Kickstarter

Abby Howard's The Last Halloween is a distinctively-drawn webcomic; one that seems childlike, but has this increasing undercurrent of creepy tension and unpredictable weirdness flowing through each extended sequence. Through stark inks and bold panel layouts, Howard is able to convey silliness as powerfully as she can convey real horror, and the result is a singular piece of work that resonates in genuinely unnerving ways. It's certainly found an audience --- having just launched a Kickstarter to bring the first volume of her series to print, Howard has already sailed beyond the initial funding target. ComicsAlliance spoke to her about how it came about.

From Parts Unknown is a comics anthology about pro wrestling, which is being funded by a newly-launched Kickstarter campaign. The project is the brainchild of writer G. Brett Williams and former Marvel editor Lauren Sankovitch, and features work by professional wrestler Christopher Daniels, filmmakers Jen and Sylvia Soska, and comics creators including Joe Keatinge, Ed Luce, and Jason Latour. The cover features a painting by WWE's favorite artist Rob Schamberger.

What a week! I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to sit back and read some comics. The weekend is finally here, and the world can relax and rest once more - but the comics industry has been busy too, you know, and the last seven days have seen a flurry of comics-based news and announcements fly past at high speed. ComicsAlliance have got your back, though: when it comes to comics, we never slow down, and so here’s a look back and just what’s been going on. New comics, new stories, new hirings, new podcasts, new art being made - it’s all part of the ComicsAlliance Weekender!

What a week! I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to sit back and read some comics. The weekend is finally here, and the world can relax and rest once more — but the comics industry has been busy too, you know, and the last seven days have seen a flurry of comics-based news and announcements fly past at high speed. ComicsAlliance has got your back, though: when it comes to comics, we never slow down, so here’s a look back and just what’s been going on. New comics, new stories, new podcasts, new art being made — it’s all part of the ComicsAlliance Weekender!

Read “fashion comic” and it’s easy — it’s really easy — to visualise genteel elegance, perhaps (if you want to get nutty) with a side of razzle-dazzle. Dior, Chanel, the '50s-through-'70s girls’ comics with paper dolls and reader-designed costumes... What was once daring and new, liberating for the wearer, has become established, gender-restrictive, rote and retro. Things "for girls," or about us, are easy enough to dismiss without the added impression that comics, as an English-language industry, doesn't think girls want much more than the feminine or the shallow. We imagine "fashion comics" and see good clean fun — easily, we see compliance. Interrogating that reductive response is hard when we look around and see very little to contradict it, or to comfort our non-compliant selves with, as we explore what fashion and gender mean personally, to us. Fashion in Action, currently halfway through a healthy Kickstarter campaign, is something to cling onto: Fashion in Action is kind of grotty.

Crowdfunding has become an important part of how comics get made, allowing creators to pitch their work directly to readers, and providing opportunities for comics that traditional publishers may not consider. With Back Pages, ComicsAlliance hopes to provide a spotlight for some of the best comics crowdfunding projects we can find. Created by Sean E. Williams and Saori Adams, Comicker Digital is offering a wide slate of digitla comics on a subscription model, with a focus on allowing creators to work to their own schedules. Now Comicker Digital is expanding into print, under the not entirely unexpected name of Comicker Press. To do this, the founders have turned to Kickstarter to help fund the books. ComicsAlliance spoke to co-founder Williams about the move, how the digital comics marketplace looks right now, and what readers can expect from the publisher in the future.

The Toronto Comics Anthology has been the jumping off point for scores of great new local talent for a couple of years now, and for many of the creators it gives them the first opportunity to have comics work printed and published for the world to see. After the success of last year’s second volume, the anthology is back to show off the best and brightest of the Toronto indie scene to the world.

Crowdfunding has become an important part of how comics get made, allowing creators to pitch their work directly to readers, and providing opportunities for comics that traditional publishers may not consider. With Back Pages, ComicsAlliance hopes to provide a spotlight for some of the best comics crowdfunding projects we can find. With 1001 Knights, editors Annie Stoll and Kevin Jay Stanton are bringing a staggeringly colossal, magnificently giant work of titanically stonking proportions to Kickstarter. Made of three volumes each representing a noble trait of knighthood, the project sees a stunning array of artists, writers, poets, and artistic types gathered together to tell stories about a diverse range of knights. Starting life as a zine --- before rapidly racing off into a far grander project --- 1001 Knights has already flown past its funding target. ComicsAlliance spoke to Stoll and Stanton about the anthologies.

What a week! I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to sit back and read some comics. The weekend is finally here, and the world can relax and rest once more — but the comics industry has been busy too, you know, and the last seven days have seen a flurry of comics-based news and announcements fly past at high speed. ComicsAlliance have got your back, though: when it comes to comics, we never slow down, and so here’s a look back and just what’s been going on. New comics, new stories, new podcasts, new art being made — it’s all part of the ComicsAlliance Weekender!

Mildred Louis' webcomic Agents of the Realm has recruited a growing legion of fans since it started almost two years ago. The story of five girls who have just started college, things start to get weird when ghostly monsters maraud the premises. Then magical brooches appear --- and wouldn't you know it? Before anybody can say a thing, the girls have formed a superteam ready to defend the planet. At heart a huge adventure series about magical girls, this is also a profoundly real story, with women who experience life in all its ups and downs. To find out more about how the series first came together, and about the current Kickstarter to bring the story to print, we spoke to Louis about all things Agents of the Realm.