This has been the #1 most-requested patch to make into a full back patch since launching this campaign back in 2016.
As a backer of the Hallows Angels campaign, I thought you might like to be aware of this. The main pledge for the 10.6" W x 13.3" H back patch is $55 plus shipping. These will retail for at least $75.
There is also a brand-new design for the Skeleton Crew patch as well.
And a sneak peek for backers at an all-new maiden witch companion patch in the Halloween motorcycle club theme for a future campaign.
Shipping complete • "Double Trouble" name origin • alternate Hallows Angels gang names
over 7 years ago
– Mon, Jan 16, 2017 at 10:45:53 PM
Shipments Complete!
The final batch of Kickstarter rewards are on their way to all backers. Well before Halloween 2017!
That "trick or treat" box was filled with patches when I got started!
In fact, if you've been following along with my posts on the "Wheel Of The Year", the Hallows Angels patches will be arriving just in time for the Halloween/Samhain "companion" festival date of Feb. 2 — which marks the end of the archaic observance of the Winter (Yule) season.
Halloween/Samhain marks the beginning of Winter/Yule, the Winter Solstice marks the midpoint, and Imbolc/Candlemas/Groundhog's Day on February 2 marks the end (as well as the beginning of Spring).
Halloween is about 7 weeks before Winter Solstice, Groundhog's Day about 7 weeks after.
At the very least, Halloween and Groundhog's Day are at the halfway points between solstices and equinoxes (just as the rest of the cross-quarter days are).
At any rate — your patches should be there by then!
"Double Trouble"
It was brought to my attention that the reference in the name of the witch patch, "Double Trouble", might not have been as clear as I thought it would be.
It's an allusion to the "Song Of The Witches" in Shakespeare's "Macbeth":
The phrase "double trouble" sounded like an outlaw motorcycle gang, and was a (somewhat obscure) reference to witches with the words being in the opening line of Shakespeare's famous rhyme. That fit the bill perfectly.
"Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and caldron bubble.
Fillet of a fenny snake, In the caldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog, Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting, Lizard's leg and howlet's wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble, Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and caldron bubble.
Cool it with a baboon's blood, Then the charm is firm and good."
I struggled quite a bit for the witch patch gang name. It was "Cauldron Stirrers" as a placeholder name for a long time, but that didn't fit the theme — it was too literal and didn't sound like a biker gang at all. That was part of my criteria for the names — had to sound like it could be real.
"Double Trouble" early development concept sketches
"Skeleton Crew" is the perfect example. "Stingy Jacks" is a bit obscure, but the phrase sounds like a biker gang name. "Creepy Crawlies" might be pushing it a bit :)
Double Trouble was just right, and I like that the reference might be one of those "aha" moments later on.
"Hallows Angels": The Prospects
I also had a ton of great names that didn't make the cut (many suggested or inspired by backers over on Patreon as I shared the Hallows Angels development process). One of my favorites was "Devil's Knights", a play on "Devil's Night", a name for the night before Halloween (Halloweene'en?). Devil's Night was unknown to me until Shawn mentioned it over on Patreon.
As I dug into traditional Halloween characters and themes for inspiration, particularly in the realm of vintage/classic decorations (Beistle being the leader in this area), I was surprised to see that many characters we today associate with Halloween really aren't "classic Halloween".
For example: zombies, devils, ghosts are curiously absent, and none of the fiction story monsters (Dracula/vampires, Frankenstein, werewolves, mummies). What's odd is that many of these predate modern popular culture by decades and even centuries.
The vampire, ghost and werewolf gaps were particularly surprising to me, seeing as how these archetypes are embedded into the "darker" side of folklore quite deeply and early on. One would just assume they were always associated with Halloween, but it seems otherwise.
It was, however, impossible to resist drawing up some demons, devils, ghouls, zombies, vampires, werewolves and ghosts — not to mention, working up the associated gang names for them.
I definitely want to explore those characters as a future patch set somehow. I came up with a lot of fun ideas for those characters to be gangs in the "Hallows Angels" series, but unfortunately I don't think they truly fit into a Halloween-themed set.
So there will definitely be a "monsters" patch set at some point, featuring vampires, werewolves, zombies/ghouls/undead, and maybe a mummy or reanimated corpse or two.
I assume this will be of interest to all you Hallows Angels backers…
Coming Soon…
Speaking of upcoming campaigns, I've also been working on the art for the next Kickstarter campaign patch set:Cryptid Command 2 — featuring Mothman, Chupacabra and the Kraken!
After Cryptid Command 2, I've also got some campaigns featuring mythological and legendary creatures, as well as dragons, ancient civilizations, and much more. I've been working on the development art for those (and more) and sharing the process with patrons over on my Patreon page.
Patreon
For those of you who want to get involved with my creative process in more in-depth ways, and get exclusive access to my development sketches and journaling, please consider becoming a patron over at my Patreon campaign.
Sneak peeks at all upcoming projects, extensive development sketches and journaling on the thinking and development behind all the art. Starts at just $2 a month with lots of additional pledge tiers for mailed original art, and more.
Thank You!
As I am sure you can probably tell, I am a big Halloween nerd and with your help being able to see these patches through from concept to reality was a real treat.
I hope you all enjoy the patches as much as I did creating them.
Thanks again for backing the campaign and for your support of my independent artist project.
Much more to come! Hope the have you along for the future creative adventures.
Trick Or Treat! Rewards are shipping.
over 7 years ago
– Mon, Jan 09, 2017 at 07:55:39 PM
My new spiked winter tires plow through snow and ice like it wasn't there.
