Here’s the Kickstarter update:

Brett Ratner is directing Occupy Comics: The Movie. Wait, no he isn’t.

There was a little bit of confusion yesterday that I want to quickly address.

Most of you will recall that around this time last year I was trying to figure out how to get Occupy Comics into comic shops, but all the offers coming in from traditional comics publishers were really lousy and would eat up most of the funds that we’d be hoping to raise for Occupy protesters.

So, rather than sign Occupy Comics to a lousy deal, I partnered up with Steve Niles (writer of 30 Days Of Night and original-team Occupy Comics organizer) and Brett Gurewitz (guitarist Bad Religion, founder Epitaph Records, backer of Occupy Comics Kickstarter) to build a pipeline for bringing Occupy Comics to broader audiences at a lower cost than going through a traditional publisher so more money could be donated.

Since we were going through the effort of building the pipeline anyway, we figured it would be a good way to support other outsider/transgressive/radical/non-traditional art so we called it Black Mask Studios and offered it as a new distribution mechanism for creators.

Yesterday when we announced that Occupy Comics #1 would be in comic shops through Black Mask on May Day, we also announced other books we’re releasing through Black Mask in the Spring. Incidentally, every one of the books has at least one Occupy Comics contributor on the creative team: Darick Robertson on Ballistic, Matthew Rosenberg & Patrick Kindlon on 12 Reasons To Die, and Matt Miner on Liberator.

Hollywood Reporter’s Heat Vision comics blog covered the story, and most blogs picked up the way Heat Vision framed the story instead of picking it up from our official announcement. And, thus, confusion ensued.

Two main points of confusion:

1. Heat Vision is a Hollywood-centric comics blog, so they asked me if Black Mask intends to be in the business of developing intellectual property for Hollywood movies. I said no, we’re not looking at comics as movie treatments, but we’ll be doing transmedia worldbuilding. Now, “transmedia” is kind’ve an annoying buzzword, but if you’re familiar with what I’ve done with my Godkiller series and what I’m working on with Hack/Slash you’ll know that I just mean telling stories across multiple media platforms… which is basically what I do when I’m not volunteering on radical fundraising comics.

Anyhow, my comment there led some people to theorize that Occupy Comics is becoming a “transmedia” project and being used to launch some sort of transmedia company.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

There are no plans for “Grand Theft Auto: Zuccotti Park,” and anyway I wasn’t even talking about Occupy Comics when I answered that question. Occupy Comics is not “going transmedia,” whatever that even means.

Also, the whole point behind forming Black Mask was to get Occupy Comics a better deal and raise more money to be donated, not to launch some new company. Believe me, volunteering for a year & a half on an anti-corporate-greed comic book is not a get rich quick scheme. I know it sounds like one, but it’s not.

2. Heat Vision said “a portion” of the money from Occupy Comics is going to be donated.

Concern about that wording is totally valid, but it’s still kind’ve weird that anyone would assume Heat Vision is revealing a secret plan of ours to siphon cash out of the project… especially when the official announcement and Black Mask homepage all make perfectly clear that nothing has changed, this is a volunteer effort, and the revenue past hard costs is being donated.

Heat Vision just didn’t know the details so they said “a portion.”

But just to be perfectly clear, the revenue past hard costs is, was, and always shall be donated.

And, for further clarity, Black Mask will be *lessening* costs versus traditional publishers.

Cool?

I’m sure most of you don’t read Hollywood Reporter and have no idea what I’m talking about, but, in our ongoing effort to remain as transparent as possible, I thought it best to err on the side of TMI.

As always, thank you for supporting Occupy Comics. -Matt

Hey everybody!

It’s time for your annual Occupy Comics update!
Ok, so first of all, this update has nothing (intentionally) to do with DC Comics’ announcement last week that they’re doing an Occupy-related comic that’s not actually an Occupy-related comic… or whatever. Just weird coincidence that Occupy is returning to comics all at once.

So… if you haven’t noticed, the collected Occupy Comics book is late. I updated a bit in the comments about why this occurred, but mainly the “projected release date” was really a pretty broad guesstimate a year out… we’re managing a lot of moving parts here and a large coalition of volunteers, so it’s been a bit of balancing when to close the book out and stop accepting late contributions.

