Originally planned for a November 2018 release, Ethan Van Sciver’s Cyberfrog: Bloodhoney raised well over half-a-million dollars through two crowdfunding campaigns. The first campaign ended last July, and ended up raising over $538,000. Quite an impressive feat for an indie creator and a project that was receiving little to no mainstream comics press publicity. In fact, so many people learned about the book after the deadline because the publicity Van Sciver received for raising so much money, that Ethan then decided to launch a second campaign for these new backers to be able to get a copy of the Cyberfrog book as well. That second campaign pulled in well over $90,000. Combined, the project has received a whopping $628,834.00 since September 2018.
As the calendar has moved forward to January 2019, some of the project’s backers, and a handful of detractors have been asking about the status of the book and what’s taking so long. Ethan Van Sciver responded today via the Indiegogo update:
“I’m drawing the last scene of CYBERFROG 1998, in which CYBERFROG and Salamandroid deal with a super villain threat called RumbleBee and the Pollen-8, a gang of old enemies who actually look like bees, which adds to the confusion of the Vyzpzz invasion. They’re all from Philadelphia, so it’s fun to write their dialogue.”
“1998 and AMPHIBIONIX will go to print soon, and BLOODHONEY will follow. Every panel of these books is my heart and soul, and there are many people who want this project to fail. It will be looked at with critical eyes by people who are upset that an independent project by me did so well. I invite this kind of criticism, and I’m working to offer a book that will last forever.”
“CYBERFROG isn’t just a comic book, it’s the start of a new way of thinking about comic books. Books that stay in print, that are EVENTS , that are worth reading and re-reading. Not disposable, frequent periodicals, but a work of permanence. I believe this is the inevitable future of comic books. It has to be. The world is evolving, and mainstream comics aren’t sustainable using the structure and methods that they currently rely on. Comic retail stores are closing at a rapid pace.”
“This is the FUTURE.”
When responding to those wondering what happened to the original release date, Ethan responded:
“This book was estimated to be released in November, and I know it’s running behind, but I want you to know that it is coming, and it’s just the beginning Your pledges have allowed me the ability to do this, and to do it correctly. Not quickly and poorly. Meticulously and memorably. With all of my heart.”
“And with that in mind, I thank you again for your patience, enthusiasm, faith and support. You made this possible. This is your victory, and I know you will prize your perks as proof of that.”
“Here’s some frog.”
___________
When chatting with Ethan earlier today, I was asking about his approach and was growing even more curious. It sounded as though this was about more than just Cyberfrog: Bloodhoney. In fact, it was starting to sound like he was doing three books all at once. After further discussion, I realized that this is indeed a three-book project that he is working on concurrently.
“AMPHIBIONIX is a reprint of the most rare, vintage Cyberfrog book. It was a black and white ashcan that we only printed 500 copies of back in 1997. The book is now being colorized for the first time by the great Kyle Ritter. This book is 20-pages of story and was a perk item for anyone who backed us at the second tier.”
What about the other mini-comic I heard about?
“That’s my 18-page prequel comic to BLOODHONEY. It’s called CYBERFROG 1998. And this is an all-new story with all-new art depicting the end of the world in 1998! This tells the tale of the actual invasion event and it’s going to be instructive on showing how fun and silly Cyberfrog stories used to be, up until everything changed. This is my CYBERFROG revival comic.”
“The main book is BLOODHONEY and it is the first chapter in the modern CYBERFROG series, 20 years past the 1998 invasion. Humans are an endangered species now. This is where Cyberfrog (Trikk Ryan) climbs out of the ground after having been asleep for 20 years and he wakes up to find the world dominated by Vyzpzz, which appear as giant wasp creatures. They use humans for food and…well, shelter. Things looked hopeless. But now Cyberfrog is back. Cyberfrog 1998 tells the story of how and why Trikk Ryan was hibernating, and shows the actual invasion. Cyberfrog: Bloodhoney is the modern day story and it is the main book clocking in at 48 pages.”
“So our second tier backers are getting over 80+ pages of story along with several other goodies!”
When asked if he planned on mainstream distribution of his Cyberfrog properties, Ethan said he is considering releasing these three books as CYBERFROG #1, 2 and 3 through Diamond on his recently launched ALL CAPS COMICS label. Furthermore, once the Indiegogo campaign has been successfully fulfilled, Ethan may pursue his idea to publish all three books in a single volume entitled CYBERFROG: WARTS AND ALL, but first things first – he’s gotta deliver these Indiegogo books as soon as possible.
