Capes, Tights & Elder Gods – Cullen Bunn Talks ‘Beyond Mortal’ Kickstarter

Beyond Mortal #1, a 64 page comic featuring cosmic horror and superheroes by Cullen Bunn and Danny Luckert, is live on Kickstarter. The campaign fully funded on the first day. That speaks to the strength of the creative team and their combined track records and reputations in the industry.

‘Imagine the greatest heroes of the comic book realm–the equivalent of the Avengers or the Justice League–faced with the horrors of elder gods akin to the legendary Cthulhu Mythos.

Comic book readers are familiar with the world of Bronze and Modern Era comics… stories of gleaming steel metropolises populated by daring superheroes battling for truth and justice… facing down power-mad masterminds and would-be world conquerors. But unknown to the league of heroes who protect the innocent, this world has a cancer growing at its heart. A pantheon of elder gods is starting to awaken. 

These timeless forces of supernature once claimed dominion over a primordial Earth… and they have returned to reclaim what is theirs. Super-powered heroes—and villains—find themselves struggling against unimaginable horror to save the planet. It is a hopeless battle.’

Written by Bunn, illustrated and colored by Luckert, and lettered by Simon Bowland, the superheroes (and villains) of this new comic book universe will collide with a new pantheon of alien deities from beyond our understanding of reality.

Bunn and Luckert have been developing the story for years, and as a result, the artwork for the first book is already completed. That, coupled with the fact that Bunn has already funded and completed three Kickstarter campaigns, and collaborated on several others, means the risk is very low. By the time this campaign closes, the team is confident the lettering will also be complete, meaning that PDFs will be ready to go out immediately, and the book will head out to the printer at that time.  

I had a chance to speak with Cullen regarding the Beyond Mortal campaign, and here’s what he had to say.

Brendan Allen: What’s it like working with Danny Luckert again?

Cullen Bunn: It’s amazing! Danny is one of my favorite collaborators, and he worked with me on a project that is very near and dear to my heart, Regression. I’ll let you in on a little secret. Originally, another artist, the great Karl Kesel, was going to be drawing this book. But Karl got busy with numerous other projects and he had to step away. As fate would have it, around that same time, Danny and I were talking about what we wanted to do next together, and Beyond Mortal came up. The rest, as they say, is history! (And, don’t worry. Karl and I still talk about how we might work together, maybe even on something in the Beyond Mortal Universe!)

BA: Why did you decide to go with Kickstarter for this one, as opposed to an independent publisher?

CB: We wanted to dive into a giant-sized first issue right away, and we were introducing a new universe of superheroes, building it from the ground up. Those two considerations played a huge role in why we wanted to try Kickstarter as a launchpad. Who knows where we’ll go next? But this time around we wanted total control of the characters, the story, and the presentation.” 

BA: What’s it like seeing your project fund in the first 24 hours?

CB: Holy cow! It’s humbling! Danny and I are both so appreciative that readers are into this idea. I’ll admit, I needed a bit of a boost. And seeing the response to this project really, really helped! I just want to thank all the people who have supported the project so far… and all those who will be checking it out and backing it in the coming weeks!

Rewards for this project start at the $7 level for the PDF, and higher tiers include rewards like physical copies of the book, variant covers, mystery boxes filled with Cullen Bunn books, and Danny Luckert commissions. Stretch goals have also been promised, and with the initial funding goal having already been smashed, details for those should start popping up soon.

You can back Beyond Mortal #1 on Kickstarter right here.