I’ve literally still been receiving new pieces this week, and the book will really benefit from all these late inclusions.

Also, I’ve been really busy Instagramming pictures of my lunch. I mean, c’mon, gotta have priorities here.

BUT we’re finishing up the book now and Punxsutawney Phil did NOT see his shadow so I’m confident the book WILL be done by… Good Friday. Why not? We’re finishing it for Lent. Haha.

It’s interesting how the timespan has affected the voice of the book. There are the pieces that came in right away that are really in the thick of Occupy and the events on the ground, expressing it and documenting it in real time. Those are a great and important time capsule… it can be easy to forget what it was like at the time, even now just 15 months later, amid the revisionary haze of bias and trolling–so going back and reading those early pieces today is actually kinda startling and refreshing.

The newer ones are more reflective in a really interesting way and also forward-looking at the ongoing Occupy-related initiatives… there’s one written by Matt Miner (upcoming Liberator) a resident of Rockaway who was aided by Occupy Sandy when he and his whole community were let down by FEMA and LIPA and The Red Cross in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. That one in particular demonstrates the continued importance of Occupy, and I’m really glad it’s going into the book. I’m hoping we’ll have pieces about Strike Debt and Rolling Jubilee and other post-Zuccotti incarnations of Occupy as well.

In a weird way, it feels like the whole thing has come full circle.

Those of you who followed the project from the beginning will recall that we started this before any of the media hoopla. Originally this was about drawing attention to Occupy and its themes and goals before the media was giving it any attention.

Then it suddenly became a media sensation and our little project went along for the roller coaster ride.

Now the press has left, the camps are long cleared, and Occupy is generally being presented by the media as having fizzled or failed, which is completely wrong… it’s just changed forms.

So, personally, I feel Occupy Comics is as relevant and urgent today as it was on Day One… maybe not Day One of the Kickstarter, but Day One of the project itself. After all, one of the points of this project was that there should be more forums for this conversation than just the encampments and the coverage by a media more interested in police brutality videos and snarky gossip than actual coverage of the issues inspiring the conflicts.

To that end, we are still planning to release the stories of Occupy Comics volume 1 more broadly beyond the Kickstarter, but we are also committed to making sure you, our faithful Kickstarter followers, receive all and more content than anyone else… and you receive it first.

The comic shop version will be re-organized from the comics you’ve received, but they will consist of mainly the same content.

We’re slating issue 1 to be in comic shops on May 1 for May Day (coincidental that DC is also releasing it’s own Occupy book the same day) and the issues will continue monthly from there.

We are committed to getting you the collected Occupy Comics book before that comic shop street date for the first retail issue, the only potential snafu is that hardcover book printers have really long turnarounds. But you’ll certainly have all the content digitally before May 1.

Also, we are honoring our commitment to and deep appreciation for our Kickstarter pledgers by sending you all the comic shop versions of Occupy Comics volume 1 as free digital downloads.

Our top priority is to finish volume 1 and get it read by as many people as possible (and continue raising funds for Occupy-related initiatives), but if it goes well and everyone is happy with the experience and we feel it is beneficial to the movement in its own modest way, then I could see it continuing on as a politically-themed comics anthology like RAW or World War 3 Illustrated. I think something like that could be really cool and important, but that’s a ways away.

So, as always, thank you so much for supporting this project and we hope you’ll stick with us as we finish phase 1 and move on to new & exciting adventures bringing these stories inspired by Occupy Wall Street to you and more readers who aren’t as cutting-edge and with-it as you.

Pulitzer Prize- & Eisner Award-winning creator Art Spiegelman (Maus), the creative team of activist Bill Ayers and artist Ryan Alexander-Tanner (To Teach: The Journey, in Comics), comics writer Jimmy Palmiotti (The Pro, Jonah Hex), and nationally syndicated cartoonist, 2012 Pulitzer Prize Finalist Matt Bors (War Is Boring) have joined the Occupy Comics roster, as publisher Black Mask Studios (formed by Occupy Comics organizer Matt Pizzolo with writer Steve Niles and Epitaph Records owner Brett Gurewitz) opens up the Occupy Comics webstore and officially releases Occupy Comics #1 as well as pre-orders of the collected book for the first time since completion of the project’s successful Kickstarter campaign.

