The books have left the factory! Plus: TEZUCOMI!
over 1 year ago – Fri, Aug 11, 2023 at 11:00:37 AM

Hi everyone!

We hope you are all doing well and staying cool so far this summer. We've been able to beat the heat by frankly staying huddled up inside our air-conditioned apartments getting stuff done! That, plus some convention travel, first San Diego Comic-Con, then GenCon immediately after that... so much going on, our heads are spinning.  Somehow we managed to launch our newest Kickstarter project in between flights, too (more on that further below...)

Amidst all of that, we've been working on all of the BLACK BOX stuff to make sure it comes together properly. Milestone for this week: the books and slipcases are done! We were hoping to have advance copies in hand so that we could share some photos in this update, but they may not arrive until next week. The bulk print run is complete, however, and the finished products are being transferred to the shipping company now. The current delivery estimate to our warehouse is the last week of September, so barring any unforeseen events in transit or delays with any of the other elements in the campaign (eg. the statuettes, etc), we should be able to ship orders in October! 😃

To that end, we will be locking orders in Backerkit NEXT FRIDAY, August 18th!

If you haven't completed your surveys yet (approximately 120 of you), please do so before next Friday! At that point, we will press the "lock orders" button which will initiate a final notification from Backerkit and a 48-hour countdown for you to make any final changes to your order or payment method. Credit cards will be charged that following Monday, August 21st. If you need to make any changes after orders have been locked, we can certainly help you, but those changes will need to be made manually on our side.

Please note that you will still be able to update your address until we lock those down on the last Friday of September. This should allow you time to confirm your delivery address in case you anticipate relocating in October. We will, of course, remind you of this in an update when that time comes.

Also, as some of you have asked: Digital rewards are scheduled to be sent out the first week of September. 😎

We hope to have those advance copies next week, and we will share some photos as soon as they arrive. In the meantime, we wanted to mention our current project currently running on Kickstarter (in case you haven't already seen it):

TEZUCOMI is a deluxe, two-volume tribute to Osamu Tezuka, widely considered the “Father of Manga and Anime” and described as "the Walt Disney of Japan." It is a premium set of new manga tales by some of Europe's top comic talent - 600 pages of extraordinary content paying tribute to Tezuka’s enormous body of influential work. The stories feature characters from Tezuka’s history, such as Astro Boy, Unico, Black Jack, Big X, Dororo, Songoku, Kimba, and many more. 18 stories by 20 amazing creators celebrating the broad dramatic spectrum of Tezuka's amazing oeuvre!

Contributing artists include Ken Niimura (I Kill Giants), Joe Kelly (Deadpool, X-Men), Juan Diaz Canales (Blacksad), Kenny Ruiz (Team Phoenix), Belen Ortega (The Millennium Saga), Victor Santos (Polar), Mathieu Bablet (Shangri-La), JD Morvan (Naja), Mig (Wakfu), David Lafuente (Ultimate Spider-man), Bertrand Gatignol (The Ogre Gods Saga), LuisNCT (Killadelphia), Elsa Brants (Save me, Pythia), Reno Lemaire (Dreamland), Brice Cossu (FRNCK), Sourya (Talli), and more.

This impressive collection is available in traditional manga-sized paperback (5.25x7.75") and premium gallery-sized hardcover (7.75x11"). We also have limited-edition slipcase sets of both formats and even an ultimate "Super-Fan Set" limited to only 250 copies!

The campaign has already unlocked SIX STRETCH GOALS, with a beautiful collectible enamel pin coming up at the next stretch goal level!

This is a very special project created in full cooperation with Tezuka Productions and we're excited to bring them to the fans this November. 

ONLY ONE WEEK LEFT! The Kickstarter campaign ends NEXT FRIDAY! Visit the campaign today at www.tezucomi.com!

Production pix and Black Box featured in Magnetic-Con'23!
over 1 year ago – Tue, Jul 18, 2023 at 01:36:52 PM

Hey everyone!

Hope you are having a good summer so far and staying well sheltered from the crazy heat... it's nuts out there! A few of you have requested an update, which is quite reasonable since it has been a couple of weeks, but to be honest, there's not much news to report... the printers are hard at work and things are moving steady toward a late October ship date. We did just recently receive a bunch of "wet proofs" (printer lingo for printed proofs with all of the additional printing treatments such as spotUV, foil, etc). Things are looking nice, and the blue foil really makes things pop well!

We also got a fully assembled wet proof of the slipcase and it turned out just like we hoped!

If everything goes as planned, the books should be printed and on their way from the factory by mid-August. We should receive finished proof copies a week or two before then, and we will be sure to post some beauty shots when they arrive.

