Coheed and Cambria Dragonfly Plush Toy

I made a thing with Coheed and Cambria! It's pretty exciting to finally be able to properly announce this. A little under a year ago, a representative of the Evil Ink, Coheed's label/comic company, reached out to me asking if I'd be interested in working on a project with them. Just coming off my successful Kickstarter campaign for the Elements toys, I was on a high for making more toys and exploring new challenges. So, obviously I said yes. When I first received the email, I was in a friend's car driving to get dinner, or something like that, out in Portland. It was only about a day after finishing Emerald City Comicon, and I was feeling pretty exhausted from the con, and everything really. It had only been a few months into the year and I was already busier than I had been in a long time. So when the email popped up on my phone, I pretty much had a triple take. I even showed my friend and was like "um... you see this too right?" Once I realized that my mind wasn't playing tricks on me, in state of an absolutely delirium, I replied and the conceptualization of this toy began!

Original concept design by Denis Caron

I mentioned the "exploring new challenges" in reference to this toy, because this was my first toy in which I was "breaking the mold." In fact, it was my factory's first time too. We had a very specific idea in mind, and it wasn't particularly an industry standard. They had a hard time understanding what it was we wanted to do, as most plush toys are plump and squishy. To them, they've done toy making one way for a very long time, and were convinced I wasn't sure of what I wanted to do with this. I was, so I pushed them to try. I have to say, I'm proud of the factory I work with, particularly my primary contact for championing the idea for me, because only after a few revisions we nailed it. We made a toy that looked pretty damn spot on to my design.

The band, their management, the factory, and every moving piece that made this thing come together, did so, so fantastically well, that I have to say this experience has been nothing short of amazing. Music is my heart, it's the one constant in my life that has always lead me in the right direction, so it's been an honor to work with rock legends like Coheed and Cambria as a part of my journey to continue doing what I love so much, creating.

The toy is available at the band's official merch store, and at the merch booths on their tour! 

Raven Stitch Plush Elements on Kickstarter

Corvink Elements Plush Toys [ First Editions ]

After months and months of planning this project, I'm excited to finally announce what I've been working on. For the most part I've been sort of quiet about it (w/ a teaser here and there on instagram of course) because I wanted to make sure I found the right company who could not only produce the quality of items I want to make but are also able to understand my vision. That being said, that time was time well spent! The prototypes you see in the photo above are the pre-production samples and I've gotta say they exceeded my expectations! I really hope you all get a chance to hold these magical little guys in your hands, because they are pretty fantastic quality. In my upcoming blogs I'll talk about the process of prototyping these and the story behind Them. For now, however, let's talk about getting these little guys made!

YOU'RE DOING A KICKSTARTER?

The Fire Element reborn

That's right, I'm doing my second Kickstarter! It's been a little over 3 years since I launched the L.A.W.L.S. Volume 1 campaign, and I'm still blown away by the support of my readers for helping make that happen! I am forever grateful to all of you and to Kickstarter for making that dream possible. Now, looking towards the future, I plan to put together more books (L.A.W.L.S. Vol 2, ALT., etc), but also I'd like to be able to create these companions along side of them (spoiler alert: there's a bigger picture here I'm working towards in my stories, and magic has a huge part in that). I wish I had all the money in to world to make it all happen at once, but being that I work entirely alone on all this, I had to come to the realization that Kickstarter is how pretty much the only way I can do this. So, as I took time away from comics I came up with a plan, and that plan starts with this little guy! My oldest of fans (in span of time, not age) may recognize this inkling from back in 2009, but the rest of you probably recognize his reincarnation from last year:

WHAT SORT OF REWARDS ARE YOU OFFERING?

In order to keep this project simple, I decided that Fire will be the first goal and the first reward. After Fire is funded, each other element will be "unlocked" and made available (I'll explain more about this below). L.A.W.L.S. Volume 1 will also be paired with the plush in a pack. The first rewards are a single Fire Plush or a Fire Plush + L.A.W.L.S. Volume 1. Also, I added a special tier for those who want commissions that is $50. Hopefully if we unlock more elements, the future rewards will be 2 Plush (Fire + Water, or two of the same) + L.A.W.L.S. Volume 1, and so on. Here's a visual example:

HOW DO I GET ALL 4 ELEMENTS?

If you're wondering why I'm only asking for $2000 to fund only Fire when I have these other 3 other concepts on the line here, the answer is pretty simple. The main reason for this unconventional structuring of a campaign is because I didn't feel completely comfortable asking for $8000 up front. I don't know if it's just fear that I can't reach that goal, or what, but $2000 is a more reasonable and obtainable number. Especially, considering I'm not too sure how interested the public are in these just yet. I figure too, by showing that I have a full vision for this from the get go that people will understand that I have a plan and I'm not just coming up with rewards for the sake of asking for more money (which I've seen on Kickstarter many times). If we're able to fund the first $2000 goal to make Fire, the next goal immediately moving forward is $4000 to make Fire and Water, $6000 to add Air to the mix and $8000 to make all 4 of them! If we get there, I'll be at a loss of words. This is just the beginning of the concepts I have for toy designs, and if people are that into it, this will be a huge way to help me to finacinally get to a place where I can finish writing/creating L.A.W.L.S. and make more ALT Comics!

Thank you in advance to any of you willing to help expand my universe and make these cute little guys real! CLICK HERE TO JUMP TO KICKSTARTER!

EDIT: Changed titled to Raven Stitch Plush Elements, after rebranding them.