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As mentioned on the blog last week, the past few years has seen an exciting development of “crowd funding” websites designed to help serious artists raise money for their creative projects. Sites like Kickstarter (www.kickstarter.com) and Indiegogo (www.indiegogo.com) have spawned a wave of activity that allows designers, filmmakers, and yes, comic book artists the opportunity to raise funds by attracting people in their communities and around the world (often in the form of video presentations or art portfolios) to pledge money in exchange for small rewards (i.e. a T-shirt or a limited addition comic book). By simply getting the satisfaction of helping talented artists complete their projects and realizing their creative visions pledgers have helped countless artists get their products out to the public.
Now there are at least two Graphic Universe artists who’ve gotten into the action. Dylan Meconis (illustrator of Twisted Journeys #19 The Fifth Musketeer) was triumphant in raising money for her recent project appropriately named The Dylan Meconis Library 2012 (Dylan Meconis Interview)—a three-volume series of clever and cheeky tales, including an Eisner–nominated story called Outfoxed. And Yuko Ota (Manga Math Mysteries #3 The Secret Ghost and Twisted Journeys #17 Detective Frankenstein), a Brooklyn-based artist, has found success raising funds for her two Benign Kingdom projects through crowd funding.
The Dylan Meconis Library 2012
It’s exciting to see this new fundraising model provide great opportunities for creative people to produce winning new works that complement their traditional careers paths. Some of these endeavors may spark major breakthroughs.
Dylan Meconis (top) and Yuko Ota (bottom)
Minneapolis based comic book artist Tyler Page, illustrator of one of Graphic Universe’s most popular series—Chicagoland Detective Agency—has come up with a novel idea about how to distribute his original graphic novel series called Stylish Vittles: He’s just giving it away. More specifically, Page has announced he’ll offer a special 10thanniversary issue as a free e-book. (see Comic Book Resources or tylerpage.tumblr.com/)
Page explains, “Ten years ago I published a book called Stylish Vittles: I Met a Girl. It was the beginning of my professional comics career. (I have) put together a 10th Anniversary Collection e-Book which includes all three original books, as well as the conclusion that came years later: Stylish Vittles 4 – Behind the Page: The Saga of Rob Harvard.” Additionally, Page is offering a few generous bonuses. One is a “director’s cut” e-book –a condensed version of the original book that is presented in “a shorter, simpler narrative”. And the other— if you want just the opposite—is Page’s “Deluxe Collection” which includes two appendices containing as he puts it, “almost one thousand pages of process material —outlines, scripts, sketches, layouts, etc. (and) all of the material I did which led up to the creation of the Stylish Vittles books.”
This cool gesture is sure to delight fans of Page as well as anyone who just wants to enjoy reading an original comic book series and get a glimpse at the “behind-the-scenes” process of a talented graphic novelist.
Graphic Universe blog 