Are you obsessed with mythology?
Are you gaga for monsters?
Do you love new takes on old classics?
Then you’ll love the Godsverse Chronicles. I LOOOOOOVE mythology, which is what inspired me to spend ten years researching, building, creating, and launching the Godsverse, my mythological fantasy universe.
Four books, two graphic novels, twelve stories, filled with action, adventure, magic, monsters, gods from Judeo-Christian, Greek, Roman, Norse, and Egyptian mythology.
The Godverse takes my two most popular graphic novels, Katrina Hates the Dead/Katrina Hates Dead Shit and Pixie Dust, novelizes them, and adds TEN additional stories set across 13,000 years to fill in the mythology about how we moved from polytheism to monotheism, why the gods abandoned us, and why the universe feels like a chaotic mess with no rhyme, reason, or order.
But don’t worry that they are too heavy.
These books are exciting, action-adventure mythological fantasy novels steeped in mythology, then filled with humor, action, and fun.
There’s just a heavy dose of blasphemous, mythological comedy as well. These four novels will come as paperback books, while the graphic novels and anthologies will come as hardcover books.
Pick up any one of them, OR own the complete set today!
The Godsverse features different main characters in each of the four books, and each book contains three different 25,000-40,000 word stories set along the timeline of the Godsverse.
It’s important to note that each of these books is a STANDALONE collection, but they do build on each other. However, you can read them in any order.
***This Kickstarter is also for the paperback versions, not hardcover version, of the novels. However, the graphic novels and anthologies are hardcover.***
And Death Followed Behind Her follows Katrina, the titular character from Katrina Hates the Dead, as she deals with the Apocalypse, which takes place in current times, and the ramifications of it that take place 10,000 years in the future. You can read the first book in this collection, And Demons Followed Behind Her, for free, by clicking here. This is the first book in the And Death Followed Behind Her collection.
And Doom Followed Behind Her takes place right after the Katrina timeline ends 10,000 years in the future and follows Rebecca Lobdell as she travels across the universe, fighting for the Greek, Roman, Norse, and Egyptian gods against a terrorist group known as the Godless.
And Hell Followed Behind Her travels back in time 3,000 years before the Apocalypse to follow Akta, the lead character of Pixie Dust, as we retell her harrowing tale and explore the origins of the Godsverse, with appearances by Lucifer, Velaska, and more in the bowels of Hell and the tips of Mount Olympus.
Finally, And Ruin Followed Behind Her follows Julia Freeman, a descendant of Akta’s from the 1970s, as she deals with demons trying to invade Earth, and as she works to save pixie kind from the upcoming Apocalypse.
All four are available during the campaign, or pick up the complete set for $100 including domestic USA shipping and have you or your loved one written into the book as a character as a special bonus.
The Godsverse is a universe where all gods are real, but they are kind of useless dicks, just like the old gods from mythology.
I could get behind the ethos behind those gods. They aren’t all-powerful, all-knowing, or all benevolent. They just kind of sucked, like the humans they ruled. Those gods made a lot of sense based on how the world has devolved recently.
In the Godsverse, when a new habitable world is formed, all the gods from all pantheons come to make sure that it’s functional and sustainable. They help humanity, fragile and weak creatures, flourish in the harsh universe.
That’s why there were so many god sightings in the past, and not many at all right now.
They abandoned us.
Once a world is sustainable, then the gods move on to the next world, leaving one god in charge as regent.
Some gods are good rulers. Some are not so great. Others downright suck. We got stuck with the worst of the worst.
The god we got stuck with on Earth was Bacchus; a vain, incompetent drunk. God of wine and being a useless jerk.
He was supposed to keep the temples for the old gods sacred, but instead, ruled by his vanity, he turned the temples into churches so that people would worship him above all others.
He spun tales of himself being all-powerful and all-knowing when he wasn’t either, but he kept building himself up because he was insecure.
Eventually, a confluence of events leads to an Apocalypse, which is where the lynchpin book in the series begins, And Demons Followed Behind Her, which you can read for free by clicking here (this is the first book in the And Death Followed Behind Her collection, and its graphic novel retelling, Katrina Hates the Dead/Katrina Hates Dead Shit, which you can read the first issue of by clicking here.
The rest of the universe splinters out from that event, both back in time to Akta during And Hell Followed Behind Her, or forward through the Godsverse to the time of Rebecca Lobdell & And Doom Followed Behind Her.
