Hold onto your hats and purses, folks…this is going to be one helluva ride. Blake Northcott (also known as ComicBookGrrl on Twitter) had some phenomenal success with a Kickstarter campaign to fund her new book, Arena Mode.

Her first two novels were met with praise from virtually every direction and even earned her several different bragging rights to boot! There’s not a lot for me to say that isn’t covered in her press release below, so let me just say this: don’t do yourself an injustice by not reading her works. They are fun, fast, and fantastic!

Continue below for an official press release.

Official Press Release:

ARENA MODE / Marvel and DC Artists Bolster A Superhero Novel With A Unique Twist

‘Arena Mode’ – a sci-fi superhero novel that includes original artwork from Marvel and DC alumni – has generated some impressive buzz in a very short timeframe. The project tripled its goal on Kickstarter within a week (generating over $18,000) and caught the attention of Mark Millar, who gave it a rare personal endorsement on his website.

Barry Kitson (The Incredible Hulk), Dan Panosian (X-Force), Dave Johnson (Deadpool) and Mark McKenna (Star Wars: The Old Republic) are some of the artists lending their talents, and more names are being included as the popularity of the project increases; ‘Shi’ creator Billy Tucci was announced as a contributor on February 18. 


Toronto – February 21, 2013 – On February 12, Canadian independent author Blake Northcott launched her first ever Kickstarter campaign: a sci-fi superhero novel with a “‘Ready Player One’, Joss Whedon-y vibe to it” according to her description. She had hopes of generating $6,500 over the course of a thirty day campaign to cover printing costs, editors and other expenses, but it took her less than a day and a half to achieve her goal, and the project has now exceeded $18,000 in its first week.

The project even caught the attention of Mark Millar – the Creative Consultant for 20th Century Fox – who gave the book a rare personal endorsement on his official website.

In addition to the story, the book will feature an art section with illustrations of the superhumans appearing in the novel. The line-up of Marvel and DC talent includes Barry Kitson (Incredible Hulk, Amazing Spider-Man, Fables, Fairest), Dan Panosian (Spawn, X-Men, Green Lantern), Dave Johnson (Deadpool, Punisher, Superman: Red Son) and Derek Laufman (Marvel vs. Capcom, World of Warcraft). On February 18 Billy Tucci (Shi, Sgt. Rock, The Wolverine: Weapon X 100 Project) was recently added to the list of artists involved.

“I wanted it to stand apart from other books in the genre,” says Northcott. “Being a huge comic book fan, my hope was to blur the line a little between traditional novels and graphic novels. Since I was trying something different I didn’t know what the interest level would be, but the response so far has completely blown me away.”

Arena Mode is available exclusively on Kickstarter at http://arenamode.com/. Distribution on Amazon Kindle and other digital platforms is slated for Q3 2013. If you want to read the prologue, you can do so here. There’s also an audio version you can preview here.

About Blake Northcott

Blake Northcott is an author and blogger at CBS’s Man Cave Daily website. Her debut novel ‘Vs. Reality’ was released in July of 2011; by October the book had reached #1 on Amazon U.K. in two different categories (‘Graphic Novels/Science Fiction’, and ‘Graphic Novels/Superheroes’). The sequel, Relapse, was released in June of 2012, and experienced similar success, appearing at #1 in several categories on Amazon US, UK, and in France.

Blake lives in The Greater Toronto Area with her husband.