“It’s really exciting to see the roster continue to grow with unique and surprising new contributors all these months later, despite the parks being cleared and the movement re-inventing itself,” said Occupy Comics organizational spearhead Matt Pizzolo. “I hope this project will continue the Occupy conversation in the artistic forum of comics, which helped spawn aspects of the movement in the first place.”

“We just released issue 1 to Kickstarter pledgers last week and the response has been wonderful, I think it’s beating a lot of people’s expectations. The team provided an unexpectedly thoughtful, insightful, and non-partisan collection of perspectives.”

Following a successful Kickstarter fundraising effort last fall, Occupy Comics is now releasing the first issue of the volunteer-based anthology inspired by the Occupy protests. Coming in at 36 pages, Issue 1 features award-winning and groundbreaking creators including Ben Templesmith (30 Days of Night), J.M. DeMatteis (Justice League, Imaginalis), Dean Haspiel (American Splendor), Molly Crabapple (Shell Game), fine artist Guy Denning, Tyler Crook (Petrograd), Joshua Dysart (Swamp Thing, The Unknown Soldier), Zoetica Ebb (Biorequiem), Ales Kot (Wild Children), and others.

Raising nearly $30,000 from eager supporters, Occupy Comics will eventually culminate in the product of a deluxe hardcover book with work from Alan Moore (V For Vendetta, Watchmen), David Lloyd (V For Vendetta), Darick Robertson (Transmetropolitan), David Mack (Kabuki), Amanda Palmer (The Dresden Dolls), Steve Niles (30 Days of Night), Shannon Wheeler (Too Much Coffee Man), Charlie Adlard (The Walking Dead), Mike Allred (Madman), Eric Drooker (Flood!), Dan Goldman (Shooting War, ’08: A Graphic Diary of the Campaign Trail), and many more.

Maintaining the historic nature of this time-capsule, the complete edition of Occupy Comics will only be available in a limited edition, hardcover format. All revenue outside hard costs will be directly donated to various actions of the global Occupy movement.

As originally reported in Wired, Occupy Comics will be distributed through the newly formed Black Mask Studios, a distribution model developed by writer Steve Niles (30 Days of Night), filmmaker Matt Pizzolo (writer-director Godkiller, president of Halo-8), and musician Brett Gurewitz (guitarist-songwriter Bad Religion, owner Epitaph Records), along with support by coordinator Aaron Colter.

Black Mask is now opening up online preorders for the limited edition, hardcover book. This is the first time it’s been available since the close of the Kickstarter campaign, and the only time it’s ever been available for international audiences. The book is still slated for a Fall 2012 release, with installments released as comic book anthologies along the way.

