What is 'War in the Neighborhood'?
War in the Neighborhood is 320 pages of largely unheard history. First published in 1999, WITN is a story about smashing cinderblocks, filling in the cracks and finding our future in the rubble. It tells the story of New York City's Lower East Side in the late 1980s, when it came under attack by wealthy developers, cynical politicians and that special kind of daring yuppie who thinks that gunshots in the night are a sure sign of a hip 'hood. The panels may be black and white, but the moral questions raised in the comic are anything but.
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It may be hard to imagine that a story set at the end of the Cold War is relevant to struggle today. The history of social struggle, however, repeats itself. The lessons contained in 'War in the Neighborhood' have echoes in Occupy, Black Lives Matter and other 21st century social movements.
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Ad Astra Comix is a comics publisher focused on social justice. We've previously published comics dealing with feminist and environmental themes, and we'll be publishing works about migrant rights, prisons, and indigenous struggles in the year to come. More about us here.
Perks, Get Your Red Hot Perks Fresh From the Internet
'War in the Neighborhood' is the longest book we've ever published. Our printer tells us that it will cost about $11,000 to print 3,000 copies. In order to ensure that our publishing projects are sustainable, we make sure that pre-order campaigns like this one cover the full cost of printing. Our funding levels reflect the cost of laying out, printing and shipping these titles. That's why we're asking for 15 big ones in order to cover costs. *bites nails*
If we don't reach that goal, we can adjust the size of the print run. If for some reason we don't make enough to print even 1,000 copies (the minimum required for offset printing), we will be forced to hold bake sales and swimsuit car washes (male collective members only) until we reach the necessary amount.
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(Top): Reward Level "WAR Starter Pack", featuring a copy of 'War in the Neighborhood', plus two extremely rare issues of World War 3 Illustrated including 'The Riot Issue' #11, and Issue #13 featuring a sneak preview of the chapter 'Seige' from War in the Neighborhood First Edition. (Bottom): Reward Level "Tobocman Starter Pack", featuring a copy of 'War in the Neighborhood', plus 'You Don't Have to Fuck People Over to Survive' (AK Press, 2009), 'Disaster and Resistance' (AK Press, 2008), 'LEN: A Lawyer in History' (AK Press, 2016), and 'Portraits of Israelis and Palestinians' (Softskull Press, 2003)
![original art for sale - check the perks column for details]()
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Luckily for anyone who might otherwise fall prey to our sub-par car washing service, we're not worried about coming up short. Why not? Well, check out our awesome perks over on the sidebar and see for yourself.
Making a Difference
'War in the Neighborhood' is a classic work of comics history. By contributing to this crowdfunder, you are helping to put it into schools, libraries and universities around North America. You're also ordering yourself a book that is funny, moving and looks great on your coffee table where it will lend an air of cosmopolitan sophistication.
This is a dream project for us; something we have been pursuing since Ad Astra was founded in 2013. Reading 'War in the Neighborhood' was a transformative experience for all of us and we're sincerely excited to be sharing it with all of you. Seth Tobocman has done so much for radical art and artists since he co-founded 'World War 3 Illustrated' in 1979, the world's longest running English language anthology of political comics. We're frankly honoured to be working with him.
We also think that WITN is the kind of project that can inspire people to do similar work. Social movements often struggle to retain any kind of institutional memory, and comics history can play that role. Pick up a copy of 'War in the Neighborhood' and you'll see for yourself how much history can fit into 300 pages, and how heart-breakingly beautiful those stories can be.
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Risks + Challenges
This is our single biggest crowdfunder to date. Our next biggest, 'Drawing the Line', managed to raise $9,100. Our last crowdfunder, 'Extraction', didn't do as well - it came up $1,800 short and we had to reduce the size of the print run.
Our team has doubled in size since then. We have been doing background work on this project for close to a year: building contact lists, soliciting reviews, pursuing media coverage and otherwise getting ourselves ready.
We've also looked at what went right with past crowdfunders and are building on those successes. Maybe you were led here by one of the feature articles dealing with the themes of WITN? Our numbers tell us that it's an effective way to drive traffic to projects like this one.
We have our concerns about this project, but no doubts that by late September, we'll be printing a few thousand copies of 'War in the Neighborhood'.
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Other Ways You Can Help
While we're grateful for every contribution, we understand not everyone can afford to order a copy of the book. But there are still plenty of ways that you can help us make the second edition of 'War in the Neighborhood' a reality:
- Share this page using Indiegogo's share tools
- Drop by your local book store or comic shop and encourage them to order some copies.
- Libraries will order books if requested by cardholders. Check yours.
- If you're a journalist, ask for a review copy.
- Organize a collective, take over an abandoned building in the urban core of some decaying metropolis, fix it up, then when you get on the news maybe give us a shout out, you know.
Thanks for stopping by!