In the meantime, Chris and Mark have been working on more BLACK BOX material, including more comic stories and -- wait for it -- a video game?! And all of it will be featured in this week's MAGNETIC-CON 2023!

What is MAGNETIC-CON?

It's possible that a few of you regulars here may remember last year's July event -- while we're off attending San Diego Comic-Con this week, we've chosen to put our booth online so that everyone can visit and get in on the wealth of exclusive show swag, announcements, limited items, and deep discounts.  Last year's "virtual con booth" campaign on Kickstarter was a fun experiment so we've decided to do it again!

It is not only our biggest sale of the year, with over 200 items on sale in the post-campaign pledge manager, but it is headlined by our second MAGNETIC-CON Annual book! Like last year's inaugural MAGNETIC-CON campaign, we have put together a brand new 64-page book filled with even more awesome stuff: an original 12-page BLACK BOX comic story, a bunch of tabletop gaming resources (including a complete Micro-RPG), spotlight galleries by some amazing artists, exclusive sneak peeks at several of our BIG projects coming up this year... and a link to play our first original video game for FREE!

Chris has made an awesome old-school 8-bit Gameboy-like RPG based on one of the stories in BLACK BOX CHRONICLES, "Return to Ascender," and it has all the retro vibes. The MAGNETIC-CON Annual book will include a featurette about the making of the game and a link with instructions for how to play it. It runs in any standard browser, but real retro Nintendo nerds will want to put it on their Gameboy.

That's not all, though - there's also a supplemental article about Lilly Prime from BLACK BOX CHRONICLES,  as well as a new 12-page short story set in a (slightly sillier) corner of the universe drawn by Caio Oliveira (who astute Magnetic Press fans may recognize as the author of our very first book published in 2014, SUPER-EGO)!

Featuring a front cover by ZACH HOWARD (Hellboy, Wild Blue Yonder) and back cover by TORU TERADA (Small World) -- both of whom are part of the BLACK BOX CHRONICLES lineup -- this 64-page, perfect-bound softcover is more than your usual convention program book – it’s more like a premium Magnetic Press Annual. 

To add to the virtual convention experience, each book will include an exclusive lanyard and badge, and we will have some brand-new Convention Tees to choose from as well. And YES, we will have a BRAND NEW VIP LOOT BOX, TOO with brand new, premium, limited-edition exclusives inside! Each box will include 2-3 FULL BOOKS hand selected from one of 10 curated box themes -- a ~$120 value for only $65!

 AND THERE WILL ONLY BE 250 VIP BOXES AVAILABLE! 

What really makes this a massive event, however, is the 200+ ADD-ONS from our celebrated back catalog that will be available in the post-campaign pledge manager with HUGE DISCOUNTS (up to 60% OFF this year!) It is without a doubt OUR BIGGEST SALE OF THE YEAR! 

This year's campaign will be even shorter than last year's -- ONLY SIX DAYS! This special event will run from 9am CST WEDNESDAY JULY 19 (tomorrow!) until 5pm MONDAY JULY 24 only on BACKERKIT! (Why Backerkit and not Kickstarter again? Because we have another exciting new title getting ready to launch here in just a few weeks...  stay tuned! 😉 )

Please, sign up today (before launch) to receive a BONUS LIMTED-EDITION TWO-SIDED MINI-POSTER BY ZACH HOWARD AND TORU TERADA FREE with your pledge.

SURVEYS SENT!
over 1 year ago – Sun, Jun 18, 2023 at 03:48:45 PM

Hi everyone!

Just a quick note to let you know that Backerkit set up is complete and the surveys have been sent. Most of you have probably already received (and responded) to the email that went out earlier today, but if not, please check your inbox or spam folder for a message from [email protected]. They send them out in batches, so it might take a little time for yours to arrive, but if you haven't gotten it by tomorrow evening, please feel free to message us here on Kickstarter and we'll look up your invitation link. Or you can pro-actively go to https://black-box-chronicles-a-new-sci-fi-graphic-novel-antholo.backerkit.com/ and log-in with your Kickstarter-associated email address. 

If you use a @privaterelay.appleid.com email address (ie. you registered for Kickstarter using your iPhone or other iOS device), then you will need to contact us with an alternate email address to manually update your account. Backerkit has trouble sending messages to privaterelay email accounts, so that is something you will need to help us fix.

Sorry it took a bit longer than normal to get that set up and sent out...! If you have any questions at all, please don't hesitate to ask! 😊

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
over 1 year ago – Fri, Jun 02, 2023 at 05:46:42 PM

Thanks everyone! 

