Kickstarter

Twenty years ago, a group of artists left Marvel Comics to create their own company, a company that continues to influence mainstream comics and culture to this day. Image Comics began as more than just a publisher -- it was a response to years of creator mistreatment, and it changed comics forever.

Comics in Focus: The Image Revolution will tell the story of Image Comics, from its founders’ work at Marvel, through Image’s early days, the ups and downs of the '90s, and the publisher’s new generation of properties like The Walking Dead. We will tell the company's story through new interviews with the people who made it happen. And what better time than during Image’s 20th anniversary to make this documentary?

The film will be produced by the same team behind the critically-acclaimed documentaries Grant Morrison: Talking with Gods and Warren Ellis: Captured Ghosts. It will be directed by Patrick Meaney and produced in partnership by Sequart Research & Literacy Organization and Respect Films.

This will be the second (after Comics in Focus: Chris Claremont’s X-Men) in a new series of documentaries offering in-depth looks at significant works and moments that shaped comics history. These documentaries will be released through direct download and online DVD sales.

We have turned to Kickstarter to help fund this project. This is your chance to support discussion about the merits of comics and to help document stories about the people who have had a part in shaping contemporary pop culture.

Rewards include the documentary as a DVD and / or a digital download, a “THANKS” (and other credits) in the film, and digital access to extra interview footage not included in the film. Other rewards include books and films from Sequart's library:

• the feature film Grant Morrison: Talking with Gods
• the feature film Warren Ellis: Captured Ghosts (DVD to be released in early March 2012)
• the feature film Diagram for Delinquents: Fredric Wertham and the Evolution of Comic Books (this item will ship separately, later in 2012)
• the first Comics in Focus episode, Chris Claremont’s X-Men
• the book Grant Morrison: The Early Years
• the book Mutant Cinema: The X-Men Trilogy from Comics to Screen
• the book Teenagers from the Future: Essays on the Legion of Super-Heroes
• the book Improving the Foundations: Batman Begins from Comics to Screen
• the book Our Sentence is Up: Seeing Grant Morrison's The Invisibles (by director Patrick Meaney)
• the book Minutes to Midnight: Twelve Essays on Watchmen (which includes an essay by Meaney)
• the book Gotham City 14 Miles: 14 Essays on Why the 1960s Batman TV Series Matters
• the book Classics on Infinite Earths: The Justice League and DC Crossover Canon
• the book Keeping the World Strange: A Planetary Guide (which includes an essay by Meaney)
• the book Voyage in Noise: Warren Ellis and the Demise of Western Civilization and
• the book Shot in the Face: A Savage Journey to the Heart of Transmetropolitan (which includes an essay by Meaney).

For more information on these books and movies, visit Sequart.org (the site’s header contains links to pages for each item). Thank you for your support!

(INTERNATIONAL DONORS: Please add a flat rate of $5 if your reward contains a physical item.)