The beloved vigilantes are back with their first ever COMIC BOOK SERIES from the TV show creators, A-list writers and Jorge Corona!
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
Hi Everyone,
Hope you are doing well!
It is time for a MEGA update, as we have made a LOT of progress on the productions. We are mostly done with the book's production, and the merchandise is either being printed or manufactured, or it is already printed and waiting to be shipped! The progress sheet has been fully updated; click here to take a look!
We have completed all the cover designs for each variant as we're preparing to print the comics (floppy). We chose a back cover that makes it clear this is a Kickstarter-exclusive edition of the book and displays the cover artist's name. Nothing has changed on the front cover.
The blind-bag edition of the comics will feature Callie in the corner box instead, making every copy from the Kickstarter blind bags even more limited and ALL different from anything not in the blind bag that was offered on the campaign. This will be the proof that you pulled it. All blind bag covers are chase items:
We received our Blind and 3D Comics bag, and the quality is excellent. We wanted a thicker, more premium bag than a standard comic bag, and one that's easy to open. So we asked our manufacturer to customize the bags by adding a tear-off strip at the top, allowing you to open them easily without risking damage to your book or struggling (like those small condiment packets).
We received a test print of the Collector Box and requested some improvements from our printer. We asked for thicker cardboard and a few adjustments to improve the closure; the boxes are large, designed to accommodate even 11x17 art prints. Since the content will be heavy and sizable, it's essential that the box is sturdy enough to last over time and to be kept as part of your collection, not a shipping container. We wanted to be sure it is something you can preserve and use to store your collection!
We are SUPER hyped to announce that Cartoonist Shawn Dickinson is creating the first-ever Kat Kommandoes comic, with Fred Kennedy scripting it. It will be included in the SWAT KATS Kickstarter Exclusive Hardcover book and all digital copies! This additional short comic was unlocked at the $250,000 mark. We won't lie about it, because transparency is everything. This short story caused production delays, as the Tremblay Bros. underestimated the lift of creating a NEW FRANCHISE within the limited time we had. For us, nothing is more important than allowing the original creator of the show to bring their vision to life. They got so passionate and built a full universe for it; it is not just something written on a napkin at a restaurant between two beers; it is a fully fleshed-out new world. But now, we are rolling; the artist is DRAWING the pages at the moment. YES, that means you are getting not ONE debut but TWO debut series in this book.
The Kat Kommandoes were introduced as a scene in the original SWAT KATS television series, in Season 2, episode “A Bright and Shiny Future.”
One of many comic books available at MegaKat City Pop’s Newsstand. Growing up, Chance’s favorite comic was Kat Kommandoes because he wanted to be a good guy like the Kat Kommando heroes someday. Emil, the security guard at Megakat Biochemical, also read Kat Kommandoes.
The Tremblay Bros. conceptualized the characters and enemies for this first short adventure of the Kat Kommandoes. Here's Christian's concept art for it:
And here's Shawn Dickinson's take on it, the artist of the short comic that will debut the spin-off franchise:
The second short story, unlocked as a stretch goal, is going smoothly and serves as a 'post-credits' scene to the main story written by me (Kevin Roditeli) and Frank Barbiere, with art by Leo Chiola. We gave Leo a bit more time to work on the pages, since Kat Kommandoes was moving more slowly, so he is adding more detail. He is currently inking the pages and will finish them in 2 weeks! Here's a sneak peek at his pencil!
Because the Kat Kommandoes creation is taking longer than planned, fulfillment will be slightly delayed into autumn. If we can ship before then and have everything out by August, we will, but we want to give you a maximum delivery date and NOT change it again. Over 98% of backers have the Kickstarter Exclusive book; it is the main item, and we are making sure everything is ready to go and waiting at the warehouse. We will send the book directly to our printer the moment we have the final files. Once we get the books to the printer, our fulfillment partners will ship all rewards within a week. This means the physical copies of the motion comic will also ship at the same time; all rewards will be in every backer's hands at the same time. The progress sheet has been fully updated; click here to take a look!
Studio NX is doing a TERRIFIC job. I won't lie to you: the Tremblay Bros. got a bit emotional seeing those characters back in action, with most of them voiced by the original cast members.
Here's Studio NX talking about the process.
Our animation team at StudioNX timed every comic panel to a scratch track built from the original Swat Kats score, locking in the rhythm, pacing, and emotional beats of each moment. Once the flow felt right, we broke the colored pages into full animation layers, separating foreground elements, characters, and background cityscapes and skylines so they could bring movement and depth to every shot. The panels were imported into After Effects and split into layers with a filmic camera, and the world started to come alive.