Updated Complete Roster
(in alphabetical order)
Charlie Adlard (The Walking Dead)
Mike Allred (Madman)
Marc Andreyko (Manhunter)
Bill Ayers & Ryan Alexander-Tanner (To Teach: The Journey, in Comics)
Matt Bors (War Is Boring: Bored Stiff, Scared to Death in the World’s Worst War Zones)
Susie Cagle (Notes on Conflict, arrested at Occupy Oakland)
Mike Cavallaro (Parade (with fireworks), Life & Times of Savior 28)
Kevin Colden (I Rule the Night, Grimm’s Fairy Tales)
Molly Crabapple (Shell Game)
Tyler Crook (Petrograd, B.P.R.D.)
Vito Delsante (Superman, FCHS)
J.M. DeMatteis (Justice League, Spider-Man, Imaginalis)
Guy Denning (painter)
Eric Drooker (Flood!)
Joshua Dysart (Swamp Thing, The Unknown Soldier)
Zoetica Ebb (Biorequiem.com)
Theo Ellsworth (Capacity, Sleeper Car)
Joshua Hale Fialkov (I Vampire, Tumor)
Allen Gladfelter (Cars, The Inspectre)
Dan Goldman (Shooting War, 08: A Graphic Diary of the Campaign Trail)
Jenny “Devildoll” Gonzalez-Blitz (Coffin Factory art collective)
Brea Grant (We Will Bury You, Suicide Girls)
Zane Grant (We Will Bury You, Suicide Girls)
Joe Harris (Ghost Projekt, Spontaneous)
Dean Haspiel (American Splendor)
Megan Hutchison (upcoming An Aurora Grimeon Story: Will-O-the-Wisp)
Joe Keatinge (Hell Yeah, Glory, Brutal)
Ales Kot (Wild Children)
George Krstic (Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Megas XLR)
Jonathan Swifty Lang (Feeding Ground)
Joseph Michael Linsner (Dawn)
David Lloyd (V For Vendetta)
Patrick Meaney (Grant Morrison: Talking With Gods)
Mark L. Miller (The Jungle Book, Luna, Nanny & Hank)
Caleb Monroe (Batman: Fearless, Hunter’s Fortune)
Alan Moore (V For Vendetta, Watchmen, Batman: The Killing Joke)
B. Clay Moore (Hawaiian Dick, Superman Confidential)
Jerem Morrow (Kingdom Suicide)
Amancay Nahuelpan-Bustamante (Hijos de P)
Steve Niles (30 Days of Night, Batman: Gotham County Line)
Ryan Ottley (Invincible)
Jimmy Palmiotti (The Pro, Jonah Hex)
Amanda Palmer (The Dresden Dolls)
Laurie Penny (Penny Red)
Matt Pizzolo (Godkiller)
Darick Robertson (Transmetropolitan, The Boys)
Steve Rolston (Ghost Projekt, Queen & Country)
Riley Rossmo (Proof, Cowboy Ninja Viking)
Douglas Rushkoff (Testament, media theorist)
Mark Sable (Two Face: Year One, Rift Raiders, Unthinkable)
Salgood Sam (Dream Life, RevolveR One, Revolution on the Planet of the Apes)
Tim Seeley (Hack/Slash, Witchblade)
Smudge (2000AD)
Art Spiegelman (Maus)
Simon Spurrier (2000 AD, X-Men: Curse of the Mutants)
Ben Templesmith (30 Days of Night, Fell)
Shannon Wheeler (Too Much Coffee Man)
Anna Wieszczyk (Godkiller, Lucid)
Ronald Wimberly (MF GRIMM: Sentences)

As reported in Comics Alliance last week, we’ve added:

Mike Allred (Madman)
Shannon Wheeler (Too Much Coffee Man)
Eric Drooker (Flood!)
Ryan Ottley (Invincible)
Dean Haspiel (American Splendor)
painter Guy Denning
David Lloyd (V For Vendetta, designer of the now iconic Guy Fawkes mask)

And as reported in Wired today, we’ve added:

Alan Moore (Watchmen, V For Vendetta, Batman: The Killing Joke, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, From Hell)

EPIC.

This is great news, and since we’re almost certain to pass our funding goal we can perform our next incredible trick: bringing on even more fantastic artists and writers. Ta-da!

Yes–thanks to the outpouring of financial love, we feel confident that we can afford more pages of art & story for your reading pleasure.

WEEK 1 FINALE – Somebody spilled some water on us, we’ve multiplied!

(new additions in alphabetical order)

Mike Cavallaro (Parade (with fireworks), Life & Times of Savior 28)
Vito Delsante (Superman, FCHS)
Troy Dye (Shrek, Puss in Boots, The Goblin Chronicles)
Dan Goldman (Shooting War, 08: A Graphic Diary of the Campaign Trail)
Jenny “Devildoll” Gonzalez-Blitz (Coffin Factory art collective)
Joe Harris (Ghost Projekt, Spontaneous)
Tom Kelesides (Shrek, Puss in Boots, The Goblin Chronicles)
Jonathan Swifty Lang (Feeding Ground)
Amanda Palmer (The Dresden Dolls)
Darick Robertson (Transmetropolitan, The Boys)
Mark Sable (Two Face: Year One, Rift Raiders, Unthinkable)
Salgood Sam (Dream Life, RevolveR One, Revolution on the Planet of the Apes)
Anna Wieszczyk (Godkiller, Lucid)

Thank you pledgers for the amazing support! Thank you social networkers for spreading the word! And thank you contributors for joining the team and working with us to make art & support social change!

