A black-and-white, classic Western limited series shrouded in cosmic dread.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Thank you update
8 months ago
– Thu, Aug 07, 2025 at 04:52:27 PM
Thank you.
We are extremely grateful for the support from friends, family, and new friends for the beginning of Dead Money.
Jesse and I (Dev) knew once we saw Tomás' character sketches and first pages that we really wanted to make this book.
And it wouldn't have happened without a year of hard work from:
Tomás, of course, for killer pages and that great wraparound cover.
Mishka De Caro for introducing us to Tomás; wrangling the amazing variant covers from Diego Giribaldi and Mato Saw; helping with lettering; and being a core part of the team.
Chris Miles, longtime friend, and constant companion and advisor, especially helpful when we needed to talk about art notes without the language in his toolbox.
Julieta Ladstatter, for help with lettering and graphic design.
Adam Jury, who helped us polish everything in the end with his graphic production expertise, and his business savvy and experience.
Plus the encouragement, advice, and time of so many others folks.
And of course the outpouring of support - pledges and sharing the campaign and talking it and us, both, up - from 230+ of you!
Dead Money is a long story, and it will take us some time to tell. We are all learning during this process. But we've established a solid foundation and a good pipeline, and we're eager to continue rolling forward.
NEXT STEPS FOR US:
We are reviewing print proofs and making notes about fixes for the first edition printing.
We are evaluating an alternative printer.
We are finalizing shipping options.
Kickstarter will hopefully release the funds to us by mid-August.
And in much more fun news — we need to start reviewing Tomás' pages for issue 2 as soon as he wraps up another project!
NEXT STEPS FOR YOU:
We'll let you know when we're ready to collect shipping charges and addresses. In the meantime, please hold tight!
NEXT TIME YOU'LL HEAR FROM US:
We will reach out to the "Thank you" Notes backers to collect their messages to be published in the comic.
We'll have a short status update for you no later than August 22nd. Thanks for your support and enjoy your summer!
48 hours to go!
8 months ago
– Wed, Jul 30, 2025 at 06:53:34 AM
“Announcing your plans is a good way to hear God laugh.”
- Al Swearengen, DEADWOOD (by David Milch)
It's been a hell of a first rodeo, folks. The campaign for DEAD MONEY issue #1 closes in just about 48 hours, and we're hoping for a big finish.
If we hit $7,000, we can immediately begin production on issue #2 (the script is finished). As a thank you, we will send out 2 posters (the main cover and the Diego variant) to all backers getting printed copies.
If we hit $10,000, we can fully fund issue #2, and as a thank you, we will email a free PDF to each backer at the $5 level and above.
We still have 4 original Tomás pin-up pieces available!
Plus the original black-and-white art for the Mato Saw variant cover is available.
ONE MONTH OF DEAD MONEY
Over the past month, we've:
Hit our base funding goal in under 36 hours!
Unlocked a Spanish translation PDF for issue #1.
Had over 190 backers pledge!
Been listed as a Kickstarter "Project We Love!"
Gotten the final art for the Diego Giribaldi variant cover, and it's wicked hot.
Gotten the final art for the Mato Saw variant cover, and it's horrific in all the best ways.
Devinder and Jesse had fun answering Bruce Ballon's questions over at Hounds and Jackals.
The pulp cover is almost done -- here's the current WIP preview:
Thanks to all of you folks for your support and encouragement about this project. Dev and I (and Tomás and Mishka and Chris and Adam) are excited to see where the train into Yuma takes us next!
If you want more behind the scenes info about the production of the project, and related topics, join our newsletter here:
https://buttondown.com/Jesse_Scoble
Saddle up, Vaqueros!
9 months ago
– Thu, Jul 17, 2025 at 03:36:04 PM
With 15 days to go, we are at approx. 200% funding, which is a tremendous show of support - thank you so much!
We just received Diego Giribaldi's final artwork for his variant cover, and we wanted to share it, because it looks spectacular.
And speaking of artists, Tomás and Mishka were interviewed by Perdidos En El Éter, and you can listen to it here. Please note the interview is in Spanish.
Mishka also spoke to Tomás about his love of comics, and his process for illustration, and you can hear it at this link (in Spanish) or read the English transcript below.
Mishka: Okay, the first question, Tom, is: What is your favorite western? It could be a comic, novel, or movie. Tomás: The Searchers by John Ford, starring John Wayne. I saw it recently and thought it was spectacular. Yes, very intense. It’s not perfect, but there’s a lot of material, a lot of depth, cruelty, subtext, and things happening off-camera. It’s an example of a movie that lets you keep talking and thinking about it afterward, which isn’t so common these days. It has its flaws, but it’s very good. Who am I to point out flaws in a John Ford movie? But anyway, The Searchers with John Wayne.
M: Great, sounds awesome. I’ll watch it since I haven’t seen it. T: It’s a masterpiece, really.
M: Okay, and what’s your favorite horror thing? T: I don’t watch many horror movies, but Night of the Living Dead, the original black-and-white one from 1968, left a very positive impression on me. I really liked it a lot. I expected something campy but found something very interesting. I enjoyed it, enjoyed it a lot.
M: Nice, look at that... what a surprise. I like it, I like it… So, What’s the first comic you remember reading? T: Absolutely? The Thundercats comics... and the Transformers comics sold at newsstands. That’s what I read as a kid. I had all the Thundercats comics from the newsstands—I must’ve been seven. And well... they started in medias res, with the Thundercats already on Earth. But I’d seen the first episode where they were on the ship, so I drew my own adaptation of what I remembered because the episode wasn’t re-aired. That’s how things worked pre-streaming, right? TV just aired stuff once. I’d only seen that episode once, and it was all I had, so I drew a few pages when I was six or seven.
