One of the finest community ventures in UK comics, the WIP Comics group has a proven track record in boosting creators and providing a supportive space for collaborative endeavour. Their annual small press anthology has become a true highlight of the Brit comics calendar, constantly reinventing itself as double-book editions, tactile zine packs and even a newspaper-format presentation. You can read our reviews of those books through the links here: Work, Progress, Success and Failure, Lucky WIP and WiPXL.
Their latest book Change looks set to be the biggest and best yet with a who’s who of the UK’s established and emerging indie comics talents including some of our very own Broken Frontier ‘Six to Watch’ talents. You can back it on Kickstarter here. And you should because just look at the sample art below! WIP facilitator Joe Stone talks about the project below.
‘Change’ is the latest anthology from WIP Comics – an award-nominated group of comic creators based in London. The book features around 50 short stories from a diverse mix of new and established creators, resulting in over 170 pages of stunning original comics.
Alba Ceide
Each comic takes the titular theme of ‘change’ as a starting point, but every contributor is encouraged to interpret that theme however they want and produce work in any style or genre they see fit. Expect fantasy, sci-fi, humour, slice of life, autobiography and more, featuring everything from untidy dragons to giant transforming robots, and topics like finding loose change on the floor and the emotional impact of moving to a new home. There is truly something for everyone.
Alex King and Elena Cerisciola
For the last five years the group has produced an annual anthology book, setting the theme in January and then having around six months for any of the members who wants to take part to produce a 1-4 page comic. All of our previous books have been self-financed, with the profits from the sales of each book helping to fund the following years printing. But due to the rising costs of production and other fees associated with running the group, this year we need your help to make it a reality.
Ed Firth
We have a stellar line-up of over 50 incredible contributors, including some familiar faces for anyone who has read any of our previous books with returning creators such as Chris Hazeldine, Lara Callaghan, Zach Cobb, Claudia Matosa, Hannah Gwynn and Nick Bryan, some fresh new talent including Alex King, Elena Cerisciola, Tami, Infinity Agbetu, and Lauren Marie Sandercock, and a few award-winning or nominated creators like Jenny Robins, Ed Firth and Chloe Starling. And that’s just a handful of the people involved.
Joe Stone
We’re already well on the way to having all the art finished and hitting our funding target on the Kickstarter, but we’re not quite there yet. There are some great tiers backers can choose from, including one which includes digital versions of every previous WIP anthology for a super low price, and hand-drawn sketch cards by our contributing artists.
Tami
When we hit our target we also have some important stretch goals we’d love to do, with a few extras like bookmarks and a bonus mini-anthology, but most importantly if we earn over a certain amount all of the profit will be shared equally amongst all the creators involved.
