag a friend that counts as one entry, that entry includes you and that friend. If you tag multiple friends you receive multiple entries, each one with the friend creating the comment and the 'tagged' friend. 

TWITTER : Each retweet of the competition post counts as an entry. The winner may choose the friend they want as the second winner as tags cannot be tracked easily. 

If the post is duplicated/shared and people are tagged on those duplicates they will not be included, so please ensure you are using the original post from  https://www.facebook.com/wordforwordbiblecomic/ or https://twitter.com/WforWBibleComic

There will be one pair of winners across the whole competition, even if multiple versions of competition posts are created by the page https://www.facebook.com/wordforwordbiblecomic/ or Twitter account https://twitter.com/WforWBibleComic.

The winner will be selected at random from all the entries for the competition. 

Prize: The prize is to have the likeness of the pair of winners drawn into the crowd that welcome Jesus as he rides a donkey into the city of Jerusalem. You will each appear in at least 2 panels. You may decide if you are praising or not, but your clothes and position in the crowd will be assigned to you. You will not have glasses or anything too modern like hairstyle or modern tattoos, if you do have such things, they will be covered up a bit or interpreted as a first-century equivalent.

In the picture on the video is a man and a woman, but this is only an example and two people of any gender, age etc may be the winners. 

There is no cash prize equivalent. 

There are two winners assigned for the one winning entry. Each of those winners decides if they are happy to appear in the comic, if not they can elect someone else as long as they are willing. 

The image will be a comic style representation of the winners, not photo real unmistakable portraits. Please bear this in mind. 

You will be both identified as the winner with your real name, at the back of the book along with the Kickstarter backers, unless you wish not to be. 

You will both be contacted on your FB or Twitter account and on the post. Please be sure to check your "Message Requests" on FB and Direct Messages on Twitter after the 9th of April. 

https://www.facebook.com/wordforwordbiblecomic/videos/1325063117531944/

Have your say: What should Satan look like?

Join us on Sunday at 9pm GMT (4pm EST) to talk, discuss, do Q&A on how Satan should look in the Word for Word Bible Comic. Chip in or just listen. I don't have an answer yet but as he's in Mark 1:13 I need to start preparing.

Sunday 9pm GMT (4pm EST) 

Heres the link,  

https://live.kickstarter.com/simon-amadeus-pillario-a-morgan/live/what-should-satan-look-like-kickstarter-live

Cherubim 

Satan was one of the Cherubim, so if you'd like to get ahead and see our blog on the Appearance of Cherubim you can see it here ...

https://wordforwordbiblecomic.squarespace.com/blog/the-appearance-of-cherubim

You can add your comments there now if you like, or below

The Kickstarter is Live

In under a week, we have nearly reach 6K or the 15K target.

We are really excited to be starting the Gospel of Mark

This widget stays up to date as we go... 

♥ We are 'Loved' ♥

The project is featured as one of Kickstarter's "Projects We Love". Which means it get more visibility and a little blue heart icon, and it animates try it on the Widget!  :) 

It's going really well, but there's still a long way to go. 

We are really happy to be at 38% but we can't relax until we hit the goal, and there's still 62% to go.  Please help us by telling your friends and sharing it on social media.

Here are a few links you can use to do that easily. 

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Google+ 
• Share on LinkedIn 
• Share on Pinterest

 

Bleeding Cool

It has also been featured on Bleeding Cool, you can see the blog here 

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2017/03/05/comic-book-easter-eggs-bible-comic-kickstarter/

 

 I did Kickstarter Live!

I did some live drawing on Kickstarter Live. Using my webcam, mic, paper and a pen :).

On Kickstarter it recorded well. We also live-streamed it onto Facebook and accidently left it running a couple of minutes after the end. DOH. Amusingly the webcam stayed up where'd taped it all through the recording but about 5 seconds after it had finished it fell down. Ha ha.

Watch it here: https://live.kickstarter.com/simon-amadeus-pillario-a-morgan/live/live-drawing-the-word-for-word-bible-comic-1

There's even the I page was drawing up as a special reduced price reward on the page.

Thanks for reading :) 

Feb Newsletter : Just 2 weeks 'til the Gospel of Mark Kickstarter!