Here's a little sneak peek at the Striders stomping through the city, scanning for intruders as debris shakes beneath their feet, while the Swat Kats rip across the sky in their jet:
VIDEOS ARE NOT FINAL - WORKING IN PROGRESS (Behind the scenes for backers only)
Weaving between buildings and dodging HardDrive’s laser blasts as the camera dives and sweeps through the action, making the whole sequence feel alive:
VIDEOS ARE NOT FINAL - WORKING IN PROGRESS (Behind the scenes for backers only)
(The laugh is a placeholder; Rob Paulsen is reprising his role and will record Hard Drive dialogue after San Diego Comic-Con.)
Regarding the motion comics, we are still on track, and it won't delay the fulfillment.
If you are one of these, please complete the form by entering your email here.
If you've already completed it and want to update your shipping address (we won't close the editing option before shipping because we understand you might move, and we'd hate for you to receive items at your old address), click the image if any changes are needed:
We've assembled a dedicated team to assist you with completing your survey. They are available every business day (Monday to Friday) until the survey closes. If you have any questions, no matter how small, don't hesitate to contact them. Help is just a click away! :) To reach out, click here, and they'll respond as soon as possible.
We truly appreciate your feedback; it means a lot to us. We saw many comments from you indicating a preference for shorter, more frequent updates. We’re happy to say we will start doing so. We'll send you an update each time something important happens until we deliver (if there's content for two updates in a week, we will), rather than combining multiple topics into one update.
As mentioned before, this is our company's first project, and it broke Kickstarter records! Neither the Tremblay Bros. nor we expected such an incredible response, and we are forever grateful. However, this success turned our $40,000 project into a giant mammoth, and we want everything to be RIGHT; we owe that to YOU. Our main goal is to deliver the highest-quality rewards and an engaging story. We're working diligently to plan the franchise's future. Your feedback means the world to us, and we genuinely want to keep improving. Thanks so much for your support and understanding!
Before we talk about our upcoming giveaways, here's another thing we read in your feedback: many of you missed out on the information about who won the original art by Christian Tremblay. Future giveaway winners will receive dedicated updates so everyone is aware. The winner was Christopher Smith, backer #4286!
Now that this has been said, it is time to chat about the upcoming giveaway!
Let's wrap up this week with this news: we have a booth at SDCC! If you're heading to San Diego Comic-Con, we're excited to meet you!
Find us at Booth #2202, where we'll have some Swat Kats SDCC-exclusive merchandise, an ashcan/sketchbook, and signings with creators Yvon Tremblay, Christian Tremblay, Kevin Roditeli (me), Frank Barbiere, and Serge LaPointe, as well as voice actor(s)!! IMPORTANT: As a backer, we want to make sure you can secure the SDCC merch if you are interested, even if you are not at the convention. We will make ALL San Diego Comic Con merch available to you FIRST online, a few days before the con, via a private Shopify link. We will send a dedicated update next week with all the info. One thing you can do: if you want to make sure you don't miss it, click here to be notified!
Just to confirm before anyone asks, all Kickstarter comics and exclusive rewards will remain exclusive; they won't be available before we ship, in ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. We dislike companies that engage in such practices, and we would never do the same - these are your rewards for bringing our dream to life, not the rewards of some random buyers on a show floor!
We can't wait to meet you in person! We'll have freebies and giveaways for backers (even if you're not at the con) and for attendees! Backer Giveaways: We'll run raffles using your backer numbers at the con; if you're not at the show, no worries. We'll share the winners on Kickstarter afterward!
PS: Here's some more radical news: ALL BACKERS WILL GET DIGITAL FILES OF THE SDCC EXCLUSIVES FOR FREE! Yes, giveaways and free stuff for every backer in a week! 🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱
SDCC x SWAT KATS is a dream and a big step forward in development! This is just the start of many exciting years filled with new Swat Kats adventures, conventions, and stories, all because of YOU. We intend to keep rewarding you with freebies long after the Kickstarter delivery, because all of this happened because of YOU. AS A BACKER: As long as we work on Swat Kats, you will receive early access, freebies, and free perks (even in 2042, if we are still making Swat Kats adventures, you will be getting stuff from us)! This is our philosophy: we are a team, and we deserve the ongoing privilege of being the first to support our Swat Kats revival!
Thank you for your incredible support and for being part of the Swat Kats' comeback journey! Have a wonderful evening, afternoon, or night. Best wishes!
If you need help with anything, click here! Our team is there for you.
