Kickstarter: The Littlest Shoggoth, a Holiday Tale of the Cthulhu Mythos

Via Kickstarter:

"The Littlest Shoggoth is a children’s story written and illustrated by longtime game industry veteran, Stan! It was originally released for free on the website StoryTimeWithStan.com and was subsequently published in a very limited print run by Super Genius Games. Since that edition went out of print, the book has been unavailable (though the story can still be read online).
For a long time we’ve wanted to bring the book back into print in a premium edition, and now with your help, we hope to do just that.
If we can raise just $5,000 in pledges, we can bring The Littlest Shoggoth back into print with a high-quality print run that will allow it to reach a broader audience and become the quirky holiday tradition that it deserves to be.
ABOUT THE BOOK
The Littlest Shoggoth is a 50-page story that tells the tale of Squammy, the smallest of all the Mythos creatures living around the lost and sunken city of R’lyeh. Tired of being picked, Squammy decides to explore the world above the waves. To put it mildly, things do not go well. But with some help from Santa Claus, maybe things can turn out right for Squammy after all.
Inspired by the tales of Dr. Seuss, Edward Gorey, and (of course) H.P. Lovecraft, the Littlest Shoggoth is equally cute and disturbing. It will be a surefire hit with fans of quirky family entertainment like The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Addams Family, Coraline, Emily the Strange, and Scary Godmother.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Stan! has been publishing comics, games, and fiction for more than 30 years, and has been nominated for major awards in all three disciplines. His work has appeared in products supporting popular series including Dungeons & Dragons, Dragonlance, Star Wars, Marvel Super Heroes, Pokémon, and Legend of Zelda.
Stan! has also been a strong supporter of Kickstarter over the last couple of years, pledging to more than 35 different campaigns using his personal account.
ABOUT THE PUBLISHER
Although this account is new, Super Genius Games has run two previous Kickstarter campaigns using the personal account of one of our founders, Hyrum Savage.
Super Genius Games is the publisher of best-selling third-party tabletop RPG products for games such as the Pathfinder RPG, Call of Cthulhu, and Savage Worlds. They have released at least one PDF product every week since November of 2009, as well as a handful of printed products (including the original publication of The Littlest Shoggoth).
ABOUT THIS PROJECT
The initial publication of The Littlest Shoggoth was a critical success. Below are some review quotes based on that original edition.
“Cute, evil, vicious, and brilliant. God help us, everyone.” —John Kovalic, Dork Tower
“There is nothing I don’t like about this book. Pure, concentrated awesome.” —Wil Wheaton, WilWheaton.net
“The perfect holiday tale for any fan of the Cthulhu Mythos.” —Matt Forbeck, author of the Monster Academy triolgy
“It combines delightful art, can-do optimism, and inevitable doom as only Stan! can.” —Kenneth Hite, Cthulhu 101
“Stan! is a genius when it comes to Cthuhlu.” —Wolfgang Baur, Kobold Quarterly
“A beautifully bizarre holiday tale.” —Brad Guigar, Evil, Inc.
“The stars are right to read The Littlest Shoggoth.” —John Tynes, The Unspeakable Oath
That original printing faced several obstacles, though. It was done on a tight budget, and the quality of the printing was not as high as we’d have liked. As a result, it didn’t get the attention from distributors or retailers that we think it deserved.
The new version would be done using standard printing processes, as opposed to the print-on-demand process that was used last time. The book would still be 5.5” x 8.5” in size and 56 pages in length, but this time it would have a square perfect binding, not the folded and side-stapled binding the original had.
Most importantly, since we’re using Kickstarter, we’re skipping past the middlemen and gatekeepers to bring the book straight to you—the audience we know will love and want to support The Littlest Shoggoth, and make it a part of your own library of Lovecraftian tales and holiday favorites."