Three Things | Black Phoenix, Backstory, System Error

Check out three crowdfunding campaigns on the newly launched Crowdfundr platform.

To Support: A bunch of stuff on the new crowdfunding site Crowdfundr

Crowdfundr is a brand-new crowdfunding site that just launched recently and is already hosting several comics and comics-related crowdfunding campaigns. It can be used for other things, of course, like music and film, but who cares about that stuff — there’s comics to be had! Comics!

“Our goal is for Crowdfundr to be the most creator-friendly crowdfunding platform,” said ConnectionPoint President David Barach. “That’s why we offer it for free and include other creator friendly features like being able to roll a campaign over into a store and include more reward choices for supporters. We also have special features for indie publishers and studios to collaborate with their creators and run concurrent campaigns. I think creators are going to be pleasantly surprised at the ways we support them, now and with future enhancements, toward sustainable and continuous crowdfunding for their work.”

I thought I’d dedicate this edition of Three Things to highlighting some of the cool stuff that’s up on the new site now:

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Comics Lowdown | RIP Takao Saito

Plus: DC does NFTs, the Uffizi opens its doors to comics, and small publishers discuss distribution.

Cover of Golgo 13, vol. 8, showing a man holding a gun and smoking a cigarette.

Takao Saito, the creator of Golgo 13, died on September 24 at the age of 84. The cause of death was pancreatic cancer. Saito made his manga debut in 1955 and launched Golgo 13, which follows the exploits of a taciturn hitman, in 1968. Volume 202 of the series has just come out in Japan, making Golgo 13 not only the longest continuously running manga series but also the one with the most volumes. Saito has said he would like the manga to continue after his death, and his publisher, Shogakukan, says the series will continue.

Comics at an Exhibition: The Uffizi Gallery, in Florence, Italy, is adding comics to its collection. The museum, which started out in the 1600s as the Medici family’s portrait collection, has commissioned 52 self-portraits by prominent Italian comics artists. The self-portraits will be on display in a special exhibit in Lucca from October 8 to November, 1, then moved to the Uffizio to join its permanent collection.

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Floating World Comics will publish E.S. Glenn’s ‘Unsmooth 2: BUM’ this fall

The prequel to his 2020 graphic novel arrives in September.

The New Yorker cartoonist E.S. Glenn will follow up his 2020 graphic novel, Unsmooth, with its prequel, Unsmooth 2: BUM, in September. And if the preview pages that Floating World Comics provided are any indication, we’re all in for a treat.

Described as “a poetic journey through the human condition,” the graphic novel is populated by poets, prisoners, assassins and artists, and even the author himself. It takes place before the story from the first volume, which focused on a fictional portrayal of E. S. Glenn himself as an artist who entered the criminal underground, and became a petty thief and an assassin.

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‘All Time Comics’ moves to Floating World Comics

The shared universe by Josh Bayer and friends returns in June from a new publisher.

Josh Bayer’s All Time Comics will return for a new five-part series from a new publisher this year. Floating World Comics, the Portland, Oregon comic shop-turned-publisher, will pick up where Fantagraphics left off with Zerosis Deathscape, an “epic event” co-written by Bayer and Josh Simmons, with art by Trevor Von Eeden.

“It’s about space and time meeting anti-time and alternate-space,” Bayer said about the new series. “It’s a chance to combine Bronze Age adventure genre comics with traces of every type of comics we love, from E.C. Segar to indie DIY comics.”

The All Time Comics shared universe launched in 2017 at Fantagraphics with four one-shots that featured the work of contemporary indie creators like Ben Marra and Noah Van Sciver with classic superhero artists like Al Milgrom and Herb Trimpe. Joining Von Eeden on art this time around will be Gabrielle Bell, Julia Gfrörer, Benjamin Marra and Tom Toye, and colorist Daniel Lee.

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Floating World Comics to publish Soto’s ‘The Secret Voice’ collection

The Study Group editor ‘will be hanging up his publishing hat’ to focus on making comics.

Comic book store-turned-publisher Floating World Comics announced this week that they will publish a collection of one of my favorite comics of last year, The Secret Voice, in the spring of 2019. Created by Study Group Comics editor Zack Soto, The Secret Voice is about a warrior monk named Doctor Galapagos and his battles with The Smog Emperor.

The Secret Voice is my own personal version of an epic fantasy saga,” Soto said. “Because I’m me, it’s a trippy, sometimes meandering affair that’s just as focused on the sense of space and atmosphere as it is on the big picture plot stuff. This project is a place for me to pour all my love of adventure & fantasy narratives, artcomics, manga, and eurocomics into one misshapen container. It’s about a big old fashioned land war driven by the invasion of a despot; it’s about a bunch of weird psychic warrior monks; it’s about wild kung fu magic battles; it’s about monsters and supernatural beings.. But it’s also about someone over their head and not being honest with themselves or the people they love, and figuring out how to own their mistakes.”

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