Kickstarter

Cartozia Tales brings together a number of artists and writers, including Lucy Bellwood, Dylan Horrocks, Jen Vaughn, and Jon Lewis, to tell stories set within a huge map. Each artist starts off telling a story set in a specific part of the map --- so they could be in a jungle, up a mountain, in a lake, anywhere --- but then rotate at random, so each issue sees different writers and artists creating an interconnected world and telling all-new stories with the characters created in issue #1. It's a great idea, and recently the Cartozia team launched a Kickstarter to reprint that crucial first issue for anyone who may have missed it the first time round. To check in on how things are going, and to learn more about Cartozia itself, ComicsAlliance spoke to project editor Isaac Cates

Teachers are the greatest heroes in the world --- we all know it. From Indiana Jones to the person who taught you geography, teachers are some of the hardest-working, most important people in all of our lives. Writer Dino Caruso, artist Shawn Richison and colorist Dijjo pay tribute to just such a heroic teacher with their latest, Fisk: the S.U.B.S.T.I.T.U.T.E.. An agent of the secretive S.U.B.S.T.I.T.U.T.E. organisation, Fisk's job is to protect schools from supernatural risks like alien attacks, temporal rifts, supervillain plots --- all in the guise of a substitute teacher. It's a fun idea for a series, and one that the team has launched on Kickstarter to help fund a print edition of the story. To find out more about Fisk and the heroic world of substitute teaching, ComicsAlliance spoke to the team.

Like Father, Like Daughter is running a Kickstarter for its second issue. It tells the story of Casey, a young girl whose father is the most powerful and beloved superhero in the world. But he's also the man who walked out on her family when she was just a baby. While trying to reconcile her hatred for a man who everybody else loves, she finds that she's inherited his power set. That's when things start to get really complicated. It's a neat concept, and one that seems to be picking up a fanbase. ComicsAlliance spoke to Calamia about how the series came about, and her experiences with crowdfunding.

Kickstarter has really proven that the number of new, eager, ready comics writers and artists has been booming over the last few years. The number of anthologies and projects with a specific focus on those who don't usually get featured over at 'mainstream' publishers has been staggering, with each week bringing an array of fresh talent into the world of comics. One of the most recent is Oath, a queer comics anthology masterminded by Audrey Redpath. The anthology consists entirely of queer comics talent telling LGBT superhero stories. Featuring a host of new and established writers and artists, the book has already hit its funding target --- but it still has stretch goals to reach in its closing days.

Earlier this year, Joe Madureira hinted at the possibility of Battle Chasers, his creator-owned series, returning in some form. After leaving comics for a time to focus on game development, and then releasing two games with Vigil Games and THQ, it seems the time is now right for Gully, Garrison, Calibretto and the rest of the gang to make their comeback. Battle Chasers: Nightwar will see Joe Mad return to the series and characters for the first time in almost 15 years, but this time the franchise is stepping into a new arena --- video games. Using Kickstarter to fund the development for PC and Mac (other platforms will follow if stretch goals are met), Airship Syndicate is bringing the fan-favorite comic to life as a JRPG. If you're at all familiar with Battle Chasers, you know just how perfect a fit the world of that series is for a role-playing game steeped in the traditions of Squaresoft and Enix, but with a modern twist. That means there'll be loads of turn-based battles, mana and dungeon crawling to go around, but the dungeons will be generated randomly and have a bit of that Diablo flare.

The Original Adventures of Doc Sterne/Mr Monster is the latest project from comics historian Rachel Richey, who is working to bring a number of classic Canadian comics back into print via Kickstarter. Doctor Jim Stearne was an adventure hero created by writer/artist Fred Kelly in the 1940s, who eventually transitioned into the role of monster hunter Mr Monster. Richey is bringing his stories back to print after decades in the wilderness, with a Kickstarter campaign launched this past weekend to coincide with Fan Expo Canada. To find out more about the project, we spoke to Richey about what drew her to Doc Stearne, and where he belongs in the pantheon of lost Canadian heroes.

By now, many of you have at least heard about the Walking Dead Escape, a traveling obstacle course of sorts themed around The Walking Dead. It's been regularly occurring in San Diego since 2012, with a few other adventures in Philadelphia, New York and Atlanta sprinkled in over the past few years. The Escape has been one of the big draws every year at San Diego Comic-Con for people looking to live out their wildest zombie apocalypse dreams. With it, fans can either participate as survivors hoping to make it out alive or be transformed into the undead by make-up veterans from the show, who then chase around the survivors. Now, the Escape is part of Walker Stalker Con, itself a crowdfunded convention that allows fans to meet and greet some of the stars from The Walking Dead (and other horror properties) all over the globe. This year alone, there will be Walker Stalker Cons in Boston, Philadelphia, New York, London and the Bahamas, to name a few. No longer content with just one zombie apocalypse interactive scenario for fans, Walker Stalker Con is kickstarting an all-new interactive experience to premiere at the "home" show in Atlanta this October.

Kate Ashwin's webcomic Widdershins has been running for several years, telling a series of different stories in a quaint little town of the same name. Widdershins is a magical place in the heart of Yorkshire, where technology is banned but magic is heartily encouraged... most of the time. Inhabited by a cast of brilliant rogues, daring adventurers, and heroic cake-makers, it's a uniquely English sort of series, inspired as much by the Great British Bake Off as by classic novels gone by.

The Road North is a new all-ages comic from writer/artist Joshua Covey, set in a lawless wasteland of a future where mankind has all but become extinct. With the planet slowly dying, the end of man is hastened by the arrival of an alien species called 'The Pure', who have one goal --- to wipe out the last human survivors and claim the planet for their own. Across the dystopian sands walks a young refugee called I, as well as her trusty canine companion, Z. Together, they're on a mission to find I's brother, dodging The Pure and sticking to her wits in a deadly landscape. Covey, an artist whose work has been published at Boom and Dark Horse among others, has taken his latest story to Kickstarter, where he's already met his funding target to take the book to print. We spoke to Covey about how The Road North came to be.

Following two successful Kickstarters collecting the comics work of classic Canadian cartoonists, this year sees writer and editor Hope Nicholson return to crowdfunding for a completely new project, The Secret Loves of Geek Girls. Gathering a varied collection of thematically-linked pieces, including comics, illustrated stories, and prose, the anthology --- now running on Kickstarter --- will feature work from creators including Mariko Tamaki, Sam Maggs, Jen Vaughn, Irene Koh and, yes, Margaret Atwood. The Secret Loves of Geek Girls will focus on just that --- real and imagined stories on the topics of dating, love, romance and (whisper it!) sex. Nothing more, nothing less; love is the best. This is a huge undertaking, but one that Nicholson is certainly qualified to bring together. To find out more about the project, ComicsAlliance spoke to her about what we can expect from the collection, how Margaret Atwood got involved, and the story that Hope herself will write for the anthology.