The Godsverse is funny fantasy, with mythological and action thriller tendencies. It is fast-paced, full of plot twists, and will keep you on the edge of your seat…when you aren’t falling off of it laughing.
My name is Russell Nohelty, USA Today bestselling author and publisher of Wannabe Press, a small press that creates weird books for weird people, creator of Katrina Hates Dead Shit, Ichabod Jones Monster Hunter, and Pixie Dust, along with the editor of both the Monsters and Other Scary Shit, and Cthulhu is Hard to Spell anthologies.
I have raised over $125,000 on Kickstarter from 8 different projects, and have gotten exceedingly good at crafting amazing books that audiences love.
I have a simple motto when it comes to Kickstarter. I outlay all the money to get the book print-ready, and then I bring it to my audience and try to raise finishing funds for the book.
The Godsverse is all about strong-willed women who take their fate into their own hands and fight back against their destiny, even its against the gods themselves. While that trait binds them, they are each very different as well.
Each of these books is standalone, and you can read them in any order. However, I recommend either reading in this order:
And Death Followed Behind Her
And Doom Followed Behind Her
And Hell Followed Behind Her
And Ruin Followed Behind Her
This is the series order, and how they will appear on Amazon. If you don’t want to read it that way, then the other way I recommend is:
And Hell Followed Behind Her
And Ruin Followed Behind Her
And Death Followed Behind Her
And Doom Followed Behind Her
This is the chronological order, from the oldest part of the universe through to the furthest into the future.
Katrina is the person who started it all, and this book is three of her adventures. If you like snark, then Katrina has it in spades.
What I, and many others, love about Katrina is that she never backs down from a fight, no matter how daunting the odds. When we pick up Katrina’s story, she’s survived two years in the Apocalypse, in conditions that most people would never survive.
It’s hardened her, but it’s also made her brazen and bold. She’s beaten hellhounds, demons, zombies, and more, and she’s sick of it. She just wants peace and quiet, which sends her on a quest to end the Apocalypse by confronting Lucifer and forcing him to get things back to normal.
Along the way, she gets embroiled in a battle between Heaven and Hell with the destiny of the world hanging in the balance.
I like to think of Katrina as the ass-kicker. She doesn’t ask questions and she doesn’t think before she leaps. She shoots from the hip and asks questions later. You can read the first story in her collection, And Demons Followed Behind Her, for free by clicking here. This is the first book in the And Death Followed Behind Her collection.
Then, after the events of And Demons Followed Behind Her, there are two more Katrina adventures in And Death Followed Behind Her.
In the second story Katrina sets out across the universe to kill the Greek gods, and then in the third, she sets out to save the universe from a god killing race of sentient insects called the Horde.
If Katrina is all about thinking with her gut and leaving a path of destruction in her wake, then Rebecca is about meticulous attention to detail and cleaning up after Katrina’s mess.
Rebecca Lobdell was a sniper during the Horde Wars that take place during the third Katrina story, where she fought alongside demons to save the world. After the war was over, the demons stayed behind on Earth, and now they run things.
Rebecca is a hired gun for one of the demon warlords who control a portion of Thebos, a city built upon the wreckage of Los Angeles.
Rebecca is fueled by hatred; hatred for the demons that rule her city, and hatred for the old gods, especially Velaska, the trickster goddess she believes turned on humanity during the Horde Wars.
So, when she’s hired to kill Velaska, it’s a dream job…until everything goes wrong.
After a brutal explosion that nearly left her dead, she’s left with no choice but to work for Velaska and join an organization called the Godschurch, which protects gods while a group called the Godless is working to kill them off.
As she delves deep into the bowels of the Godless organization, she runs across Greek, Roman, Norse, and Egyptian gods, who need her protection, and who, for the first time in their lives, truly fear being snuffed out of existence by the same mortals they once created.
And Death Followed Behind Her introduced the Judeo-Christian concept of God and the Greek/Roman pantheon. And Doom Followed Behind Her builds upon that mythology and introduces both the Norse and Egyptian mythologies into the universe.
Pixie Dust was my most successful graphic novel Kickstarter campaign ever, raising over $25,000 in 2017 and solidifying the Godsverse as my most popular universe.
It also acts as the earliest story in the Godsverse, and was retold as the first story in the And Hell Followed Behind Her collection.
