The Three Strangest Comic Books on Kickstarter
Crowdfunding is a pretty powerful thing. It allows an audience's direct influence in the creation of a certain piece of media, whether it be an old favorite or a brand new idea.
This is just as true with comic books as with anything else. Comics that would otherwise never see the light of day can be given to a hungry audience with the creator's artist vision still intact. No middlemen, no problem.
However, for every new superhero, autobiographical drama, and comic about comic book culture, you get something... else. Something both too original and too goddamn weird it cannot exist in the mainstream. It must be summoned from the darkness like a kind of Gary Busey.
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AAAAHH![/caption]
I've collected the three I think are perfect examples of this and present them here for you now:
SUPER CRAZY ANIMAL HAND!
So a Japanese schoolgirl that can change her hands into animal hands (even though the picture above
clearly shows both
arms becoming gorilla arms) and her sidekick NINJAPLEGIC, a ninja in wheelchair, fight bullies and Yakuza.
Obviously,
Super Crazy Animal Hand! is pulling from the stranger aspects of Japanese culture, so I get all the weirdness and such, but man. Man.
The comic is highly anti-bully, which is great, but it seems like you might lose a bit of the message in the surreal nature of the universe. Of course, keep in mind I've never read the comic, so maybe SCAH! is actually an emotional rollercoaster that teaches each and every one of us a valuable lesson about ourselves.
With handy
capable ninjas.
Penguins VS Possums
Penguins VS Possums is actually something of a misleading title. It's actually about penguins fighting
Opossums. Still, I think it's pretty strange.
Again, the goal of this was to be a little goofy. Yet, somehow, it seems to... work. There's something about it, about how the two animals don't relate to each other at all, that makes it intriguing. Rad even.
This particular Kickstarter campaign is to collect the four issues into a trade paperback and is actually, in fact, the successfully funded sequel to an earlier campaign to
create these comics. So people have paid for these
twice. Thousands of dollars spent to see the saga of flightless birds battle North America's only marsupial come into this world. Think on that for a second.
Escape From Jesus Island
Well. When I first saw the title, I thought "no, it can't be
that Jes--oh." Then, after
looking it over, it became clear to me that this is
awesome. I mean, number one, a black ops team helps Jesus fight mutated cloned monsters of himself. Yes please. Plus, more than that, look at this art style:
That's great! Most comics on Kickstarter can only swing black and white art, but
Escape From Jesus Island boasts not only inking and color work, but
really good color work to boot.
Of course, this subject matter will anger some people, but you could say that about nearly anything that has to do with a religious figure fighting horrific clones of itself. It just
happens.
Oddly enough, I wouldn't say this is the most original premise in this article. Jesus has had a storied carrier in comics
killing monsters and
kicking ass. I think that must say something, but I'm not actually sure what yet.
