Pariah Missouri: I've seen the Promised Land!

Guest post by Andres Salazar.

My name is Andres Salazar. I’m a storyteller. I've been hunkered down working on the second graphic novel in the series, Pariah Missouri. Part Huckleberry Finn part Twin Peaks it’s a mash-up of some of my favorite stories and ideas all set in Antebellum 1857 Missouri. It’s steampunk without the punk, but a good dose of religion, folk magic, bounty-hunters, slaves and demons. It’s the A-team with Hiram Buchanan, an undercover Pinkerton, Nellie, a feisty courtesan, Jean Lafitte, a practitioner of voodoo from New Orleans, and Toro, a Mexican/Comanche bounty-hunter as they ferret out evil.

Book Two introduces two new characters, Elijah Harris and Jasper Whitmer, both preachers on different sides of the Great Awakening. Both there to save souls, or are they?

Book One was a Kickstarter last year. We did very well and I started hitting the convention circuit.  I attended 14 comic book conventions in the last 12 months (That's a whole another post I can write about those experiences).  I sold over 1,000 copies of Book One and it was selected as the Staff Pick for July's Preview in Diamond. Now we are at it again with a Kickstarter for Book Two. The book is already 96.3% done. I am putting some finishing touches on a couple of pages (out of the +100 page story) and re-working a few lines of dialog. It's interesting how I wrote the script back in September of 2013 and now re-reading it as I letter in InDesign, there's some things I want to change and add. The Kickstarter was selected as a Staff Pick by Kickstarter, so that must mean something, right?

I work with an amazing artist/penciler, JL Pescador, and I color every page of Pariah Missouri in watercolors. It’s something I’ve wanted to do since the beginning. I wanted that old-timey feel and keep the color palette down to a minimum. Even made a Deluxe Hardcover complete with writer-commentary throughout the story, on every page as well as extra pages with additional epilogue, behind-the-scenes art, production sketches and reference pictures. It’s the blu-ray of the book. Because of the costs to make the deluxe hardcover, I will not be selling them at stores or through Diamond, it will be strictly a Kickstarter thing (or face to face).

I just finished the rough script for Book Three. It should be ready for print in July 2015. The goal is to finish the story by Book Five, which will be the end for our little town of Pariah, and the beginning of the American Civil War.

I got some new Stretch Goals which will include a radio drama and a card game. It will be an exciting story for the next 30 days to see how we progress through the campaign.  I will be posting videos and updates often so backers really get a sense of the behind the scenes of what it takes to make a comic book.  Please become a part of our team!

To see the Pariah, Missouri Kickstarter campaign to go: www.pariahmissouri.com.

Editor's Note: I am also going to be reviewing Book One so stay tuned for that.