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Sweethearts of 1989: a LGBT / Trans Positive Romance Series!

Created by Kale Jeffery (kalematsuba)

Sweethearts of 1989 (1989年の恋人たち) (1989nk) is a LGBTQ / Trans* positive slice of life romance story featuring a retro manga aesthetic!

Latest Updates from Our Project:

URGENT! Survey FAQ! Please read!
about 6 years ago – Sat, Mar 03, 2018 at 10:02:33 PM

Hey all! okay, so over the past few days, with surveys out, i've had a LOT of questions come up!

So I've written up an FAQ for some of the questions I've gotten most frequently.

1. If I pledged to a lower tier that has no rewards, why is it asking for my shipping address in my survey?  

This is just in case you decide to add physical items to your pledge using the add-ons section of the survey! If you choose not to add anything extra, then your shipping address will not be used. 

2.Why did I get a survey email even though my pledge was dropped?  

Backerkit sends surveys to ALL backers, even dropped ones! This allows dropped backers a second chance to re-enter as a backer and pay their outstanding pledge. If you are a dropped backer and you cannot do this, you can disregard the email. There are no consequences of doing so. NOTE: You can now pay with PAYPAL! So, even if you were confronted with card issues at payment time, or still are, you can now switch your payment method during the survey.

3.Can I pay for my outstanding pledge amount/addons/preorders with Paypal?  

YES! This campaign on backerkit fully supports paypal payments. If you are filling your survey and wish to use paypal, you can switch payment methods during the checkout process.

4.I see the Kickstarter Tshirt in the addons section/preorder store. Is it included in the Collector's Set?  

Regrettably, while we did reach the stretch goal during the campaign to have TShirts included in the Collector's Box Set, the amount we raised after the campaign was over, after dropped pledges, was nowhere /near/ enough to cover the expense of such a large run of complimentary shirts. The ability to produce the number of shirts needed for all the Box sets was nowhere near in my end budget. (Tshirts are insanely expensive to produce, as I quickly discovered.) As such, I decided to tweak the design as an all over print and go for a higher quality supplier, and have the shirts purchasable seperately. 

I sincerely apologise for any disappointment this may cause.

I really do apologise for that last one. I should have made an update about it sooner. But I'd been trying to slog away to find a solution. Those tshirts gave me SO much grief. Every supplier I looked at was just not satisfactory for the quality of shirt I wanted to provide you guys, while ALSO being way too expensive to mass produce with the budget I wound up with. It was absolutely my mistake for not doing all the research before putting in the stretch goal... I thought it'd be way more feasible than it actually turned out to be. 

I did not intend to deceive any of you, I promise you that - It was purely just a big calculation error on my end. I probably got a bit too overzealous and overconfident in my ability to deliver. Being just one guy doing this all myself has been a real test of my abilities.

If you have ANY more questions at all, please feel free to send me a message! I cannot respond to comments (kickstarter literally doesn't have a reply function on comments. why? no idea.)

Get ready for SURVEYS!
about 6 years ago – Fri, Mar 02, 2018 at 12:36:41 AM

Heya all!!!

Just wanted to make this quick update to let you know that FINALLY I'll be sending out backer surveys hopefully tomorrow, through backerkit!

PLEASE keep an eye out in your emails, specifically the emails that you used to sign up on kickstarter. That's where your surveys will go!! The emails will be from backerkit, I promise they are legitimate. Backerkit is a reward fulfillment service that I'm using to make sure everything is SUPER well organized!

Also, those of you who were not able to have your pledges processed at the initial charging period and got dropped, you now have the option to pick your pledge back up and even pay with paypal!! You should get an email as well.

Those of you in the character cameo tier, I can't wait to do the concepts of your characters in my style for the comic!! I'll be posting those in an update as soon as they are finished! Just be ready for your survey with all the information I'll need from you!

See you tomorrow in survey land!

Kale

Current Events! + Unfortunate Setbacks
about 6 years ago – Wed, Feb 28, 2018 at 12:00:40 AM

Hello everyone! Sorry for the long period of silence since the last update. Some things have been happening in my life!