What a great finale! We were taking bets on whether we'd break $104k, and we broke that bar with just seconds to go...!

This is going to be an AWESOME package of goodness when it lands in your hands in the next few months. Stay tuned for updates as production commences!

Chris and Mark -- the stage is yours! 🥳

What can we say? THANK YOU to the 1,633 backers, Magnetic Press, and the incredibly talented creative team. A very special thanks to our friends and family who believed in this project from the start. You're all fantastic, and we appreciate your support! We can't wait for you to get the final book. Our plan is to take a couple of days to rest and then get back to writing and production.

At Horrible Future, we look forward to building out the Black Box Universe and bringing you other brand-new properties in a variety of genres. Stay tuned, and thank you for being here at the start of this adventure!

Mark & Chris, Co-Founders of Horrible Future

P.S. Whoever put in that last pledge with seconds to go that put us over $104,000 is the official Horrible Future Hero of the Day.

Big update -- 48-hours left! Podcast, Studio Video, and THE LAST STRETCH GOAL!
over 1 year ago – Wed, May 31, 2023 at 03:05:55 PM

Hi everyone!

We’re in final orbit and are getting ready for re-entry… only 48 hours left!

A lot has happened these past few days -- most recently, we just unlocked the GUNMETAL SCAVENGER TOKEN Stretch Goal today, which will now be added to all physical orders for FREE! Combined with the FREE postcard set, stickers, and production sketchbook... you are getting quite a meaty package for your pledge!

Next up, the final Stretch Goal at $100k: a BLACK BOX RPG Starter Rulebook designed by celebrated RPG designer Andrew E.C. Gaska (fresh off his multi-award winning work on the ALIEN RPG and TERMINATOR RPG)! This world-building role-playing scenario will leverage Magnetic’s own D6MV roleplaying system (based on the classic D6 System made famous by West End Games with titles such as their official STAR WARS RPG, GHOSTBUSTERS RPG, and MEN IN BLACK RPG). We’re less than $10k away from that goal… can we make it before 5pm CST this Friday…? WE CAN DO IT! Spread the word!

Mark and Chris have been super-busy this past week promoting the project across the internet... Podcast appearances, Studio visits.. all sorts of great stuff to show you, starting with Mark --

"Mark here! We had the pleasure of being invited on a live broadcast of Near Mint Condition, an excellent YouTube channel for fans of gorgeous collected hardcover graphic novels. "Uncanny Omar," the owner/host, has an encyclopedic knowledge of high-quality art books, and it was a real thrill for us to discuss "Black Box Chronicles" with him. 

One of the reasons we went with Magnetic Press is the consistent quality product they produce. If you own even one book from them, you know. Thank you for making it possible to give these artists the prestigious presentation they deserve!

And if you haven't already grabbed a hardcover version or slipcover package, there's still time to upgrade your pledge. As always, thank you to our incredible backers and especially Omar at Near Mint Condition for having us on his show to discuss all things hardcover!

With gratitude,

Mark Schey (Co-Creator, Black Box Chronicles)"

In addition, Chris recently sat down with superstar concept artist SHANE MOLINA for an awesome spotlight video – Chris writes:

“You're going to be hearing a lot more about Shane as Magnetic Press and Horrible Future continue to grow this year. DESIGN SPACE isn't just your typical art book—it's a super detailed visual dictionary for the Black Box Universe. Trust me, it's almost 100 pages. Mark and I kept Shane busy all year, churning out spaceship after spaceship! Shane worked in tandem with some of the best comic artists in the biz to make sure this world was both cohesive and filled with detail. I mean, wow...

Shane is working on multiple projects that are going to be announced real soon. When staring at his art, it may seem like he's got some serious magic up his sleeves, but it's really from years of dedication to his craft and intense practice. Let's shine the spotlight on Shane and take a tour of his studio space in Hawaii in this video:

Again, we're eternally grateful to all backers. Thanks for being a part of this exciting journey with us!

Chris Northrop (Co-Creator, Black Box Chronicles)"

Follow Shane Molina at @Hawaiian_Mako on Instagram!

That's all for now -- we're coming in hot for an exciting finish on Friday! Stay tuned and be sure to tell everyone you know to BACK THIS PROJECT TODAY! This is the only place you'll get the exclusive DAVID MACK HARDCOVER, the limited-edition SLIPCASE and SCAVENGER SET, and a whole slew of awesome FREE Stretch Goal bonuses! When this campaign is over, those items will be GONE! 

DON'T MISS OUT!