BW-Approved Indiegogo: Lady Midnight

S.A. Rivera, the pen name for YouTube commentator Literature Devil, has released another graphic novel, though this time it’s not connected to his usual Doctor Alpha series. Instead of an ultraviolent story about a supervillain in a world of crap superheroes, he’s going for the supernatural crime thriller with Lady Midnight: Devils Dwell In Silent Springs. It’s not my genre necessarily, but seeing the uphill battle he’s had putting this out and how dedicated he is to it, I felt compelled to give the guy I wake up to five days a week a chance to really find his audience and get this Indiegogo funded. People seem to like his Doctor Alpha books, while his Lady Midnight tale is something he’s worked on during that. He focused on this in between book two and three, a two-part flashback story about how Alpha ended up in prison in the first book.

What challenges has he had? One place he tried to promote it suffered from the current “girlboss” problem. Girlboss characters have ruined heroines, so too many people assume every female protagonist in a crime or action movie gets the stigma of seemingly every modern female antagonist in most of the Hollywood mindset productions. Given LD’s various commentaries against girlbosses it seems highly unlikely that he would write such a character.

The other is possibly why a few of you came here: a prose novel by author Cassandra Clare by the same name, part of her “Dark Artifices” series. I know when I went looking for the Kickstarter, which turned out to already be my mistake as he’s using Indiegogo, most of what I saw was Claire’s series. My guess is that she’s unintentionally getting all his search results right now. The two properties have nothing in common save the name and being an urban fantasy story. Rivera is forming his own universe, with its own magic system, and is not part of Clare’s universe, nor is he pretending to be. I don’t know for sure if this is part of the problem he’s having but it’s worth noting as a possibility.

So, knowing there’s diversity in my audience for story types and wanting to see a project he’s so passionate about make it, I thought I’d use my dinky little platform to help. So what’s the story about?

Midnights spent years as a vengeful witch seeking the blood of those who slaughtered her coven. However, a hero convinced her to walk the path of salvation and the Blackwell Family – the city’s unofficial guardians against the occult and profane – thought her skills were better utilized protecting, rather than terrorizing Orb City. But when the patriarch of the Blackwells jumps to his death and their greatest allies are wiped out in a single night – Midnight is tasked with hunting down the mysterious Red Crier Killer and uncovering a revenge plot, decades in the making, before the family who gave her a second chance falls prey to a deadly curse.

While one of the stretch goals is a discussion about making Devils Dwell In Silent Springs, he has discussed on his Morning Nonsense podcast the effort in designing his magic system around the classic “Dungeons & Dragons” spell system (LD is an avid tabletop RPG player), how vampires work in his universe (though I don’t know if vampires show up in the story), and the research that went to creating this Lady Midnight and her world. Unfortunately I’m not able to show those clips since archived streams are behind a paywall thanks to how messed up the YouTube algorithm is when it comes to how it handles livestreams, scripted videos, and those shorts they keep demanding as if that will challenge Tiktok. I tried looking for one of the other streams that he might have discussed it on, but once again Clare’s novels popped up first and then I got weird search results like Markiplier reaction to PBS’s superhero comedy kids cartoon Wordgirl. He’s also sinking a lot of money into this project. He’s really invested in seeing this happen.

Rivera/Devil is only the writer. The art, which is black and white but will include “spot colors” to push a scene (I’m guessing a lot of red and you can guess why, being an urban horror mystery comic about a “Red Crier Killer”) is by Nik Axe (which making of videos as one of the backer rewards), and you can see his art in the video and the campaign page. Eric Roberts is the letterer, who has worked on other indie projects. I know nothing about editor M. Giessing, but since I mentioned everyone else, he’s here as well.

I’m not a friend of his. I’m a fan who occasionally gets quoted from the chat window, but although I have no money and this isn’t my genre, I want him to find his audience and make this project happen. Indie comics not going to comic stores have a hard time as the internet is filled with people who really want to get their comics out there. I’m hoping to join those ranks someday myself. So if I can help get the word out before my Instapundit boost recently dies down (though you’re all welcome to stay if you actually find my topics interesting) and help him achieve his dream in any way, word of mouth (or I guess…fingers since I’m typing) is the best way. If you know someone who might like this, send them the link to his Indiegogo campaign page and get the word out. Or if you’re that someone and have the money, help him out. He’s at 26% funding as I write this, and it would be nice to see him succeed.