Please note that Dark Matter Zine does not guarantee nor endorse any crowdfunding campaign; pledging is at the pledgee’s own risk.
Dear all and sundries,
Well, it appears my promise of scarcity regarding my blathers is proving that touching wood is a necessity to living in this connected world. Now comes another, as two more crowd-fund campaigns came to my attention AFTER I sent one last week. See what happens when you stir the muddy bottom?
Firstly, you should all be aware of the Homecooked Comics Festival, being held over the weekend of April 25 and 26. The Saturday features a series of workshops and events with their big guests: Dylan Horrocks, Paul Peart-Smith, Madeleine Rosca and Thomas Campi. These are on in the morning, and then there is a great all-in drawing jam with them in the arvo. Sunday is market day, where you can get great bagfuls of new and old comics from the best artists in Melbourne. I will be there, but not selling my tired old crap, but launching the first publication from my new imprint, Fabliaux, see below. –
Anyhow, in order to aid this great, essential comics festival this year and next, the director Sarah Howell has launched a crowd-funding campaign to help pay for the great guests they are bringing in from far and yonder: UK, NZ, NSW, Tassie. There are lots of great rewards on offer, so go choose one and more importantly, if you’re in Melbourne, come along and be a part of it. Find out more and pledge now, here.
For those of you who are not aware, the book I’m publishing and launching at Homecooked is Art is A Lie by the gobsmacking, amazing talent that is Carol Wood and Susan Butcher, otherwise known as the Pox Girls. It is a collection of 1-2 page strips that are mostly one page bios of famous artists, done in the style of famous cartoonists or old ads or some other ingenious reference to pop-culture to the past. Witness Tom of Finland as done by George Herriman! Picasso as done by EC Segar, Norman Lindsay as done by Lee Falk, Duchamp by Chester Gould. Impossible, I hear you say, as your brain melts in its inability to imagine. Don’t worry, mine did too. I had to go and buy a new brain and this one doesn’t work as well as the last, but it was better than nothing. So, come to Homecooked and smell the great wafts of a freshly printed book. No old moisture absorbed, musty mouldy smells! See the cover below. Wait until you see what’s inside. Nerdgasms will be had!
Secondly, my friend and fellow author Sophie Masson has her own niche publishing company, Christmas Press, with an imprint, Eagle Books, that is going to launch its first title, Michel Strogoff, a novel by Jules Verne, in its first all new English translation in over a century. Sophie has created a crowd-fund campaign to raise the dough to produce a deluxe hardcover with illustrated plates (by David Allan), much like books of the era (and as the great Folio Society do now). For those who like their spec fiction and Jules Verne, be the first to get your mitts on a copy and support small press. Sophie’s aims with publishing is akin to mine and Nat Karmichael: to put into print books that deserve to be seen and read, but are not being catered to by the bigger publishers. Check out the campaign page here.
Lastly, many of us writers, toonists and illustrators have either dabbled in, or contemplated giving talks or workshops in schools, where there is a fair market for creator visits. But kids are quite a different audience to adults, so how do you create workshops and speak to kids in a way that captures their imaginations? I’ve done a few and struggled a bit. Well, the ASA are putting on an all day workshop on May 9 where the talented Deborah Abela will give you plenty of insight into the hows, whys and where to get such a paying gig. I would do this myself if I were not going to be in Ballarat seeing Miss Saigon. More info here.
Bruce Mutard