[Image: The People’s Library by Molly Crabapple & John Leavitt]

– Activism-inspired charity anthology intends to fundraise for protests while simultaneously creating art around the movement’s themes –

Occupy Comics went live on Kickstarter today, launching a comics campaign to support the Occupy movement artistically and financially. The 30-day Kickstarter effort seeks to raise money for the Occupy Wall Street protesters by funding the creation of a hardbound, deluxe, collectible anthology book that compiles new art and stories by comics pros inspired by the movement. Beyond actual hard costs (which will be kept as low and transparent as possible) all funds raised through Kickstarter and all revenue generated by the book will be donated to support the movement.

This is the first project of its kind to bring together artists and writers inspired to create change by making art together and utilizing that art to financially support a social protest movement in an organized, sustainable way.

The starting roster of artists and writers includes:
(in alphabetical order)
Charlie Adlard (The Walking Dead)
Marc Andreyko (Manhunter)
Susie Cagle (Notes on Conflict, arrested at Occupy Oakland)
Kevin Colden (I Rule the Night, Grimm’s Fairy Tales)
Molly Crabapple (Dr. Sketchy’s)
Tyler Crook (Petrograd, B.P.R.D.)
J.M. DeMatteis (Justice League, Spider-Man, Imaginalis)
Joshua Dysart (Swamp Thing, The Unknown Soldier)
Zoetica Ebb (Biorequiem.com)
Joshua Hale Fialkov (I Vampire, Tumor)
Brea Grant (We Will Bury You, Suicide Girls)
Zane Grant (We Will Bury You, Suicide Girls)
Joe Keatinge (Hell Yeah, Glory, Brutal)
Ales Kot (upcoming projects w/ Image Comics & DC Ent)
George Krstic (Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Megas XLR)
Joseph Michael Linsner (Dawn)
Patrick Meaney (Grant Morrison: Talking With Gods)
Mark L. Miller (Luna, Nanny & Hank)
Caleb Monroe (Batman: Fearless, Hunter’s Fortune)
B. Clay Moore (Hawaiian Dick, Superman Confidential)
Jerem Morrow (Drive-In Horrorshow, Kingdom Suicide)
Amancay Nahuelpan-Bustamante (Hijos de P)
Steve Niles (30 Days of Night, Batman: Gotham County Line)
Laurie Penny (Penny Red)
Matt Pizzolo (Godkiller)
Steve Rolston (Ghost Projekt, Queen & Country)
Riley Rossmo (Proof, Cowboy Ninja Viking)
Douglas Rushkoff (Testament, media theorist)
Tim Seeley (Hack/Slash, Witchblade)
Simon Spurrier (2000 AD, X-Men: Curse of the Mutants)
Ben Templesmith (30 Days of Night, Fell)
Ronald Wimberly (MF GRIMM: Sentences)

[Description of the book from Kickstarter page]
This book is intended to be a time capsule of the passions and emotions driving the movement. We are comic book & graphic novel artists and writers who’ve been inspired by the movement and hope to tell the stories of the people who are out there putting themselves at risk for an idea. What is that idea? Most of the media will tell you the idea is a vague and befuddled mess, but movements don’t coalesce around vague, befuddled messes. We hope that through the medium of comics we can share some of the ideas and experiences driving this movement.

Organizer Matt Pizzolo has posted a blueprint of the fundraising strategy here
http://occupycomics.com/2011/10/11/the-blueprint/

“The idea occurred to me in the first weeks of Occupy Wall Street and it seemed like New York Comic Con would be a great opportunity to expose the protest movement to 100,000 idealistic young people,” explained Pizzolo. “But before NYCC happened, the media coverage turned from blackout to circus so exposure was no longer an issue. We decided it would be better to fundraise and help sustain the movement directly… even if that just means winter coats and port-a-potties.

