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TEMUDJIN by Ozanam and Carrion

Created by Neurobellum Productions

A gallery-sized fantasy graphic novel about a man who could be the reborn Genghis Khan lushly illustrated by Antoine Carrion.

Latest Updates from Our Project:

UK/EU update plus: BLACK BOX CHRONICLES!
11 months ago – Mon, May 15, 2023 at 12:54:23 PM

Hi everyone, 

We have some news for those UK and EU backers who have been waiting graciously and patiently while the inventory situation is sorted at Spiral Galaxy: we're happy to say that they have reported MOST GIANTESS+ZARKASS+TEMUDJIN pledges have been shipped out! Only a handful have been further delayed due to some additional shortages being reported. We are waiting for their report of what items they are short on and once we have that list, we will add any missing replacements available to the upcoming MONKEY KING freight expected to ship to Spiral before the end of this month. Apologies if yours is one of the handful of pledges further delayed, but we'll get through this asap! 🙃

As we mentioned in an earlier update, if your order is affected by this shortage (eg. missing NILS or Journeyman Bundle), we'll be sure to have them ship the rest of your orders promptly and we will refund you for any paid item that can't be included. 

While the number of UK and EU backers still waiting to receive their items is very small (less than a dozen), we don't want to discount the immense patience you all have shown while we put this unforeseen delay behind us.  Hopefully you're eager to see what we have coming up next... because we have something we think you'll really enjoy LAUNCHING TOMORROW:

www.blackboxchronicles.com

This is a bit of a new type of project for us: a brand new, original science fiction anthology produced by some absolutely amazing comic creators under the creative direction of design studio Horrible Future!

"Centuries of exponentially advancing technological discoveries have ultimately ushered Mankind to the stars and beyond. Each new star, each new planet, each new lightyear traveled reveals wonders never imagined. But for all the distances explored, there lies one unreachable domain, a mysterious destination we all go to eventually… THE GREAT DARK...

Each starfaring spacecraft is equipped with a comprehensive data recorder: a BLACK BOX that records every layer of collectible data within its fixed perimeter. Salvaging the remnants of a crashed spacecraft can be a highly lucrative business, and recovering the details behind a tragic disaster can reveal hidden truths and untold personal stories… as well as hints towards greater secrets…"

Written by Horrible Future cofounders MARK SCHEY and CHRIS NORTHROP, this stellar volume includes artwork by celebrated award winners and nominees such as David Mack (Daredevil, Kabuki), Michael Avon Oeming (Powers, Bulletproof Monk), Zach Howard (Hellboy, Wild Blue Yonder), Eryk Donovan (Memetic, Quantum Teens are Go), Marco Fodera (Nathan Never), Gavin Smith (Star Trek: Mirrorverse), Toru Terada (Small World), David Messina (Star Wars: Han Solo & Chewbacca, 3Keys), Giovanni Rigano (Global, Artemis Fowl), Drew Moss (The Crow, Red Sonja), Christian Dibari (Revolvers, Providence of Madness), Taki Soma (Sleeping While Standing, Bitch Planet), Mario Alberti (Spider-man and the Fantastic Four, The Wall), SARAH BASLAIM, FLAVIO DISPENZA, K. MICHAEL RUSSEL, and M. SEAN MCMANUS.

In addition to the anthology, we're producing a world-building Art Book entitled BLACK BOX: DESIGN SPACE featuring an encyclopedic look at the various devices, locations, and technologies that make up this new future setting. Illustrated by concept artist Shane Molina, this supplemental book is full of amazing, rich cutaway schematics and lore that add further dimension and layers to the mysteries explored in the anthology.

This really is a sci-fi lover's FEAST, and we hope you'll check it out when it launches TOMORROW! We'll have the usual assortment of premium exclusives (including a sweet magnetic-flap slipcase set) and exciting Stretch Goals to make it another thrilling campaign you will not want to miss! 😉

Go to www.blackboxchronicles.com to pre-register for a FREE double-sided star map poster, then click over to the Kickstarter page now to be notified when we launch.

If you love sci-fi, you won't want to miss this one!

UK/EU update, and MY FRIEND TOBY
about 1 year ago – Mon, Mar 27, 2023 at 12:50:34 PM

Hi everyone!

