In this amazing age of crowd funded projects, more and more creative talents are turning toward Kickstarter to make their dreams a reality.  However, far more focus is being placed across the web on the creation of new ideas, not the delivery.  In turn, we present an ongoing feature here at Blast-O-Rama - I KICKSTARTED THIS!

As we all back, and receive our goodies from different projects, we’ll review not only the final product, but also how it turned out versus the original promise set in the Kickstarter pitch.

Today we take a look at Fairy Quest!

What Is It?: 

Reteaming writer Paul Jenkins with artist Humberto Ramos, best known for their collaborative works on Spider-Man, amongst other properties, combined forces to create a brand new title - Fairy Quest. This first volume is a 48 page, large sized European style hardcover, and they asked fans to help them raise $60,000 to get it printed.

What Tier Did You Select?:

I pledged $30, which entitled supporters to a beautiful, hardbound, shrink-wrapped copy of “Fairy Quest 1 — Outlaws by Paul Jenkins, Humberto Ramos and featuring gorgeous color and design work by our old pal and collaborator, Leonardo Olea.” From the photos on the page, the book simply looked stunning, and as a big fan of Ramos' work, I had to just check it out.

What, If Any, Push Goals Were Met?: 

There weren’t any traditional push goals for the campaign, but as the KickStarter went on, Jenkins promised all backers (in addition to their selected items) a free magnet, a free window cling sticker, a PDF of a bonus story, and a PDF of the book itself. The latter became offered to all tiers after there was some confusion between backers and Jenkins around the language used on the KickStarter itself.

[caption id=“attachment_10843” align=“aligncenter” width=“500”] Bonus Magnet and Window Cling Sticker[/caption]

How’d It Turn Out?:

For the most part, very well.  The book absolutely is beautiful (minus some minor printing errors I experienced - page 1’s color was noticably lighter than the rest of the book - I would have taken a photo, but it was difficult to capture properly).  The story itself, taking the characters of Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf and turning them from enemies to friends who are mostly “acting”, was rather smart.  The book proposes the idea that all fairy tales come out of a world called Fablewood, and they live side by side. However, under the oppressive Mister Grimm and his Thought Police, each character must keep their story straight.  This causes Red and Mister Woof (as he’s called when he’s not ‘acting’) to seek out something they’ve been told is called the “Real World”.  It’s a truly fun read, and Ramos' artwork is fantastic, and the writing is perfect for the all ages audience.

That said, the Kickstarter process was not without its flaws. In addition to the previously mentioned difficulties communicating between backers and Jenkins, shipping was delayed without much explanation. Estimated delivery was promised in August 2012, and I finally received my copy towards the end of September. Some would say that delay is insignificant, but copies were being sold at DragonCon 2012 (in early September), and were even being offered on their online store before backers received their copies.  The updates page lists comments from confused backers, wondering what the status of their shipped items would be - and while the book finally arrived wrapped within a bonus tote bag (coincidentally promoting Fairy Quest’s appearance at DragonCon), it also had slight damage on the sides of the book.  All and all, the process didn’t leave the best taste in my mouth.

[caption id=“attachment_10844” align=“aligncenter” width=“500”] The Surprise DragonCon Tote Bag[/caption]

Of course, the post script is that Jenkins and Ramos have since sold the title for reprinting to BOOM! Comics (which they were completely in their rights to do), but considering how backers were still receiving shipping updates as recently as November 15th, one couldn’t blame the backers for feeling neglected.

Also - while I definitely received everything else, there is no word on the PDF of a secondary story, as promised to all backers.

A Kickstarter Success? Or A Kickstarter Gone Wrong?:

Lets call it a boondoggle right down the middle. In this new era of direct-to-consumer sales for creatives, we’re bound to hit more bumps in the road before the process is completely smoothed out.  This certainly hit many of them.

As for Fairy Quest itself? The book is enjoyable, came out looking (mostly) great, and if they attempt to KickStart a second volume, I’d still back it and hope they learned their lesson. You can buy a copy of your own via their Online store today.