“I was surprised how many comics creators jumped at the chance to participate when I first started mentioning it. The conversations being generated by Occupy Wall Street transcend politics… I think this is compelling material for comics because it’s about fairness and justice and integrity. It’s not about politics. Regular people are out there putting themselves at risk for an idea.

“Some folks question if the movement needs money, but it certainly needs basic necessities to last through winter. Also, it seems that both sides in DC and partisan media are seeking to impose a partisan paradigm on the movement… the best way to keep things indie is by having sustainable, truly grassroots funding.”

Logistical support for the project is being provided by Pizzolo’s indie film & comics studio Halo-8 Entertainment, though Occupy Comics is not officially a Halo-8 production and Halo-8 will receive no profits from it… in fact, ideally revenue won’t even flow through Halo-8.

“I’m hyper aware of the need to keep things transparent,” said Pizzolo. “Halo-8 is only lending support because it can, but ideally third-party accounts will send all revenue directly to the fund–and I’d love for an indie publisher to step in. I don’t want this getting muddy and the more checks & balances the better. The idea is to keep hard costs as low as physically possible and all other revenue goes directly to the protesters.”

Occupy Comics will debut as a rolling series of digital comics in early 2012, followed by limited edition paper comics, and then compiled into a hardbound, deluxe, collectible anthology book late in 2012.

To learn more, visit www.occupycomics.com

To support the project, visit
www.kickstarter.com/projects/1817933359/occupy-comics-art-stories-inspired-by-occupy-wall

FAQ from the Occupy Comics Kickstarter page:

What is OCCUPY COMICS and what makes it so special?

Unless you’re living under a rock, you’ve heard about the Occupy Wall Street movement that has spread across the country and around the world. We believe this is an incredibly unique movement that transcends the usual partisan gridlock and could have a profound affect on all our futures. Even if it dissolves completely, it has changed the conversation in the country and around the world in a way that deserves to be remembered.

Ok, but what’s this book?

This book is intended to be a time capsule of the passions and emotions driving the movement. We are comic book & graphic novel artists and writers who’ve been inspired by the movement and hope to tell the stories of the people who are out there putting themselves at risk for an idea. What is that idea? Most of the media will tell you the idea is a vague and befuddled mess, but movements don’t coalesce around vague, befuddled messes. We hope that through the medium of comics we can share some of the ideas and experiences driving this movement.

Does it actually support the protest movement?

YES! This isn’t *just* about art and time capsules, it’s also about direct action.

All of the writers, artists, business executives, and the publisher are being paid to produce this book… and they ALL are donating 100% of their revenue (not profits, but ALL monies they receive) to the occupiers. They want to support the movement through the winter by providing warm clothes, heaters and bathrooms if possible, and other amenities. For a more detailed breakdown on how the money will flow from pledges to production of the book to the protesters, visit www.occupycomics.com and check out the blueprint.

So what’s the plan exactly?

By funding this project on Kickstarter, we can pay all the creators and executives upfront. They’re pros so if they get paid, they deliver… but it will take a long time–months, at least.

However, the creators and executives will immediately be donating their payments to the protests… so even though the book won’t be done until mid to late 2012, the creators and executives will be able to donate to the protesters during Fall 2011–when the movement needs the $$ most.

Deliveries will start flowing in from the creators throughout 2012, so as they come in we’ll compile them into ongoing digital comics and limited edition print comics. Backers receive these as part of their pledges, but they will also be sold and all revenue from those sales will also flow to the protesters.

When all the art and stories are delivered, we will collect the entire opus into a limited edition anthology. Again, many of these anthologies will go direct to backers of the project and any revenue from sale of the anthology will flow to the protesters.

What if the Occupy Movement dissolves before all the money is spent?

Since the money is all being paid to the creators and executives and they are all agreeing to donate their payments to the Occupy protesters, they will have to make their own decisions of what to do with the money in the event the Occupy Movement dissolves before they can donate. Hopefully everyone will allocate their shares in a way that retains the spirit of the project, but we can’t guarantee that.

Why should I pledge for this project?

