"Five meditations on grief receding into memory, phantoms of traumas past but not yet forgotten, people struggling to make peace with loss. Hagiwara Rei sets out a sequential tapestry of transcendent watercolor comics which linger in the back of your mind like words you never got to tell someone you loved. Heart-wrenching, intimate. Open Pandora and allow its haunted pages a home in your soul." - Helen Chazan

About the Book

PANDORA, The Receding Sound of Footsteps is Hagiwara Rei's masterpiece. Rei is a comic artist based in Japan who has self-published their work at Comita through the domestic indie manga scene since 2018. Born in 1993, Rei first become more widely known to English language readers Fall of 2020 through the Glacier Bay Books publication of their sparse and emotionally resonant debut Ripples. 

"Rei Hagiwara’s Ripples is a reflection on grief, emotion, and memory, all in manga form. It’s incredible. Drawn in cold, dark watercolours, the characters and settings in Ripples are only distinguishable negatively, through their absence of shade…Unnamed figures wander through cold bleak environments, speaking of their distant memories and reminiscing on past events. “Where can I return these feelings?” asks one figure. ‘What do I do with this sorrow?’" – Graham Sigurdson, for Broken Pencil

PANDORA expands on this with their second long form work, a lyrical, full color 264 page collection of five stories. Painted in delicate watercolors during 2020/2021 and the initial throes of the covid 19 pandemic, PANDORA simultaneously reflects on current events as well as the 10th anniversary of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.    "Isolated, searching, Hagiwara's characters grasp at ghosts on these water-soft pages, aching to dissipate into faded hue and lavish smudged ink." - Joe McCulloch, The Comics Journal   Gorgeous and direct, these stories tenderly reach into your very heart of hearts.  Hagiwara Rei masterfully paints the elliptical nature of life and loss in the present time, depicting five scenes of the grief and hope to be found in the modern age.   Translation and lettering for this book is complete, and it is essentially finished and ready to print. This is where we need your help!

"Tell me God, why did you bring suffering to the world?" Ten years have passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011. The new coronavirus runs rampant.

(Please see the bottom of this page for an extended selection from PANDORA.)

The funds from this project will be used to pay for printing and other production cost, and shipping the books from the printer. Printing this book is a massive undertaking - we intend to produce it at the European B5 size (nearly the original format) as a full color 264 page softcover, and with an additional original obi (custom-sized book jacket) design. Speaking candidly, this book is not feasible for us to print alone without the support of backers through this campaign. So thank you. By supporting this project you are helping to make it possible for us to release this book, which we firmly believe to be a modern masterpiece of artistry and comics.

Expenses

In the interest of transparency, here is a breakdown of the estimated costs for this project.

What happens if this campaign is not successful?

We have already committed to releasing this book, so one way or another this book will be published. If this campaign fails, we will reevaluate our print production plans, and plan to release a limited-run printing based on preorders. This is not ideal, as with a smaller print run production costs will be higher, and we will likely not be able to print beyond the minimum required to meet preorder demand. Furthermore, some production elements like the obi or the extra spot treatment may need to be scaled back or dropped, as they may not be feasible or even possible at a lower print run due to cost and printer restrictions.

What happens if this campaign is (very) successful?

The goal for this campaign is set to fund a minimum viable print run. If we significantly exceed the target budget, this will allow us fund a larger print run for the title which will make it accessible in the medium-long term beyond the initial release. The larger print run would also help to reduce the unit cost. An option at this point would be to add small upgrades to the release – for example: additional art/perks, adding/upgrading production elements and paper, or special features from the author such as a translated interview / initial sketches. 

Project Timeline and Potential Issues

Translation and lettering for PANDORA is finished, so once this project is complete the book will be ready to go to print. We already have several years of experience with printing and publishing books having published many, many releases, and at this point I don't foresee there being any problems. After the campaign is finished I will send the printer the final print run order and lock in production and materials for the order. In terms of timing...

+ up to 1 month to order in materials for printing (this can't happen until the printer receives a finalized order after the campaign)

+ at least 2-3 weeks for printing

+ shipping to the EU and USA warehouses (anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 months, depending on what shipping methods are available/affordable)

At that point, we will start fulfilling shipping to backers.

Allowing some extra time to account for any possible unexpected delays*:

The estimated delivery date for this project is..... April 2023

If this campaign is successful the book will debut at TCAF 2023 (in April).

* for instance, issues sourcing paper at the printers, backlogged shipping, etc.

Other ways to order the book?

In addition to this crowdfunding campaign, we will also open preorders separately through our website and the book will be available to preorder in the EU through Sendai Editora (in Portugal). Sendai will also help us with fulfilling EU preorders through this campaign, which is why we are able to offer such cheap EU shipping!

About Glacier Bay Books

Glacier Bay Books is a US-based Ignatz Award-winning small press publisher founded in 2019/2020. Active in the arts comics space and specializing in indie manga, Glacier Bay has already published over 24 works. Glacier Bay Books strives to bring over some of the most artistic, original, thoughtful and compelling works in contemporary comics. Our other notable releases include: GLAEOLIA, F, CHILDREN OF MU-TOWN, EN CHAN'S HOUSE, THE KARMAN LINE, and many more.    You can read more about us at our website glacierbaybooks.com and find us on social media @glacierbaybooks | twitter, instagram.

Excerpts