Greetings Fort Veillians,

Good news first. The inaugural printing run of our comic book has made its way to us. Both editions of our comic book, standard and deluxe, have arrived in all their glory (see pictures below). Of course, this means you’ll be holding your own copy very soon. 

…Just not quite as soon as we were hoping for…

Unfortunately, we need to push back shipping preorder purchases. Our timeline for delivery was more ambitious than foreseen. Originally, our hope was to send out orders to backers by late September, early October. This plan did not come to fruition. We are now aiming for a late November, early December product shipping timeline.

Many of you ordered more than just Issue #1 of A City Masquerade. Every preorder package comes with some sort of incentive, from stickers to handmade screenprints. We need the extra time to make sure we deliver exactly what you paid for. Just as with our story, we want everything we create to reflect quality, care, and attention to detail. 

The truth of the matter is that Nick and I are independent creators. We both work full-time jobs on top of devoting ourselves to passion projects outside of work hours. Additionally, Nick’s Red Legger Studio artist brand has been extremely busy. He has attended three arts shows as a vendor in the past month. Such events eat up his weekends. What’s more, Nick was offered a full gallery display at the Lawrence Art Center for the month of November. This is a huge deal! And I, for one, fully support his decision to devote time and resources to this grand opportunity. 

We anticipate news of this delay might be frustrating for some of you to hear, and we assure you that we share your frustration. You all trusted us by investing your hard-earned money into our humble project. We do not take that trust lightly. 

Thank you all for your continued patience,

Will Pellett

Thank you for funding Issue #1 of A City Masquerade!

Pre-Sale was a major success and with your help we have fully funded a first printing run of our comic book. Nick and I are blown away by your support. We’ll see you in September at Free State Comicon in Lawrence (9/10) and then at our official release event (details to come). You’ll be holding our story in your hands in no time. 

Per Visum Animae,
-Will

Special Thanks To:

Elizabeth VanHoutan
Scott Griffin
Kane Eggers
Seth McCauley
Mary Pat Pellett
Benjamin Reed
Sarah Weekley
Chase Vervynck
Grahm Saunders
Benjamin McCormick
Mark Matteson
Spencer Mann
Kiefer mcCulley
Eric Franz
John Stech
Logan McKinney
Kyle Gardner
Michelle & Dan Pierce
Jordan Long
Drake Sedillo
Brooks Williamson
Ryan Storck
Nathan Rausch
Preston Randolph
Joe Thomas
Alex Kong
Nancy Brownell
Paul Punzo
Mike Pennekamp
Landon Merrill
Ian Eastes
Natalia Mujazdic
Josh Rocha
Dana Eastes
Patric Tester
Jesse Garcia
Keith Jimboy
Bruce Eggers
Chris Carden
Robert Madole
Huff
Kathy Williamson
Kayle Campbell
Chris Nieto
Linda Gruss
Taber Falconer
Chris Wildgen
Kirk Dyck
Isaac Flynn
Hillary Gruss
Joel Eastes
Whitney Baker
Wade Dittburner
Saxon Kimball
Tom Trest
Carrie Dyes
Jon Gunnells
Devin Haughton

Hello Again, 

It has been four years since we last updated you on the state of A City Masquerade. Needless to say, a lot has happened between then and now—in our personal lives, the composition of our comic book, and the world more broadly. Let me start by saying Nick and I are still here and our project is alive and well! Better yet, it’s time to share the first issue with you. Our final draft is ready to send to the printers. So with that, we’re excited to announce that A City Masquerade is officially for sale!!!

We waited until now to ask for your monetary support because we felt it was important to sell you a complete product, as opposed to an idea. The product is here. It’s ready. As of today, July 19^th, the pre-sale for issue #1 is live on our website and will remain open for three weeks. Till August 9^th pre-order the comic book or a number of special items related to the project; like signed copies, stickers, zines, and screenprints. After the pre-sale, the issue won’t be available for purchase until it is officially released this September (2022) and certain limited-edition incentives will no longer be for sale. 

Your money goes directly to helping us PRINT and PROMOTE our project. As soon as the pre-sale closes in August, we will send first edition orders to the printer. Our promise to you: Nick and I won’t pocket any funds until all pre-sale supporters receive what they paid for.

