This week on July 22, Chris Ovdiyenko’s Bicycle Calaveras Playing Card project successfully finished funding on Kickstarter. The Bicycle Calaveras playing card project, which we first profiled when the project reached it’s goal of $15,000 in mid-June, is one of the most successful playing card projects of the summer. The project finished the funding period with a total of $61,217, over 4X the original goal. In an e-mail to TuckCase.com, Chris mentioned how incredibly thankful he is for all the backers who supported Calaveras. He said “It’s been nothing short of life-changing for me and I feel a deep debt to the community. [The backers have] been amazing!”
After the project funded, Chris along with his wife Adria launched the website DeadOnPaper.com, which in his word is “to give folks that may have missed the Calaveras project a chance to join in, and not miss out because of the relatively short funding period on Kickstarter.” Chris further explained the big picture for DeadOnPaper.com, “I’m hoping that Dead On Paper will be the eventual home for new card projects, but I think it’s going to take a while to build an audience there to sustain it independent of Kickstarter. So I see myself using Kickstarter for a bunch of projects to come, and Dead On Paper as a place to move the projects post-funding.” While Kickstarter will be the platform, the website will be the portal and brand presence for all projects, news and any information. The website is currently taking pre-orders for additional Calaveras merchandise.
The name “Dead On Paper” is a reference from the popular book Catch-22 by author, Joseph Heller. The name comes from a character in the book named Doc Deneeka, who is assumed dead after a plane crash he was not on, essentially making him “dead on paper.” Chris and Adria thought it was a great tie in with the first project – Calaveras images printed on paper.
What’s next for Chris and Dead On Paper you ask?
While Chris is working tirelessly to get the Bicycle Calaveras to backers, he has plans for more. In fact, Chris is planning to launch the follow-up to Bicycle Calaveras or part II, which is a limited edition Bicycle Calaveras deck called “Midnight Calaveras.” While the details of this deck are still being worked out, Chris explained the idea, “This deck would use metallic inks (copper and silver for red and black suits respectively) on black cards? I think it would be stunning. The cards will use the same art as the first Calaveras project, but will be adapted to being reversed. I would also have a new card back design for this deck.” There may also be a few surprises added to the tuck case to really make this deck premium.
Chris went on to explain that the deck would have a short funding period and will hopefully launch in late August or early September. However, Chris remains dedicated to the first project and wants to focus on making sure that gets into production and will ship on time before he makes any moves on a second project too soon.
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