Kickstarter Launch Date Announced!
IT’S FINALLY HAPPENING!
I’ve now set an official launch date for the Kickstarter for issue #2 - May 5, 2026! I like the fact that this campaign will launch pretty much two years to the day from when I launched my first, which was May 7, 2024. Hopefully it will be another lucky day for me!
It’s staggering to me that it’s taken me two years to get this campaign ready to go, but Kickstarter campaigns are a lot of work - at least the way I like to do them! At least I had the bones of my first campaign to build this one from. I didn’t want to roll straight into the second campaign after fulfilling the first one, and I thought it was premature to do any preparation on a second campaign before my first one was even finished. Then there’s the matter of reaching out to artists to commission variant covers; waiting for the covers to be done; designing the campaign page; animating another scene for the new video; shooting a live action bit for the same video; editing the whole thing; designing new, cool Stretch Goal Bonus rewards… at least the comic itself was already done!
I wanted to make sure everything was pretty much ready to go before I even set a launch date. It makes the day-to-day hubbub of the actual campaign a lot less stressful, if all you have to worry about is checking your page every day and promoting the campaign on social media, and updating the page with the latest Stretch Goal.
With everything pretty much ready to launch, I’ve spent the last week reaching out to some comic-related podcasts and YouTube channels to see if I can make a guest appearance. Some of these are shows I went on during my last campaign, others are new. I’m really excited to reconnect with familiar faces and to meet some new people who love talking comics! If you know of anyone who has a YouTube show or podcast and you think an animation professional who makes his own comic would be a good guest, please tell them to reach out to me here on Substack, or any of my other socials, which can be found at linktr.ee/steamrollerman. Or just message me their details and I’ll reach out to them!
I hope you’ll join me on May 5 when I launch the campaign! This one will have a few “firsts” that I’m trying out:
I’ll be offering two original pages as rewards during this campaign! This is big, since up to this point, the entire comic has been drawn digitally.
I’m going to have a new, different “MYSTERY VARIANT COVER” version of Issue #2 debuting each week of the campaign that will be limited to 50 copies, making them instant collectibles!
For overseas backers, since they are paying for higher shipping costs and possible tarriffs/taxes/duties, I’ll be throwing in an original sketch art card for free! For US backers, your shipping will be free, but I’ll also be offering a sketch card for $20 as an Add-On! Here are some practice pieces I’ve been doing, to see if this idea was feasible based on my drawing speed:
Each of these was done with a different pen. I was trying to work looser and rougher, so I could see how long it would take to do these. I drew these on blank 3x5 index cards, but the actual sketches for backers will be on 4x4 Strathmore Bristol board
Please join me on Kickstarter on May 5, 2026, to help bring Steamroller Man’s second issue into the physical world!
Thanks for your support! It means the world to me!
Keep Rolling,
Matt
Oh, YEAAAHHH!!! <*Kool-Aid Man voice*>