Long time Panel Pal Carolyn Belefski is in the home stretch of her Kickstarter to publish a collection of her webcomic, Curls, a newspaper strip-style series that's been given favorable comparisons to Cul-de-Sac and other similar strips.
Carolyn is a prolific creator (often co-writing with Joe Carabeo, though not for Curls), with comics in various anthologies, including Magic Bullet, which Carolyn edited for several issues. She also more recently did comics work for the White House. Carolyn was also a part of the tribute work for Cul-de-Sac when its author had health issues.
Curls follows the adventures of a small cast, primarily a young woman who interacts with the others in comedic ways, as shown in the sample strips above and below. It's the kind of daily humor that you primarily think of from black and white newspapers, but is also found on the web, if you are of a mind to look. I'm not an expert on the genre, but I know plenty of people who think that Carolyn's work is some of the best in that genre, and if you are a fan of similar strips, but have not yet tried Curls, you are in for a treat.
Here's Carolyn's description of the series:
Curls is a comic strip written and drawn by Carolyn Belefski featuring a gal named Curls who dreams of adventurous situations that come to play in real-life with a gang of her animal friends and a giant piece of toast. The purpose of this Kickstarter is to collect every strip into a book which will allow readers to see the evolution of Curls—from a university newspaper to an award-nominated comic strip. The book will also include never-before-seen extras, including sketches and behind-the-scenes glimpses of the creation process.The Curls characters have human connections, but they live in their own world where they participate in turtle derby races, wear ice cream cones on their head as a fashion statement, and get fantastic ideas while brushing their teeth (or smell like onions if they don’t). They visually turn into Manga style after sipping bubble tea, get captured by giant fish, and dream of being able to fly. If these ideas sound like a world you’d like to be a part of then take a chance to discover Curls and pledge to the Curls Kickstarter by clicking the green button.
Carolyn's Kickstarter tiers range from getting early access to a song related to the strip (for $5), buttons (at the $25 level), and the book itself of course, which is $35 for the collected edition. That may seem on the high side, but you also get all of the lower tier items, so it's really $35 for the book-song-button-patch-wallpaper combo. That's a neat way to entice people to pledge at a slightly higher level for your main item. There are of course higher options, including $100 for Carolyn to design you an online avatar and $150 to appear in the comic itself.
As of this writing, Carolyn is just shy of her goal, and she has only a few more days to reach the modest $5,000 she is asking for. If you are a fan of newspaper-style comics, check out her Kickstarter and consider making a pledge to get this great project funded.
You can find the Curls Kickstarter here!
