Media Release -- Jason Coffee was a passionate science fiction writer working his way up through the trenches of Hollywood. When the 33-year old died several years ago, his last wish was for his voice to be heard. Jason's friends are hoping to fulfill this request with a Kickstarter campaign to turn one of his screenplays, Warhawks (http://www.warhawkscomic.com), into an ongoing superhero comic book series. Now, Billy Tan, a seasoned veteran of Marvel's X-Men and the newly announced artist for DC's Green Lantern, is doing his part to help Jason's dying wish come true by drawing the comic's cover.
Tan was just finishing up an eight-year stint working for Marvel and had yet to sign with DC, when he received an email from Coffee's friends. Tan said, "I was moved by the fact that they are trying to make his voice heard."
Tan's participation would have thrilled the young science fiction writer, since the X-Men franchise was one of his favorites. Before he fell ill, Coffee's writing career was on the verge of taking off. He worked on numerous sci-fi televisions shows, evaluated scripts for James Cameron, and had just written an episode of the series The Universe. In 2008, he died after surgery to remove a brain tumor. He was buried in a Spiderman t-shirt and a hat that simply said: WRITER.
Two of Coffee's friends, brothers Todd and Wade Carney, have adapted his movie screenplay into a comic book script. Warhawks tells the story of a multi-racial cast of machine-enhanced superheroes who struggle with the morality of using lethal force to maintain the peace.
"It's so elaborate, it would have taken 200 million dollars to make it as a movie," said Wade Carney, "so we decided to put Jason's words and characters into the other medium he loved—comics."
The team turned to Kickstarter (http://www.warhawkscomic.com/kickstarter) to fund the completion and distribution of the first issue because they felt the "crowd-funding" offered by the website fit in perfectly with their mission.
"As we raise the money we need to complete the comic," said Todd Carney, "we are simultaneously spreading the word about the project around the globe."
Eventually, Coffee's friends hope to bring in new writers to tell their own stories using the characters and universe Coffee created.
"We want Jason's characters to live on," Todd Carney said, "He created this amazing world where so many stories can be told, and to have an artist of Billy Tan's caliber be the first to bring them to life would have meant a lot to Jason."
To read more about Jason Coffee's Warhawks, visit www.warhawkscomic.com/kickstarter. The Kickstarter campaign ends April 18.
If you'd like more information about Jason Coffee's Warhawks, please email Doug Cohen at Email or call: 732-800-1652.
Jason Coffee's bio: http://www.warhawkscomic.com/about/jason/index.html
Images of Jason Coffee, Billy Tan and Warhawks Cover Art:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/hgmks9zrjr2iwxr/hM9cPu_QBv?m
Animated gif showing the comic book cover coming to life: http://warhawkscomic.tumblr.com/tagged/gif
Kickstarter widgets for embed: www.warhawkscomic.com/kickstarter
