Lackluster World is a 380 page, dark satire graphic novel that is now being collected for the first time in a “Director’s Cut” version of the original comic book series.
Fahrenheit Monahan is an albino man who is attempting to change his world through a combination of journalism and street art, all the while fighting off his brother and sister, Kelvin and Celsius, and their extreme attempts to convert him to Christianity. According to series creator Eric Adams, the story combines comedy and drama to speak about society. In the story, we see the world through the lens of Fahrenheit’s street art events, the story pokes fun at consumerism, social acceptance, religion, business, but also tells a serious story about how people and their actions have small and large influences on others.
After our anti-hero Fahrenheit executes his first vandalistic act stating, “You Are Already Dead” and gaining city-wide attention thanks to his own crafty manipulation of the media through his writing, entrepreneurial profiteers turn his message into a product with a branding campaign asking, “Where Were You The Day You Died?” This becomes the slogan of Fahrenheit’s campaign to change his lackluster world. The artwork of Lackluster World is a very deliberate grayscale. When Adams first wrote it, he said that the story, let alone the title, all but dictated that much. It’s a highly stylized, unique look that the book has become well known for displaying.
What was originally a seven-issue comicbook series totaling 252 pages is now one large volume clocking in around 350 pages. While the overall story has not changed, the first two original issues are being completely restructured and redrawn. Throughout the storyline, Adams has also injected quite a bit of new or missing backstory that just never made it into the comic issues. Every page is being digitally re-lettered as well. Beyond the story, he is adding some 30 pages of “back material” content to bring the total page count of the entire book up to 380-ish pages. This will include copies of original sketches, script fragments, copies of original character designs, pin-ups from other artists and a swath of other content that he believes will be interesting to anyone that wants to learn about the production of the story and art.
The physical size of the hardcover graphic novel will be 6.5″ x 9.5″ which is slightly smaller than the original comics’ size. The smaller size will make the book more accessible, more travel-friendly and overall just more readable. According to Adams, all of these adjustments and additions to the original comic material have been in the works for a very long time and now that he is nearing the end, he is finally launching this campaign to fund the printing of the hardcover book. It is Adam’s intention and expectation that he will have final artwork to his printer within 30 days after completion of this campaign; which means that backers can expect to receive this printed graphic novel in summer 2015.
Adams also indicated that he does have a number of very interesting Stretch rewards associated with this campaign that include UV Spot coating, Bookmarks, Sticker Pack and more. To learn about these stretch goals, and contribute to the campaign, check out the Kickstarter campaign and help Adams reach his goal.
This project will be funded on Friday, April 17, 2015.