Its main character, Akta, was the most famous monster hunter in King Odgeir’s kingdom. She’s cunning, quick, and brutal, but she happens to be a pixie in a world of humans, so she’s also an outsider, making her extremely cautious and careful with her words as many people consider her a monster.
Still, she’s never failed her adopted brother, or her surrogate kingdom, even if it means killing the same monsters with which she shares a blood kinship.
In the first story, Betrayed, Akta is betrayed and murdered by her adopted brother, King Odgeir, and her soul is sent to Hell. She finds her way to the palace of the Devil, Velaska, and makes a deal to return to Earth to get vengeance on the king.
However, she doesn’t come back into a fully functional body. The one she returns to has been dead for a week. Rigor mortis has set in, meaning it barely works, and yet she must use it to kill a king or risk millions of years of torture for not fulfilling her promise.
And Hell Followed Behind Her tells three stories set across the afterlife and explains how we moved from the god Velaska being the Devil, to Lucifer, with lots of action, adventure, deception, intrigue, and magic along the way.
And Hell Followed Behind Her builds out the universe BEFORE the Apocalypse, focusing on Mount Olympus, Heaven, and Hell back before all the gods abandoned us.
If I had to choose one character as my favorite lead in the Godsverse, it would be Julia Freeman. Julia is loyal, fierce, and kind-hearted, but she has also been dicked over so many times that her heart has callused over.
When we meet Julia, she’s recently graduated from Northwestern with a master’s in teaching, and she’s had no choice but to return to her home town in rural Colorado to help her aging mother.
The first story, Mystery Spot, is set during 1974 in a small town in rural Colorado.
Humanity no longer believes in magic. That includes Julia Freeman—that was until she started disappearing into thin air.
Julia doesn’t want trouble. She just wants to keep her head down and stay under the radar—but that’s not possible anymore. Not after people take notice of her new abilities. The wrong kind of people. The kind of people that want magical creatures like Julia dead.
Now, she must find out what’s happening to her—and why—before she becomes the sacrificial lamb in a plot to open the gates of Hell.
That, and two other stories, make up And Ruin Followed Behind Her, and lead Julia through Hell and back again, where she meets up with demons, angels, and a long lost relative.
This book tells the story of the days leading up to the Apocalypse, when Hell is overcrowded and the world is teetering on the edge of cataclysm. People just don’t know it yet, and Julia is the last line of defense holding it all together.
And Ruin Followed Behind Her continues to build out the mythology of Hell in the years before the Apocalypse and shows the powder keg about to explode onto humanity.
Together, these books tell the story of the Godsverse, the afterlife, Hell, the Heavens, the mythology, and the history of the universe across 13,000 years.
You can pick up any book by itself for $25, or the complete set for $100, read the complete collection, and get written into the book as my gift to you.
Since I released Katrina Hates the Dead/Katrina Hates Dead Shit as a graphic novel back in 2015, people have been begging to know what happened after the end of the book.
The demand was so great that I wrote the Pixie Dust graphic novel to tell another story in that universe. It raised $25,000 and was my most successful graphic novel launch of all time (to date).
However, that book just opened more questions, like “what happened between Akta’s time period and the current one to cause the Apocalypse?” and “Where did Velaska go to leave Lucifer in charge of Hell?”
I had already started writing a couple of additional Katrina novels before the Pixie Dust launch in 2017, but once that was over, I knew I would need to expand out the world and give a better account of the universe.
Thus, the twelve stories of the Godsverse was birthed, and I spent all of 2018 writing them for you.
Yes, I do mean for you, because it’s the fans that convinced me to dive deeper into this world and bring my vision of it to life.
So that’s what I did.
This is the universe I wrote for YOU. I thought it would just be one graphic novel, and now it’s expanded to so much more.
I know there are many pledge levels.
This is the curse of having so many books. I tried to design the pledge tiers in two tracks: physical and digital, each of which is broken down below, with what is included in each.
I have found that people are either physical book backers or digital backers, and either way, I want to make sure you have the right options for you.
If you don’t see something you like, please message me and let me know. I’m sure I can help you select the right pledge level for you.
$1 – surprise ebook
$5 – one ebook
$10 – two ebooks
$15 – three ebooks
***$20 – four ebooks*** – This is the complete novel collection of all four Godsverse stories, and my recommendation for digital buyers. All books come in epub and mobi, along with PDF.
