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Chimera's Comics: A New Kind Of Comic Book Store

Created by Chimera's Comics

Chimera's Comics is more than a store - with a podcast, publishing house, special events, charity initiatives, and more our humble comic book store has become a nationwide Community.

Latest Updates from Our Project:

Your Rewards Are Going Out Now!
about 5 years ago – Thu, Feb 28, 2019 at 03:21:24 PM

Thank you all for being so patient with me as I finished putting together these rewards!

I know have your shirts, hats, bags, and other awesome rewards in hand! 

If you want a sneak peak, you can join me live tonight! I'll give you a first look at all the cool stuff in-hand!

What's Next?

I've been reaching out to see who wants to pick their rewards up - I will have them ready at your store of choice this weekend, starting Saturday. 

If you can't come in, don't worry - we will of course ship you your rewards as is normal. We just like to thank local folks in person since we have a public venue.

If I owe you a prize, I will try and have it with your rewards this weekend as well!

Do You Want Free Tickets to See Avengers?

I'll sweeten the pot! If you come pick up your rewards this Sunday, March 3, I'm giving away free tickets to my opening weekend private screening of Avengers: Endgame.

You can get all the details here.

I'll keep in touch as I start shipping out rewards, and I hope to see you on my livestream tonight.

Keep moving forward,

Carmelo

Your Rewards Are Here!
about 5 years ago – Thu, Feb 14, 2019 at 09:15:34 PM

Good morning! In this update, (1) I'll give you the status of your rewards, (2) talk about the reward pickup party, (3) I'll tell you what took so long, and (4) I'll tell you what I'm doing about it!

Where's My Stuff?

The last of the rewards will be delivered to me on February 22, 2019 according to UPS tracking information. I've been getting things in piece by piece, and that's the date the last rewards are set to arrive. Hooray! 

Reward Pickup Party!

If you're local, it's a tradition for us to have a reward pickup party for our Kickstarters! We use funds we saved on shipping to have food and refreshments. Don't worry, if you can't make it we'll ship you your rewards. 

When's the party? Help me decide! Fill out this brief survey to tell me when the party should be.

I will collect survey results and announce the reward party pickup date on Monday, February 18.

When should we have our reward pickup party? Let us know!
When should we have our reward pickup party? Let us know!

What Took So Long?

Our first Kickstarter for Magnificent was late by about two years. Ouch. And that was because we launched the Kickstarter before the actual comic book was complete. I'm never doing that again.

This project is going to be about six months late. An improvement, but still unacceptable. So what took so long?

1) Too many different rewards. We have so many different kinds of rewards here, most of which came from different vendors and all of which had different art specs with a million variations of material, size, manufacturer, etc. In short, this was really complicated. In the future, I will be keeping Kickstarter rewards more simple to avoid this problem.

2) The Store Moved! Things at the store have been bonkers. Moving our La Grange store was a tremendous effort (which turned out to be a huge success, btw) and it ate up the time I'd allotted for this campaign and pushed us into the holidays, which are crazy for retail. 

I know it doesn't get me off the hook, but 9% of Kickstarters never fulfill. I just want you to know that will NEVER happen with me. My backers are important to me, and I will always honor our Kickstarter pledges. 

What's more, I'm learning from every campaign I do to make each one better and fulfill on time. So what am I going to do about it this time?

What Am I Going To Do About It?

As you might have heard, I did something drastic. I am giving away Chimera's Comics Oak Lawn. You read that right - I am going to give away the inventory, fixtures, equipment, software, and 6 years of goodwill to the winner of a competition. Kind of like Willy Wonka but without singing and chocolate rivers (I looked into the chocolate river thing, it just wasn't sanitary). 

Check out our story on NBC
Check out our story on NBC

I'm doing this for a lot of reasons, but I think two are especially important to you. 

1) I'm spread too thin. We've had a lot of success with writing and publishing. After Magnificent raised nearly $8,000 on Kickstarter, our horror graphic novel Cellar Door (out this spring) raised over $12,000. Our fanbase is growing and that means fulfilling Kickstarter rewards on time is critical, as I have three other projects in the works as we speak. I am spread too thin to be the Kickstarter you deserve. And I'm not running the store as well as I could be. So I need to cut back on what I do, so I can do a better job for all of you.

2) It's time to spread some hope. But why give the store away? I'm giving it away to send a message to all the dreamers out there. I want people to know, it's okay to dream big. It's ok to hope. People make most of their decisions based on fear. I want to take that fear away, because when you're open to imagination the world is full of endless possibilities.

I'm serious about this
I'm serious about this

I hope you can be proud of that. I hope you read this and think, "that's why I backed Carmelo and Chimera's Comics, because they do stuff like this. Because they try to leave the world a little better off then they found it."

If you want to learn more about the competition or enter to win yourself, click here.

I hope this help restore your faith in us a little bit, and I hope you're excited about your rewards!

Keep moving forward,

Carmelo

A Free Bonus and Update On Rewards
over 5 years ago – Thu, Nov 29, 2018 at 09:19:56 AM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.

Fulfillment Update, Party Rescheduled, and Halloween Comicfest
over 5 years ago – Fri, Oct 26, 2018 at 11:24:22 AM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.

Charging Add-Ons FRIDAY! PLUS, a FREE digital comic!
over 5 years ago – Wed, Oct 17, 2018 at 12:43:05 PM

We're almost over the hump, everyone! We're hard at work finishing your rewards for our upcoming reward pick-up party and fulfillment next week and that means it's time to charge cards for Add-Ons.

You Will ONLY Be Charged If You Purchased Add-Ons During Our Post-Campaign Survey

If you pledged to this campaign, Kickstarter charged you back in June. BUT, we kept our post-campaign survey and store open awhile longer, and since it's a new service we haven't tried before we'd mistakenly believed cards had already been charged for Add-Ons.

So, to reiterate: NOT your pledge (which is taken care of), but rather your Add-On Purchase ONLY, will be charged this Friday.

Free Digital Ashcan "Cellar Door" Comic!

As you might remember from our livestreams during the campaign, we're getting ready to release our next graphic novel, "Cellar Door". 

I want you to have a FREE 38-page digital Ashcan comic of "Cellar Door."

"Cellar Door" is a 160-page hardcover sci fi and horror graphic novel anthology featuring 14 different stories cut from the same cloth as H.P. Lovecraft and "The Twilight Zone." The best part is, all of these creators are people we've brought together through Chimera's Comics. Just like we need all of our Kickstarter backers to fund our project, this time the story itself was literally made by members of our Community just like you.

Download your free digital comic!
Download your free digital comic!

"Cellar Door" is coming to Kickstarter October 30, 2018 (almost right after we get you your rewards)! I will have a special reward just for repeat Kickstarter backers, so I hope you'll take a look.

I'll tell you more about "Cellar Door" soon but for now, enjoy your comic! And please, let me know what you think!

Carmelo