Kickstarting Comics – ‘Hedrek: Broken Pieces’ The ‘Columbo’ Meets Folk Horror Anthology Series Funding Now
by Richard Bruton
Another Kickstarter for you to have a look at now, Hedrek: Broken Pieces, a one-off anthology set in the world of DCI Hedrek Stern – Columbo meets The Wicker Man in a tense folk horror mystery.
DCI Hedrek Stern is the creation of writer Laurence Alison and David Hitchcock, previously seen in the two previously Kickstarted issues of the planned 3-part Night of the Mummers series.
The shorthand of Columbo in folk horror territory gives you the perfect imagery and tone for this one. Detective Chief Inspector Hedrek Stern’s a damn good copper, if something of the outsider detective, the eccentric who gets the case solved, that sort of thing.
In Night of the Mummers, Hedrek’s plunged into a series of gruesome mummer-related murder cases – mummers being the masked folks you find in the sort of communities where Morris Dancing is a big thing. They dress up and mask up, some just with plain and simple masks, others way more decorative and ornate. Most of the time it’s about as threatening as Morris Dancing… most of the time. But there’s a certain weird creepiness to it. And it’s this creepiness that Hedrek soon gets caught up in, as well as discovering that there’s an extra layer of politics in here that’s making it all the more dangerous.
Frankly, it’s a damn fine series so far that I’ve been remiss in telling you about (hey, there’s but 24 hours in the day and I need at least four hours of that for sleeping), but I figure it would be the perfect time to give you a preview of Hedrek: Night of the Mummers #1 at the end of this – it’s a great way to show you just what you (and I) have been missing!
So, we’re two issues of Mummers down and the third will be along soon. But while we wait for that third issue, co-creator and writer Laurence Alison has been busy coming up with more folk horror tales set in and around the world of Hedrik and set between the events of the Night Of The Mummers series.
Containing four short tales by four great artists, Hedrek: Broken Pieces is a chance to go deeper into the folk horror detective mystery. Or, as the Kickstarter puts it, “Conspiracies, secret criminal parties on yachts, hard boiled action, heroics and tragedy. This ones got it all in spades!”
Hedrek: Broken Pieces contains four tales, all written by Laurence Alison and with art by Steve Austin, Adam Jakes, Damian Edwardson, and Paul McCaffrey. Then there’s the cover artists – you’ve seen Shane Oakley‘s cover up there, but there’s also an exclusive KS variant by Paul McCaffrey. It looks rather a lot like this…
As you’d expect, lots of tiers, lots of add-ons available, including both of the covers as high-quality art prints, plenty of original art add-ons, lucky dip sketch cards, original A5 sketches, original art pages, and sketch cover add-ons.
And of course, there’s the chance to catch up with the saga of Hedrek so far with issues 1 and 2 of Night of the Mummers in the add-ons section – take a look at the preview of that right at the bottom of this – down, down, down you go!
The Hedrek: Broken Pieces Kickstarter runs until Monday May 22nd 2023.
Finally, to give you a little idea of the vibe to expect from Broken Pieces and also to show you how good the original Hedrek: Night Of The Mummers series is, it’s preview time… so here’s a little from the very start of Hedrek by Laurence Alison and David Hitchcock…
