VENUS PATROL PRESENTS: THE GUTS OF GLORY BONUS CARDS FROM INDIE COMICS’ FINEST

Back in September, Venus Patrol ran a gallery of bonus cards that were to be included with Guts of Glory, the post-apocalyptic food-eating-contest board-game being Kickstarted by Spelltower creator Zach Gage, illustrator Jess Worby and designer Jesse Fuchs.

Though, unfortunately, the Kickstarter campaign (about which you can see more in the video below) unfortunately scraped just shy of its stretch goal to include bonus cards from some of indie comics & illustration’s best known artists, the team have just announced that they’ve gone the extra mile and are now offering the deck as a bonus set.

That comes alongside news that the Guts of Glory web-shop has officially gone live — giving everyone who missed out on or wasn’t otherwise able to back the Kickstarter campaign a chance to pre-order the full, physical board game set, get an instant download of the print and play version of the game, and pick up the artist cards on the side.

Below the fold, you’ll find a gallery preview of all of the bonus cards, which come from some of Venus Patrol’s favorite artists — Sam Bosma, Lisa Hanawalt, Dustin Harbin, Nathan Bulmer, and Domitille Collardey — along with an introduction by Guts illustrator Worby on why and how the team wanted to include the work of indie illustrator guests.

Says Worby:

When we initially dreamed up the guest artist promo pack, we had a few goals in mind. We wanted to get some of our favorite artists to take a crack at making their own cards. We tried to choose the funniest, most talented folks we knew to create card items that would both fit the Guts-verse and expand it to fit their own particular style and brand of humor.

Rather than say “draw this”, we decided to let them come up with their own ideas. What would someone like Lisa Hanawalt do with post-apocalyptic foodstuffs if given the chance? What about one of those infamous Bulmer puns known to make children cry?

We hoped the art direction we did give (“a little gross, but not vomit-inducing”) would work to unify the cards and it did. We believe this to be a fantastic set of images by some of the top young artists around. Each of them has created a lot of incredible art, illustrations and comics that is worth checking out on their respective sites. We’re really excited to finally be able to share their creations with you today.

You might (or maybe should) know Lisa Hanawalt best for her “movie response” comics penned for The Hairpin (see especially: her Drive & Planet of the Apes reviews, and then read all the rest), but you’ve probably also seen her in The New York Times, Lucky Peach, Vanity Fair, Glamour, or The Believer. She’s got a ton of prints and mini-comics you can (and should) buy from her direct at Etsy, and has lots more for you to look at at her portfolio site.

Nathan Bulmer is the artist behind the consistently hilarious web-comic Eat More Bikes, and has a truckload more amazing things to look at at his portfolio site.

Illustrator and comic artist Domitille Collardey has has her work featured in The New York Times and magazines like The Believer, and self-published the excellent mini-comic series What Had Happened Was. Find more of her latest work at her portfolio site.

The tireless Dustin Harbin not only does a new amazing illustration pretty much every single day, but also maintained years’ worth of daily diary comics (including one featuring both yours truly & Guts designer Zach!), all of which have been collected into full books by Koyama Press, hands down the coolest indie comics press in operation today. See more of what Harbin’s up to at his blog.

Previously featured right here on this site, Sam Bosma is an illustrator and comic book artist who most recently & topically put out the amazing Treasure Chest mini-comic (sadly, already now again out of print, but you can view most of the chest contents online), and was a contributor to the recent Pokemon Battle Royale exhibition. You can view his illustrations — and, even better, dig through his sketchbook — at his portfolio site.