- Kevin Roditeli - Let's connect: Instagram | LinkedIn | X | Facebook
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Hi everyone, I hope you had a great week!
This is it! Backerkit sent you an email notice; they will lock orders around noon ET tomorrow (IN 24 HOURS)! We are starting to manufacture the second wave of rewards based on the quantity we have received from your surveys; we are getting closer to bringing the Swat Kats First Ever Comic Book into your hands!
If you completed your survey, you have one last chance in the next 24 hours to update your order (add additional rewards), and if you can't find your survey or just want to easily go back to it to edit it, just go to (click on the Swat Kats image):
We've assembled a dedicated team to assist you with completing your survey. They are available every business day (Monday to Friday) until the survey closes. If you have any questions, no matter how small, don't hesitate to contact them—help is just a click away! :) To reach out, click here, and they'll respond as soon as possible.
STRETCH GOALS SHORTS STORY - WIP PRODUCTION 🔥
As I always love to do, here's some fun progress update! Now that the main story is fully processed, we are working on the 2 additional stories unlocked as stretch goals! Here's a look at the WIP layout of the Callie/Felina short:
The artist is currently penciling and inking the pages! The Callie/Felina shot will be 5 pages long, taking place right after the main story, and the second short is based on Kat Kommandoes, the favorite comic of Jake and Chance in the Swat Kats TV show!
DESIGN UPDATE FROM SERGE! 📚
As I always love to do, here's some fun progress update! This time I let Serge LaPointe talk about his work on designing the books. He is deep in the trenches at the moment:
The design of the 3D issue is also coming along smoothly. It was quite an endeavor, but I think you are going to love how it turned out! If you own a pair of 3D glasses, have a look at this page! It should be working if you look at your screen wearing them 👓
If you don't have glasses, no worries! All 3D editions will come with Swat Kats branded glasses!
And finally, the Artist Edition is ready for print, and it looks AMAZING! Seeing Jorge Corona's inks in their full original size is simply astonishing. It is a real artist edition with the raw ink scan, no touch-up; experience the work of Jorge like if you were in his art studio while he works on the Swat Kats First Ever Comic Book. Here's a double spread of the final book look, which, at this small size, isn't even close to doing them justice:
- Serge LaPointe, Designer & Letterer of the Swat Kats - First Ever Comic Book!
Don't forget to check out your Backerkit and complete it (if it is not done). As we're starting to manufacture a big portion of the rewards next week, we really need your survey! Thank you so much for your understanding and support. We're super excited to be getting to the next step, being closer and closer to you receiving your rewards. We're grateful to you for helping us make this dream happen, and we hope this is just the beginning of an exciting adventure with you as part of our Radical Squadron's comeback! Big news coming soon!!!
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Little post-credit self-promo section: I invite you to check out the next franchise I deeply LOVE that I'm bringing to comics for the FIRST EVER COMIC BOOK after Swat Kats. Thanks for your support ❤️
CLICK HERE TO FOLLOW MY NEXT PROJECT,
POSTAL FIRST EVER COMIC BOOK ON KICKSTARTER!
Have a great weekend. Best wishes!
- Kevin Roditeli - Let's connect: Instagram | LinkedIn | X | Facebook
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Hi everyone,
I hope you are doing well!
I'm super excited to share this update with you because Sarah just finished coloring all the pages of the comic book! Here's a never-before-seen sneak peek from the new pages she colored!
The Tremblay Bros. and I could be happier with the look of the book! Jorge and Sarah really nailed the atmosphere and made us feel like we were back in 1993 watching the show. Hope you like what you see as much as we do!
What's left to do on the book? As you probably remember, you unlocked two extra short stories in the stretch goals. We are currently working on those while Serge is working on the book design and extra content. We are confident that we will be done with the production of the extra content (short stories, interviews, behind-the-scenes) by mid-June. A few weeks left, and we are sending this bad boy to print. We can't wait to hold this book in our hands, and even more so that YOU hold it in yours! We will start sharing behind-the-scenes content process from the next update, now that we are done with the art on the comic book content!
Before manufacturing our t-shirts, it was important for us to check the quality. The premium tags and printing are top-notch.
As mentioned before, it was important to us to support local businesses and the environment! They are made and decorated in Quebec by a unionized team. The clothing is made from organic cotton and recycled polyester (rPET). Tightly knit and smooth, it is comfortable, silky soft, and of premium quality. We are conscious of the pricing they were sold at and wanted to be sure you weren't getting a cheap Generic Gildan; it is an officially branded Swat Kats Merch!
Radical side fact: Each Swat Kats t-shirt helps clean up your environment, as using recycled polyester can remove between 5 and 15 plastic bottles from the environment for each piece of clothing.
