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*cover not final.
Golden Age is a collection of short
autobio/essay comics which are as thematically varied as they are
profound and hilarious. If you want to know what it is like to be a
broke, neurotic young person in NYC/Brooklyn during the 2010s, and if you like
text heavy, extremely personal comics journalism which examines socio-political issues in a humorous way, then this is the book to fund!
Included in "Golden Age" are comics like:
· “Lucky Break” - About cars and driving, and the auto accident and subsequent insurance payout which allowed me to move from Huntington, Long Island to NYC in the first place.
· “Plagued Out” – How I endured a bedbug infestation; general fears of viral epidemics.
· “White Whale of The Bay”- About Wu-Tang Clan, hip-hop, and record collecting; when I found that rare GZA LP in San Francisco, of all places.
· “420” and “Ennuied”- A story which explores my marijuana habit, marijuana politics, and being a role model to my younger brother.
· “Video Bros.”- A love letter to video games and brotherhood; the story of waiting in line for Nintendo’s Wii console for four nights at their NYC flagship store.
· “Abuse”- A personal account of domestic abuse and bi-polar disorder.
· “Waiting For The End Of The World”- An exploration of the climate change crisis and my personal climate change anxieties.
"Arrested Development"- A review and analysis of season four of the cult classic TV show.
and more! They all add up to a
cohesive story, well told! you can read many of them online already. Follow the links above.
What I Need & What You Get
I need like $3400. I know $3400 is a lot of money. It's kind of crazy. But that is what it costs to print and ship 1000 paperback books, according to my research. I'm not gonna use the money for anything ridiculous. I just want to print the books and get the work out there in its intended formant.
Alas, Indiegogo and credit card companies take about 8% of your contributions. So that leaves 92% of $3400 for me to produce the books and get them into stores. With anything left over I may pay for tables at comics shows where I will sell the books, and all of the money from those sales go to me, the artist.
I have been making comics for years and so far I have gotten one royalty check for around $8. Nobody makes much money from publishing, but what little money there is should go to the artist. I expect we can all agree on that? Cool. Self publishing is the best way to ensure this.
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Still, I've been shopping the book around to publishers. There has been some interest, but it is really hard to get a book like this published these days, so I am taking it upon myself to do so, because I believe strongly in this work. It is some of my best, and some of the best in comics! it is hard to market something like this, and so the industry wants nothing to do with it, but I'm betting I can get some help with distribution at least if I finance the whole thing myself (with your help!).
There are so many perks and rewards available to those who contribute! Choose which best fits your budget from the sidebar on the right!
My parents have rich friends, so maybe this will be a successful funding campaign, but if not, if I don't raise quite enough to print all the books as planned, I will print fewer copies on demand, so everyone still wins, and y'all can get yr perks. The books will be the same, maybe slightly less fancy, but worth it. With any left over money I will buy a sandwich. But let's focus on meeting that goal!
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The Impact
The book is largely finished. I have well over 100 pages of comics ready to go, with a few more in the works. The whole book will be 128 pages. I'm pretty good at putting a book together. You may have seen my other book "On the Books" which came out last year.
http://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/books/5161/
It got some good reviews, and I'm happy with it. It looks really nice, and this one will too. They will stand as sort of companion volumes, both dealing with how a young working artist makes their way thru the world, overcoming obstacles and staying cheery all the while. I feel like these comics are kind of clogging me up and I need to get them out into the world before I can move on as an artist. Does that make sense? Also posterity.
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jk.
Risks & Challenges
Putting a book together is fun and hard, and very rewarding. I've done this many times on a small scale, and a large scale. This book is kinda large scale. Most of the comics are ready to go and formatted for printing already. I have made a few sample copies of the book using POD services. It looks good. The greatest risk is the abject humiliation of a failed fundraising campaign, but hey, you gotta be in it to win it! LET'S DO THIS!!! The world needs Golden Age!
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Other Ways You Can Help
Share the link on social media. Spread the word and read the comics. They are all online. yoburbalino.blogspot.com