$30 – four ebooks, one digital graphic books
$35 – four ebooks, plus complete ebook collection (including Invasion, Gumshoes: The Case of Madison’s Father, My Father Didn’t Kill Himself, The Vessel, and Sorry for Existing)
**$40 – four ebooks, two digital graphic books – If you want the entire Godsverse, including graphic novels, then you want to purchase this set.
$70 – four ebooks, complete digital graphic novel collection (including Ichabod Jones volume 1, Katrina Hates the Dead, Pixie Dust, Monsters and Other Scary Shit, and Cthulhu is Hard to Spell), plus special thanks.
$80 – complete digital, including all four Godsverse ebooks, plus the complete novel collection (including Invasion, Gumshoes: The Case of Madison’s Father, My Father Didn’t Kill Himself, The Vessel, and Sorry for Existing). and the complete graphic novel collection ((including Ichabod Jones volume 1, Katrina Hates the Dead, Pixie Dust, Monsters and Other Scary Shit, and Cthulhu is Hard to Spell), plus a special thanks and getting written into the book.
$100 – Crush it on Kickstarter course + four Godsverse books
$25 – One Godsverse paperback novel, one Godsverse ebook
$38 – One graphic novel, one digital graphic book
$50 – Two Godsverse paperback novel, two Godsverse ebook + special thanks
$70 – Two graphic novels, two digital graphic books, and a special thanks.
$75 – Three Godsverse paperback novel, three Godsverse ebook, and special thanks.
***$100 – Four Godsverse paperback novel, four Godsverse ebook, special thanks, plus have you or your loved one written into the book as a character as my special bonus to you. – This will get you THE ENTIRE GODSVERSE NOVEL collection and includes domestic US shipping, and is my recommendation for completionists.***
$130 – Four Godsverse paperback novel, four Godsverse ebook, one hardcover graphic novel, one graphic digital book, special thanks, and being written into book, plus have you or your loved one written into the book as a character as my special bonus to you.
**$150 – Four Godsverse paperback novel, four Godsverse ebook, three hardcover graphic novels, three graphic digital book, special thanks, and being written into book, plus have you or your loved one written into the book as a character as my special bonus to you. – With this pledge, you can pick up the entire Godverse library including four books and both graphic novels.
$200 – Four Godsverse paperback novel, four Godsverse ebook, four hardcover graphic novel, four graphic digital book, special thanks, and being written into book, plus have you or your loved one written into the book as a character as my special bonus to you..
Absolutely I do. The great part about Kickstarter is that YOU are helping me create the books and make them available. No other humans in the history of the universe will help this book get made, except for my team, and Kickstarter backers.
Because of that, I always like to offer something unique and special for backers that nobody else, no matter how many copies they buy, will receive.
Every pledge over $50 receives a special thanks inside all four books for helping me creating this universe. Every printing of the book and every person who buys it digitally will see your name inside the book.
Every pledge over $100 (aside from the Crush it On Kickstarter course level) gets themselves written into the book as a minor character, in name only. This is perfect if you or somebody you know is a big fan of the Godsverse. I’ve only offered this inside two of my books ever, and it’s a lot of fun.
Every person who ever reads the book will see your name, and you’ll be able to tell them that you helped me make this series happen.
Four free pins
While there is a pin pledge at $45, if you pledge at the $200+ level you will receive your choice of four pins absolutely free.
This is a hard question because the goal is $1 and I’m going to be printing these POD, but what I can tell you is how much I am currently in the red for this endeavor, and what it would take to get me to write more Godsverse books.
Production – $6,000
Printing – $2,000
Shipping – $2,000
Kickstarter – $1,000
These were the most expensive novels I’ve ever written, and because of that it cost me well over $9,000 to produce these four books (I’ve clawed back $3,000 already), and if we were to raise that amount of money to pay off production, then the rest are estimations of where we would be at the end of the campaign.
I ran a $1 campaign in 2016, and it was the most fun I ever had on a campaign because we funded in like five minutes and spent the rest of the time trying to raise 1,000,000% of goal which is $10,000.
We only reached $3,400, and I really want to try again and run a big, fun campaign that doesn’t take itself too seriously, which I think is what the Godsverse is all about in the end.
So, if I’m going to just run a $1 campaign, why even come to Kickstarter at all, right?
I’m here because while I’m not Kickstartering the printing or production of these books, as they are done, what I am doing is trying to Kickstarter interest in this series.
I’ve invested so much money into this series, and before I write a fifth book which will feature multiple Godverse characters and become my “Avengers” team-up book, I need to know that people love it enough for me to sink more money into it.