Today, we made the decision to give more time, considering that there are still over 20% of the backers who have not completed their survey, which is close to 1,500 of you. We will be actively reaching out to the people who haven't completed it yet and doing our best to get closer to 90%, but June 3rd will be the FINAL date, as we need our final quantities to produce the remaining products and process fulfillment.
We have hired a dedicated team to support you in the process of completing your survey. They are working every business day (Monday to Friday) until we close the survey. If you have any questions, even small ones, feel free to reach out; the team is there to help you out! :) If you have a question or need help, click here to contact them. They will reply as soon as possible!
If you can't find your survey or just want to easily go back to it to edit it:
Thank you so much! We will share more progress next week! We can't wait to share our story with you. We are reading it (x1,000,000 times) at the moment to proofread it, and we won't lie, we got emotional seeing the Swat Kats, MegaKat City, and all the characters back to life. Thank you for making this dream happen!!
To finish, I invite you to check out the next franchise that I LOVE, which I'm bringing to comics for the FIRST EVER COMIC BOOK after Swat Kats. Thanks for your support ❤️
CLICK HERE TO FOLLOW POSTAL FIRST EVER COMIC BOOK ON KICKSTARTER!
I'm thrilled to share our partnership with game developers Running With Scissors to bring their POSTAL universe to comic books for the first time in the franchise’s nearly 30‑year history. It is TRULY an honor. I have been a fan since I was 11-12 (Yeah, Mom. I was way too young to play this, sorry!). You can now follow the project to be notified when we launch it later this year!
I grew up playing the POSTAL games and have been a die‑hard fan for over 20 years. This is a dream sandbox to create in. After the success of the SWAT Kats campaign, the next ‘First Ever Comic Book’ event we had to do was POSTAL. The story behind the fandom reminds me of SWAT Kats. We continue our quest to give fans what they want and most importantly only work on what we are fans of! If you don't know the games, check them out. They are a LOT of fun!
CLICK HERE TO FOLLOW POSTAL FIRST EVER COMIC BOOK ON KICKSTARTER!
It will be the next franchise getting a First Ever Comic Book from us after we complete Swat Kats, but don't worry, we have more coming for Swat Kats (even outside of comics), our partnership with the Tremblay bros continues! ANNOUNCEMENT COMING SOON!
Have a wonderful evening, afternoon, or night. Best wishes!
- Kevin Roditeli - Let's connect: Instagram | LinkedIn | X | Facebook
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Hi everyone,
I hope you're enjoying your weekend! I just wanted to share some clear answers to the main questions about Backerkit. We know the process can sometimes be a bit confusing, and we're here to help every step of the way. Let's jump right in! 🐱
First of all, you can absolutely trust the email from BackerKit. It's common, about 95% of campaigns with over 1,000 backers use an external pledge manager like BackerKit to handle shipping details and ensure everything stays organized, so nothing gets lost along the way. The Kickstarter built-in survey works well for smaller campaigns, but for a big project with many rewards like this one, it is too limited. Kickstarter recommends this approach.
We had a few backers reaching out, surprised by the BackerKit email. If you missed this information, we apologize, and we understand that our campaign was packed with so much content that some details might have been overlooked. We truly appreciate your patience as we work to make things clearer on our future campaigns. For your reference, if you check your tier description, you'll see that we've included this information from the beginning, stating that BackerKit would be managing the shipping, and it's also mentioned on the campaign story page. Thank you for your understanding!
We have hired a dedicated team to support you in the process of completing your survey. They are working every business day (Monday to Friday) until we close the survey. If you have any questions, even small ones, feel free to reach out; the team is there to help you out! :) If you have a question or need help, click here to contact them. They will reply as soon as possible!
If you can't find your survey or just want to easily go back to it to edit it. CLICKING HERE:
If the system still can't find you, please contact the support via the link above in the customer support section. Our support team will help you and give you access manually!
We're planning to lock the orders on May 20th. Rest assured, your credit card won't be charged by Backerkit until then. So far, about 60% of our backers have completed their surveys, and we want to give everyone plenty of time to finish theirs. If you've already completed your survey but want to update your add-ons or address, feel free to go back and make those changes. You can edit it until we lock the orders. You can access your survey again through the original email you received or by clicking the link in the ''I can't find my survey, or I want to go back to it'' section above.