If you are a regular backer who also supported GIANTESS or ZARKASS, you may recognize some of the contents of this update shared from those campaigns, so we apologize if you are reading this again. We just want to be sure that everyone here gets this information as well, since most of you here are in fact first-time supporters. While most of you have already received your TEMUDJIN packages some time ago, we won't rest until all of the hubs have completed their portion of the project, including the UK/EU backers still waiting for their items from Spiral Galaxy.

In short, the replacement inventory for those UK/EU orders has been delivered to QML who are now transferring those items to Spiral Galaxy. We await confirmation of that inventory reaching Spiral, and then a ballpark date from Spiral as to when they expect to have those orders finally out the door. I wish I had those bits of information right now, but they are suggesting that UK/EU packages should go out in the last half of April. We will confirm once they provide more concrete info.

This recent fiasco with the damaged UK/EU inventory transfer has opened our eyes to a number of inefficiencies and potential optimizations that we are seriously investigating for 2023 and beyond. With 22 successfully fulfilled campaigns under our belt, this situation has made the need for an improved tracking system a paramount consideration for us. Rest assured, this unfortunate misadventure is being taken very seriously, and some of the options we are looking into will help not only ensure much quicker delivery but perhaps some reduced shipping rates as well. There is a fair amount of due diligence required to implement some of these new practices, but we are hoping to have them in place before June. We understand the extraordinary patience our UK and EU backers have shown. Please know that we have not taken that for granted, and are pushing to get this sorted for you asap.

In the meantime, we do have a new campaign launching tomorrow that we hope you might consider supporting... 😊

This one is very different from TEMUDJIN -- much more lighthearted and fun -- but if you’re at all familiar with the rest of Magnetic Press’s library, then you'll understand our excitement over this one…

We love animals. We are big proponents of animal rights and wildlife exploration, with no less than 20 books in our catalog focused on animal tales. From kid's books to all-ages-wildlife adventures, we’ve got graphic novels for animal lovers of all types. April is Animal Cruelty Prevention month, and we are planning a number of things to support that noble cause, starting with our next Kickstarter for MY FRIEND TOBY!

MY FRIEND TOBY is a 144-page, wordless canine adventure about a simple terrier living a simple life with his human friend Marcel, a heartbroken artist who is having trouble making ends meet. But Toby doesn’t know anything about money or bills or electricity; he’s happy as long as there is food in his bowl and new territory to claim in the neighborhood. To him, everything is fine... at least until a stray cat appears, bringing all kinds of questions (and maybe a few unexpected answers)…

This book is adorable, and I’m not kidding when I say I laughed out loud a few times “reading” it. Yes, it is wordless, but it captures the language-less mindset of a dog in a way that seems both perfectly understandable and scientifically plausible. Triple-Eisner Award-nominee Gregory Panaccione (A SEA OF LOVE) is an animation industry storyboard artist turned graphic novelist, and his expert pacing and cinematic eye give this heartwarming story a truly cinematic feature quality.

To help tie MY FRIEND TOBY to our Cruelty Prevention efforts, we will be making an independent donation to the Anti-Cruelty Society based on the campaign’s performance. Kickstarter doesn’t allow pledge funds to be used for charity, or to make it sound like any portion of raised funds will be used as such, but we’ve worked with Kickstarter Trust & Safety Committee to approve our initiative to make a completely independent private donation based on how well the campaign does.

The Anti-Cruelty Society is not affiliated with this campaign or book. All donations will be made independently by Magnetic Press.

So please consider backing MY FRIEND TOBY when it launches at 10am CST tomorrow to not only get a wonderful graphic novel (or graphic novels, plural – we have several bundles with exclusive bonus items!), but to also help some needy animals find good homes in the process. 😊

Thanks, everyone! We hope to see you there tomorrow!

AU/NZ + EU/UK shipping update
about 1 year ago – Fri, Feb 17, 2023 at 09:02:58 AM

Hello everyone!

Happy Friday -- if you are also a backer of our previous GIANTESS or ZARKASS campaigns, much of the info below is copy-pasted from this morning's update on those campaigns, since TEMDUJIN freight shipped to the hubs with those campaigns, but with some differences in details specific to TEMUDJIN.