On a slightly personal note, at the beginning of this year, right after Christmas, I was displaced from my home and had to find a new place to live. Basically, the landlord kicked me out for absolutely no fault of my own; he'd basically sold his other house and decided that he'd just get rid of me to move into the house I was living in. Even though I was a perfect tenant. (To be honest, if this isn't illegal, it should be. sigh. The housing market here is very messed up.) Sadly there was no way for me to dispute this, so I had to uproot my entire life and workflow for no reason other than this person's complete selfishness. (while he has the right to do what he wants with his property, I still consider his actions very selfish and uncaring.) 

This caused a massive upset in various ways - my productivity went down, and moving and new tenancy costs have been extremely high. Kickstarter funds for Book/Reward production costs have already been allocated and put away, and now I'm worrying about finance because of how costly the move has been. This is exactly what I hoped would not happen. I refuse to dip into the production costs for anything but what they were meant for.

 I'm exhausted, sore, and I even sprained my knee during the move. It hasn't been very fun.

But, I'm trying to keep my chin up, and as I sit here in my new room with my entire art setup still in boxes, I'm actively planning how to make the most of the time I have left. I've been using my ipad pro to do page thumbnailing/planning in the moments where I've had a chance to, so you'll be seeing some works in progress and behind the scenes stuff on those very soon!

And so now that you know how I'm trying very hard to keep on schedule despite this rather large setback, I'm gonna take this opportunity to announce that 1989nk now has an ongoing Patreon campaign for those who'd like to offer me some ongoing support moving forward to try and ease the immense dent this situation has put on me.

I'm really not the type of guy who likes to make my problems into other people's problems, and I tend to try to keep things like this to myself so other people don't worry, so I've been trying to work out how to solve this all on my own... I often tell myself that no one else should have to deal with my issues, esp when so many other people in this world have it worse. I struggle with actually admitting when I am overdoing it, or need help. lol. Surprisingly though, many people tell me I should be honest about when I'm struggling, and suggested to me that I should make a Patreon because they'd like to help me out, which means a whole heck of a ton, and I am extremely grateful. 

So, if you'd like to check out 1989nk's Patreon page, here is the link:

https://www.patreon.com/1989nk/

this is 100% optional, please don't feel at all pressured to join if you feel as though your contribution through this kickstarter has been enough, because I totally feel the same way - I just know that having even just a small steady bit of income right now would save me a lot of worry, because working on this comic has left me completely unable to do things like freelance work and taking commissions for regular income. I want this comic to be the best it can possibly be and so I've been devoting 100% of my effort to it, and would like to keep it that way.

(For those who are following me here that missed the actual kickstarter campaign, this patreon is another way to get exclusive kickstarter updates like the behind the scenes stuff, works in progress, reward updates and there's even patreon exclusive physical rewards and giveaways.)

Thank you so much if you've actually read this far. I promise I don't want to be one of those creators that makes excuses for their lack of fulfillment with sob stories... but I did want to be 100% honest with you all about what's been happening either way. I feel like that's only fair to all of us.

Again, I'll be trying extremely hard not to let this whole situation affect my production schedule and reward fulfillment. Even if it means I gotta pull a couple weeks of all nighters and eat a bit cheaply for the next couple months and don't spend ANY money on myself lol.

I"ll be back in week or so with some art treats for you guys to look at and more reward updates. I'm currently brainstorming for the Final Cover of chapter 1 and the Kickstarter Postcards, so expect those soon.

Again, thank you with all my heart for your support of this project, even thus far. I couldn't possibly ask for more, but I hope you don't hold me in contempt for giving you the option. 

Be back Soon!

Kale

Hello everyone! Hope you had a great holidays! + Survey News
about 6 years ago – Thu, Feb 08, 2018 at 07:20:24 AM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.

Usasan Enamel Pins are complete and ready!! (quick update)
about 6 years ago – Thu, Feb 08, 2018 at 07:19:37 AM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.