Al Rio Tribute Book Comes to Kickstarter
In 2012, the comic book world lost one of its own when artist Al Rio passed. Famous for his work on Gen¹³ and DV8 for Wildstorm and various assignments for Zenescope in a career spanning almost two decades, he is survived by his wife and three children. It is for his family that a tribute series has started exploring Rio’s career up to its unexpected end. The first book in the series, Al Rio Tribute Art Book Volume One, features art from 2003 to 2005 (two previous books covering earlier years and have which become highly collectible) and a biography on the artist’s life.
Brought to Kickstarter, Al Rio’s business partner Terry Maltos organized the tribute project and its campaign to publish it with help from Mark McNabb who laid out the book and Thomas Mason who colored many of the pieces Rio drew.
A pledge of $15 will provide a PDF digital copy of the 88-page book as well as desktop backgrounds for the computer, $40 a hardcover copy of the 8.5″ x 11″ book and its PDF, and $100 a physical and digital copy of the book with your name in a special Thank You section at the end of the book.
Limited in quantity, three Al Rio sketches are also available with a pledge of $550 each which will include the three aforementioned pledge levels. So limited, in fact, by the time of this writing, one of the sketches has been scooped up already with the Sorceress from Masters of the Universe and She-Ra left remaining.
With a goal of $5,500 in order to succeed, it is hoped that should the book be funded, it would be followed by two or three more books to cover the remaining years of the artist’s career. Also, should the book be funded, a stretch goal of $7,500 would be unlocked toward at least one 6″ x 9″ lenticular (Motion Graphics) card be included with each order.
As a final note, the purpose of the Kickstarter is to pay tribute to an artist who gave nearly two decades of his life to the comic book industry but, most importantly, to help support the family of which Al Rio provided for in his wife Zilda, son Rene, and daughters Adrielle and Isabelly.