Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.6 AVERAGE
3.6 AVERAGE
Much Improved
Review of the 1st Indiegogo paperback edition shipped during Feb/March 2019.
Richard C. Meyer is in the forefront of the current crowd-funded independent comics/graphic novels movement. His primary YouTube channel called "Comics MATTER w/ Ya Boi Zack" (Ya Boi Zack being the name of Meyer's YouTube persona) has grown to almost 100,000 subscribers and 34 million views in the 2 years since its beginnings in April 2017. "Comics MATTER..." reviews comics and editorializes on the state of the mainstream comics industry with 2 or 3 postings per day and propagates a steady fan/customer appreciation message. A secondary channel called "Splatto del Gato" (Splatto the Cat) reviews movies and TV shows on a more occasional basis (perhaps 1 or 2 postings per week). Meyer believes in not showing his own face in reviews but often features his friend's Luna the Boxer dog that he is frequently pet-sitting. Fan favourite Luna gets a cameo at the end of this current book.
Meyer's 3 crowd-funding campaigns to date on Indiegogo have raised $551K U.S. with 14,000 backers. Meyer's first and second (a charity fundraising edition for The Trevor Project suicide hotline) campaigns were offers of his Texas-noir [b:IRON SIGHTS|42120617|IRON SIGHTS|Richard C. Meyer|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1538527052s/42120617.jpg|65714446] which was done in a rough and gritty, black and white, movie storyboard style which felt unfinished, at least as a comic book product.
"Jawbreakers: Lost Souls" is a much improved creation with full drawing and colouring from various artists and colorists across 3 stories. There is the main 50-page story "Jawbreakers: Lost Souls" and then bonuses of a 34-page "Jawbreakers: Book One Remastered" and 26-page "Jawbreakers: Book Two." The "Book One" apparently exists in an earlier edition that was presumably funded through a pre-2017 alternative crowd-funding source. This new edition is "revamped and occasionally remixed." The Book One and Two exist as prequels to a promised future "Jawbreakers: God King" story.
Meyer continues to write in an Iceberg Theory style where character backgrounds are not fully stated and explained, but about which the audience can usually make reasonable assumptions. The 5 main superhero team members display their powers throughout by showing and not telling and even after reading the book I am actually not clear about all of them. But there is enough there to keep things intriguing for the future. The artwork is quite spectacular in places, especially in the larger full page and double page panels.
Although the current "Jawbreakers: Lost Souls" campaign is sold out, a 2nd edition should be made available prior to the "Jawbreakers: God King" campaign. The only edits that I would recommend are to drop the light blue-coloured font for the occasional silent unspoken thought text balloons, which seemed pale and unreadable compared to the conventional spoken text in black-coloured font. I thought the convention in comics/graphic novels was to use a multi-bumped cumulus cloud shaped balloon for silent thoughts. A different coloured and hard-to-read font seems unnecessary. The single typo that I spotted was "Forward" instead of "Foreword" in Meyer's "Book One Remastered" introduction, but that might be an intentional nod to or unintended tic of his military service background.
Trivia
Meyer promises "a number of hidden 'Easter eggs' to find throughout" in his Forward (sic) to the 2nd story "Jawbreakers: Book One Remastered." I've only found one,.
Review of the 1st Indiegogo paperback edition shipped during Feb/March 2019.
Richard C. Meyer is in the forefront of the current crowd-funded independent comics/graphic novels movement. His primary YouTube channel called "Comics MATTER w/ Ya Boi Zack" (Ya Boi Zack being the name of Meyer's YouTube persona) has grown to almost 100,000 subscribers and 34 million views in the 2 years since its beginnings in April 2017. "Comics MATTER..." reviews comics and editorializes on the state of the mainstream comics industry with 2 or 3 postings per day and propagates a steady fan/customer appreciation message. A secondary channel called "Splatto del Gato" (Splatto the Cat) reviews movies and TV shows on a more occasional basis (perhaps 1 or 2 postings per week). Meyer believes in not showing his own face in reviews but often features his friend's Luna the Boxer dog that he is frequently pet-sitting. Fan favourite Luna gets a cameo at the end of this current book.
Meyer's 3 crowd-funding campaigns to date on Indiegogo have raised $551K U.S. with 14,000 backers. Meyer's first and second (a charity fundraising edition for The Trevor Project suicide hotline) campaigns were offers of his Texas-noir [b:IRON SIGHTS|42120617|IRON SIGHTS|Richard C. Meyer|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1538527052s/42120617.jpg|65714446] which was done in a rough and gritty, black and white, movie storyboard style which felt unfinished, at least as a comic book product.
"Jawbreakers: Lost Souls" is a much improved creation with full drawing and colouring from various artists and colorists across 3 stories. There is the main 50-page story "Jawbreakers: Lost Souls" and then bonuses of a 34-page "Jawbreakers: Book One Remastered" and 26-page "Jawbreakers: Book Two." The "Book One" apparently exists in an earlier edition that was presumably funded through a pre-2017 alternative crowd-funding source. This new edition is "revamped and occasionally remixed." The Book One and Two exist as prequels to a promised future "Jawbreakers: God King" story.
Meyer continues to write in an Iceberg Theory style where character backgrounds are not fully stated and explained, but about which the audience can usually make reasonable assumptions. The 5 main superhero team members display their powers throughout by showing and not telling and even after reading the book I am actually not clear about all of them. But there is enough there to keep things intriguing for the future. The artwork is quite spectacular in places, especially in the larger full page and double page panels.
Although the current "Jawbreakers: Lost Souls" campaign is sold out, a 2nd edition should be made available prior to the "Jawbreakers: God King" campaign. The only edits that I would recommend are to drop the light blue-coloured font for the occasional silent unspoken thought text balloons, which seemed pale and unreadable compared to the conventional spoken text in black-coloured font. I thought the convention in comics/graphic novels was to use a multi-bumped cumulus cloud shaped balloon for silent thoughts. A different coloured and hard-to-read font seems unnecessary. The single typo that I spotted was "Forward" instead of "Foreword" in Meyer's "Book One Remastered" introduction, but that might be an intentional nod to or unintended tic of his military service background.
Trivia
Meyer promises "a number of hidden 'Easter eggs' to find throughout" in his Forward (sic) to the 2nd story "Jawbreakers: Book One Remastered." I've only found one,
Spoiler
the camouflage pattern on the helmet of the guard soldier lower left panel on page 3 (of Book One) is in the shape of Meyer's Splatto del Gato trademark logo
I can see the development in Meyer’s story telling and In his political writing. Although it would have been less jarring to have all the stories drawn and inked by the same artist, it certainly shows improvement. I look forward to more.