There are many reasons to pledge for this project. It’s the first project of its kind to bring together artists and writers inspired to create change by creating art together and utilizing that art to financially support a social protest movement. But maybe you don’t care about that… it’ll still be an awesome comic anthology by some of your favorite artists and writers. And even if you don’t care, maybe the Occupy movement will make history and you can take credit for supporting it decades from now. Who knows?

[about the video: music by Atari Teenage Riot (“Black Flags” instr.), protester portrait by Molly Crabapple, “We Are All In This Together” by Molly Crabapple & John Leavitt, “Occupy Comics” by Anna Wieszczyk featuring Soledad from Godkiller, video edited by Matt Pizzolo.]

[Synopsis: We’re using Kickstarter to raise money for production of the Occupy Comics digital comic series, hardbound collected book, and “illustrated film” DVD. With the money raised from Kickstarter, we will pay all the contributors. The contributors and publisher are all choosing to donate all their compensation (not just profits) to the protesters. So Occupy Comics is a work of art inspired by the Occupy protest movement, and, beyond that, the individual creators are opting to use all the money earned from their art to fund protests.]

– As stated elsewhere, my original idea was simply to spread the message of the protests to the 100,000 or so idealistic non-billionaires at the Javits Center for NYCC, but that was a few weeks back during the media blackout. Now “exposure” seems less critical and basic necessities (bathrooms, winter clothing & ideally some legal form of outdoor heating so the occupation can persist through winter) seem more helpful.

– The current thinking is we can do something similar to Womanthology–recognizing that its huge success can’t be replicated and it’s like saying “we’ll do something like the Obama campaign,” but if we stay smart and focused and efficient then Occupy Comics won’t even have to be even 10% as successful as Womanthology in order to make a big difference.

– Right now we’re putting together a roster of popular artists/writers who want to support the protests and are willing to donate their creative contributions so long as a floor of money pledges are received via Kickstarter.

– We still have to determine the minimum pledge amount, but say for argument’s sake it’s $5k or $10k. The money flow (like any Kickstarter project) works like this: pledge amounts go to the work of producing the book… i.e., hard costs, creative costs, publisher costs. But with Occupy Comics, the creators and publisher are all donating 100% of their compensation to the occupiers. And the intention is to keep the hard costs as close to zero as possible. So we get to make an awesome book and the creators get to support a movement they care about.

– At the minimum number of pledges, the book will only be released digitally so ALL the pledge money (as well as whatever revenue is generated by digital sales) will ultimately go directly to the occupiers. If my company Halo-8 produces the project, not only will we not take a cut of revenue but we’ll instruct the distributors to pay out directly to the occupier fund. The money will not even pass through our company. Total transparency.

– We are also setting a tier of pledges that will enable us to publish a printed book. The minimum pledge amount to hit this tier depends on whether or not we have to pay to print/ship/distribute the book or if a third party publisher steps up to distribute and eat those hard costs. It would be nice if the publisher distributed at cost, but it’s not necessary… comics aren’t very profitable to begin with, so those revenues aren’t really the point. The goal will be keeping hard costs as low as possible and passing as much money as possible directly to the creators. If a publisher is willing to cover hard costs and recoup from sales, it means the creators will earn more and can thus send more money direct to the occupiers.

– There’s the possibility that at a higher tier we could adapt the book into an “illustrated film” like Godkiller, which would involve a whole new level of creators (actors, editors, musicians, sound designers, etc) and thus it would be complicated but still feasible to put together a likeminded roster. The thing about an illustrated film vs a print comic book though is that illustrated films are actually profitable. Godkiller (despite being called Godkiller) was distributed on DVD to massmarket retail and reached 80 million homes on VOD (Time Warner Cable, Comcast, Dish, Xbox, Playstation, etc) before eventually going out on Netflix Streaming and Hulu. It remains to be seen if the Occupy Comics content will work for that type of animation, but there is real money going that route.

Profits from a book or illustrated film are almost tangental though because the book will take months to create and if we were to do an illustrated film it would take even longer (plus the money trickles back pretty slowly). So that’s all longterm.

The beauty of driving the main portion of financing with Kickstarter is that we can pay the creators up front (they’re all professionals with track records for delivering on time), so they can elect to donate their compensation to the occupiers shortly after launching the project. If we move quick, they might be able to get honeywagons downtown by Thanksgiving.

