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Loser Comix Group Needs Free Press Access

Underground and alternative press comics need access to a small press that can print cheaply and independently. "Give us the tools and we will finish the job."

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Loser Comix Group Needs Free Press Access

Loser Comix Group Needs Free Press Access

Loser Comix Group Needs Free Press Access

Loser Comix Group Needs Free Press Access

Loser Comix Group Needs Free Press Access

Underground and alternative press comics need access to a small press that can print cheaply and independently. "Give us the tools and we will finish the job."

Underground and alternative press comics need access to a small press that can print cheaply and independently. "Give us the tools and we will finish the job."

Underground and alternative press comics need access to a small press that can print cheaply and independently. "Give us the tools and we will finish the job."

Underground and alternative press comics need access to a small press that can print cheaply and independently. "Give us the tools and we will finish the job."

Richard Ingram
Richard Ingram
Richard Ingram
Richard Ingram
1 Campaign |
San Antonio, United States
$195 USD 7 backers
2% of $9,500 Flexible Goal Flexible Goal

"We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire...Give us the tools and we will finish the job." Sir Winston Churchill

I make underground comix and art as do many in my small creative community; I've been doing this since 1993 in good times and bad.  And while I'm not fighting the Nazis during the Blitz, in my own small way, my comics, in the words Woody Guthrie's guitar used to have painted on it, "kills fascism."

My name's Richard Van Ingram and I'm an artist with a studio degree in printmaking and an MA in philosophy.  I taught ethics at the university level for four years; I worked in public mental health for ten.  For day jobs I've done everything from selling used books to tattooing, picture framing, and cooking.  Yes, I've scrubbed my share of toilets; I've worked in a nursing home with the dying.  I've taught young officers entering the military the difference between a moral decision and an expedient one -- and which they ought to choose and why.

But at age 48, I've never made a living off my art, which is my desire -- and the deficit isn't because of poor quality (see my website and judge for yourself) but a combination of circumstances.

First, the business model of the 2000s; One must show and give away one's work for free online in hopes people will buy a book or some swag.  Imagine a financial advisor or other worker in any other profession attempting to make a living by first giving away their their work and then hoping the recipient will show some financial appreciation for it.  Could you make a decent, even lower middle class life that way?  Pay for insurance?  Raise kids, make a house payment?

Secondly, most of the publishing houses that would hire or print freelance artists or independent creators folded in between the financial crises of 2001 and 2008.  That leaves the rest of us scrambling to either work for the conglomerates owned by Disney (Marvel Comics) or Time Warner (DC Comics) -- and neither of them are interested in anything that offers a critique of modern society,  genuine satire, or real adult content -- everything is aimed at overgrown adolescent tastes or pure entertainment.  No protest, no biting commentary: nothing, in fact, a comic book is capable of delivering in its unique combination of language and images.

Third, this leaves independents such as myself who do not do superhero fantasies or happy-ending sci fi to fend for ourselves and compete with these media behemoths.  Needless to say, our audiences are small.  Not because we are boring or cheezy or amateurish, but because we are small and because Diamond Distribution -- the monopoly that distributes comics and is in bed with the large companies -- locks out small entrepreneurs with something to say and share from distribution to direct sales comics shops: the main line of income for most creators.

Fourth, because of the cultural climate and its swing to the right over the past 30 years, many printers will not touch or distribute online material that is the least bit controversial: in language; nudity; content; message.  I'm not talking child porn, but simple art and adult notions.  Things that are perfectly acceptable in the artistic and literary world at large are somehow forbidden in the comics world for fear "the children" will get their hands on it.  As if a child couldn't read a Henry Miller or get their hands on Playboy (and have for decades with little negative consequence beyond the development of an interesting vocabulary).

We undergrounders scrape to publish small runs of comics we must peddle ourselves online, by driving them around to stores willing to take a few., and by lugging them to conventions.  The printers charge a great deal of money per book for short runs and our profit margins are miniscule; many of us make nothing whatsoever after spending what can be upwards of a hundred hours putting together a book by ourselves, doing the graphic design, lettering, coloring, art, and writing.

All for the privilege of free speech and bringing an audience a superior product or a different point of view.

So, what do I expect, a Free Ride?!  Artists are supposed to suffer, aren't they?

Suffering is inevitable and expected.  No one does anything worthwhile without paying for it in time and talent and paying their dues.  That's life and I'm not protesting reality here.

