**FULLY FUNDED!**
**£1000 STRETCH GOAL REVEALED – ALL PRINTED BOOKS UPGRADED TO HARDBACK AT NO EXTRA COST!!**
Hello, I’m Steve Tanner and welcome to the pre-order campaign for The Tale of Norton the Dragon!
Based on local Somerset myths and legends, The Tale of Norton the Dragon comprises one off gag strips and longer serialised themed strips by creator David Morris. Norton the Dragon has a long history: the strip was originally conceived in the eighties as a regular feature in a local newspaper in the South West of England, then more recently revived for LAMP, a Somerset arts magazine.
Of course, this means that nobody outside this limited geographical readership are aware of Norton the Dragon, or have experienced the strip’s clever humour and slapstick concepts. The Tale of Norton the Dragon intends to address that, collecting some of the strips together in a single volume for a wider audience to enjoy.
Since its inception, Norton the Dragon has built up an ensemble cast of characters including:
Norton: A large red dragon who plagues the local township.
Wyrm: Idolises Norton and wants to be a real dragon.
Sir Fulk Fitzwarraine: Local knight and part time slayer of dragons, although he hasn’t actually slain one yet.
Carantoc: Evangelist, storyteller and historian, who will quite happily alter the facts to suit his current theories.
Lady Meade: Betrothed to Fulk but has a thing for dragons. Constantly chaining herself to rocks to get Norton’s attention.
Jon Aller: Squire to Sir Fulk and slayer of at least one dragon.
Blackthorn Sid: Blacksmith and village drunk.
M’nard: Baker, business exists solely due to Norton’s fiery breath giving a distinct flavour to his baking, frequently ends up burnt to a crisp.
Decuman: Physician, vet, has a habit of losing his head. Owns a cow.
If you like clever pay-off lines and historical humour you’ll enjoy Norton, as with the strip David has created (along with this cast of a characters) a quasi-medieval setting that’s as entertaining to look at as it is to read. As with the best newspaper strips, it can be enjoyed by readers of all ages – as you can see from the examples here.
But The Tale of Norton the Dragon isn’t just a collection of reprinted gag strips – for this unique collection David is creating a brand new, full length story that will reveal the origin of Norton for the first time, giving the book some terrific original content that won’t have been seen anywhere else!
The collection itself will be in a square format, be perfect bound and in full colour throughout its 48 pages. It will also be published through Time Bomb, an indie publisher in the UK that has built up a solid reputation for producing quality comics and graphic novels.
As with all my previous campaigns this is a low target pre-order opportunity rather than an all-out plea for funding, to give an opportunity for backers worldwide to obtain a copy of the book cheaper than it will be anywhere else and provide some backer exclusives that won’t be available outside of this campaign.
Therefore, this campaign has a limited range of reward tiers that (as well as digital and printed copies of The Tale of Norton the Dragon) include options to receive an exclusive Norton art print by signed and numbered by Norton’s creator David Morris, and even some original strip art pages.
Thanks for reading. I hope you’ll consider supporting this campaign and pre-ordering a copy of The Tale of Norton the Dragon.
Cheers!
Steve
This will be my eleventh Kickstarter campaign. All previous campaigns have been successfully funded and delivered. All newly produced artwork for this project will be completed by 1st January 2020 and no delivery delays are expected.