Comics Anthology Benefiting Gun Violence Prevention Charities Returns to Kickstarter
Comicker Press is back with Shots Fired, a revamped version of the comics anthology formerly known as Every Day. As with its previous iteration, Shots Fired will raise funds for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence and the Community Justice Reform Coalition to help end gun violence in America via a Kickstarter campaign that will pay for printing and shipping of the comics anthology. Once printed, all proceeds from additional book sales will go directly to the CSGV and CJRC.
Comicker Press co-founder Sean E. Williams said, “Since Kickstarter campaigns are all-or-nothing, when it became apparent that our last one wasn’t going to reach its goal, we decided to regroup and try again as quickly as possible. This issue is too important to not do this book, and the stories the creators are telling are truly unparalleled and need to be read.”
With the upcoming 28-day campaign for Shots Fired, Comicker Press has capped the size of the book to around 168 pages and is limiting shipping to the United States to keep the budget down. They are also adding a Kickstarter Exclusive limited-edition hardcover, which won’t be made available after the campaign. “With these factors combined, we feel this version of this anthology is much more achievable,” Williams said. “We’ve also got some surprises and stretch goals in mind, once we reach our target.”
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The talent donating their time to Shots Fired include Scott Snyder, Kelly Thompson, David Lafuente, Phil Hester, Ariela Kristantina, Jamal Igle, Devin Grayson, Joe Keatinge, Doselle Young, Marguerite Sauvage, Ron Marz, Stuart Moore, Shannon Wheeler, Steven Grant, Roger Langridge, Matt Miner, Ray Fawkes, CW Cooke, Alex de Campi, Carla Speed McNeil, Kelly Williams, Emma Beeby, and more.“We simply couldn’t just watch anymore as our fellow human beings are senselessly killed on a daily basis,” said Brendan Wright, editor of Shots Fired. “96 people per day. That would make every single day the worst mass shooting in the US in modern times—by 38 people. To put that into another perspective, as of today the Washington Post has counted 1165 people killed in mass shootings in the US since 1966. So between suicides, accidents, crime, law enforcement, and other causes, there are more people killed with guns in two weeks in the US than in all the mass shootings over the last fifty years combined.”
“Consistently, over 90% of Americans believe in common sense gun laws such as background checks,” Wright said. “But the gun lobby, the NRA, and Mitch McConnell have kept them from passing. Mitch McConnell hasn’t allowed a vote in the Senate on gun control since 2015. That’s over 140,000 people who have died by gunfire in the U.S. under McConnell’s watch. That’s the equivalent of the entire population of Dayton, Ohio.”
“It’s truly an epidemic facing this nation, and it especially and disproportionately impacts communities of color,” said Amber Goodwin, Executive Director of CJRC. “Once again, we want to thank everyone for their support to make gun violence rare and abnormal,” said Chelsea White, Director of Development and Events at CSGV.
The Shots Fired campaign launches on Kickstarter on June 18th, and runs through July 16th.
ABOUT CSGV
The Coalition Stop Gun Violence (CSGV) develops and advocates for evidence-based solutions to reduce gun injury and death in all its forms. Our role is to formulate bold new ideas, assume the risks of innovation, and lead by example so that other groups can learn from and adopt our successful tactics. In recent years, we have:
Organized more than 20 of the nation’s leading mental health and public health professionals to make evidence-based recommendations to address the difficult issue of guns and mental health. In December 2013, under the name “Consortium for Risk-Based Firearm Policy,” this group of experts issued detailed policy recommendations for both state and federal lawmakers. The Consortium has met four times and will meet for a fifth time in 2019.
In 2014, with CSGV’s assistance, California legislators passed one of the Consortium’s recommendations, the Gun Violence Restraining Order (GVRO) policy. Since then, CSGV has led the implementation process for the GVRO, which went into effect on January 1, 2016. To this end, we worked with the California Judicial Council to develop the forms and processes necessary to initiate a GVRO, held a press conference about the GVRO’s implementation, hosted a pro bono attorney training in California, and launched a campaign to inform the public about how to access a GVRO.
Worked with stakeholders and advocates in 11 states and the District of Columbia to pass Extreme Risk Laws, which are modeled after the GVRO.
Created fact sheets, presentations, and other materials to make Extreme Risk Law policy recommendations accessible to the general public. These materials helped us educate and activate a network of stakeholders and grassroots supporters to advocate for innovative policies.
ABOUT CJRC
The Community Justice Reform Coalition, a collective action fund of Tides Foundation, addresses the intersection of gun violence prevention and criminal justice reform in urban communities of color.
ABOUT COMICKER LLC
Comicker LLC was founded by Saori Adams and Sean E. Williams, and launched in 2015 with its Comicker Digital imprint. Comicker LLC is designed to bring diverse creator-owned comics series to readers any way they want them (as ad-supported webcomics, collected as digital issues, and in print as trade paperbacks), and to give creators the flexibility to tell their stories exactly how they want to. In 2016, Comicker LLC began bringing its digital series to print as trade paperbacks via its Comicker Press imprint. Diversity Focused. Digital First. ComickerPress.com
Brian Isaacs - Executive Editor / Publisher