Kickstarter is where I funded Katrina Hates the Dead/Katrina Hates Dead Shit and Pixie Dust, and it only felt right to bring them here first to give them their best chance to succeed.
Additionally, this is the only place, unless you find me at shows, that you can receive signed copies of the books from me, which is important for many of my fans.
Also, I know the Godsverse has meant a lot to many people, so I wanted to give a chance for people to be written into the book and receive special thanks for helping these books to even exist.
This is a celebration culminating TEN YEARS of building the Godsverse. I wrote Katrina Hates the Dead/Katrina Hates Dead Shit in 2010, and now, ten years later, it’s exciting to look at everything that we’ve built from it.
During the Kickstarter campaign, you can choose from several of our hardcover books (though not Cthulhu is Hard to Spell because that will be its own Kickstarter later this year).
Here’s a quick rundown of our other books. The first two are the original two Godsverse books, which have now been novelized in the books above.
This is my most popular book and the first comics drawing credit for Marvel artist Juan Frigeri, who has worked on things like Renew your Vows and Immortal Hulk among others.
Katrina is about a woman who gets sick of living during the Apocalypse so she sets out to kill the Devil, and along the way get embroiled in a battle between Heaven and Hell.
It was the ORIGINAL Godsverse book, back when it was called the Shittiverse, and is as important to read as And Demons Followed Behind Her, which you can read for free by clicking here. This is the first book in the And Death Followed Behind Her collection.
Here’s a couple of interior pages.
Get a preview of issue #1 by clicking right here.
Pixie Dust was drawn by Nicolas Touris and is meant to be read like an animated movie. It’s been likened to Zelda with gore, or a failed D&D campaign.
Pixie Dust is about a pixie monster hunter who sells her soul to the queen of the underworld and comes back from the dead to seek revenge on the king that murdered her. This second book takes place 3,000 years before Katrina Hates the Dead/Katrina Hates Dead Shit. You can find the novelization of this graphic novel in the And Hell Followed Behind Her book.
Here are a few of my favorite panels from Pixie Dust.
The first picture is of Akta, and the second is of possibly my FAVORITE character in all the Godsverse, the goddess Velaska.
Get a free preview of Pixie Dust by clicking right here.
Those are the two books in the Godsverse, but there are two additional graphic novels and anthologies not in the Godsverse available during this campaign, which you can see below.
Ichabod Jones: Monster Hunter is about a psychopath that escapes a mental asylum and becomes a monster hunter, but doesn’t know if he’s killing monsters, humans, or its all in his head.
We used a combination of Tim Burton, Skottie Young, and Jhonen Vasquez’s Johnny the Homicidal Maniac to make it feel like you are in his head looking out.
Drawn by Renzo Podesta, who helped Charles Soule (Lando, Poe Dameron, The Death of Wolverine) launch his career with Image Comics’ book 27, Ichabod is a dark fantasy series if it was written by Lovecraft, edited by Tolkien, injected with tons of wicked humor, and then drawn by Jhonen Vasquez.
It is also the weirdest book in my stable. If you like Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, Shutter Island, In the Mouth of Madness, or Event Horizon, this one might be for you. It is a psychological mindscrew.
You can read the first issue for free by clicking here.
Monsters and Scary Shit is an anthology filled with 30 stories from more than 50 creators. It’s cute stories, scary stories, funny stories and more all about monsters, and it’s the cover that the nightmare elf is from, drawn by Invader Zim artist Aaron Alexovich.
Here are some images from that book (assuming the .gif loads. If not, just give it a minute).
To get a preview, click right here.
I’ll also have all of my pins. Each pin is $12 and shipping will be charged once you fill out your form.
Or you can pledge $45 and get any four pins you would like from this set, plus all digital copies of all four Godsverse novels.
The Crush it on Kickstarter course is my introductory course about how to run a Kickstarter campaign. It shows new creators (or ones who want to up their game), how to create, launch, fund, and distribute their campaigns.
And it’s 50% off during this campaign!
The risks are REALLY low on this one, since I’ve already set everything up on Ingram, and I’m not doing a big print run for the books, so I really, really think this will go smoothly, but I suppose there’s always a risk of nuclear winter, or something else going wrong. Because there is no large order shipping, and I have performed this kind of campaign four times, I think it will all be okay, but there is always the risk of delays.