The comics community is always supporting its own, and a couple of requests came out this weekend, one helping a new organization do cool things, another securing the historical legacy of a comics original.
§ The first is James Tynion IV asking for $5. You can read his whole Substack appeal here, but it’s about BODEGA (Brooklyn Organization Dedicated to the Endurance of the Graphic Arts) while will be putting on BEC (Brooklyn Expo of Comics) this fall. They have more in the works, he writes:
BEC is just the beginning of what we are planning with BODEGA. Like with many of my ventures, I’m not really one to think small. From other events celebrating the myriad other corners of the comics medium, to special grants to comic creators, there’s a lot we want to get done. And now that our plans for BEC are locking in, we’re getting ready to start building the internal infrastructure we need to start accomplishing these dreams for 2027 and beyond.
If there’s an ethos that I ought to have absorbed from my years in superhero comics, it’s probably the most powerful moral code that genre ever put into the world. With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility. I love comics. I owe my life and my success to this medium and its fans. I am in a position to directly and materially help the artistic medium I love so much, and the community in which I live and work. But there’s only so much I can fund out of my own pocket.
Tynion’s ask is $5 to help things get going, while they plan bigger fundraisers. Honestly, I think this is $5 well spent. Tiny Onion has already been doing so much in front of and behind the scenes, and Tynion has got my vote as someone who has been actively working to make comics better. Smash that donation button!
§ The second is a Kickstarter to help save four storage units full of the paperwork of Harvey Pekar and Joyce Brabner.The campaign is organized by Danielle, their adopted daughter, and she is planning the job of going through the four units and digitizing their papers.
I am the real Danielle from American Splendor. I grew up in Harvey Pekar and Joyce Brabner’s household. Right now, forty years of their raw, unfiltered creative history is sitting across four massive storage units. With urgent deadlines looming to clear and secure these spaces, I am stepping up independently to physically protect, sort, and digitally archive this legacy before it is lost.
This project is completely independent of the estate and outside court administrators. Your support directly funds the physical preservation—archival boxes, document sleeves, climate protection, and my dedicated time to go through thousands of pages of history.
Pekar’s American Splendor is one of the great comics narratives of every day life, and Brabner’s work as an activist and author also had tremendous impact. They worked with a ton of notable cartoonists, and who knows what is in those storage units.
For fans of comics history, this is another project worthy of support. The campaign is for $12,000 and it’s about halfway there, but only two weeks to go, so send Danielle a few bucks.
