One of the First, One of the Best: Retrofit Kickstarter 2018

These days, using Kickstarter for micropress comic publishing is pretty common. But it wasn't always like that. One of the pioneers of this model was Box Brown and Retrofit Comics, which started out doing a series of mini-comics only and has since branched out to mix between shorter and longer works.

Retrofit is still around and they're finishing up their 2018 Kickstarter, which still needs some help getting to the finish line. If you haven't see this one yet and backed it, here's who they have on offer:

• All the Sad Songs - Summer Pierre
• Fashion Forecasts - Yumi Sakugawa
• I Love You - Sara Lautman
• John, Dear - Laura Lannes
• Our Wretched Town Hall - Eric Kostiuk Williams
• The Prince - Liam Cobb
• Survive 300 Million 1 - Pat Aulisio
• Survive 300 Million 2: Serpentine Captives - Pat Aulisio
• The Troublemakers - Baron Yoshimoto
• TRUMPTRUMP vol. 2: Modern Day Presidential - Warren Craghead III
• Understanding - Becca Tobin
• The Winner - Karl Stevens

 That's an amazing lineup! Craghead III's Trump Trump takes the verbal monstrosities of the 45th President and visualizes them, showing in pictures how toxic his words can be. I own the first volume and it's a great--if depressing--work. Any chance to get a Yumi Sakugawa book is not to be missed, and Pat Aulisio's style is very out there, making for extremely imaginative sci-fi work. I've been a fan for years. The others I'm less familiar with, but looking over the sample pages provided on the Kickstarter page, they look really amazing. I'm particularly interested in Summer Pierre and Eric Kostiuk Williams' contributions.

Here's a few sample pages to give you an idea of what you can get:

Summer Pierre

Yumi Sakugawa

Warren Craghead III

Pat Aulisio

One of the best things about Retrofit is how different the styles are between the creators. Just looking at these four examples, you can see the variety. That's why I always go for a full subscription--I love getting to see the different creators, both familiar and unfamiliar, work their craft. I encourage you to do the same, but if you can't afford to or have very particular comic taste, the Kickstarter does give you options to select certain books instead of the whole set.

There are also options to pick up the back catalog of Retrofit digitally, get original art from Craghead, and other higher-tier perks, for those who are really interested.

No matter what you can pledge, please head over to the Kickstarter and back this one. We need more good comics in our lives, especially in this era of ugliness, and Retrofit is one of the best. After so many years of successful publishing, I'd hate to see it miss out. Go grab some good comics today!