I had a fan (I have a fan!) email me this morning enquiring about possible release dates for the Chibi Tarot, based on this thread from TarotForum.net: http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=173408. I didn’t have a lot of good news, but at least I did have news, and I realized that perhaps a lot of you migh have similar questions about Chibi Tarot, possible release dates and my vision for the future of the deck in general. I’ll be cross-posting this to the About page so folks will have easy access to it in the future.
First, the bad news: there’s no solid release date for the whole Chibi Tarot deck. Each card takes roughly 20 hours to put together and I’ve completed 10 of the 78 since I started almost a year and a half ago. That’s roughly two months per card, and at that rate it’ll take me just over 11 years to finish the deck! Don’t worry, I have a plan! You’ll read about it in a few paragraphs. Part of the reason for this long, slow process is that I have a business and a family that come first. Chibi Tarot is, unfortunately, third on my list of priorities, which makes it hard to devote the attention to it that I would like to.
My goal now is to finish the trumps by January of 2013 and have a majors only promo deck self-published by the time Chibi Chibi Con rolls around in March. That’s a VERY ambitious goal, and it’s doable, but I might be completely exhausted. I’m currently putting together a project on my Basecamp account to hold myself accountable and be able to track my own progress and give the deck its own bit of real estate in my life and hopefully continue the momentum.
Once the trumps are done, my hope is that the moneyball will start rolling. As I finish off the trumps I’ll be starting a Kickstarter campaign to fund the deck printing. My initial goal will be $5,000 dollars for printing, packaging and promoting a majors only deck. Anything above and beyond that will help me to finish the deck more quickly, as well as go to purchasing a variety of merchandise to sell on the website and at the cons that I’ll be vending at in 2013 (the aforementioned Chibi Chibi Con, The Emerald City Comicon and the Sakura Con are all at the top of the list because they’re closest to my secret headquarters). The more money I raise, the more cons I’ll be able to attend and the more merch I’ll be able to bring. The merch I’m planning for now is limited to cards, stickers and prints, but as the budget grows I’m hoping to expand to things like plush, apparel and toys.
Yep, that’s right, toys! One of my hobbies is designing, creating and collecting vinyl toys. I have a modest collection at my secret HQ here in Oly, and I’m currently in the process of creating a hand made Devil dunny, but my hope is that once I’ve started selling the basic merchandise I’ll be able to reinvest those profits into creating mid-size collectible figures based on my favorite characters from the Chibi Tarot. Top on the list right now are the Devil and the Hermit, but since half the majors are still to be done, who knows? The other hope is to be able to do a full set of smaller figurines for the entire major arcana (roughly the size of dunnys, for those of you who are familiar with the vinyl toy world). In short, my hope is to make the Chibi Tarot a fusion of all the things I love in my life: art, toys and the occult! And with your help and your involvement I know we can make that a reality!
So, for now most of the onus of the deck is on me, but there are still plenty of things you can do to help out. In fact, I’ve put together a handy list of things that you can do if you’re interested in furthering the cause:
4 Things you can do to help support the Chibi Tarot (even tho it’s not for sale yet)
- Give me feedback!
Hands down the easiest and most important piece of the puzzle. If you love the deck, tell me! If you hate the deck, tell me! Comment on deviantART, Facebook, tweet me on Twitter or send me a good old fashioned email and let me know you’re out there. There are plenty of days it feels like I’m working in a vacuum (a very comfy vacuum, but still), so it’s ALWAYS good to hear from fans. And it’s sometimes good to hear from critics. But, like the Winston Churchill Facebook meme says, if I’ve got enemies I must be doing something right! - Liks Us!
Like the Chibi Tarot on Facebook, follow us on Twitter. - Tell other people about it (and have them give me feedback, like us and follow us!)
- Work with me!
I build websites for a living: PixelsmithDesign.com. The more money I make doing that, the more time I have to spend on the deck later on. If you know someone who needs a website or are part of an organization that needs a revamp, contact me and let’s chat!