What I am asking for is this: Contributions so I can publish my comics and offer cheap printing for a circle of talented artists in the same shape I'm in -- not dilettantes who have not paid their dues or lack suffering, not kids straight out of college, not hacks.  Folks who need access to the press, and the only way you get freedom of the press without going broke or suffering the whims of a printer is to actually own the press.  Like Mark Twain, back in the day, who was doing essentially what we do, sans pictures.

I want my small company, Loser Comix Group, to expand slightly by buying a used CMYK printer capable of printing comics.  In return, I can print my own books affordably, on demand, and offer small run printing to a few other creators at highly affordable rates competitive with the online companies that presently control our output.  

As a civil libertarian, I will not exercise draconian editorial opposition to content.  No, I will not print child porn or gratuitous violence against women, for example, or hate speech.  But outside such bracketed material, I will print what the creators want to take responsibility for on their own, neither approving nor disapproving.   That should be the nature of a free printing press, I think, in a free society. Certainly it's what the second generation of the underground and alternative comics movement needs. 

I have located a refurbished  Xerox DC 252-type machine the dealer is willing to sell for between $9,000 and $10,000.  The $9,500 I'm seeking would pay for the majority of the machine after Indiegogo takes its cut and I will raise the remaining money, including shipping and supplies, out of my own pocket by borrowing against my car, from a partner who has pledged a generous amount, and by selling some of my art and belongings.

In the end, I will train myself to run the press, fulfill orders in a timely manner, and split my time between making my own work and helping others spread their message and reach their artistic dreams.  Working a 14-18 hour day is no new thing for me and doing so to make this project an ongoing concern would be a pleasure for me.  Your money won't be wasted.

The Perks 

The first 300 people donating $5.00 or more will receive a free copy of my Jack T. Chick parody propaganda comic, FREE YOUR ASS, YOUR MIND WILL FOLLOW, signed.

The first 100 people to contribute at least $20.00 or more will receive a free printed issue of LOSER COMIX #1 signed by yours truly.

The first 100 people to contribute $100.00 or more will receive a full-color poster, specially designed and drawn for this project and signed by me.  Only 100 of these posters will ever be printed.

The first 10 people to contribute at least $500.00 or more will receive an original, unique watercolor, 11 x 17, on Arches paper.  Yep, I'll sign it.

The first person to donate $1000.00 or more will have their name printed on the cover of LOSER COMIX #2 as my special benefactor and receive a page of original art from the issue, signed (with my undying gratitude).  Yes, you get a copy of the book, too.

But what if you don't meet the funding goal?

Simple.  I'll use the money to buy the press anyway -- I'll just have to borrow more, work harder, save more, and it will take longer.  But I WILL get this project done.  I can get it done more effectively and faster with your help; but free speech and expression will need me to serve them even if you don't or can't.  I'm committed.  I have to make this work -- it's my life's vocation.  

The Impact

Maybe you think comics don't make much difference in the world or are of slight cultural import.  How wrong you are.

You are thinking about commercial entertainment comics made for conglomerate profits and to sell movies and merchandise.  

For example, take Christian Fundamentalist underground cartoonist Jack T. Chick.  By now, nearly everyone in America has at one or another time found one of his little comics designed as pure propaganda to sell conspiracy theories, End-of-the-World horror tales, hatred of the LGBT community, women's rights, an angry deity prepared to destroy the souls of anyone who doesn't believe what old Jack is selling by way of theology -- all that and more in 16 or so black and white pages in dozens and dozens of comics pamphlets.

Jack's been doing these things for decades.  He has his own press. He and one other illustrator do all the creative work and his company distributes these things by the hundreds cheaply to anyone who wants them to give away and spread the word.

Chick got the idea from Chinese Communists when he served as a Marine in the Pacific in WWII.  The Chinese used similar comics pamphlets to explain the basics of revolutionary thought to illiterate and partly literate peasants to great effect.  Jack thought, "If they can use the pamphlets for Communism, I could use them for my form of Christianity."  

Years later, Jack T. Chick has been extremely effective at spreading all sorts of beliefs, from the notion reading Harry Potter or playing D&D leads to occultism and demonic possession to the notion the Jesuits are secretly trying to take over the world and enthrone a pope as The Antichrist.   And that Freemasons are devil-worshippers, rock-and-roll will send you to Hell, and that one drink of alcohol will render you a miserable drug addict for life.

That's just scratching the surface.  JTC has been thoroughly effective at moulding and influencing many aspects of American culture.  All with little 16 page comics handed out by an army of volunteer true believers.

