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Support Dean Haspiel’s Covid Cop Kickstarter Campaign
Asking The Hard Questions
We always like to support comics crowdfunding campaigns on here and veteran US indie comics writer-artist Dean Haspiel has a new Kickstarter campaign which started a few days ago…
Story
COVID COP is a romance horror comic book for mature readers featuring a new 21st Century antihero (inspired by the global pandemic) by Ringo and Emmy Award winning cartoonist Dean Haspiel, the creator of The Red Hook and Billy Dogma.
My favourite cartoonist, Jack Kirby (the co-creator of the Marvel Universe and some DC Comics characters) didn’t just think about what he wanted to spend his time creating or how it would sell. He wanted to connect with readers and melt minds. Go big or go home. For all of Kirby’s cosmic concepts, he never forgot about the heart of a story. Having fought in World War 2, I believe Kirby’s comics were a product of battlefield PTSD. The things he saw. The things he had to do. Kirby was working out the best and the worst of humanity. He questioned the idea of God and then dared to answer it. And that’s what art does best. It asks the hard questions that don’t necessarily have answers.
In 2020, around the same time I conceived & co-curated the Ringo Award nominated PANDEMIX (which was the first comic book anthology to respond to the pandemic), I created an idea that I showed to several publishers and it received the same reactions. “We love your idea but we can’t publish it.” They were too afraid. Scared of how people would respond. I took that as a good sign. A major clue that I’d made something that might truly resonate.
I spent the winter holidays and the early part of 2023 illustrating the story that I had written and pitched in 2020, during a time of isolation and terror, and do what art and comix do best, spawn an antihero. My aim is to crowdfund this creator owned, self-published comic book. Something bombastic yet heartfelt and wholly independent. An expression of a certain time and space for you and me. Something to cringe yet laugh at. A “Dean Haspiel deep cut” called COVID COP.
A cross between Judge Dredd, Toxic Avenger, Mad Max, and Sin City, COVID COP is my response to a pandemic that never found its cure and has wiped out 98% of mankind. By steeping in the fumes and waters of Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal, can Covid Cop become the antidote that might save what’s left of humanity and rekindle romance with his ex-wife, Fate Majeure?
I’m inviting you to hop on board the ground floor of my grassroots effort and help me print an outlier sensation that will be mailed directly to your doorstep. If this introductory one-shot does well, I have more Covid Cop stories to chronicle.
Starting with THE VAXX pledge, all rewards offer a digital version of COVID COP and a SIGNED print version of the comic book.
The BOOSTER SHOT pledge gets you a small, original cardboard drawing of Covid Cop with YOUR NAME ON IT (see example below).
The COVID CABANA pledge guarantees a couple of hours of madcap Zoom hijinks with surprise guests and a bunch of y’all who supported this project in real time.
THE ANTIDOTE pledge is a one-on-one comix consultation with aspiring cartoonists and seasoned story-makers looking for a different way to tackle their creative process.
THE CURE pledge gets you an original single figure character of your choosing in black & white (ink on 9×12 paper).
REAL TALK: I never left pen and paper. And with the insidious deluge of Artificial Intelligence pirating and transposing art sans authorial permission, I’m a little gun shy to share too much COVID COP art online. But I’ll happily tease some images for promotional purposes. Please look out for upcoming interviews with exclusive COVID COP art and/or discussion that I may include here during the campaign to tickle you while encouraging the analog nature of print-only comix.
COVID COP is a 24-page colour comic book.
Risks and challenges
By the time this campaign ends, I’ll have completed COVID COP and be ready for print and distribution. The challenge I face is recouping my personal financial investment and getting the book into your hands. It took three months of unpaid work for me to visualize this project. COVID COP is something I aim to sell at conventions and events. But you, my first supporter, will be forever cherished in my heart for helping realize a veteran freelance cartoonists dream of taking the first step towards independent publishing. For there are plenty more “Dean Haspiel Deep Cuts” to come, if you’ll have me. THANK YOU.
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