WELCOME TO STAY DRIPPIN: INSIDE THE KICKVERSE
You're probably wondering, what is Stay Drippin?
- Yeah, of course! You already know the story of Kicks, his unique artistic style, his creativity, and the way he puts his own spin on everything he touches.
- For years, we've watched him take existing ideas, trends, and characters and put his own creative twist on them. But we wanted to take that creativity somewhere completely original.
- Stay Drippin has been three years in the making! A chance to take everything that makes Kicks who he is and build an original IP around it. This is his world, his art, his characters, and his story.
- Through a colorful cast of characters and their wildly different walks of life, Kicks explores the highs, lows, and everything in between. Each character brings their own personality, struggles, feelings, and emotions to the story, while Kicks discovers a unique way to make sense of it all through art.
Why not just stay in mainstream IP creation and do variant covers for bigger publishers?
- Capturing attention has always been a major focus of ours. With a creative team like ours, we absolutely love creating the “eye candy” that makes people stop and look. But we want to take that a step further. We will still have variant covers planned with some of our past and upcoming titles with Image, Bad Idea, and Vault Comics.
- Rather than simply creating a visually striking variant cover for an established IP, we want to create something where the art, story, characters, and lore are all connected. We want our covers to do more than look great; we want them to capture the world, the emotion, and the identity of the story right from the front cover.
- Creating our own IP gives us the freedom to build that world from the ground up and create something that readers can connect with, follow, and ultimately feel like they're a part of.
Creative in what sense?
- Of course, things can get wild, but at its core, Stay Drippin is a creative take on the modern world and the things happening around us every day. Because this is an ongoing series, we have the freedom to incorporate present-day feelings, ideas, trends, and events directly into the story as it evolves.
- That gives us an incredible avenue for creativity, collaboration, and real-world events. We can build stories and experiences around what's happening right now, while continuing to grow the world of Stay Drippin and the Kicksverse with our audience.
Why release a Direct Market Exclusive cover?
- A Direct Market Exclusive gives us an opportunity to introduce Stay Drippin to an entirely new audience while giving existing supporters something special to collect.
- We want these covers to feel like more than another variant. They're an opportunity to collaborate with retailers, artists, creators, and members of the comic community while putting Stay Drippin in front of readers who may not have discovered the series yet.
- The goal is simple: expand the reach of Kicks while giving collectors a reason to become readers.
Why is growing the reader base so important?
- At the end of the day, we don't want Stay Drippin to simply be something people see; we want it to be something people experience.
- Growing the reader base means introducing Kicks and the Kicksverse to people who connect with the characters, the art, the emotions, and the stories we're creating. Every new reader is another person who becomes part of the journey.
- We're building this as an ongoing series, so we're thinking beyond Issue #1. We want readers to come back for the next issue, the next cover, talk about it with their friends, collect it, and become part of the community we're building around it.
Why pursue an ISBN for Stay Drippin?
- Getting an ISBN is another step toward establishing Stay Drippin as a legitimate, independently published property.
- While our initial focus is selling directly to our community, we want to build the foundation for where this series can go in the future. An ISBN gives us another avenue for cataloging and distribution as we continue to grow and keep the branding and reliability of the content within our roots.
- We're not creating Stay Drippin just for one release. We're building a long-term IP, and we want to establish that foundation from the beginning.
What does the Stay Drippin community actually mean?
- To us, the community is just as important as the comic itself.
- Stay Drippin is about individuality, creativity, emotions, identity, and finding your own path. We want the community surrounding the book to reflect those same ideas.
- That means creating opportunities for readers, artists, creators, retailers, and fans to participate, not just watch from the sidelines. Whether it's through exclusive covers, collaborations, events, artwork, giveaways, or future projects, we want people to feel like they're helping shape the Kicksverse alongside us.
What makes Stay Drippin different from other independent comics?
- My most hated question... Set an example, don't be the idol.
- We're not trying to create another comic that simply follows what's already popular.
- Stay Drippin takes inspiration from modern culture, art, emotions, individuality, and the world around us and turns those ideas into an evolving story. Because it's an ongoing series, the Kicksverse has room to grow and change with its audience.
- We want the book to look different, feel different, and most importantly, give readers something they can connect with. Whether it's a character, a moment in the story, a piece of artwork, or even a particular cover, we want that connection to spark enough interest for readers to keep moving forward with the story and discover what comes next.
- Our goal is to create something that makes readers stop, connect, and want to be part of the journey.
Where do you see the Kicksverse going?
- We're thinking much bigger than one issue.
- The goal is to continue expanding the story, introduce new characters, explore different perspectives, collaborate with new artists and creators, and give the Kicksverse room to evolve naturally.
- We don't want to rush that process. We want to build it issue by issue, reader by reader, and community by community.
Why should someone who has never heard of Kickstradomis pick up Issue #1 of Stay Drippin?
- Because you don't need to know anything about the Kicksverse to start the journey.
- Issue #1 is an invitation into a world that's still being built. It's a chance to discover Kicks, understand what makes him different, and see where this journey takes him.
- If you've ever felt like you stood out, struggled to find your place, or expressed yourself in a way other people didn't understand, there's something in Kicks' journey for you.
What is the ultimate goal for Stay Drippin?
- The ultimate goal is to create something that lasts.
- We want Stay Drippin to become more than a comic sitting on a shelf. We want it to become a world that people recognize, characters that people care about, and a community that people are proud to be part of.
- The Kicksverse starts with a comic... and we are not stopping there.
I'll leave you with this...
- At the end of the day, Stay Drippin is about building something together.
- We want to create a comic that captures attention, but also creates connection. Whether that connection comes from Kicks, another character, a moment in the story, a cover, the artwork, or something happening within the Kicksverse, we want readers to find something that speaks to them.
- The Direct Market Exclusives, the ISBN, the collaborations, the events, and everything else we're working toward are all pieces of a much bigger picture. We're building an ongoing world that can continue to evolve with its readers and the community around it.
- We're only at the beginning of the journey.
- Issue #1 is where the Kicksverse starts, but the community is what will help us take it wherever it goes next.
We hope you enjoy,
Taylor McLaughlin
Co-Creator / Writer
Welcome to the Kicksverse.
Stay Drippin.