By Joel Meadows in crowdfunding, Diamond US, graphic novels, Howard Chaykin, Kickstarter, TRIPWIRE 21st anniversary, Walt Simonson 0 Comment
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TWO’S A CROWD (FUND)
So the Kickstarter campaign ended last Sunday (14th April) for the TRIPWIRE 21st anniversary book. Disappointingly, we only got as far as 75% towards our target, so like TRIPWIRE 20 at Unbound, we didn’t succeed in funding an anniversary book through crowd funding. Crowd funding is a very strange beast. I have come to realise that it only actually works if you’re a celebrity, a rock star or someone like Amanda Palmer, who have thousands of followers on Twitter. Unfortunately we are only a magazine with a fairly niche audience. But it doesn’t actually matter. We have secured distribution for TRIPWIRE 21 and it will be carried to the UK booktrade through Turnaround and the US book trade through SCB Art. It will also be available to comic shops through Diamond US and Diamond UK, listed in the June Previews. So we are looking at the Kickstarter as a two month PR campaign. We shall also be offering the limited hardcover at Forbidden Planet in London, at our table at the Bristol Comic Expo and hopefully at the Foyles event in London on 16th May. Also if people want the hardback, then I shall make it available to order directly from us. Running a crowdfunding campaign is very stressful (it is a real emotional rollercoaster as you go from seemingly getting really close to having the wind taken out of your sails) but without both the Unbound and the Kickstarter, this book wouldn’t have happened at all, which would have been a real shame. They gave me the impetus to gather material and commission new art and writing. The fact that we are putting on an event at Foyles on Charing Cross Road to commemorate this with Michael Moorcock, Peter Milligan, Mike Carey, Christopher Fowler and Roger Langridge is something I am very chuffed about. And we’ll even have a weeklong exhibition of TRIPWIRE 21st at Foyles in their Gallery, kicking off on 15th May. So we have hopefully the best thing we’ve ever put out, so the fact that the Kickstarter didn’t work is actually academic. When we have an item code for the book through Diamond US, I’ll be putting it up here. But in the meantime, to remind everyone about what’s in the book, here’s a selection of the art and the cover…

By Joel Meadows in Alan Moore, Foyles, Howard Chaykin, Joe Kubert, Kickstarter, London event, Michael Moorcock, Mike Mignola, TRIPWIRE 21st anniversary, Walking Dead 0 Comment
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TRIPWIRE 21: SEVEN DAYS AND COUNTING
So the TRIPWIRE 21 kickstarter campaign has got seven days left on it and we’re at 56%, so hopefully it will happen. I have been told that activity ramps up in the last week so hopefully this is true. I am very chuffed with the way the book is looking: it was designed to be the best thing that we have put out under the TRIPWIRE name. We have also managed to arrange a fantastic event to commemorate the book: on 16th May, at Foyles on Charing Cross Road, we’ll be having a TRIPWIRE 21 evening with Mike Carey, Roger Langridge, Christopher Fowler, Peter Milligan and Michael Moorcock, hosted by me. We’ll be chatting about 21 years of the magazine and the last 21 years of comics and genre. You will be able to get the book signed too. So here’s some page layouts from the book. You have until 14th April to pledge on the book otherwise the limited hardcover won’t be published, which would be a real shame.

Foyles TRIPWIRE event
TRIPWIRE 21 on Kickstarter

By Joel Meadows in 21st anniversary, comics, crowdfunding, Drew Struzan, Hellboy, Howard Chaykin, Mike Mignola, Shawshank Redemption, TRIPWIRE anniversary, Unbound, Walt Simonson 0 Comment
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TRIPWIRE: FROM 20 TO 21
For those of you who have been following the TRIPWIRE 20th anniversary crowd funding campaign on Unbound, you’ll notice that it’s come down from the site. When we approached Unbound earlier in the year, it was always going to be a gamble. There was no guarantee we were going to make our pledges and unfortunately it didn’t happen. The people at Unbound were very nice and they meant well but it just didn’t fit with the other books on the site. It didn’t help that it wasn’t known in the US, the place where a large proportion of the people who would have pledged on TRIPWIRE 20, are located. So you live and learn. So it’s off Unbound but in January, TRIPWIRE 21 will be going on the Kickstarter UK site. Kickstarter is a place chock full of comics stuff and I feel more confident that it will raise what it needs. The aim is to get it out for around May time next year so this gives us more time to put it together and make it the best print project we have ever produced. So keep your eyes peeled here, on the tripwire website (www.tripwire-magazine.com), my twitter and Facebook. In the meantime, here’s a few of the images we have gathered so far to include in the book: Frank Quitely, Walter Simonson, Dave Dorman, Phil Hale, Duncan Fegredo, Michael Kaluta, Joe Kubert, Howard Chaykin, Drew Struzan, Mike Mignola…

