New Comics: An All Kickstarter Edition

Every week I write about the most interesting new comics hitting comic shops, bookstores, digital, and the web. Feel free to comment below if there's a comic you've read recently that you want to talk about or an upcoming comic that you'd like me to consider highlighting.

This week, I’m doing an all-Kickstarter column since there are so many noteworthy campaigns running at the moment.

Eat More Comics! The Best of The Nib

by Matt Bors and others
Kickstarter 

When The Nib launched on Medium.com in 2013 it very soon became one of the most visited and talked-about comics sites on the web. Edited by acclaimed alt-weekly cartoonist Matt Bors, The Nib was full of op-ed cartoons, comic journalism, and essays from a diverse array of voices.

Earlier this month, Bors announced he was leaving his job at Medium, which was shifting its business model away from content publishing. However, he was taking The Nib and all its content with him and immediately announced a Kickstarter to produce a 300-page greatest hits book called Eat More Comics! This big hardcover book will contain great comics from the likes of Erika Moen, Brian McFadden, Tom Tomorrow, Jon Rosenberg, Mike Dawson, KC Green, Keith Knight, Suzie Cagle, Gemma Correll, James Sturm, Ronald Wimberly, Eleanor Davis, Shannon Wheeler, Maki Naro, Sarah Glidden, and many more (including Bors himself, of course).

At the time of writing, Eat More Comics! is a little over halfway to its goal so it needs a push in its last two weeks. In the meantime, hopefully The Nib will find a new home online soon. You can throw them your support here.

Baggywrinkles: A Lubber's Guide to Life at Sea

by Lucy Bellwood
Kickstarter 

Lucy Bellwood is a young cartoonist who spent several years as a deckhand on Washington State’s official tall ship, the Lady Washington. She has documented that time in an educational/autobiographical series of black and white mini-comics called Baggywrinkles that she is now looking to collect into a 100-page, full-color book. 

After just a day, her campaign to fund the printing of Baggywrinkles easily reached its goal and is now ticking off the various stretch goals (oh wait, sorry, "stretch gulls") she has set. Bellwood is adept at using crowd funding for her self-published projects. Her first Kickstarter ended up funded at a remarkable 730%. She has since been an early and successful adopter of Patreon to support her comic-making career. 

Baggywrinkles takes Bellwood’s real-life experiences and uses them to explain various fun trivia about maritime traditions and nautical facts such as the history of pirate tattoos and scurvy. The comics have previously only appeared in black and white, but the Kickstarter will help pay for professional colorists and a book designer to complete the package. Bellwood, who is a regular contributor to the all-ages small press comic Cartozia Tales, has an effortless and fun way about teaching through cartooning. She is an emerging talent with an already loyal following who is just starting to make her mark in the comics world. Help her get to her next “stretch goal”: each book will come with a custom set of temporary tattoos.

Bonnie N. Collide, Nine to Five

by Monica Gallagher
Kickstarter  

Cartoonist Monica Gallagher has been publishing Bonnie N. Collide as a webcomic and a series of mini-comics for seven years and is now ready to collect the first 324 strips into a full-size book. It stars Bonnie, a roller girl with a 9-to-5 office job who brings her derby gear and her fighting spirit everywhere she goes. 

Gallagher is another young cartoonist who is on the rise, most recently releasing her first graphic novel from Oni Press, Part Time Princesses. She makes comics with a decidedly feminist slant and isn't afraid to delve into feminine subjects like being a model or dressing up as a princess. Her Kickstarter is well on its way to reaching its goal and has some nice rewards like a coloring book in addition to the comic itself.

25 Years of Tomorrow

by Tom Tomorrow
Kickstarter 

Dan Perkins (a.k.a. Tom Tomorrow) has been publishing This Modern World in various publications, online and off, for 25 years now. If you’ve ever picked up an alt-weekly newspaper in a major U.S. city then you’ve probably seen one of his strips, with its 1950s-style talking head comics about topical political issues. He’s been skewering (mostly conservative) politicians, celebrities, and the media since 1990 and, earlier this year, capped his career with his first ever Pulitzer nomination. After making the leap from zines and newspapers to online publications, Perkins decided to use Kickstarter to help create the ultimate compendium of his own oeuvre. 

25 Years of Tomorrow will be a two-volume, 1000-page collection of every comic Perkins has ever done including rare one-offs, illustrations and even behind-the-scenes material for the album cover he did for Pearl Jam’s Backspacer. The Kickstarter blew past its $87,000 goal and has gotten into ridiculous stretch goal territory, but there are a few days left to get in on this if you’re a fan.