Support Soaring Penguin’s Urban Tails Kickstarter

What are we doing?

We’re looking to publish Ilana Zeffren’s heart-warming book, Urban Tails, in English for the first time.

What is Urban Tails?

In 2006, Ilana Zeffren began Rishumon, a weekly comic strip in Hebrew for the Tel Aviv newspaper City Mouse, part of Haaretz, one of the main papers with country-wide distribution. Rishumon was autobiographical, featuring Ilana, her girlfriend, and their two cats, Rafi and Spaghetti. 

In 2014, the Israeli publisher Pardes published Rishumon, a collection of the strips from 2006-2013.

In 2021, we’re planning to publish Urban Tails, the collection in English for the first time. Over 200 pages, full colour, with a retail price of £16.99

Who is Ilana Zeffren?

Ilana Zeffren is an Israeli comics artist living in Tel Aviv.

For the past several years her cartoon column, Petting Corner, has been published weekly in Haaretz newspaper, and stars her two cats.

In 2005 she published Pink Story – a graphic novel about the LGBT community in Israel, told through the events of her own life-story. 

Since then she has published comics strips and stories in international and Israeli newspapers and literature anthologies and has participated in international and Israeli comics group exhibitions.

In 2014 – Rishumon (Urban Tails) – a Hebrew collection of her autobiographical comic strips was published. 

She has also illustrated three children’s books.

Why are we publishing Urban Tails?

We like it. (Well, d’uh!) 

• it has cats
• it’s a window into a culture we’re not familiar with 
• it’s funny, sad, heart-warming and enlightening
• it’s gently subversive

Huh?

It has a family dynamic that just happens to be about two lesbians. And their cats. It’s not the central focus of the story, just simply a part of the fabric of the cloth. You read the stories, you laugh or nod knowingly at their goings-on, and you feel like you’ve spent a bit of time with a couple of nice women.

And their cats.

Could I see a bit more?

Absolutely. We have a sampler here:  http://spengu.in/u3wTKW 

What others have said about Urban Tails:

“In Ilana Zafran’s short comic stories, the big, collective events are embedded in the daily, personal ones, which validate and give them meaning. The cats represent the voice of reason, and true to their nature, nonchalantly interpret the situations; while the light and accurate documentary-style drawings, supply the reader a humorous and honest look at everyday Israeli life.”

                    —Rutu Modan (creator of Jamilti and Other Stories, The Property, and the  Eisner Award-winning Exit Wounds graphic novels)

     “Brilliant, self-deprecating humour and wisdom from Israel’s answer to Alison Bechdel.  Ilana Zeffren gives us an insider’s perspective to life as a lesbian cartoonist in Tel Aviv.”

                                             —Ariel Kahn (author of Raising Sparks and Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Roehampton University)

“Ilana Zeffren’s Urban Tails, is a compelling and honest visual memoir of her personal life as a young, feminist, gay woman in Tel Aviv, struggling with the mundane life tasks. At the same time it is a powerful, poignant document, claiming space for an entire community, whether it’s the Gay community, Women, Artists, or Cats—Urban Tails is bustling with irony, kindness, tolerance, and humanism.”

                                  —Merav Salomon (award-winning illustrator and Professor of Visual  Communication at the Bezalel Academy of Art & Design, Jerusalem)

“I’m not much of a cat person, but I truly love Rafi and Spaghetti, the elegantly drawn, scene-stealing protagonists of Ilana Zeffren’s comics.”

                                   —Sarah Lightman (author of The Book of Sarah and Graphic Details: Jewish Women’s Confessional Comics)

What are the rewards?

Why do we need funding?

In 2020, Soaring Penguin Press moved to a crowd-funding model to improve the amount of money we can pay up front to creators:  Soaring Penguin Press move to crowdfunding.

If we’re successful, we can pay Ilana something up front for her book, rather than asking her to wait as the royalties come in.

But also, with the print costs covered, we can pay Ilana more per book sold.

More money up front and bigger royalties

Breaking the funding down

You may have noticed that we’re paying ourselves less than 1% of the goal total. Even Kickstarter gets more out of this campaign than we do. 

That’s because we have faith in this title. When this campaign is successful, we’ll be able to earn our cut from the sales in bookstores and comic shops. And online.