Each month we are going to highlight some of the progress we have made on both the "Proof of Concept" (POC), as well as our ultimate goal of releasing the animated Christmas special by Advent 2027!

First off, here's what we have started doing:

• Assembling the Team - As you can imagine, Joshua Masteron can NOT animate a 30-40 minute TV special all by himself. It takes a team. During the last few weeks we have been recruiting animators, as well as a variety of team members who will work on production. Once these roles are confirmed and made public, we'll share them with all of you.
• Producing Storyboards - In anmiation (as well as any film project), after the script is completed, the next phase is to create storyboards that will provide the animators with the information they need to begin their work. This includes laying out every scene and every camera move. We've made a few drafts of these storyboards for the POC and look to finalize them any day.
• Securing Partnerships - We've explained how the cost for the 1-2 minute POC is roughly $10-13k. Well, that's roughly the cost of EVERY MINUTE of animation. So if we want to produce a 30-40 minute TV special, it's going to cost us a whopping $400-500k. We can't do this alone, and so we've been busy at work reaching out to organizations/investors who can help make this dream happen.

This first month has largely been spent organizing everything and hiring talented team members. With all of that in place, we will be focusing in our second month on the actual animation.

As of right now, the POC will be completed by September. 

We hope to share little glimpses of the progress as we are able to.

Above all, please keep us in your prayers!

Philip Kosloski

This week is the holiest week of the year and is a special time to take a step back and recall the saving action of Jesus Christ.

The liturgy helps us to enter into these sacred days and one of the most powerful readings the Church gives us is on Holy Saturday in the Office of Readings. The second reading for Holy Saturday is “From an ancient homily on Holy Saturday” and narrates the “harrowing of Hell,” when Jesus “descended into Hell” and rescued Adam, Eve and all the righteous who were waiting for the Messiah. 

In the homily we see Christ speaking words to Adam and while they are primarily directed at him, they are also directed to us. All that Jesus endured for Adam and Eve, He endured for us.

Let us read this powerful homily and put ourselves in the place of Adam, listening to Jesus as He speaks to us:

Something strange is happening – there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear.

 

He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve, he who is both God and the son of Eve. The Lord approached them bearing the cross, the weapon that had won him the victory. At the sight of him, Adam, the first man he had created, struck his breast in terror and cried out to everyone: “My Lord be with you all.” Christ answered him: “And with your spirit.” He took him by the hand and raised him up, saying:

 

“Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light."

“I am your God, who for your sake have become your son. Out of love for you and for your descendants I now by my own authority command all who are held in bondage to come forth, all who are in darkness to be enlightened, all who are sleeping to arise.

 

“I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be held a prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead. Rise up, work of my hands, you who were created in my image. Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I am in you; together we form only one person and we cannot be separated. For your sake I, your God, became your son; I, the Lord, took the form of a slave; I, whose home is above the heavens, descended to the earth and beneath the earth.

“For your sake, for the sake of man, I became like a man without help, free among the dead. For the sake of you, who left a garden, I was betrayed to the Jews in a garden, and I was crucified in a garden.

 

“See on my face the spittle I received in order to restore to you the life I once breathed into you. See there the marks of the blows I received in order to refashion your warped nature in my image. On my back see the marks of the scourging I endured to remove the burden of sin that weighs upon your back. See my hands, nailed firmly to a tree, for you who once wickedly stretched out your hand to a tree.

 

“I slept on the cross and a sword pierced my side for you who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side has healed the pain in yours. My sleep will rouse you from your sleep in hell. The sword that pierced me has sheathed the sword that was turned against you.

 

“Rise, let us leave this place. The enemy led you out of the earthly paradise. I will not restore you to that paradise, but I will enthrone you in heaven. I forbade you the tree that was only a symbol of life, but see, I who am life itself am now one with you. I appointed cherubim to guard you as slaves are guarded, but now I make them worship you as God.

 

“The throne formed by cherubim awaits you, its bearers swift and eager. The bridal chamber is adorned, the banquet is ready, the eternal dwelling places are prepared, the treasure houses of all good things lie open. The kingdom of heaven has been prepared for you from all eternity.”

In the last edition of Voices of Voyage, I focused on that "middle ground" we try to strike of using both print and digital media. We aren't luddites (though I sometimes wish I was), but we also don't want to promote too much screen time that it takes us away from experiencing God's creation.

This approach to media similarily forms our hopes and dreams and what we look forward to in the future.

More print media

At Voyage, print will always be king. We want to prioritize real, physical things that people can touch. Our comics will always be best experienced in the physical world, rather than on a screen.

This isn't a cheap choice, and we additionally make a deliberate effort to print all of our products in the United States of America. Nothing is shipped from China.

It's our hope in the next few years to be able to maximimze our production schedule so that the time between issues is shorter and you don't have to wait months and months before the next issue of your favorite series.

The main obstacle in this regard is the production costs and our need to establish a wider customer base. While we have grown considerable over the past 3 years, we still have a ways to go to be more self-sufficient.

Experiments in animation

Customers often tell us that it would be great if our stories were available in some sort of animated movie or TV show. We agree and while we don't have the money at this time to create our own animation studio, we are considering some "baby steps" that we hope will inch us in that direction.

We are also always open to collaborations with other companies who share similar visions and missions and who could help us achieve our goals.

We believe in the power of story and we know there is a big hole in family entertainment in today's culture. We hope to do our part to fill that need in the years ahead.

A comic for every saint

One of our biggest goals is to essentially create a comic book for every saint. We've already started a series of North American Saints & Causes, which we hope will continue to expand. 

There are so many heroic men and women out there who can inspire the next generation of saints.

As always, let us know if you want to partner with us to breathe to life a comic about your own favorite saint. It ain't cheap, but for highly motivated people and organizations, anything is possible.

Grassroots to the core

Last of all, Voyage is much more than a company, we are a grassroots community. It's our hope to put more focus on this aspect of our company in the coming weeks.

I'll talk more about what I mean in the next edition of Voices of Voyage!

Godspeed,

Philip Kosloski