I just dropped off the first round of rewards at the post office today, via bicycle of course. All the Limited Edition backer rewards went out, and another batch of other rewards. Will be working through the remaining shipments this week and over the weekend.
The DYMO label printer is a life-saver!
I spent all weekend packing and shipping the orders, having spent the previous week or so assembling the patches and collating the patches into preliminary base sets.
Working on the original art rewards
I was also working on the original art rewards, again I went with a toned paper with colored pencil approach. Gives me the opportunity to extend the theme of the limited-palette Halloween colors to the original art rewards in a unique way.
Sketch cards galore.
I was also working up all the sketch cards for that tier of limited edition rewards. More limited palette, but with a base color of white on the sketch cards. Picked up a new lead pointer for my clutch pencil, my old one wasn't working well for years and drove me nuts.
"It's beginning to look a lot like… Halloween!"
That's it for now.
I'll be packing and shipping more rewards this week, and biking them to the post office as soon as they are complete. I am aiming to have them out no later than Jan. 18, and probably way sooner.
Coming Soon…
I've also been working on the art for upcoming Kickstarter campaign patch sets. Next up is Cryptid Command 2, featuring Mothman, Chupacabra and the Kraken!
I've also got some campaigns featuring mythological and legendary creatures, as well as dragons, ancient civilizations, and much more. I've been working on the development art for those (and more) and sharing the process with patrons over on my Patreon page.
Patreon
For those of you who want to get involved with my creative process in more in-depth ways, and get exclusive access to my development sketches and journaling, please consider becoming a patron over at my Patreon campaign.
Sneak peeks at all upcoming projects, extensive development sketches and journaling on the thinking and development behind all the art. Starts at just $2 a month with lots of additional pledge tiers for mailed original art, and more.
Thank You!
Again, a big thank you to everyone who supported this campaign and the side-campaigns to help get all 8 of the Hallows Angels patch designs made.
I was looking over the backer list, and it was so awesome to see so many recognizable names. it makes me even more motivated to keep making the most creative artist merchandise I can.
BackerKit surveys: finalize any mailing address changes
over 7 years ago
– Wed, Dec 28, 2016 at 10:18:01 PM
You should have received an email from BackerKit informing you that the Hallows Angels patches will be shipping soon, and that you've got 48 hours to finalize any mailing address changes you might need to make.
This update is purely to make sure that all backers get the message.
If your mailing address hasn't changed, you don't need to do anything else.
I'm going to do my best to start packing/shipping this weekend. Since this is my second time using BackerKit, I've got a bit of experience under my belt, but I always seem to need help along the way. The BackerKit support team is out of the office until January 3, 2017, so if I run into any show-stoppers I'll have to put the packing and shipping on hold.
But I've got all the patches prepped, and started batching them together last night. I won't know about any snags until I start the actual shipping process. And I can't move forward with that until I lock down addresses.
Again, you only need to do something if your mailing address has changed recently. Otherwise, you are all set.
Any questions, just drop me a line.
George
The haunter rally begins… patches have arrived!
over 7 years ago
– Wed, Dec 21, 2016 at 04:08:20 PM
As Halloween (or Samhain) is considered the beginning of the first half of the Winter season (ending on the Winter Solstice), the arrival of the patches on the Winter Solstice is quite a fun coincidence. The patches should ship far before the second half of Winter ends on Feb. 2 (Groundhog's Day, or Imbolc to the ancient Celts).
My plan is to prep, pack and ship over the holidays up until New Year's Day, and have them out in the mail shortly afterwards. That said, the BackerKit support team is out of the office until after New Year's, so if I need any help from them (which I usually do), it may be another week or so before they ship. But I'll be very far along with the process by then for sure.
Thank You!
As always, I am deeply grateful for the support of everyone on this campaign, and in particular for those of you who are regular backers. It's hard to describe how cool it is to have such a loyal group of fans for these campaigns. It makes it so much more motivating and enjoyable to spend all the insane amount of time I do to create these campaigns.
The truth is, I do not budget compensation for my time into these campaigns at all. And most of the funds are eaten up by fees, postage, art supplies, and of course the merchandise itself. It goes fast!
I'd love to include some income for myself in these campaign goals at some point (and as they grow, that may become more of a possibility). But for now, these are primarily a labor of love and (hopefully) laying the foundation for bigger and better things in the future.
But having the regular support and enthusiasm goes a ling way to keeping the creative fire burning.
Future Campaigns
Speaking of keeping the fire burning, the next Kickstarter campaign, slated for early 2017 will be the Cryptid Command 2 patch set, featuring the Mothman, Chupacabra and the Kraken.
Cryptid Command 2: land, sea and air — and monsters!
A patch set featuring legendary and mythical creatures is aimed at a launch in Spring 2017, and I've got ideas for future sets themed on conspiracy theories, fringe science, secret societies, ancient civilizations, dragons, and much, much more.
For those of you who'd like to get deeper insight into my creative process, as well as interact with the development of upcoming campaigns and artwork, please check out my Patreon artist campaign. I share extensive behind-the-scenes and exclusive process sketches and artwork on Patreon with campaign patrons.
Starting at just $2 a month, your pledge helps me devote more time to the creation of these kinds of projects, artwork and merchandise. And you get a warm, fuzzy feeling knowing that you're directly a patron of an artist. I also have reward tiers for regular original art shipped to your door at very enticing price levels.
What's Next?
I'll be in touch as progress on the Hallows Angels packing is underway, and of course once everything starts shipping.
A happy Midwinter to you all, and to all a good fright!
