How do you re-imagine the iconic Sherlock Holmes detective character? Three ingredients: launch it on Kickstarter, change the focus from Holmes to John Watson and add diversity

Funded on Kickstarter, "Watson and Holmes," featuring a black Holmes, is already a successful re-imagining of the detective legacy. This is the comic book creator's second volume, and they have already won and been nominated for relevant comic book accolades.

"Watson and Holmes" was created by Brandon Perlow and Paul Mendoza. The "Watson and Holmes: Volume 2" comic book crowd-funding venture started last week, and they have already earned over $10,000. This is a success story for this independent comic book publishing company New Paradigm Studios.

This comic book publishing company needs to raise at least $20,000.00 on Kickstarter for their second volume. The finished book is expected to contain a collection of "one-shot" stories, stories that only have one action and no continuation. According to the Kickstarter "Watson and Holmes: Volume 2" page, further proceeds will go toward covering fees, postage, printing, and if there is any money left over, it will go toward funding future projects.

Kickstarter is simply the next step to taking this "Watson and Sherlock: Volume 2" to production, but the comic of "Watson and Holmes," its first volume, has already received critical acclaim and comic book awards. "Watson and Holmes" has already won four Glyph Awards. A Glyph is an award given that recognizes the best comics made by, for and about people of color, Comic Book Resources reported.

The African-American comic book heroes have also been nominated for an Eisner award. It is an award given for creative achievement within the comic book industry.

"Watson and Holmes" is set in modern-day Harlem. The creators Perlow and Mendoza said that they are taking the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle creation in a cool, new direction. And, they had to find a way to make the previous Sherlock books as relevant to today as much as possible, Comic Book Resources reported.

Changing the focus from Holmes to Watson was perhaps a little tricky. Perlow and Mendoza agree that the original Watson was a classic sidekick, but this time their Watson brought a little bit more to the table.

"Watson has a helpless element to him, and we thought that in the modern world, we needed a more active Watson. One that was still as intelligent, as he would have to be as a pre-med, but also a capable soldier; so we went with him being a Pararescueman and Afghan vet," Mendoza said, Comic Book Resources reported.

When it comes to changing the race of Holmes and Watson, one comic book writer says the idea of transforming the race was at first very risky. African-American comic book writer Karl Bollers who has worked on the first comic book "Watson and Holmes" stated that he thought audiences of black and white would be turned off by this new creation of African-American characters, The A.V. Club reported.

Bollers was shocked and glad by the reaction. He also added that "race bending" is hardly anything new. He cited the "Ultimate Spider-Man" with Miles Morales who is a Black Hispanic; John Stewart as Green Lantern is African-American; and James Rhodes, who is African-American, becomes War Machine in the "Iron Man" comics, just to name a few, The A.V. Club reported.

Bollers also pointed out that "Watson and Holmes" creators Perlow and Mendoza are neither men of color.

Perlow says about changing the point of view from Homes to Watson is their way of making Watson have more initiative. Sherlock is usually a powerful and dynamic character, so much so that he outshines Watson. In having a "physically superior and confident Watson," it balances things out, Comic Book Resources reported.