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A Female Sherlock Holmes Solves Demonic Cases In A Retrofuturistic City

Like her inspiration, Sherbet Lock is a cocaine-addicted detective—although her mysteries tend to be of the supernatural variety. She's looking for a bit of crowdfunding support, as is an anthology of speculative fiction and essays, a bisexual horror web series, and gorgeous 16-bit video game.

Top image from Aegis Defenders.

Holdfast Magazine Anthology

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Holdfast Magazine is an online magazine featuring speculative fiction and essays, and it's looking to print its first anthology. Here's what we can expect:

Read about a time-travelling law enforcer making a difficult choice, a cursed cycling tour that goes hopelessly and hilariously wrong, and what happens when the drugs don't work on Sleeping Beauty in our fiction section. Discover what shark brains look like (spoiler: a human uterus), find out about the underrepresentation of Black women in science fiction, read a thank you letter to Margaret Atwood, and witness our attempts to convert a literary snob over to SFF in our non-fiction section.

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For £8, they're offering backers a digital copy of the anthology. For a £13 pledge, they're offering a hard copy.

Sherbet: The Trade Paperback

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The Sherlock Holmes-inspired detective Sherbet Lock lives in the retrofuturistic Baker City, "where cars fly, the Police Force is openly a cult dedicated to a fictional monster and the hospitals send out Zeppelins filled with creepy bird-masked paramedics (who mainly exist to harvest poor peoples' organs for the benefit of the rich and powerful). " In this comic by writer Michael Vincent Bramley and artist Joshua Mathus, our heroine has to contend with "the forces of bloody darkness":

Goblins, Demons, Vampires, Werewolves, Immobile Mummies who want to have sex with you and lactating Bogeymen who want to eat your kids' souls? All of these beasties and many more infest the shadiest corners of this bizarre old hellhole, and that's where Sherbet comes in.

With all that pressure, is it any wonder that she is addicted to Cocaine (and various other narcotics)?

Luckily, Sherbet doesn't always have to go it alone, because her world just happens to be filled with characters who are just as bizarre as she is.

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Backers can grab a PDF of the book for a $15 pledge, or the physical book and the PDF (plus other digital goodies) for a $25 pledge.

The Flowers of Fantastico: Bigger, Badder, Queerer

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B-movies meet bisexuality in this 12-episode horror comedy web series:

One fateful evening, Tara, her best friend Gary, and his go-go dancing boyfriend Billi, discover a mysterious VHS tape that harbors a dark secret. Little do they know, they are about to enter a world of supernatural assassins, demon-fighting nuns, and an eternally young, possibly evil, but definitely gay hollywood celebrity… who casts a seductive spell over Tara.

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They're offering somewhat unusual backer rewards. For a $25 pledge, you can have a demonic voicemail greeting recorded or have a photo of yourself edited into the image of a warrior nun.

Amya : Volume One

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Writers Savannah Houston-McIntyre and Andrew Hewitt and artist Rebecca Gunter-Ryan are collecting five years of their high fantasy webcomic Amya:

Amya tells the story of Faye, a mute spell-touched who lives a sheltered life as the youngest daughter to a great lord. She is burdened with dark dreams of an apocalypse, and it isn't long until her tranquil life changes when a fateful encounter with a young man sends her on a spiraling journey of self-discovery.

As Faye and her unlikely companions pursue an adventure that is greater than any of them could have anticipated, she discovers how heavy the burden she carries truly is. She is to be the pinnacle of the world's survival or destruction, and must decide if she wishes to sacrifice her own humanity for the world — or the world for her humanity.

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For a $10 CAD pledge, the team is offering the volume as a PDF. For a $30 CAD pledge, they're offering it as a hard copy.

Aegis Defenders

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This 16-bit platformer just looks lovely. Seriously, head over to the campaign page to check out animations of the gameplay. Here's the pitch:

In a world where control over ancient technologies means power, a ruthless Empire has arisen. You play as a pair of Ruinhunters searching for the one thing that can save their village - a legendary weapon known as Aegis.

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The team is offering a copy of the game for Mac or PC for a $15 pledge.