Below we've got a progress report and newsletter, but above all else, we'd like you to know that the Kickstarter funding for Mark is starting on Friday 3rd March! We'd love you to support us and get some great rewards along the way! 

1 min Video:  Announcement. 

About the Kickstarter

Here are some images to get you excited! 
 

View fullsize

How it works

With Kickstarter it's really key to get off to a good start in order to grab the attention of news outlets, bloggers etc as well as getting featured by of Kickstarter. So if you plan to get onboard please do so on the first day, there are also limited quantity items so don't delay :) 

I'll be sending the March newsletter the minute it launches on the 3rd! Please look out for that, and prayerfully consider if you'd like to help smash this funding goal. 

There are no half-measures with Kickstarter, and funding is all or nothing. We have to set a goal which will definitely cover all the print costs, creation costs, shipping, fees and taxes. This minimum goal will be £15,000 to make this thing on a shoe-string but I am praying for at least £20,000 to ensure the quality of the product.

The project is not live yet, but if you want the link new to my Kickstarter profile and the previous successful campaigns you can find them here... 

https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/word4wordbiblecomic/created

What if... 

To be honest, not having a successful Kickstarter would be problematic for us as I, the artist, would have to immediately stop working on the project full-time, return to a 'day job' and instead of starting a new book, I'd have to concentrate on improving the sales of the first three books until they could support the ongoing work. 

Not just about money 

Sharing the news of the Kickstarter is also going to be something I'm really relying on you to help with, please. If you can't back the Kickstarter financially that's really fine, but if you think it's interesting please share it on FB and Twitter, forward it to a few friends. Even if just one friend picks it up it makes a big difference as the last two Kickstarters only needed about 200 people to back it for it to raise around £20,000.

If you are a super fan, I'm really going to pulling on your support and giving some extra offers for doing so during the KS period, if you're not a super fan but want to be (even temporarily) add yourself to the list here.

SUPER FAN MAILING LIST >> http://eepurl.com/b9gR3f

Progress 

The Book of Joshua is complete except for the colouring of the last 25 pages as you can see below. We are planning for it to be finished within 2-3 months and then printed ready to be sent out as Kickstarter rewards, fulfilling the original Kickstarter and the current one at the same time, which helps when deciding how many to print. 

Also, all the backers who earned the reward of having their face in that book are in there now.

The big UK publisher I was talking to has declined to go forward but we are still talking to publishers in a few other countries about them taking on alternative language versions of the bible comic. 
 

Cover of Joshua

Thank you to everyone who gave their opinion on the Cover of Joshua, in last month's blog. As a conclusion to that, this is the final design.
 

Professional Voice-over on the Kickstarter Video

We have secured a professional voice over artist to contribute to the Kickstarter video and give it that extra profession boost. 

Did you "have your say?" We published a blog a week or so ago with this news and asked for opinions on if we should have a Scottish or mildly American accent on the video. In the end, we plumped for the US one. You can see the article and here the samples here.

https://wordforwordbiblecomic.squarespace.com/blog/have-your-say-voice-over-accent
 

The Book of Ruth is Available on Comixology

The Book of Ruth is now officially on Comixology and has the shiny Guided view function to boot. If you've read the comic and have an amazon account please give it a star rating. If you haven't read it, this is another place you can buy it digitally for £1.99 (or $2.99). Here are the links.

https://www.comixology.co.uk/The-Book-of-Ruth/digital-comic/456640
https://www.comixology.com/The-Book-of-Ruth/digital-comic/456640

On February 22nd The Book of Judges is due to launch there also between 9pm and 10pm EST. So watch this space. 
 

Prayer Requests

This month we've really been scraping the barrel financially in advance of this next Kickstarter, really stretching our trust in His provision and we've been really blessed with a few hundred pounds of unexpected financial gifts that God seems to have guided in for us at exactly the right moment, which has been a real answer to prayer.

Please pray for success with this Kickstarter, we've worked very hard to get it ready and people to talk about it when the time comes, but it still comes down to chance, and as God is in control of such luck and coincidences please will you ask him to help us on this one, to get the Gospel comic made and help it reach new people in a new and interesting way.

As always, please also pray for our productivity, health and against technical issues.  


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