The future is doomed. The past cannot be changed. But what if you could… cheat it?

In the future, people have let machines run their world, and only a select few remain free thinkers. With the machines run by an increasingly repressive Regime, one of the last scientists builds a time machine to try to prevent the world from getting in this mess.

But history cannot be changed. She will have to... cheat it. By pulling people from the past who disappeared, she can recruit a team of heroes to save the future.

Cheating History is a new narrative podcast starring Winter Bassett, Colette Freedman, David Blixt, and John Kassir (along with others who will join as the series progresses). It is created by Nunzio DeFilippis & Christina Weir (NEW X-MEN, KIM POSSIBLE, AMAZING AGENT LUNA, ARLI$$) and Jenny Sterner (APARTMENT 30).

The pilot is done, and available for free, but are looking for funding for a full first season - we can't ask our talented actors, composer, and editor to work for free.

Please check out our Kickstarter campaign, which also has the link for the pilot's rss feed.

You can also find the pilot on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music, as well as other sites that aggregate podcasts.

If we can get funded, we have some amazing stretch goals in mind, getting our collaborators from our AVALON CHRONICLES and DRAGON AGE comics on board to provide some goodies for our backers. And there's at least one extra you can add on that will be signed by our friend Greg Rucka.

Nunzio here. Christina and I both teach, but I also am Chair of multiple departments and a Dean at our school. Finding the time to write is not as easy as I'd want.

To be honest, when Dragon Age: Dark Fortress ended, I worried how often I would write again. Finding people to hire you to write is sometimes a job unto itself, and I had so many.

But we teach our students to create their own work. So we decided to do the same.

Christina and I teamed up with Jenny Sterner to create a pilot for a Podcast called CHEATING HISTORY. And we assembled an amazing team, and created a pilot.

And then we put it out in the world and asked for funding to make an entire season. In this economy, we knew it was a lot to ask.

But we got the support, and Season One is going to happen!

We have stretch goals, so if you haven't supported us, please do at Kickstarter:

Those stretch goals include artwork by Emma Vieceli, and Fernando Heinz Furukawa, both of whom we'd be thrilled to work with again.

So please check it out if you can.

But whatever happens, we are going to make a full season of this podcast.

No idea how I'm gonna fit it into the teaching/chairing/deaning schedule. But that's just logistics.

Represent ourselves? That's tricky.

We have favorites from those we created. But they don't always represent who we are, or who we'd want to be.

Hm...

for Nunzio...

Best represents who he is? Maybe David Alleyne (Prodigy) from New X-Men? Not because he's anywhere near as smart, but because Nunzio is a perfectionist and David is perfectionism personified.

Who he wants to be...? Vaea, from Dragon Age, because she's sassy AF.

And his top 5 favorites we've created:

Vaea is his favorite; Control (from Amazing Agent Luna) is #2; Sofia Mantega (Wind Dancer) from New X-Men is #3; Autumn the Mabari from Dragon Age is #4; and Amy Devlin (from our series of mysteries) is #5

for Christina...

Laurie Collins best represents who she was, probably even before we wrote the series.

Sofia Mantega's eternal optimism, cool powers, and dancer's heart is probably the best combination of who Christina wants to be.

Her top 5: #1 is Luna from Amazing Agent Luna; #2 and #3 (tied) are Julian Keller (Hellion from New X-Men) and Jonah Von Brucken (from Luna) - they're both her kind of bad boy; Vaea (Dragon Age) is #4; and Aeslin from Avalon Chronicles is #5.

So the Kickstarter for our podcast CHEATING HISTORY will be done at the end of Monday, October 20th.

Please support us on Kickstarter so we can create a first season!

You'll also find as an add on for your pledge signed books - our Dragon Age work, our Avalon Chronicles work, and even some books by and with Greg Rucka!

And you'd be helping us launch a first season and make sure our team (actors, composer, and more) would be fairly compensated for the podcast. It's a passion project for us, but they deserve to be paid.

The Kickstarter is at:

Thank you.  We have a very big place in our hearts for that story.  We started it in 2004 with Jen Quick doing the art.  But in 2012, we redid that book as Volume 1 of the Avalon Chronicles teaming with Emma Vieceli.  The did a polish on the script, she drew a new version, and it started again.  We got a second volume (The Girl And The Unicorn) in 2013.  But then Emma’s career took off, and we’ve been unable to finish the story.  One day...

Of course we remember it. We wish it could have seen completion, too. The first version was with Jennifer Quick, and it only went one volume, which was meant as a standalone with big sequel potential. It did stand alone for a while, but when it came time to revisit the world, it had been too long, and Jen Quick had moved on to other projects.

So we relaunched as The Avalon Chronicles. A new version of Once In A Blue Moon was released as Volume 1 of the new series, and we teamed with Emma Vieceli. Emma is a writer/artist, so we talked through future volumes with her, ran our ideas past her, and really took her input into our creative process. We did two Volumes with her (Once In A Blue Moon, and The Girl And The Unicorn). We had two or three more mapped out.

But Emma is ridiculously talented, and had a lot on her plate, and so it stopped there. It doesn't feel right to restart again without her, and so it's in a semi-permanent limbo.

Lakes Bound: Emma Vieceli

Emma Vieceli. Photo: Lisa Curtis Photography

  In the run up to the Lakes International Comic Art Festival (17th – 19th October), we’re aiming to run a number of interviews spotlighting at least a few of the huge number of guests and comic creators who will be at the event, continuing today with busy comic creator and Festival patron Emma Vieceli.

Emma loves telling stories with pictures. Her…

Emma Vieceli announced as patron for Lakes International Comic Art Festival

Emma Vieceli. Photo: Lisa Curtis Photography

  The Lakes International Comic Art Festival (17th-19th October) has announced that Emma Vieceli has joined Grandville and Luther Arkwright author Bryan Talbot, artist Sean Phillips and writer Mary Talbot as a patron of the annual event.

“We were thrilled when Emma accepted our invitation to become the festival’s fourth patron,” commented Festival…