This is a misconception. In the early days of rewards-based crowdfunding, sites like Kickstarter were treated by governments as donation platforms (it was new, and they didn't understand it yet); no taxes were applied. That has since changed a few years ago, and they now treat it like any other online pre-order. They realized that physical products are shipped to backers, and there's close to no difference between a Shopify pre-order and a Kickstarter pre-order anymore. Here's an FAQ page on Kickstarter that talks about it.
If a campaign creator doesn't change taxes, they'll need to pay back the uncollected taxes just like any other taxable sales. We genuinely wish we didn't have to charge Sales Tax (trust us, we hate it as much as you do), but avoiding it would result in us owing hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid taxes. We appreciate your understanding!
We obviously wanted to offer cheaper shipping (we hate paying for shipping as much as you do!), but right now, with the ongoing war, there's no miracle possible. Our fulfillment team has tried all available shipping services, and pricing keeps rising due to higher gas prices. The cost keeps increasing every time we check.
Just to give you an idea of how drastic it is, shipping the hats for signing from Yvon (Los Angeles) to Christian (Las Vegas) was an extra $400 compared with the initial quote we provided back in January. This is obviously not related to your personal shipping and is absorbed into our product profit, but it does give a good idea of how shipping costs have changed within a few months.
For international backers, we know you are the most affected by this. We are exploring a solution to help you save on shipping through freight forwarders. If it is possible and works, we will update you in the next few days and share the process for reducing your shipping costs (no guarantee, but we are looking at solutions). We understand the frustration that comes with it. Most of our team is in Canada (including me), and I personally paid close to $80 in shipping for 1 Kickstarter book I backed from another creator two weeks ago. I was frustrated to see that I paid $50 for the book and that shipping was close to $80; sadly, that is the current reality and not the fault of the creators involved. If we were to absorb the shipping cost, we would be losing money on every shipment.
I hope that answers most of your questions! For questions specific to your pledge, please reach out to our dedicated fulfillment, click here to contact them. Thank you so much for your continued support and understanding!
Postcard/Bookplate printed, and they are being signed by Christian at the moment! 🖊️
The quality came out great, and Christian/Yvon bought a LOT of quality pens to sign them all by hand. The B&W piece is the exclusive bookplate that comes with the Deluxe Slipcase edition, and the 3 other pieces are limited add-ons featuring art by Jorge Corona, Mirka Andolfo, and Juan Gedeon (all 3 can still be added on BackerKit).
Thanks to Matt of Swatkats.info and his team at Ranger Coin for producing such top-quality pins for us. Here's a video showcasing the quality! Pin and Coin can still be added to your Backerkit survey.
Sarah will be done by maximum mid-May with the coloring of ALL pages, which means the only thing that would remain to do on the story production will be the final lettering over the colored pages, give it a few reads, and be sure that it is great, catch the error, and then we assemble the packaging of the book. We will keep you posted as soon as all colors are done, and we will be sure to share a new sneak peek with you. In the meantime, here's a panel we previously shared in black & white, now in color!
We will share more production progress this upcoming week, including book lettering, more reward production, and the design of the Record-Breaking Certificate, which all of you will receive for free in your package!
⭐ BACKERKIT EXCLUSIVE COVER! ⭐
Many of you spotted this special Backerkit-exclusive cover in the survey, but just in case you missed it, I wanted to make sure to share it here! Since the three of us are all in Montreal, we came up with the idea of creating a triple-signed comic book showcasing Leo Chiola's stunning black-and-white artwork. This comic will be signed by Kevin Roditeli (that's me - Writer & Producer), Serge LaPointe (Letterer & Designer), and Leo Chiola (Cover artist). PS SECRET: We’ll have an exciting announcement soon with Leo. He might be doing even more work in the Swat Kats universe (way more)! ;)
If you want to return to your survey to add it to your package, you can access it again via the original email you received or by clicking here!
🌎 And final information, this upcoming weekend, the Tremblay Bros. will be at Mumbai Comic Con. I know it is probably far, far away from most of the backers, but I think it is amazing and radical news to share. If you are in India or can attend, we invite you to go say hi to our friends, the Swat Kats creators!
Thank you so much for your incredible support and for being part of the Swat Kats comeback journey! This is only the start of many exciting years filled with new Swat Kats adventures and stories. We genuinely appreciate your feedback and are committed to improving every day. We're here and eager to do everything we can to bring even more Swat Kats content to fans around the globe! All of this began because of you, and our way of showing gratitude is to wake up every day and give our 110%, creating the best possible products and merchandise for you to enjoy!
If you need help with anything, click here! Our team is there for you.
Have a wonderful evening, afternoon, or night. Best wishes!
- Kevin Roditeli - Let's connect: Instagram | LinkedIn | X | Facebook
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