Help us print Valor: Cups – the third and final volume of our fairy tale comic anthology trilogy about courageous heroines.
What is Valor? Valor is a comic anthology project composed of adapted, re-imagined, or invented fairy tales. The anthology is aimed at all-age readers, and is LGBTQA+ friendly.
The purpose of the stories contained within Valor is to pay homage to the strength, resourcefulness, and cunning of female heroines in fairy tales. Although fairy tales are often presented as a “feminine” form of literature due to the abundance of princesses, a lot of classic princess archetypes are passive, asleep, imprisoned, or offered as a prize. Valor, and all the creators participating in it, want to give female heroines the roles they deserve, to inspire young and old readers alike.
Valor was planned as a trilogy. The first volume was funded successfully through Kickstarter in 2014. The second book, Valor: Wands, was funded successfully through Kickstarter in 2018. Valor: Cups, is making a splash as the third and final installment of the anthology!
Valor: Cups is built around the theme of water as both a concept and a symbol. As such, the fairy tales chosen for this book dive into the themes of pairs (reflection, doubles), growth, transformation, healing and illusion. The cover features a mermaid, as well as a narwhal and a unicorn. In medieval Europe, the narwhal horn was often sold under the pretense of being a unicorn horn, and having healing magical properties, specifically to cure melancholia – an ancient medical concept reminiscent of depression. As motifs, the unicorn and the narwhal perfectly represent the themes of healing, illusion and promise.
Like the preceding volume of Valor, this anthology is printed in full color. It will have approximately 200 pages of content with 22 comics, 3 prose stories, and 8 illustrations.
Valor is edited and published by Fairylogue Press, the creative team of Isabelle Melançon and Megan Lavey-Heaton, co-creators of the fantasy webcomic Namesake. Valor: Cups contains the following comic stories:
Valor: Cups also contains the following illustrated prose fairy tales!
As well as gorgeous illustrations by Karla Rodriguez, Josceline Fenton and The Gorgonist.
Backers can grab the print or digital versions of Valor: Cups along with a selection of goodies. Here is a list of the available rewards.
Most of the rewards are available within the Stationery Set, which includes 2 die cut stickers, 3 postcard prints, and 1 double-sided bookmark.
We also have a special Valor Trilogy Print Set for backers who purchase two or three of the Valor books through the kickstarter. Each small print is designed to match the colors and theme of one of the anthologies. As an individual reward, we also have the red and gold Sword and Sorcery Enamel Pin that is included in the higher tiers.
As we did in Valor: Wands, up to 40 backers have the option of commissioning a custom portrait that will be featured in the thank you pages of the book, under the section Patrons of Valor. Each portrait can be accompanied by a name or dedication, and the portraits can be of the backer themselves, of an original character, or of families or friends.
The designs for the physical rewards are all ready to be produced as soon as we hit the goal!
If we reach our goal to print Valor: Cups, we have two exciting stretch goals to add to the project! The mystery of each tile shall be revealed as we reach a both goals.
$60 000 – ??????
$90,000 – ??????
Here are the costs tied to this project, and how we plan on breaking down the funds.
Paying artists: We want as much money as possible from the Kickstarter to land back in the pocket of the artists, and the amount they get depends on how much is raised in the Kickstarter. We are starting out by paying our artists $60 per page, but we want to be able to give them $100 per page, possibly more!
Printing books: Our books are being printed by Marquis in Montreal, Canada, an amazing printer that also handled Namesake book 3, the reprint of Valor: Swords and the printing of Valor: Wands. This cost also includes pre-press work, to make sure our colors print beautifully and that no talkbubble is left empty!
Shipping and packaging: Unfortunately, shipping prices rise every year, so almost half the funds will be dedicated to this, and making sure the books are properly packaged and warehoused.
Fees and taxes: Kickstarter and Stripe will get their cut, so will the IRS.
Rewards: This is the money for paying for all the pretty, pretty swag. We have numerous tested and true suppliers!
Wiggle room: This is for unexpected expenses, such as damaged stock, lost shipments, etc.
We would like to offer special thanks to the Hiveworks team for their continued support, as well as Nicole Chartrand, Gisele Weaver, Michelle “Misha” Krivanek, Kevin Wilson and Taneka Stotts for their design input. And a big thanks to Atla Hrafney and Christina McKenzie for their grammatical and color proofing work.
Additional tip of the hat to all the greats, from Grimm to Andersen, without forgetting Perrault, D’Aulnoy, Jacobs, Lang, Afanasyev, Leprince de Beaumont, Asbjornsen, Carroll, and all the Scheherazades of the worlds.
And a final thanks to all our backers for keeping fairy tales alive. Working on this trilogy took a total of seven years (Magical fairy tale number!!!). We could not be more proud of our work, and we are thankful for all the wonderful artist contributions and reader encouragement.
The music used in the video is a copyright free track by Olive Musique titled Troubled Waters. The animation at the opening of the video was done by Michelle “Misha” Krivanek.
We have already worked on ways to avoid issues. Most of the book materials are already in hand and being proofed, reducing production time. Furthermore, our team are Kickstarter veterans, with seven successful ones under our belt. This experience, combined with the support we get from artists and Hiveworks, is sure to help us run this project in a timely manner.