No Love for Gladiators is a 3 part epic that follows the life of a young boy with a tattered past, Isaac Johnson. Given the opportunity to start a new life through the brutal, futuristic sport called Terraball, the events of the story depict his rise to fame and glory. Like many of us know, the road to fame is never an easy one.
This story is loosely based on the memoirs of student athletes that played Division 1 sports, and how their lives were directly affected by the regulations of the NCAA. It is also a social commentary on the impact these sports have on mainstream society and popular culture.
The Result is a beautifully rendered epic that is split into 3 volumes with a variety of art styles ranging from abstract to realism.
I've been working on this project for two years as part of my master’s thesis, and is grounded in a lot of experience and theory. While working on it, I was also playing football for Oregon State University. Now i am turning to you, the Kickstarter community, to help raise the funds to cover the printing, shipping and production costs needed to get No Love for Gladiators out into the world. Rather than sending it to a third party, I decided to locally printed and bind each copy and self-publish it through kickstarter. Like the writing and all the illustration within the pages, the printing and binding of each book is done in-house. Exclusive cover art. Tons of digital extras. A multitude of signed artwork. My first graphic novel project.