We are forgoing third party promotion (like Kickstarter) to help us sell our project. Third party vendors, while no doubt useful, always take a percentage of crowdfunded earnings. Therefore, your direct support means SO MUCH to us. To participate in the pre-sale, simply visit the SHOP tab on our website. Our preferred method of payment is Venmo (@RedLegger). If you do not have a Venmo account, please reach out to us via email: acitymasquerade@gmail.com. We will gladly work with you to make sure your purchasing requests can be met.

In your Venmo request, please provide the following information:

*Name

*Address

*Email or Phone Number (in case we need to contact you)

*The number that corresponds with your desired pre-sale tier(s) 

EX.)

John Doe

1234 Happy Place, Lawrence, KS, 66049

Comicbookfan33@gmail.com

1 and 2

Pre-sale supporters will have the option of picking up their purchases directly from us at our launch party this coming Fall. Details for the launch party are TBD, so stay tuned for more info!

While you’re on our website, be sure to check out the available project information. Before diving into the first issue, you can read about the story, characters, world, and peruse virtual art galleries. 

Thank you for your support! We can’t wait for you to hold a copy of A City Masquerade in your hands this Fall. 

Per Visum Animae,

-Will

Here is the cover for A City Masquerade’s debut issue, titled, The Straw. You can find its synopsis on our website.

For those of you following the project, or who are aware of it, you know it’s been in production for quite some time. You might ask, “All this time for one issue?” And you wouldn’t be entirely wrong to wonder about the process. We view the inaugural issue as the culmination of years of dedicated world building. We had to generate mass content, and then distill that content into characters and pages. So yes, it has taken a while, but no, it won’t take this long in the future. The first issue is the foundation for the rest of the story. We want to get it right, for us and for you.

Another question you might be asking is, “What constitutes an issue?” How many pages? Nick and I have talked about this at length and we have decided that we are just going to continue to go with what feels right, based on what the story demands. So, I don’t want to give too much away, but with The Straw you should expect to receive approximately 70 pages of story and additional content. That number may seem high, it may seem low, but we figured after all this time, why give folks 20 pages they can blow through and then have them wait again for the next issue? The answer was that we, as the creators who have put a lot of passion into this, wouldn’t feel good about that. And why do something if you don’t feel good about it? For readers, we hope The Straw will have been worth the wait. For us, we want to feel a sense of accomplishment, and 20 pages wasn’t going to give us that.

That said, we can’t say for certain you should expect subsequent issues to have this much packed into them. But you should expect shorter waits between issues. There’s a vision behind the mask of our project.

Thanks for your patience,

Will and Nick

Nick and I are hard at work trying to finish our first issue. The first one is a big deal to us because, well… it’s the first one. It’s our introduction. We might be silent for a little while but as soon as we have something to share we will share it. The both of us want to hold the first copy in our hands as much as you do. You can read a synopsis of the first issue, titled “The Straw”, here on our website.

With future announcements you can also expect to learn about the project’s Kickstarter. Since the primary focus of our first fundraising effort will be to publish and promote our first issue, we want to wait until we have a finished product before trying to earn your financial support.

Don’t forget that while you wait, our ongoing zine series On Parade has already published its first two issues. Head over to our shop to get those, where a bunch of cool stuff including T-shirts will soon be available.

Lastly, go to our Facebook page to check out a project teaser video put together by our good friend, Travis Read.

Thanks for your patience!

Will

I created this poster to promote this Art in the Park event that’s happening in Lawrence in May. I’ll have a Red Legger booth filled with screen prints, stickers, zines, tees + more! Come check it out.

-Nick

A City Masquerade debuted a couple weekends ago at a local comic con with this elevator pitch. This is our first test run at a promotional hook. As we move closer to release, expect to learn more about Fort Veil and the characters who populate the city, and the characters who don’t…

For now, Nick Perry and I want to know what your first impressions are. Does this hook sell you? Peak your interest? Reach out to us on Facebook, Instagram, or Gmail (acitymasquerade@gmail.com). You can also follow Nick or myself on any of our personal accounts for complete updates on ACM.

Nick Perry and I are getting closer to releasing our comic book project, A City Masquerade. It’s been a long process and there were times where we weren’t sure how or if we would continue. While you wait you can check out some promotional work Nick has whipped together on our Instagram. Be sure to follow the project there and on Facebook.

Thanks,
Will

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A City Masquerade is a comic created by Will Pellett and Nick Perry. You’ll be able to keep up with the latest in ACM news here and on facebook and instagram.