Comics can't affect the culture?   Don't you believe it.  They can be powerful tools capable of delivering any sort of message or artistic idea cheaply to a mass, post literate world.

Art Spiegelman, on the other hand, has used the medium to explore the Holocaust and its generational effects in his seminal, Pulitzer-winning Maus.   A deep, serious exploration of one of the most morally reprehensible chapters in human history, Spiegelman employed pictures and words to face man's inhumanity and all too human features for a literate audience.  He kept the memory of his father, a survivor, alive for all time in honest ink.

Help me buy a press and publish books that are more like Spiegelman's and in opposition to Chick's insane, hate-filled rage against the Enlightenment.  I've been making such works for years and there are others waiting to do and distribute the same -- all that holds us back is press access and places willing to sell our messages and art.

Give us the tools; we'll do the work in the name of civil liberties and the erosion of authoritarianism. 

    Risks & Challenges

    The main risk is locating our audience and putting the books into their hands easily.  Direct sales comics shops will sometimes take a risk on undergrounds, but usually the clientele won't.  They're looking for conglomocomics and collectible figures, cards, and so on -- the usual fan boy paraphernalia. However, there are alternatives that are being researched and approached.

    Shops specializing in pot-related material -- "smoke shops" and shops in states where marijuana is now legal -- are likely allies.  In the '60s and '70s, the old head shops were, in fact, the original points of distribution for first generation underground books, posters, and comix.  Naturally open to items promoting civil liberties, such shops seem one of the better venues to sell the printed comix:  The audience is there and some artists cater to them directly.

    Small, independent bookstores and used bookstores are a lesser possibility.

    There remains the network of comic book conventions -- being booked as guests or buying dealer's tables.    This also allows people like me to meet and speak with actual humans who may be interested in our books or in having their own work printed.

    And there is the internet where many of us maintain websites we can sell from directly and advertise our endeavours.  I maintain mine at www.losercomix.com

      Other Ways You Can Help

      Can't contribute to the cause but think it's important?  Your efforts to talk up this effort is just as important as money to me.  Use the "share" tools to let people know you support access to a free press for some folks who'll use it right.  Encourage others to take a look and consider helping out.  Talk about the issues of free speech, art, and sharing a variety of messages in the marketplaces.  

      Any help whatsoever you offer me will be worth more than I can ever tell you.

      Looking for more information? Check the project FAQ
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      Choose your Perk

      A comic pamphlet

      $5 USD
      Get a copy of FREE YOUR ASS, YOUR MIND WILL FOLLOW.
      Estimated Shipping
      October 2014
      2 out of 300 of claimed

      Free comic, signed!

      $20 USD
      A free printed issue of LOSER COMIX #1 signed by yours truly.
      Estimated Shipping
      September 2014
      2 out of 100 of claimed

      Free comic, signed!

      $20 USD
      A free printed issue of LOSER COMIX #1 signed by yours truly.
      Estimated Shipping
      October 2014
      1 out of 100 of claimed

      The poster!!

      $100 USD
      A full-color poster, specially designed and drawn for this project and signed by me. Only 100 of these posters will ever be printed.
      Estimated Shipping
      September 2014
      0 out of 100 of claimed

      The poster!!

      $100 USD
      A full-color poster, specially designed and drawn for this project and signed by me. Only 100 of these posters will ever be printed.
      Estimated Shipping
      October 2014
      0 out of 100 of claimed

      Original watercolor!!!

      $500 USD
      Receive an original, unique watercolor, 11 x 17, on Arches paper. Yep, I'll sign it.
      Estimated Shipping
      October 2014
      0 out of 10 of claimed

      Original watercolor!!!

      $500 USD
      Receive an original, unique watercolor, 11 x 17, on Arches paper. Yep, I'll sign it.
      Estimated Shipping
      October 2014
      0 out of 10 of claimed

      The Big Deal!!!!

      $1,000 USD
      Have your name printed on the cover of LOSER COMIX #2 as my special benefactor and receive a page of original art from the issue, signed (with my undying gratitude). Yes, you get a copy of the book, too.
      Estimated Shipping
      October 2014
      0 out of 1 of claimed

      The Big Deal!!!!

      $1,000 USD
      Have your name printed on the cover of LOSER COMIX #2 as my special benefactor and receive a page of original art from the issue, signed (with my undying gratitude). Yes, you get a copy of the book, too.
      Estimated Shipping
      November 2014
      0 out of 1 of claimed

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