By Joel Meadows in 20th anniversary, Alan Moore, Chris Weston, Dave Dorman, Drew Struzan, Frank Quitely, Hellboy, Howard Chaykin, Michael Kaluta, Mike Mignola, Sherlock Holmes, The Shadow, TRIPWIRE anniversary, Walter Simonson 3 Comments
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CELEBRATING TWENTY YEARS IN PAPERBACK
It’s not just in hardback through Unbound that we’re planning to commemorate TRIPWIRE’s 20th anniversary. In the latest Previews #286, on page 362, Item number JUL121370, you’ll find a TRIPWIRE 20th anniversary paperback. It will be packed with loads of great stuff:

•New and rarely seen art from many of the industry’s greatest artists like Howard Chaykin, Frank Quitely, Mike Mignola, Walter Simonson, Joe Kubert, Dave Dorman, Mike Perkins, Roger Langridge, Drew Struzan, Chris Weston, Andy Bennett, Michael Kaluta and more
•Classic TRIPWIRE features and interviews with people like Alan Moore, Mike Mignola, Peter Milligan, Frank Miller, Guillermo Del Toro, Joss Whedon, Joe Kubert and many more
•It will also feature new writing, including the best and worst comics movies of the past twenty years, creators, indie and mainstream, who have come up 1992 to 2012, creators we have lost in the last twenty years, the rise of digital and web comics and lots more
For aficionados of comics and genre, this will be a must buy book. And if you’d like the book but don’t mind getting it in paperback, then it’ll be $24.95/ £14.99 well spent for you.
Here’s a few of the images from the book and if you like what you see, you can order it from your local comic shop…


By Joel Meadows in Alan Moore, Bristol comic expo, comics, comics history, crowdfunding, crowdsourcing, Frank Miller, genre, Guillermo Del Toro, Hellboy, Howard Chaykin, Joss Whedon, Mike Mignola, movies, TRIPWIRE anniversary, Unbound 0 Comment
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A TRIP BACK THROUGH THE WIRES
In 1992, I was still at sixth form college up in Barnet but it was the year that I started TRIPWIRE. 2012 marks the 20th anniversary of the magazine and so I thought, just like back in 2002, that we should do something special to mark this milestone. TRIPWIRE 20th Anniversary will be a must-buy book featuring art, rarely seen and new, from the likes of Frank Quitely, Mike Mignola, Walter Simonson, Phil Hale, Howard Chaykin, Drew Struzan, Dave Taylor, Duncan Fegredo, Chris Weston, Jon Haward, Henry Flint and more. It will also represent the cream of the interviews and features of two decades of TRIPWIRE, with everyone from Alan Moore to Frank Miller, Mike Mignola to Guillermo Del Toro featured in its pages. Additionally, TRIPWIRE 20th anniversary will include the best writing on subjects and trends that have shaped and influenced comics and its related media from 1992 to now like the best and worst comic movies, digital comics, creators who have left us, the 20 most iconic TRIPWIRE covers and the best graphic novels 1992 to 2012. Whenever I put a book together, I try to make it the sort of book that, if I wasn’t doing it, I would buy myself.
And we are putting it out in a different way to the recent Annuals and magazine issues. I had been following Unbound for a few months as I was curious about the crowdfunding model. Unbound is crowdfunding just for books, so it allows writers, authors and creative people the opportunity to get their work out there without the traditional trappings of big monolithic publishers.
TRIPWIRE 20th anniversary is up on Unbound now and we can’t publish it without people’s support. Pledges start at a very reasonable £10 for UK pledgers. That’s only about three cups of coffee these days and you’d be supporting us;). The more you pledge, the more unique collectibles you get. We are planning a Foyles event in September to commemorate this with special guests and panels.
Here’s a work in progress version of the cover design, a few interior images from some of the great artists we have in the book and a few classic TRIPWIRE covers.

If you’re at the Bristol Comic Expo this weekend (12th -13th May), then we’ll be set up so you can come by and pick up our exclusive anniversary print by Duncan Fegredo (his magnificent painting to TRIPWIRE Annual 2007)

Don’t forget: We can’t do it without you…