FIND OUT IN SHI: GATECRASHER!
Click HERE for the SHI: GATECRASHER! Kickstarter Campaign!
Shi: Gatecrasher is four-color epic where Ana Ishikawa battles her way through comics’ history, decades, and genres featuring Brian Pulido’s Lady Death, Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo and the world’s greatest public domain characters.
BUT she is not alone but does so with a very interesting ally…her former self who never existed!
RAN (Rebellion in Japanese) was Shi-creator Billy Tucci’s original inception for a samurai warrior character. A character that survived from 1990 to 1993. “I was enthralled with the idea of a true, deadly femme fatale whose background was quite different from the Shi we know of today.” Stated Tucci. “Before I learned of the Yamabushi monks of medieval Japan, the Sohei.”
The character, named after Tucci’s college professor and mentor, Ana Ishikawa. Ran told the story of a woman born of dishonor. A taboo Romeo and Juliet-like love story than resulted of an unholy union between modern-day samurai and ninja decedents.
Many of the cornerstones of Shi were laid out in Ran’s creation, but as the creative process develops, the character evolved and begin “to take their existential destiny into their own hands.” Tucci continued. Such was Tucci’s case, with the end game being not Ran: Way of the Warrior, but rather Shi.
“In Gatecrasher, scripter J.C. Vaughn and I are having a lot of fun exploring ‘what might have been’ had I gone in my original direction.” Tucci continued, “What would my world be like? Would the comic fans have embraced Ran as they did Shi? Would there ever have been a Ran #2, let alone Senryaku, the Series, and our multiple crossovers, miniseries and trades?”
What would a reimagining of Shi: Way of the Warrior #1 look like but with Ran?
“Perhaps someday Ran will get her very own comic book.” Tucci concluded. As we all know with comics, anything is a possibility, and I’d love to hear the fans thoughts on it.”
GATECRASHER TOPS $160,000.00!
In less than a week, the twenty-eight-day Shi: Gatecrasher Kickstarter has become Crusade Comics’ fastest ever crowdfunding opening. The Long Island based publisher’s 11th Kickstarter launched to a blazing start as funding closes in on $69,000.00 in gross returns. In just three days, Shi: Gatecrasher was firmly placed at the #3 spot for Kickstarter’s top comic book campaigns of 2025.
There is 23 days remaining for Shi: Gatecrasher on Kickstarter as the campaign ends on Thursday February 13, 2025.
Click HERE for the SHI: GATECRASHER! Indemand INDIEGOGO Campaign!
Shi: Gatecrasher is also available on the crowdfunding platform, Indiegogo. The campaign will continue “in demand” store until the book is sent to the printer.
Total returns for Shi: Gatecrasher on both Indiegogo and Kickstarter now stand over $160,000.00. Following Crusade Comics’ #NoFanLeftBehind campaign partnership policy, backers from both Indiegogo and Kickstarter mutually benefit and receive all Gatecrasher announced free stretch goals.
The Stretch Goals unlocked thus far are as follows:
• EXPAND SHI: GATECRASHER FROM 48 TO 56 PAGES
• FREE GATECRASHER DIGITAL EDITION TO ALL BACKERS WHO PLEDGE FOR A PHYSICAL PERK
• “EVERYBODY CHARLESTON” MINI PRINT
• ART THIBERT SHI EDITION TRADING CARD
• BILLY TUCCI SHI/RAN TRADING CARD
• “EVERYBODY CHARELSTON ROUGH CUT EDITION TRADING CARD
• RENIE STRYCHALSKI TRADING CARD
• STAN SAKAI USAGI YOJIMBO SHI TRADING CARD
• RAN DEBUT BOOKMARK
• ROB LIEFELD EDITION ACTUAL METAL TRADING CARD
Crusade has more Stretch Goal Reward planned and will announce them in the coming days.
About Billy Tucci
Inkpot Award recipient Billy Tucci is a cartoonist best known for his modern-day samurai saga Shi. Through his company, Crusade Fine Arts, Shi has been printed in five languages and sold more than 3 million comic books. The graduate of New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology contributed to the Eisner Award Winning, Comics For Ukraine: Sun Flower Seeds and Love Is Love. Billy has also earned the prestigious Diamond Comics Gem Award and his DC Comics’ graphic novel, Sgt. Rock: The Lost Battalion, was awarded the Military Writers Society of America Gold Medal. The Lost Battalion featured the real-life 442nd Regimental Combat Team, which was comprised of Japanese American soldiers. His earnest retelling of the Christmas story in A Child Is Born has quietly turned into an international blockbuster, winning the Christian Small Publisher Book of the Year Award. Billy’s critically acclaimed Miss Fury: Joy Division saw the return of the Golden Age Icon for Dynamite Comics. His Crusade Comics has recently released a series of new Shi graphic novels, Return of the Warrior, Haikyo, and Sakura. Crusade as also released the collected editions, Shi: Omnibus Vol. Senryaku Omnibus, Shi: Way of the Warrior Original Art Edition via Kickstarter and Indiegogo uniting backers from over fifty countries and bringing Crusade Comics’ crowdfunding campaign totals to over $1,650,000.00.