To clarify: we’re using Kickstarter to raise money for production of the Occupy Comics digital comic series, hardbound collected book, and “illustrated film” DVD. With the money raised from Kickstarter, we will pay all the contributors. The contributors and publisher are all choosing to donate all their compensation (not just profits) to the protesters. So Occupy Comics is a work of art inspired by the Occupy protest movement, and, beyond that, the individual creators are opting to use all the money earned from their art to fund protests.

What if we get a bunch of money and the protest movement falls apart before we donate? Well, again, the Kickstarter pledges are allocated to artists and writers who are all opting to donate their compensation. In the event the movement dissolves, then each contributor can spend their compensation however they see fit… it would be nice if there was some consensus on the best use of the money that maintains the spirit in which the pledgers backed the project, but that can’t be guaranteed.

Obviously this is still a developing strategy, so please chime in with thoughts on how we can refine the idea or better implement the strategy.

Since then, it’s become a media circus. Exposure is no longer the necessity.

As a result, we’re now developing Occupy Comics into more of a fundraising project to support the protesters.

The Tea Party started out as small groups of angry citizens with a non-partisan populist message, but it was infused with cash from political groups who steered it into what it has become.

The Occupy movement will need support as winter approaches, and if that financial support can come from grassroots fundraising rather than political groups it may help keep the message non-partisan.

In the meantime, here’s a piece of art for ya. This is part of a larger piece Anna Muckcracker (Godkiller) did for the Atari Teenage Riot video Black Flags, which consists of crowdsourced activist footage (Atari did the score for Godkiller and my earlier film Threat as well). Anna’s piece will be in the next cut of the video, check out the first cut below.

Occupy Comics -by Anna Muckcracker, from Godkiller image for Atari Teenage Riot's Black Flags video

I work in a lot of media formats, and comics is one of my favorites because the intersection of visual art and dramatic writing opens up really unique toolkits of expression. Comics have the visual iconography of film, the sublime imagery of gallery art, the textual depth of plays, the ferocity of street art, and a devoted audience that dissects, analyzes, and debates the content’s deepest levels. (Not always, but the potential is always there.)

I’m also an activist, and I’ve been very moved by the Occupy Wall Street protests over the past month. I participated in the Occupy LA protest and am looking forward to spending time at Occupy Wall Street while I’m in NY for NY Comic Con next week. Ten years ago, I was involved with the globalization protests around the WTO and World Bank meetings. It’s refreshing to see the Occupy Wall Street protests remaining peaceful on both the police and citizen sides. I hope the non-violence persists… I’ve seen non-violent demonstrations fall into violence. It’s not pretty and it’s not productive.

I think Occupy Wall Street needs art more than it needs a List of Demands.

There’s been a call from the mass-media for the protesters to issue some sort of List of Demands, but that’s a can of worms… I think the more vague the better–after all, the American Revolution got pretty far on “No taxation without representation” and that’s a lot clunkier than “We are the 99%.” The Obama campaign (setting aside partisanship or the presidency, just the campaign) was a fascinating example of how specific iconography and vague goals can coalesce into a powerful movement. I think Occupy Wall Street needs art more than it needs a list of demands. I love the image of the Dancer on the Bull… but the background of teargas and Black Bloc is geared more toward activist early adopters like me and the movement is already expanding from there.

I think artists & writers of comic books have a unique ability to evoke broad ideas and ideals in captivating, dramatic ways. So I’m reaching out to artists & writers in the comics community about this project–which, admittedly, is currently even more vague than the protests… maybe it will be a comic book, maybe a website, maybe a coffee table book, maybe a phone app… but if there is interest it will at least add some new voices to the discussion. Comics is a small world compared to scale the protests have taken, but think globally act locally, right? A single piece of art can ultimately transcend everything else.

I don’t see this as being political, certainly not in a partisan way. The entrenched interests will apply a partisan paradigm to just about everything. At it’s core, the movement is “We are the 99%.” I hope this project can demonstrate that level of broad idealism.