KICKSTARTER FOR RISE: COMICS AGAINST BULLYING

WHAT ARE THE STORIES?

ISSUE #1 – Order at Northwest Press

• – REVERSAL OF FORTUNE by Marc Guggenehim, Howard Chaykin, Jesus Aburtov & Ken Bruzenak
• – TREEHOUSE OF SOLITUDE by Jeremy Thomas, Boy Akkerman, Ilona Oudenaarden & Erica Schultz
• – TIPPING POINT by Adam P. Knave, Chris Haley & Joe Hunter
• – ZOE’S ZOMBIES by Paul Castiglia & Chris Allen
• – FREAKSHOW by Spencer Perry & Jed Dougherty
• – ORIGIN STORY by Jody Houser & Jean Kang
• – OUT OF STEP by Ben Bailey & Ryan Cody
• – BARBIE AND THE BOY by Brad Bell & George Zapata
• – MAN UP by Jon Carroll & Dawn Griffin
• – EDISON REX by Chris Roberson, Dennis Culver, Stephen Downer, John J. Hill & Allison Baker

ISSUE #2 – Order at Northwest Press

• – FLASHBACK by Marc Andreyko & Sina Grace
• – SAFE HAVEN by Christian Beranek & Daniel San
• – DISCOMBOBULATED by Brandon Barrows & Rafer Roberts
• – CREATURE CLUB by Josh Southall, Tio Lavranos & Mark Mullaney
• – AURA by Vasilis Pozios, Marguerite Sauvage & Rachel Deering
• – BROTHERS IN ARMS by Erica Schultz & Scott Larson
• – CRYSTAL BALL by Kris White & John Gomes
• – LEFT BEHIND by Elizabeth Amber Love & Carolyn Belefski
• – GODS OF THE BATTLEFIELD by Adam Pruett & David Seltzer

Stand For The Silent has been instrumental in selecting the stories for the issues. These books were originally planned to be standard 32-page issues but ended up being 48, and that change has allowed us to pack a lot more into each one than originally planned. Northwest Press is considering the series ongoing or at least open-ended for the potential printing of even more stories.

PreviewsWorld interviewed contributor and backer, ARROW producer, Marc Guggenheim, several other creators, and even me!

REACHED GOAL:

AMBER LOVE 01-NOV-2014 Yesterday our Kickstarter reached its goal with under 60 hours left on it. It really felt like it was coming down to the wire and had me pretty anxious. The editorial team did a great job in sharing the link to drum up support and some of the contributors did too. With Kickstarter, it’s a little odd that there can be only one project manager; this makes sense that only one person can claim the funds but it would have been great if there could be super users to see how the project would respond to things like when someone mentioned it on Twitter or on a news site.

ORIGINAL ANNOUNCEMENT:

AMBER LOVE 06-OCT-2014 October is such a busy time of year. It’s filled with fundraisers for every charity out there not to mention New York Comic Con and a million seasonal things to do. It feels October should be renamed Awaretober. There’s the most outspoken of the causes, breast cancer; there’s also domestic violence which is why we host Superhero Weekend this month; and there’s the more recent bullying awareness month. I didn’t even realize bullying had an awareness month when Carolyn Belefski and I submitted a pitch for a comic anthology addressing this issue, now titled: RISE: COMICS AGAINST BULLYING.

I think RISE has been in the works going on its second year. I know it’s been quite a while. For my part, I wrote a short script and sent it in to Adam Pruett to see if the editorial staff would approve it for their premise. I asked one of my talented friends, Carolyn Belefski, if she had any time and interest to work on this. The trick being I wouldn’t be able to pay her and no one is getting paid for the book. It’s for charity. While Kickstarter doesn’t allow fundraisers, it allows you to raise the money for printing costs which is what the team is doing. They have developed a relationship with NORTHWEST PRESS to publish the books and distribute them to a few outreach programs that tackle the issue of bullying. The goal for this Kickstarter campaign to be able to print enough copies of RISE: COMICS AGAINST BULLYING so that they can be given out for free to the organizations that value the messages we’re sharing with our stories.

I was impressed when Adam announced that Northwest Press was interested in our project. I knew of them as an LGBTQ-friendly publisher. I had back Zan Christensen’s Anything That Loves: Comics Beyond Gay and Straight. The RISE anthology is not specific to the LGBTQ community but since that is a population still often harassed and oppressed, it’s a fine fit to have any bullying story under their brand. The story Carolyn and I are doing is actually not a gay social issue theme but it’s quite timely. It’s about a the consequences of teens who feel they are mature enough to take nude selfies and the damage it does to one girl and her loved ones. I don’t have any sample art yet to share but Carolyn is working hard on the project already.

Here’s the RISE: COMICS AGAINST BULLYING mission:

 A comics series dealing with bullying, to be distributed free by organizations such as GLAAD, Stand for the Silent, and Prism Comics.

RISE: COMICS AGAINST BULLYING evolved from the original comic anthology book to the new plan which is to have at least two issues but hopefully more as long as there is content and financial support. I don’t know if our story will be in the first or second issue but the list of creators involved that I’ve seen so far on current Kickstarter project shows that no matter which one we’re in, it’ll be an honor to be in their company. Some of the credits include: Erica Schultz, Marc Andreyko, Marc Guggenheim, Dawn Griffin, Sina Grace and Chris Roberson. I’ve had the pleasure of being published with some of the creators before in the Shakespeare Shaken anthology but other creators, I honestly can’t believe I’m going to published next to. It’s remarkable and I’m so proud of our little story for making the cut.

Please support this Kickstarter either by donating or sharing the link as much as you can. It’s only $10 to get the digital copies of the first two issues of RISE: COMICS AGAINST BULLYING. For $125 you can get a script review by the editors which is an opportunity you don’t want to pass up if you’re a comics writer.