Well Begun is Half Done

We're halfway through the campaign for Unlimited Udo after a killer start.

Unlimited Udo Campain Update

We took off like a rocket on day one, getting right to the line of funding within 24 hours. Doing a little more than a day later.

Today, we hit the halfway point of the campaign and we’re within range of doubling the goal! Granted, it’s a modest goal compared to some of the campaigns out there, but the objective of Unlimited Udo is to build trust with the indie comics community rather than turn a profit this round.

We are well on track in that regard. 50+ backers and hopefully more to come by the campaign’s end.

In the meantime, here’s a little behind the scenes of the inspiration behind the characters…

Who is Udo Dolos anyway?

Unlimited Udo is about two characters. Hope and her former boss, Udo Dolos. There’s some clear inspiration for each of them.

Udo Dolos

When I sent the description to Valentin de las Casas, the awesome artist on this book, I told him that Udo is a cross between Jobs, Musk and Gates.

The goal was to evoke the idea of someone who thinks so highly of himself that everyone in his orbit would be thrilled to be surrounded by him at all times. He’s too smart to be contained by one mind, one body.

He doesn’t want to be everywhere. He needs to be.

Hope

Our hero, Hope, is a scrappy go-getter. The type that would have bought into the hustle culture when she started out but got burnt by it one too many times.

She got where she did in her career as a programmer by scratching and clawing her way up - and when that’s taken away from her, she improvises and does it again.

She just can’t seem to escape the one person who she thought was giving her a leg up and forced her into this line of work.

This is going to seem very silly, but the character I had in mind when writing Hope was Emma Stone’s Olive from Easy A.

I like this movie more than any grown adult should.

The inspiration comes from how Olive was effectively backed into a corner. She took that momentum, like a judo warrior, and used it to her advantage. What was perceived as a weakness became her strength.

As is what must always happen with our beloved main characters, this backfires in unexpected ways, but that strength of character carries them through.

I got very lucky finding Valentin for this story. I didn’t give him that reference, instead sending some stock photos of “girl in jumpsuit” as inspiration for her look - and he still managed to nail it in terms of the attitude and vibe.

As lucky as I was to connect with Valentin, the community as a whole has been great and here’s a couple of examples…

More Indie Comics Folks

Matt Mair Lowery is the creator of Thoughtscape - an awesome sci-fi anthology series. It's one of the first projects I backed on Kickstarter and showed me what as possible as an indie. 

So imagine my delight when Matt reached out proposing some cross-promotion! A lot of folks who are here came from his recommendation and I'm forever grateful. 

And speaking of, check out his Substack here to see what he has cooking up next:

If you haven’t checked out The Comic Book Yeti, I can’t recommend it enough. It’s one of the best ways to keep up with the world of indie comics. The Cryptid Creator Corner is well worth a listen in particular.

Coming Up Next

Given we’re live with the Udo campaign, I’m going to send two updates, breaking the 1st, 15th schedule on this special occasion.

Here’s what to expect:

May 29

A campaign update with 48 hours to go, a look at the covers of Unlimited Udo and the artists behind them and a couple more shoutouts to other indie creators.

June 1

A review of how the campaign went overall, a behind the scenes on the production process, a small preview of the next project and even more shoutouts.

Anything Else?

Is there something you’d like to see in this Substack? Something in the campaigns?

Let me know. I try to keep these updates brief, but I’m always happy to go more in-depth if there’s an appetite for it.

Until next time!