Reality Check Returns as Kickstarter

Reality Check by by Rikki Simons and Tavisha Wolfgarth-Simons

I first read Super Information Hijinks: Reality Check! when it was a comic book series back in 1997, written by Rikki Simons and illustrated by Tavisha Wolfgarth-Simons. (It was self-published, then it ran 12 color issues from Sirius Entertainment.) It’s the story, set in the then-future of 2012, of a boy and his pet cat. When she climbs inside his virtual reality helmet, Catreece becomes a catgirl on the internet. Then they have adventures.

It was one of the early independent comics (back when there were many fewer options than we have today), and I thought it was a lot of fun. Now, it’s got the additional appeal of being a time capsule, both in its content and its method of production: it was done on the computers of the era. It still looks good, though, with its manga-influenced style.

Reality Check by by Rikki Simons and Tavisha Wolfgarth-Simons

If you’d like to check it out for yourself, you have two options: It’s being serialized online by the creators (the archives start here), and there’s a Kickstarter to publish the whole thing as one hardcover volume. That book, due out next spring, is promised to include a new 24-page Reality Check! story titled “Inarguable Augmented Unreality”.

They’re about halfway to their $20,000 goal with 12 days to go as of this writing. It’s $40 for the hardcover, but only $5 for the PDF version, and there are a variety of print and original art options. The Kickstarter page also has a rundown of the characters and premise of the series.

I had no idea we’d ever see more of this series, but I welcome it. And it’s a wonderful lesson on why you want to own your work — you can republish and rework it for whatever new technology or delivery method comes along, even twenty years later.



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