DEER EDITOR by Sami [CHUM] Kivelä and Ryan K [NEGATIVE SPACE] Lindsay is back to Kickstarter for a third and final issue this September to promote #antlernoir in the finest tablet view format believable. After 2 hugely successful campaigns for the debut issue and the follow-up FEARLESS issue, the team comes back with HACK, a story of a rescue and a road trip that suddenly becomes a campaign of vengeance and closure for the editor of the crime beat at The Truth.

With a 48 page story you can buy as a $1 pdf, the team is also assembling a slate of other pledges you can check out in order to elevate your enjoyment and the creative team's profit margin.

The team have set a $2,000 goal in this 'digital-only' campaign which is peppered with a lot of reasons to back it, beyond just the fact you love the character and concept and want to see how certain plot elements tie up.

Let's jump to the rapid-fire rundown!

1^st day backers on Launch Day [August 30] who hit up the $3 pledge or above will automatically be gifted a pdf of CHUM #1, the surf noir miniseries through ComixTribe from this creative team.
The $3 pledge also means you are buying the deluxe pdf of DEER EDITOR: HACK – which includes pin-ups, process materials, the full script, as well as the basic pdf files for the first 2 issues.
Sami Kivelä will be making available some art in $90 Deer Editor themed pin-ups, as well as some $140 pin-ups of whatever character you want..
Ryan is preparing a third Volume of his Script pdf for the $7 pledge, in which you can see scripts for his Dark Horse book NEGATIVE SPACE, his IDW book HEADSPACE, and other short miscellanea.
Thank You Downloads – backers from previous campaigns will know that when you back DEER EDITOR you don't just get the antlers, you usually end the campaign with many other downloads from other comics, magazines, ebooks, pitch material, and more. At 100% on this campaign, all backers will receive an ebook of THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS: EXAMINING MATT MURDOCK AND DAREDEVIL – a book of essays about Marvel's Daredevil by Ryan. He also has some ideas for what to offer in future stretch goals – which he will announce when funded.
Okay, you can have a tease at some Stretch Goals: a 4 page Deer Editor short by Sami and Ryan will be added to the deluxe pdf, and you won't want to miss this one, trust us, it's got a great guest star. The last campaign offered a chance for backers to write 'six-page antler noir stories' and have them published in the deluxe format, and something very similar will happen for this campaign.
When we hit 100 Backer increments, one person will be selected to receive signed copies of the very rare print versions of all 3 issues of DEER EDITOR in the mail.

We are really excited to run the campaign for a month, we hope you get excited with us, as it's meant to be a festival atmosphere and we aim to please.

By Ben Boruff

Deer Editor is smart—deceptively so. The tablet-view comic, which is about an anthropomorphic journalist named Bucky, is peppered with a number of obligatory deer-related puns, but Deer Editor does not limit itself to Popsicle-stick humor. Bucky, the Hartigan-esque editor of the crime beat, is more Spider Jerusalem than Jimmy Olsen. His tie is always loose; he uses profanity; and he believes that his goal as a crime journalist is, in part, to "keep people out of the dirt." Writer Ryan K Lindsay and artist Sami Kivelä do not fully expose Bucky's form until the sixth panel, and the delayed reveal is worth the wait: Bucky has the charisma of a veteran me-against-the-whole-damn-world superhero. The fact that Bucky is a deer is not just a gimmick. In one scene, Bucky breaks through a car window with his antlers. But even if Bucky did not use his unique physical characteristics, his special affiliation still provides a physical representation of Bucky's social isolation. He is different than those around him, and he wears that difference on his sleeve (or, rather, on his head). Bucky is a victim of prejudice—he even receives hate mail and death threats with bigoted jokes on the envelopes—but he focuses on finding truths and exposing criminals. He is a hero, and he rises above the small-mindedness of those around him. The depictions of prejudice are subtle—much of the story centers on a murder mystery—but, as a whole, they exist as an undercurrent of targeted discrimination that flows throughout the narrative, a current that Bucky must swim against while he attempts to save lives.

The characterization of the comic’s protagonist mirrors the crime mystery that dominates the plot: Bucky, as a character, is also an enigma. Smashing the O-Line, Seijun Suzuki’s 1961 film about newspapers and drugs, features two characters: Nishina, a morally upright reporter, and Katiri, an unprincipled, results-driven journalist. Bucky seems to embody both journalistic mentalities, like a personified woodland yin and yang of newspaper ethics. He is willing to get dirty, but his actions are fueled by sympathy for those around him. Like an antlered version of Edward R. Murrow, Bucky is determined to use his talents to better the world.

Though the story seems rushed at times, the dark scenes and clever inner monologues overshadow most pacing issues, and the black-and-write art highlights the compelling gravity of the comic's narrative. Similar to David Aja's work on Hawkeye, Kivelä's thick black lines and dark shadows add to the noir elements of the story, making Deer Editor a graphic, deer-journalist version of Carol Reed's The Third Man—and John Doe is Bucky's Harry Lime.

I read Deer Editor shortly after watching the producers of Spotlight—the biographical film about the journalists from The Boston Globe who exposed sex abuse in the Boston area by Catholic priests—take home the Oscar for Best Picture, and I believe that, though Spotlight deals with some heavier issues, audiences today appreciate the relevance of both stories. Maybe that appreciation is fueled by pervasive cynicism and a widespread belief that the inveterate criminals of today need to be exposed. Maybe we see ourselves, on some level, as investigative antiheroes, flawed individuals who search for truth, so we relate to characters like Bucky. Whatever the reasons, Deer Editor is a fun, meaningful read, and I recommend it.

Score: 4/5

Deer Editor #1
Writer: Ryan K Lindsay
Artist: Sami Kivelä
Publisher: Four Colour Ray Gun