Keith Knight
Comic Book Independents explores mysteries, struggles of creativity
Now available On Demand, the documentary Comic Book Independents by director Chris Brandt receives wider distribution at an interesting time. In the midst of a migration of comic book creators from work-for-hire to creator-owned projects, and just as a renewed discussion about creator rights gains momentum, this documentary offers fascinating insight on what it means to go it alone in comics.
It’s not your usual comics documentary, and if you’re a creative type yourself, or are interested by those who are, you’ll probably find yourself inspired. Framed by information from cognitive psychologist Dr. James Kaufman, the human process of creativity as it is realized in comics is broken down and explored by some of the art form’s most interesting thinkers and voices.
Comics A.M. | Publisher Filip Sablik leaves Top Cow Productions
Filip Sablik
Publishing | Heidi MacDonald catches word that Top Cow Publisher Filip Sablik is moving on to a new job, which will be announced next month at Comic-Con International (Rich Johnston contends that gig is at BOOM! Studios). Friday will be Sablik’s last day at Top Cow; Social Marketing Coordinator Jessi Reid will assume his marketing duties. [The Beat, Bleeding Cool]
Creators | Through its partnership with the Small Press Expo, the Library of Congress has acquired works by cartoonists Matt Bors, Keith Knight, Jim Rugg, Jen Sorensen, Raina Telgemeier, Matthew Thurber and Jim Woodring. Dean Haspiel’s minicomics collection was added to the holdings just last week. [Comic Riffs]
Kickstart My Art | Food and eating anthology Digestate
Earlier this month we showcased comics-as-cookbooks, and now we find on Kickstarter a veritable buffet of comics for the foodies among us. Organized by cartoonist/small press publisher J.T. Yost, Digestate is a taster’s choice of stories by 50-plus cartoonists chronicling their own food tastes.
“Each artist has approached the theme in a manner exclusive to their own personality,” Yost says on the project’s Kickstarter page. “There are some autobiographical comics (both funny and heart-wrenching), some fictional comics, some akin to an essay and others that defy categorization altogether.”
The line-up is a “Who’s Who” of cartoonists, with everyone from Renee French and Marc Bell to James Kochalka and Alex Robinson to Keith Knight and Berkeley Breathed. On the Kickstarter page there are several of the stories to be included in the print publication, including the excellent “Bacon Vs. Asparagus with Oscar” by Jeffrey Brown, which is at the bottom of this post.
Digestate is nearly half-way to its$4,500 goal with 30 days remaining in the fundraising campaign. Compared with recent Kickstarter comics drives, $4,500 seems like a relatively small amount but Yost doesn’t say what the money specifically will be going for. Regardless, remember to tip your server!
Keith Knight’s 14 tips for a better Kickstarter campaign
Last week The K Chronicles cartoonist Keith Knight exceeded his $40,000 goal with a Kickstarter campaign to fund I Was a Teenage Michael Jackson Impersonator, an autobiographical graphic novel about “a young man who found himself through impersonating somebody else.” Today he took to The Washington Post’s Comic Riffs blog to share what he learned from the Kickstarter experience, offering 14 tips for a aore successful fundraising campaign.”
Some of Knight’s suggestions are common sense, such as including sample art on your Kickstarter page and advertising your project on your own website. Others aren’t quite as obvious: “Be sure that your campaign launches ends during the week, not the weekend. Weekends are where Kickstarter campaigns go to die.”
I also liked this pointer, because, well, if you want to get a little you should be willing to give a little: “It’s probably not a big deal, but before I launched, I backed a few projects. ‘Cause when I check out a project, I scroll down to the little photo to see the bio, and I found myself more willing to get behind someone who has backed other Kickstarter projects themselves.”
Straight for the art | Knight and NCS
Keith Knight's NCS suggestions
Keith Knight attended the National Cartoonists Society’s annual convention and has some notable and worthwhile suggestions on how to make the event better.
