Every few weeks we sift through all the dozens of crowdfunding communications we receive here at BF each week to bring you a handful of the more intriguing, exciting, experimental and daring uses of the form that we spot, along with some interesting campaigns we’ve found ourselves. These are comics or related publications that both fit the Broken Frontier coverage ethos and that we think deserve your backing!
Usually we look to push a few worthwhile projects your way in this Crowdfunding Corner section but every so often we spot something so deserving of your time that we run a Crowdfunding Corner Extra edition. This week we’re looking at Victoria Anderson and Wallis Eates’s Wings, a publication bringing the true stories of prisoners from Wandsworth Prison into print.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/littlemule/wings-a-make100-visual-storybook-from-prison/
The who and what: Writer Victoria Anderson and Broken Frontier Award-nominated artist Wallis Eates (Fear of Mum-Death and the Shadow Men, Like an Orange) were given access to Wandsworth Prison in 2017 for a digital film-making project intended to tell the prisoner’s own stories. Although, sadly, they were not able to take the finished material from the prison, and it was subsequently wiped, these true stories are still coming to life via transcripts into a book of prose, comics and illustration. It tells the prisoners’ stories while maintaining their anonymity and also gives the two creators’ perspectives on the experience as well.
What’s on offer: A neatly stripped back set of reward tiers ensure that what’s on offer is easily navigable. Physical copies of the book of course will be the main draw but prints, digital content and original art are also all available.
Why you should back it: We’ve spent many years pushing the autobio work of Wallis Eates at Broken Frontier talking of comics and zines that “speak to us all with their emotional immediacy and unyielding candour” and this collaboration with both Victoria Anderson and the prisoners involved, is the kind of socially aware practice that we know our readers respond to and support so well.
Take a look at the comprehensive explanation of its aims and delivery on the Kickstarter campaign page because it makes for very interesting and eloquent reading about the issues involved and the importance of getting the book out there. And if you can’t support the book financially then do try and spread the word on social media!
