Meet the Crimson Star, a Singaporean Superhero by Singaporeans, has just started his journey on Kickstarter.
Introducing Crimson Star, a superhero for Singapore and the first superhero series to be created and developed by an all Singaporean creative team of talents. Created by local comic book enthusiast and all around geek, Ryan Mennen, Crimson Star strives to not only provide Singaporeans with a superhero of their own, but also to work towards forging the comic book field as an economically viable industry.
Having been a fan of many local comics, like Mr. Kiasu, Chew On It, and the works of Sonny Liew, Ryan feels that Singapore has always displayed a strong potential for sustaining a comic book industry, but for some reason this has yet to come to fruition and the lack of an iconic superhero series may just be a contributing factor to this void.
“Crimson Star may or may not be that superhero title that Singaporeans finally identify with, but I hope that it, well, kickstarts a common trend of Singaporeans working on original content that depicts our society and culture more accurately. A lot of locally set work tend to place a large amount of emphasis on things like Singlish and, while that’s fine, what often gets misplaced is the nuances of the colloquialisms that we are a multicultural race with many influences on our spoken languages.”
Set in 1988, Crimson Star follows the adventures of the titular hero as he learns how to cope with his newfound powers. Fandi Bin Ishak, a 26-year old Singaporean working in New York, inadvertently finds himself caught in a battle between the extraterrestrial Starlight and her nemesis Deadstar, where he finds himself gifted with the same powers as the alien hero.
At only SGD $2, the Kickstarter seeks to fund a black & white digital copy of Crimson Star – A Singaporean Superhero #01 which will be set in an iconic Singapore location. However, Ryan shares that there is a long-term plan for the series. The script for the first 6 issues have been completed, with a total of 65 issues planned. The campaign is the first step towards building a brand that can be financially sustained in other ways over a 5-year run.
Ryan hopes that the structure will allow for a fresh take on the art with each arc, and at the same time create a platform for budding artists to work on a homegrown title before, hopefully, moving on to greater projects.
“While it has become somewhat of a norm that artists are paid only if a project is successful, it’s not a practice that I think is particularly fair to the talents behind the product. This Kickstarter campaign allows me to ensure that the artists working on this are fairly remunerated regardless of whether or not this series takes off – The 65 issues are split into 60 standard issues and 5 annual special editions. The 60 issues are further split into 20 arcs, each arc 3 issue long. This structure is crucial to the long term plan for Crimson Star. With each arc, a new art team (penciller, inker, and colourist) will be introduced.” Ryan explains
Crimson Star – A Singaporean Superhero #01 will run a 45 day campaign from the 2nd of September till midnight of 16th October. The campaign aims to raise S$5,000 to produce a 20 page black & white first issue of the series. With only a $2 tier available, the aim is to get as many Singaporeans contributing to the campaign to boost efforts of promoting this character amongst local readers. Each pledge of $2 rewards the pledger with 2 download keys for the digital copy of the final product.
Reach goals include an $8,888 tier that will see the 20 pages fully coloured, and even an extreme reach goal of $30,000 that will allow for the full colour production of the first three issues and a special 8 page National Day story. Regardless, the pledge amount will remain at $2 for all backers.