London/Palma – The company Signo y Arte Grafic Products has started a project on the leading international crowd-funding platform KICKSTARTER that is scheduled to run until March 16, 2014. The objective is to fund the first English language edition of the popular sci-fi comic “The Bokanovsky Tales” to celebrate the 25th anniversary of its first black-and-white graphic novel WOLFSPACK.
The authors of the Tales, Michael Musal and Benno Samuel, were good personal acquaintances of that legend in his own lifetime, the author Jean “MOEBIUS” Giraud (conceptual artist for e.g. Alien, The Abyss) in whose magazine series Schwermetall (the German offshoot of Heavy Metal/Métal Hurlant) the tales appeared. Also, they were the first German-speaking authors ever to be taken on by the prestigious European publishing giant Egmont/Ehapa (e.g. Disney Print Europe) as well as being honored for their work by receiving messages of greeting from legendary colleagues like Albert Uderzo (Asterix) and Pierre “PEYO” Culliford (The Smurfs).
Benno Samuel commented: “It has long been one of my dreams to publish an English language edition of the Bokanovsky Tales. They caused a lot of attention with a large, loyal following right up to the present, 22 years after the final publishing of the full color comic book and I have no doubt that they will prove popular on the US and UK markets. Unfortunately, the English edition originally planned failed to materialise, but I am very optimistic that we will find enough backers via Kickstarter to finally complete the project.”
The Silver Jubilee Edition will also include several new stories written especially for English speaking readers and it will be published as a hardback book with at least 60 pages.
The authors are by no means unknowns on the international stage. Both were involved for over 20 years in the animated advertising for companies such as Walt Disney, Kellogg, Braun, Ferrero and other global players in the field of products for young people. Currently they are heavily involved in the production of interactive serious games particularly in the field of heath care and the prevention of dementia, but they are also involved in producing games and other publishing projects.
URL Kickstarter: www.kickstarter.com