Emmy Award-winning cartoonist Dean Haspiel has announced Covid Cop, a new horror/romance comic he’s crowdfunding on Kickstarter about an antihero attempting to save what’s left of humanity — and his marriage.
“A cross between Judge Dredd, Toxic Avenger, Mad Max and Sin City, Covid Cop is my response to a pandemic that never found its cure and has wiped out 98% of mankind,” Haspiel said.
Haspiel, whose comics include Billy Dogma and The Red Hook, said he came up with the idea while working on the Pandemix anthology.
“I showed Covid Cop to several publishers, and it received the same reactions: ‘We love your idea, but we can’t publish it,’” Haspiel said. “They were scared of how people would respond. I took that as a good sign. A major clue that I’d made something that might truly resonate.’”
Haspiel is looking to raise $5,000 to publish the comic. A $10 donation will get you a digital copy, while a signed print copy will cost $15. Other tiers offer original art, a Zoom party call and personal comic consultation. Or maybe you could just talk to him about Jack Kirby, who Haspiel said is a big influence on his work.
“Jack Kirby wanted to connect with readers and melt minds,” Haspiel said. “Go big or go home. For all of his cosmic concepts, he never forgot about the heart of a story. Having fought in World War 2, I believe Kirby’s comics were a product of battlefield PTSD. The things he saw. The things he had to do. Kirby was working out the best and the worst of humanity. He questioned the idea of God and then dared to answer it. And that’s what art does best.”
Visit Kickstarter or Haspiel’s newsletter for more information.