In brief:

AU/NZ orders shipping next week!

We are told that Aetherworks expects to send out the Address Verification emails soon (possibly even today) and that packages are expected to be out next week! So keep an eye out for any email from them, and we'll post confirmation once we receive it.

UK/EU status

We have sorted through all of the inventory that arrived at Spiral Galaxy and determined the extent of the damages and which damaged items can be replaced. Fortunately, we have sufficient inventory to replace almost everything that was lost from the total shipment, and those replacements are being shipped to Spiral ASAP.

Unfortunately, they are still short on two notable, non-replaceable items for this campaign: NILS (Add-on) and the Journeyman Bundles. NILS is completely out of print and out of stock, so we don't have any more to provide for replacement. Those have been removed from any orders that included a copy, and if yours is affected by that removal, please message us directly here on Kickstarter or email us at [email protected] and we will refund you for that add-on accordingly.

They have enough Journeyman Bundles to fill about 2/3 of the orders. We asked Spiral to ship as many complete orders as possible, but they will be filled in whatever sequence they process their packages (we're not sure what that sequence may be).  If you receive your order and are missing the Journeyman Bundle, please message or email us as outlined in the paragraph above and we will refund you for that bundle upgrade.

We're truly sorry that those two items were so unfortunately affected, and are extremely heartbroken and frustrated by this turn of events. We are looking into reprinting options for NILS, but that may not happen for several months. (If/when it does, we will post an update here.)

That is the news as of this morning. We will share updates as soon as we have more to report! Thanks, everyone!

UK/EU shipping news (...) 😓
about 1 year ago – Fri, Jan 20, 2023 at 10:31:37 AM

Hi everyone,

A belated Happy New Year! We hope you are all settling into a wonderful 2023, and that your holidays were full of cheer. Ours were restful, or as restful as we could manage. Being acknowledged workaholics, we couldn’t help but stay preoccupied with the current status and completion of the International orders, and there was no shortage of suspense to carry us through the holiday…

We finally received a report from Spiral Galaxy and Quartermaster Logistics on the status of the UK/EU inventory, and unfortunately, it is not good. 😓 This is the most difficult campaign update I've ever had to summarize, but in brief:

The two pallets of inventory containing the goods for GIANTESS, ZARKASS/WATER LILES, and TEMUDJIN were picked up from QML by FedEx on December 9th. Everything looked good and was expected to reach Spiral Galaxy the following week, as reported in the last update. The delivery date came and went with no tracking update from FedEx, however. When QML reached out to FedEx to inquire, they were told the pallets could not be located.

😳

There was, admittedly, a nationwide string of blizzards and polar conditions that week (not to mention a major holiday) which played havoc with FedEx’s normal delivery service, but not being able to locate a shipment – particularly one that big, two pallets – was mindboggling. The matter was immediately escalated to top management at QML and FedEx (or however high up at FedEx something like this could be escalated).

Two weeks later, a single pallet arrived unannounced at Spiral Galaxy. It was abnormally tall and looked like it had been repacked by FedEx somewhere along the way. According to Spiral, it was bound with some metal supports to keep the unusual height from toppling, but the cartons within looked to be in bad shape. If those cartons could recount their experience, I’m sure it would be the stuff of nightmares…

Spiral has since reviewed what was delivered, and the reports do not sound good: broken cartons, torn and marred books, water damage, and scores of items that are simply missing.

We are currently waiting for the full inventory of what is missing and what is intact, not only to hold FedEx responsible but to see what we might have available to rush ship to Spiral for immediate replacement. Spiral can’t begin shipping out any orders until the full project is assessed and ready, so this has become the top priority. 😩

As you can imagine, for a small publisher like us, this is the worst possible scenario we couldn’t have even imagined. Over 300 orders from 3 different campaigns were affected by FedEx's mishandling of freight. We want to be hopeful and optimistic that we can still refill and ship the majority of those orders as quickly as possible, but until we know the full extent of the shortage, we can’t evaluate our next move. If we don’t have enough remaining inventory to replace those missing items, we will evaluate whether reprinting certain items is a viable solution. That will, of course, take a little more time, but we appreciate your patience to date while we sort this out.

