The Projects is an interesting Kickstarter campaign that was brought to my attention by a comment from the cartoonist Dunja Janković on Dan Nadel’s anti-crowdfunding post on The Comics Journal. In the comment she defends crowd-funding by bringing up the European model for comic festivals that are funded by government grants and sponsors. The European model for comics festivals seems very different from the American one (NB: I’ve only been to an American festival), less focused on individual artists selling their wares from behind a table and more focused on exhibiting and celebrating comics art. The Projects is an attempt by Janković, Jason Leivian (proprietor of Floating World Comics and one third of the publishing collective Press Gang), and others to bring that type of festival to Portland October 19th through 21st.

Today is the final day that you can contribute to the Kickstarter campaign for The Projects and as of me writing this (at about 10pm CST on Thursday) they still need a little under a thousand. Please spread the word and throw some cash in if you can! I think this is a really interesting idea. My favorite part of going to a con is the panels and talking to other comics enthusiasts – sitting behind a table trying to sell my comics can be exhausting. The Projects changes that dynamic by centering all of the comics sales in a pop-up shop and having a lot more panels and live art.

I’d love to see something like this happen in Austin, is anyone else into that idea?