M: What was your first professional project? Actually, more than that, which professional project has marked you the most? T: Well, I’ve been making comics since that Thundercats comic at six. I always did a bit here and there, made some fanzines in the ’90s—those already had the format, speech bubbles, all the professional concerns were there: making sure it reproduced well, inking it so photocopies would turn out, etc. But in 2006, I did 78 Kilómetros por Hora with Mauro Mantella’s script, and that’s kind of what I consider the start of my career. Not long after that, I got the scripts for War Stories, and for me, that’s a high point, even though it’s hard for me to look at those pages now because I don’t like how they turned out. But hey, it was all a learning process. Walter Taborda used to say, “Getting paid to learn? You don’t know how to draw? Don’t like your style? Well, get a job and improve while you’re on salary.”
M: That’s very good, very admirable. T: Very, very wise. But yeah, there’s a lot of work I can’t look at now, but that’s how it is.
M: How do you like to work? Do you listen to music, sit down with a podcast, drink coffee, work in the morning, or at night? T: I work a lot in the morning. I use the Pomodoro technique—15-minute alarms with 5-minute breaks—and usually listen to podcasts, audiobooks, or YouTube livestreams that are audio-only. The exception is when I’m reading the script or doing the first layout; then I listen to music, rotating artists, preferably without lyrics so I can focus on the script. But for the heavier work—inking, final pencils—I’m always listening to an audiobook.
M: When you hit a block or a difficult part, what motivates you to keep going? T: I have a “fall forward” policy—I persevere. If I’m really stuck, usually on a panorama or complex perspective (which takes hours for a single panel), I use the Pomodoro method: 15 minutes on one panel, then 15 on the next, and so on. That way, the toughest panel feels like it’s getting done bit by bit.
M: Do you go back and forth? T: Yes, back and forth.
M: What do you enjoy most about working in comics? T: There’s something about learning. Recently, I drew a pirate comic and had to draw a tricorn hat for the first time. I realized it’s just a common round-brimmed hat with buttons on top. That kind of thing fascinates me. The same happened with Dead Money—discovering train models, the history of Pullman cars. Drawing is about understanding, and that’s always thrilling to me.
M: Super interesting. I always use you as an example in my classes—how you research topics. That’s exactly what you’re talking about: learning. When I teach narrative, that’s something that always comes up. Like, if you’re writing about the Middle Ages, you need to understand what happened then, you know? T: Exactly.
M: So you’re a great example, honestly. T: Thanks.
M: Last question: What drew you to this project? T: Drawing non-futuristic things. I love sci-fi, but things set in the past—even if not too distant—have something organic about them. That’s more fun to draw, less pressure. The textures of clothes, crudely made wooden objects—things that inhabit westerns, like clapboard houses in the Old West—have an organic texture that’s more enjoyable than something cold or futuristic. Even when I draw modern stuff, I like it to look worn, to bring that organic stroke into the harder forms of present-day objects.
Shout out to reaching the Spanish Translation Goal!
9 months ago
– Thu, Jul 10, 2025 at 10:04:54 AM
First of all from the whole team, thank you for taking us this far! The following message is for our Spanish speaking following.
¡Ahora sí, en español! Llegamos al milestone de la traducción al español de la primera grapa de Dead Money. La mayoría de nuestro equipo es argentino, y estamos muy emocionades de estar llegando a semejante logro.
Queremos hacer llegar esta aventura más allá de lo que el inglés nos permite (que ya es mucho), queremos llegar a toda esa gente que no puede acceder a un segundo idioma, el mensaje de Dead Money pretende ser inclusivo y disruptivo, muchos de sus personajes luchan o encarnan la ruptura de arquetipos y estereotipos de su época, para nosotres eso también es poder presentar Dead Money en otros idiomas.
¡Muchas gracias a todes por seguirnos hasta acá! Sigamos avanzando que hay mucho más Dead Money para presenciar.
July 7: Funding Goal Update
9 months ago
– Mon, Jul 07, 2025 at 06:50:09 AM
Thank you all!
Due to your amazing support, we hit our funding goal in under 36 hours!
So, what does reaching the goal mean?
It means we can pay for the printing costs of issue #1, as well as the bags, boards, and mailers.
This leaves us with approximately $1000 to put towards the art costs for issue 2, which we estimate will total about $6000. There are additional costs beyond that -- lettering, graphic design, covers, etc. -- but it puts us firmly on the path.
That is still a fair ways to go, so any further support -- telling friends, signal boosting, etc. -- is all really important to hit the next issue milestone.
If you have any ideas on how to boost media presence, we'd love to hear from you.
We are still learning in this grand experiment, and happy to take any help we can get along the way.
STRETCH GOALS
* If we hit $4000, we are committed to producing a Spanish translation of issue #1 in PDF.
* If we hit $7000, that should fund all the interior art for issue 2. If we hit this level, we'll give two posters (the main cover, and the Diego variant) to all print backers.
* If we hit $10,000, we'll give a free PDF of issue 2 to all backers at the $5 level and above.
NEW REWARD FOR HIGH ROLLERS
We added a new reward for people who want all the print variants, PLUS the PDF Super Bundle Pre-Order (in which you are pre-purchasing the whole series in PDF). Check the campaign page for more info.
EXTRA EXTRA
We are going to try to send as few Kickstarter updates as possible, because we don't want to spam you. However, if you want behind-the-scenes information on the project, including stories about the Dead Money journey on where we started, how far we've come, and where we are going (including interviews with the creators, concept art, samples script pages, and much more!) please subscribe to our Newsletter here:
