AARON ALEXOVICH

HELLO, FRIENDS! Been a little while! Welcome to my new website!

…AND MY NEW KICKSTARTER.

IT’S NOT SCARY is a brand new, fully painted kid’s book I wrote and illustrated in between all my various ZIM duties over the past, uh… five years. I taught myself to digitally paint doing this thing (with color, even! WUT.), and now, with your help, we’re going to get this monster printed AND, even better, my wife Ami (THE GOFFLIN) is going to transform it into a fully interactive APP with voice acting, animations, and all the bells and whistles. It’s gonna be AWESOME.

PLEASE HELP IF YOU CAN! Check out the full KS description below for all the details and incentives. And thanks so much for checking it out! You are the best!

WELCOME TO MY NEW EXPERIMENT! This is your old pal AARON ALEXOVICH, character designer for INVADER ZIM (TV + movie) and comic artist for the ZIM series, STITCHED, and Kickstarter bigshot SERENITY ROSE. I have a question for you all:

Have you ever REALLY been scared?

I SURE HAVE. When I was a kid growing up in Chicago, I was an EXTREMELY ANXIOUS little guy. Every little thing filled me with full-on blistering TERROR. One time in preschool I was so panicked by the idea of a field trip to “McDonaldland” that my Mom had to come rescue me from a pool of my own tears. It was AWFUL.But you know what helped me deal with all that crazy fear? MONSTERS. Godzilla, Frankenstein, and Ray Harryhausen’s whole menagerie. The Hulk, Swamp Thing, and The Cryptkeeper. The absolutely mind-melting horrors floating through Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. How did all these scary critters help me? These were all fears I could confront in SAFETY. All I had to do to fight them off was close my eyes or turn the page. That’s powerful stuff!And now I want to be a part of that creepy/powerful tradition. I want to make something for little 6-year-old Aaron and all the other scared little kids out there. Something cool. I want to make a children’s book… and MORE… (DUN DUN DUUUUUNN)

IT’S NOT SCARY! is a 35-page, fully painted, hardcover children’s book, all complete and ready to ship to the printer NOW. The cover goes like this:

“NICE! NOW SHUT UP AND TELL US WHAT THE BOOK’S ABOUT, BUDDY!” OKAY! IT’S NOT SCARY! is about a kid named MILO who’s dared to ring the doorbell of a colossal, twisted castle on the edge of town. Inside he meets SUNNY VON SHOCK, the super-chipper, crazily positive daughter (experiment?) of the fiendish mad scientists who live there. Sunny insists on giving Milo a tour of her cavernous old house, completely oblivious to the bone-chilling nature of all its contents. To her all these hideous creatures, ghosts, machines and experiments are AWESOME… but will Milo agree?

Now, there are a lot of kids’ books about monsters and creepy things, and those are fantastic! I love ‘em! But IT’S NOT SCARY! is specifically about dealing with fear of the unknown. It’s about ANXIETY, facing what scares you, and opening yourself up to whole different worlds. I kind of think we need more of that right now.But the book part is just the beginning…

 Like I sez, the book is already done. Ready to print. But we want to go further… Into THE THIRD DIMENSION.My wife AMI GOFF is a brilliant artist and technical wizard with years of experience in both the app development and feature film compositing worlds (most recently on Mary Poppins Returns!). Under her direction, we’re going to Frankenstein this book into an amazing colossal iOS/Android app (check the FAQ to see if your device will work). What all is in there?

• VOICE ACTING! Not just narration, either; we’re going to hire professional voice actors to bring all my new characters to life. My pal Rikki (“THE VOICE OF GIR”) Simons is already onboard to play DR. HEIRONYMOUS “HEIRO” VON SHOCK, grim(?) lord of the SHOCKTOWER itself.
• INTERACTIVE ELEMENTS! We’re going to trick out every page with all kinds of buttons, switches, and critters to poke and drag around the screen. UNLEASH A SHOWER OF SPARKS! REVEAL A BEAST FROM THE DEPTHS! TEAR A GHOST FROM ITS GRAVE! You’ll follow Milo into the darkness and become a part of Sunny’s world.
• 3D EFFECTS! The coolest bit, honestly. Ami spent years helping develop some killer tech to turn your iPad/Android device into essentially a three-dimensional SHADOW BOX. Tilt your device left, right, up and down to peek around and see behind all the stuff on a page. Discover all the secrets in every room and find hidden horrors you’d NEVER find in the print version. It’s incredible!
• A FULL SCORE (HOPEFULLY!) We’ll definitely be adding some kind of music to the app, but with your help we just might be able to get a FULL, UNIQUE SCORE to really get pulses pounding and nerves crawling. By whom, you ask? KEEP YOUR EARS PEELED, for all will be revealed!

Sounds pretty sweet, eh? 

 We’ve had some great success with Kickstarter in the past, but this time we’ve got a MUCH bigger project. Bigger is more exciting! But it’s also more expensive. Here’s a breakdown of what we’ll need to bring Sunny’s chilling world to life:

• PRINTING. Gotta get that ink and paper all nice. We’ll be using the same team that made the big, glorious SERENITY ROSE omnibus. They know their stuff!
• VOICE ACTING (ACTORS + STUDIO RENTAL). And we have to pay them PROPERLY, too!
• PROGRAMMING/ DEVELOPMENT. Hack that code and build that art!
• SHIPPING. The boring part. But expensive. So very expensive.
• KICKSTARTER FEES. Hey, they have to get paid, too!

We’ll get to the score in STRETCH GOALS.And remember, the more we can raise the more ASTOUNDING the app can be.

 Of COURSE there will be incentives! Get outta here, you maniac!

• THE APP – $10
• THE BOOK – $20
• BOOK + APP – $30
• BOOK + APP + BUTTONS – $40. Five 1.5″ Sunny faces to match any mood! (Or, well, a few moods, anyway…)

• BOOK + APP + STICKERS – $45 . Five die-cut stickers (about 1-3″ wide) to make five of your things look cooler than ever before!

• BOOK + APP + POSTER SET – $80. An ALL-NEW set of five signed B-movie posters straight from the drive-in theaters of Sunny’s world. We’ll reveal one new poster every week in the updates, and the last one just before the end. FIRST UP: WILD FRANKENSTEINS!

• SKETCH COMMISSIONS – $100. Only 8 available! You’ve been asking for this… Get ’em while they’re hot!
• SERENITY ROSE SUPERFAN – $200. 8 available. Sad you missed our first Kickstarter? Well, cheer up, witchy! Get a signed copy of the ORIGINAL SLIPCASE EDITION of the SERENITY ROSE omnibus (1st printing!) and a commission sketch of any SR character!
• INVADER ZIM SUPERFAN – $250. 8 available. Get a copy of Oni Press’ massive first INVADER ZIM OMNIBUS (featuring art by me) signed by me, RIKKI SIMONS, ERIC TRUEHEART, and JHONEN VASQUEZ. Also includes a sketch of any ZIM character! 
• SHADOW BOX – $300. Only TWO available! STUN YOUR FRIENDS INTO SILENCE with this incredible handmade physical recreation of a page from IT’S NOT SCARY! Using a box frame and several sheets of acetate, you’ll feel like you’re peering into a WHOLE NEW WORLD OF HORRORS.
• AMAZING COLOSSAL SET – $500. 5 available. PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING! Check a look at the sidebar for dem deets.

 And if we’re lucky enough to go skittering past our goal, we’ve got some other cool stuff planned for you. INCLUDING:

• SPOT GLOSS! We’ll make the book cover extra-fanciful with some extra shiny bits!
• KICKSTARTER-ONLY PRINT! Everyone at the BOOK + APP level and above will get an exclusive, KS-backers-only print!
• ENAMEL PINS! Everyone at the STICKER level and above will have an enamel pin set added to their loot!
• A FULL SCORE! Details to come! You’re not going to believe this one, my friends…
• AND MORE TO BE REVEALED! Gotta keep some secrets, right?

 Oh man, I’ve been working on this book off and on for about 5 years now. Taught myself to paint in Photoshop doing this thing. (Hoo boy… those first few drafts… TRULY scary.) You wouldn’t believe how hard it’s been to keep my mouth shut all this time. I’m basically bouncing around with excitement to FINALLY share Sunny’s world with you. And if this goes well, it will only be the beginning. So get in here on the first floor, first app, first printing! This shuddering old elevator is heading deep into the catacombs, and everyone (of ANY age) is invited to join in and help us explore the dark.IS IT SCARY? Let’s find out together!