Frequently Asked Questions

A: Greasepunk Paradise is an Intellectual Property (IP) created by John Hanke. It's an alternate Earth timeline that takes place in the 1960s and follows a large cast of characters in a fictitious city called Eden. The intention is to release several forms of content using this IP, including an animated web comic series, traditional comic books, board games, tabletop games, and collectible merchandise.

A: All projects within the Greasepunk Paradise universe are privately funded at the moment. However, we do plan to release a Patreon for anyone who would like to contribute financially to our projects.

A: We invest in the neighborhood of $2000 per month to cover all production costs. This includes the art, animation, music and sound effects licensing, and voice acting. Nobody is on salary; everything is gig work advertised to freelancers on various online work platforms.

A: Nope, although we are essentially functioning like one at the moment. We will stand up an official studio as a taxable business entity once we get closer to publishing our first release of the animated web comic series.

A: We pay all voice actors who contribute to our projects. While this is a relatively small operation, we want to compensate all the incredible voice actors who are breathing life into the characters who drive the story in this expansive world.

A: At its core, Greasepunk Paradise is all about conflict between people, which requires a diverse cast of genuine characters. As such, we put significant weight on acting abilities to deliver a grounded performance. The stories told within the Greasepunk Paradise universe are filled with action, suspense, drama, romance, comedy, and tragedy. However, even if you don't have much acting experience, if you are truly interested in being a part of this universe then we encourage you to reach out to me for potential minor roles. There are many.

A: At first, we mostly identified voice actors on both Voices.com, but as our community on social media exploded in such a short time there has been no shortage of voice actors participating in auditions. We actively scout out new voice actors across all social media platforms to continue adding potential candidates to our roster.

A: No, but in full disclosure, we used some generative AI in the initial weeks of the project to create basic concepts for the sole purpose of identifying the right comic book artist with the right skills for our vision. Once we found the artist we were looking for (Nicolás Colacitti) we tossed all AI-generated works in the trash. In this way, we used AI as a means to connect and visually communicate with the artist using mood boards, much in the same way artists often use Google to search for existing artworks while exploring for ideas and inspiration.

A: No. Nicolás is now at the helm of art and animation for our projects, and any new artists we hire must sign work for hire agreements that ensure no generative AI is used for our projects. We also reciprocate this by adding the NAVA AI Rider directly into all our contracts.

A: Yes. We routinely hire freelancer artists to support our projects in many ways. If you are an experienced artist who digs our vibe and wants to contribute, then absolutely send a link to your portfolio to john.hanke@greasepunkparadise.com.

A: We are hesitant to set a specific release date, but the current plan for the initial 40-minute Prologue (Part I) is to release it all at once following post-production. If I were to hazard a very loose (and non-committal) guess, I would say it's possible to be ready in early 2026. It's very difficult to say because we are quickly ramping up, optimizing how we work, and adding team members. We have far outpaced our timeline expectations so far, and so it's anyone's best guess when our first release will hit YouTube.

A: We use a wide variety of existing platforms and electronic pay methods, including PayPal, Zelle, and Venmo. Greasepunk Paradise is currently not part of a commercial studio or taxable business entity, and so all payments are made directly by John Hanke. We are flexible to adopt additional payment platforms as needed to accommodate new freelance creators contributing to Greasepunk Paradise.