Before Neil Gaiman was accused of sexual assault by eight women, 36,867 backers pledged £2,419,973 to Kickstarter to pay for publishing a graphic novel of Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s popular Good Omens, illustrated by Colleen Doran.

A January update announced it has been agreed that Gaiman will receive no proceeds from the graphic novel Kickstarter. 

In addition, David Tennant’s Facebook page has posted the link to a new Kickstarter update with the comment, “Sadly David Tennant and Michael Sheen are no longer providing forewords for the book.” Tennant didn’t explain who made this decision, or whether “sadly” refers to his personal feelings of disappointment, or is a comment in general about the harm Gaiman’s news has done to the project.

The new Kickstarter update was written by Rob Wilkins, Managing Director of the Terry Pratchett Estate. It says in part:

Thank you for your continued support of this Kickstarter and for your patience as our small team works hard to keep this book in production.

They have been working flat out to deal with thousands of queries and refunding those who no longer feel comfortable backing this project. Whilst granting refunds is not within the parameters of a normal Kickstarter, we felt very strongly that in this instance it was the right thing to do. Processing refunds and answering queries has been a full-time job in itself, alongside running the Kickstarter and producing a host of exciting merchandise to go with it. 

I am eternally grateful for my team’s hard work and determination. They have had to react to seismic shifts in real time and our goal collectively has always been to do the right thing, without jeopardising a huge project with numerous strands. Additionally, there are many creatives contributing to this project and I want to thank them all for continuing their work under unprecedented circumstances…

…An update to stretch goals: Naturally, given Neil’s agreement to step back from the project, the previously announced virtual events will no longer go ahead. We will, however, discuss with Colleen whether she would still like to host an event in the future, and we will host a virtual fireside sit-down with Rob Wilkins, who will speak about the world of Good Omens at large.

Given the movement around Good Omens since last summer, the graphic novel will no longer feature forewords from David Tennant and Michael Sheen, nor the afterword from Jon Hamm. Whilst we appreciate this will be disappointing to many, there was so much navigation behind the scenes to keep Good Omens going in its many forms, one or two strands simply could not be maintained and we are grateful to you all for your understanding.

Wilkins estimates the printed graphic novels will arrive this summer.

…The materials for printing are prepped, our team has finished the digital layout work, (including some lovely behind the scenes endmatter), and our production partners are primed for this final stretch – once we have these last edits in and signed off, it is full steam ahead, and anything we are able to do to regain time without compromising quality, we will do.

We appreciate that the past few months in particular have featured significant amounts of change, difficult news, and complex circumstances, and we share your frustration that the project experience hasn’t been the smooth journey we at the Estate had carefully planned….