Certainly, if your order cannot be fulfilled, we will refund your money. While we hope FedEx will take financial responsibility for this fiasco, they will likely only cover the manufacturing cost of the goods, which is only about %20 of the actual value. The balance will come out of our pockets. 😓 (Don’t worry, we promise not to scarper off and disappear on you... We have a reputation to maintain, and want to keep doing business here for years to come...) We would certainly prefer to complete the orders as promised, however. Otherwise, you can safely expect your money back.

So that is the current UK/EU situation. Aetherworks should be transferring the AU/NZ inventory for these campaigns from their US consolidation warehouse shortly; we’ll report as soon as they have confirmed an update. Everyone else: we hope you have enjoyed your items since receiving them some time ago! 😊

In the meantime, we would humbly mention our current, new campaign for MEZKAL and CONVOY that launched on Tuesday. We’d love for everyone to please check it out! It is a pair of beautifully gritty and explosive noir/SF tales by Kevan Stevens and Jef that we’ve been excited to share for quite a while…

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/neurobellum/mezkal-and-convoy-an-explosive-graphic-novel-double-feature

UK/EU backers, we understand if the above status of those prior, outstanding campaigns has you wary to back another, but we can say that this situation is definitely not at all normal – this is the first time in our 25-campaign history that something like this has happened, and it is not typical for us or our fulfillment partners. We pride ourselves on seeing things through responsibly and will always take whatever measures necessary to deliver as promised.

Thanks for your support and attention, everyone. We hope to have more (good) news soon!

International shipping update + a friendly note about SHERLOCK HOLMES 🔍
over 1 year ago – Fri, Dec 16, 2022 at 01:44:02 AM

Hi everyone!

We hope you are having a nice holiday season -- we've been very busy getting as much shipping coordinated as possible (which gets more complicated than usual with the holidays congesting everything)... We're happy to say that all domestic/North American TEMUDJIN orders have shipped, and International freight is on its way to the respective hubs!

Because of unexpected delays in booking freight for our previous campaigns, GIANTESS and ZARKASS, we were able to take advantage of that opportunity to piggyback TEMUDJIN onto that booking. That means that we expect Spiral should receive everything for TEMUDJIN on Monday, but there unfortunately hasn't been any update on the tracking, so we're keeping our fingers crossed.  If they do receive the inventory as expected, we're hoping they'll be able to provide an estimated shipping window. We're not sure if that will be this month (a tall expectation with Christmas and New Year), but we will let you know as soon as they tell us something.

Aetherworks should receive the freight at their US stateside consolidation warehouse shortly. It is then up to them to get that stock transferred to their warehouse in Australia for packing, however. Since that consolidation is meant to collect multiple projects' worth of freight to maximize their shipping container, we have no way of knowing exactly when that transfer will take place. It seems like that occurs every couple of weeks, however, so hopefully it won't take long to get there.

We will, of course, keep you updated as we get news from either hub. If you are a domestic or Asia backer and haven't received your order or tracking information at least, please message us here and we'll look into it for you. 

In the meantime, we haven't mentioned it here yet, but you may have seen it pop up in messages or recommendations from Kickstarter or Backerkit -- our SHERLOCK HOLMES campaign ends this Friday!

http://kck.st/3AQz9Pa

This is a new edition of the first Sherlock Holmes novel by Arthur Conan Doyle originally published in 1887, with brand new illustrations by the magnificent Vincent Mallie. It is a beautiful book, which we are offering on its own or as part of two campaign-exclusive limited editions: a special "Sleuth" bundle with a replica Key to Holmes’s infamous address on 221B Baker Street, a Magnifying Glass, a Pocket Journal, a gold foil bookmark, and other assorted artifacts collected inside a unique manila case folder, and a Deluxe Slipcase Set pairing this new book with a copy of Vincent Mallie's similarly illustrated edition of ARSENE LUPIN, GENTLEMAN THIEF!

Both of these exclusive editions will only be produced in limited quantities for this Kickstarter campaign, and they will not be available anywhere else. These will be gorgeous sets (we think we're getting better with each slipcase we produce) and there are less than 200 copies left! (And less than 2 days left to join!)

So please check it out if you haven't already... We'd love to end the year on a high note! 😃🎅🥳 Thanks, everyone!