There are new Kickstarter projects appearing all the time so it can really be very hard to find one that is nice and interesting for you. Of course there are always some exceptions, as you can find some projects that are way more cooler than what you usually expect. This is exactly the case of Paradox Girl, which is basically a set of comics that have a very interesting premise.
Paradox Girl and Her Powers
Basically, you have the role of a girl that has the ability to travel in time in order to fix her mistakes, but just like the rules of time travel are, she can’t really bring the results and outcome that she wants. Instead she ends up dealing with quite a lot of problems, one of them being the fact that she meets herself a lot.
This is what makes Paradox Girl very interesting for me, because her powers aren’t really affected by the normal rules of time travel all the time, and the fact that she can actually meet herself, talk to herself and each of her presences can learn from one another is really neat. This is also mind bending, because the entire experience brings in front amazing mechanics that you can rarely see in any coming.
The comic is available in 2 issues but they will come in May 2016 so we still have a few months until then. The idea with these comics however is that they are designed in order to offer an extraordinary set of results and a great experience all around.
Interview with the Creators
Christopher Isak (CI) also did an interview with Cayti Elle Bourquin (CEB) for TechAcute. Thanks to Cayti for being so kind to answer our questions!
CI: Hi Cayti! Thanks a lot for your time to answer a few of our questions. What made you pick Kickstarter to fund and support your project?
CEB: It was Peter at Hana Comics that really made that decision. There was a lot of work that they paid for in advance to make the first issue A Day in the Life of a Paradox. At first it was just a vanity thing, something done because I wanted to write and Peter wanted to edit. Thanksgiving of 2014, I posted the cover to Imgur, and it made such a splash and got so much attention that we realized we had something that really had the possibility to be big. We started talking to Diamond Comics about distribution, but we still had the problem about identifying our audience and getting the word out about how amazing it was. Eventually the decision was reached to try to fund the printing of issue two through Kickstarter and utilize that to establish and identify our fanbase. I’m not really in all of the numbers, I’m just here to write!
CI: If it’s not to personal to ask, how did you end up in such a creative work?
CEB: I’ve always been obsessed with stories and storytelling. I love fiction. I’m very dissatisfied with the real world and am constantly seeking escapism and vicarious experiences. I guess I feel that I’ve consumed enough and now I want to start sharing my own things. I want to help others laugh or cry or escape—return the favor so to speak. My head is filled with stories that are fighting with each other to get out. I hope that I get to a point where all I do is create and share stories, that’d be the dream.
CI: So many people who are not professional artists are also looking for a valve to release their creativity. Do you have a recommendation for those people on how to better channel their output next to a day-job?
CEB: Make believe? I guess I know the techniques that I’ve used, but everyone is looking to do something different. I will say that what makes (for example) a writer, is not that they’re published or that they’re rich or famous for it. What makes a writer is writing. In my twenties I really wanted to be making video games, but I was more enamored with the idea of making a game than I was the actual work that making one required. If you will be fulfilled by writing, then the first step is to just start writing. It doesn’t matter if it’s good or bad or your friends love it or hate it. You can’t be a writer by just wanting to be.
CI: What do you enjoy most about Paradox Girl? Can you identify yourself with the characters and the story to a degree?
CEB: My favorite part of writing Paradox Girl is getting to play with the medium itself. Dancing between panels or between pages and finding funny ways to completely tell a convoluted story with plenty of jokes all within the boundary of 24 pages is a terrific challenge. You are quite astute! Though that’s two questions in one, so I think that’s cheating. A lot of myself and my personal stress and anxiety has been rolled up into Paradox Girl. She’s a delightful complex mess, a self contradiction always fighting with herself. There’s also a much stronger point about identity there too and how damaging regret (a desire to change the past) can be. Fortunately all that angsty clutter doesn’t really touch the page and is just reflected in some of the underlying themes that the lovable and perfectly imperfect PG.
CI: Thanks so much for that! As final question I would love to know what your near and far future plans are. Anything you would like to share with us, that is not strictly confidential perhaps?
CEB: Well thank you for your questions, it’s been a blast! For the near future, it’s holding my breath till the Kickstarter finishes and I know how much more work is ahead of me or not. Longer term, I’m working on a couple of other titles and putting together pitches for a few more. I really have a lot I want to share! I also have some big ideas for PG including one I’m calling Oroboros which involves a double issue, where PG’s leap from one issue to the other and you can line them up with each other vertically to see the whole story. Plot wise it would involve two changes to the timeline, and each time it finishes, PG turns around and resets it back to the original timeline. Can’t wait to write it!
Crowdfunding Campaign
While the comic is great, it has only the first issue out and the second one is being created right now, but things like the creation process and printing do cost quite a lot so there’s no denying that they tried to use Kickstarter as the platform of choice. This is really exciting and it delivers an amazing value!
I am really impressed how the Paradox Girl comic manages to break new grounds and seeing time travel in a comic other than the Flash is truly insane for me. Of course, the simple idea of offering high quality results and a great experience all around is amazing, so you should totally check out Paradox Girl and its amazing adventures.
I also recommend you to check out the project page on their Kickstarter page because here you can back up the entire project. I feel that this is a great one, a project of passion, attention to detail and it really delivers an amazing value all around. I am sure that you will like this comic as much as I do, so don’t hesitate and check it out right now, if you can do try and bring it to life, it will be very interesting for sure. Also, you should check out the free sample!
Kickstarter: Paradox Girl: Issues #1 & #2
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/paradoxgirl/paradox-girl-issues-1-and-2
Photo credit: Hana Comics
