Welcome to Kickstart The Week, the first in a new series of weekly articles to appear, right here. At the beginning of each week I will focus on one or two different projects that have caught my attention. I make absolutely no claims that these recommendations will not be completely biased by my opinion. In fact, that’s the point. These will be projects that I believe deserve your support and I will use this space, every week, to promote them. I will also include updates on prior, successful, projects promoted here.
Now, to business. Please give a warm welcome to your new hero, and mine:
Molly Danger is the creation of artist, Jamal Igle, most widely known for his work on Supergirl, as well as other high profile work on the DC properties, Firestorm and Nightwing. He also co-created the character, Venture, published in his own series by Image comics, which ran for four issues in 2003.
Synopsis.
Molly Danger is a, super-powered, ten year old girl who has been protecting the town of, Coopersville for the past twenty years. She fights, and regularly beats, the Supermechs – a team of cybernetically enhanced beings. But really, she just wants a normal life. She believes that she is an alien whose family died after crash landing on Earth, leaving her all alone. She believes she is the last of her kind. The truth of the matter is that she doesn’t really know, and what she thinks she knows is, most likely, wrong. The first book, which is what this project encompasses, introduces several new characters into Molly’s world, and it is these new friendships that will change her life, forever.
Why should you be interested (aka, why do I care)?
This project appeals to me for a number of reasons, but to make it simple, here are the main two:
Firstly, Jamal’s artwork is incredible, just take a look. Having read some of the comics he has worked on previously I know that, at the very least, the final product will be visually pleasing and a nice addition to my comic collection.
Secondly, and, in my eyes at least, more importantly, this is a comic I will be able to share with my young daughter. How can I be so sure? Well, other than it being centered on a, possibly, immortal ten-year old girl. In his pitch, Jamal voices a familiar sentiment regarding the current state of comics. Rather than paraphrasing, I feel it is best that you read what he has to say for yourself:
“In 2008 I became the artist of the comic book series, Supergirl and something became very clear to me. Whenever I would talk to fans, two things kept coming up. One was the lack of all ages’ material in the U.S. Comics market. The second was the lack of female heroes who weren’t an offshoot of a male hero or weren’t sexually exploitive. That’s when the seed really began to take root again and why I’m now attempting this massive undertaking.”
– Excerpt from the Molly Danger kickstarter page.
In a post DC 52 Catwoman/Red Hood & the Outlaws age, I believe that supporting a project with a strong female lead that,
a) Isn’t always half-naked,
b) Constantly having sex with, or otherwise being commanded by, every male character she meets,
and
c) Can be read by, and inspiring to, my Daughter,
is a very worthwhile cause indeed.
I used to love Catwoman. Selina Kyle was smart, daring and effortlessly cool. But there isn’t a chance in hell that I would let my daughter read the new DC 52 run, and I find that sad. But that’s a topic we’ll discuss again in the (not to distant) future.
This is about Molly.
If you’re not convinced yet, please go and take a look at the Official Molly Danger Kickstarter page. You will find a lot more information there, as well as more character, and page, sketches and artwork.
In conclusion, if you’re looking to support the future of comics, you will find few opportunities as promising as this. And, for those sceptics among you that don’t believe I’m willing to put my money where my mouth is:
I can’t wait to meet Molly.
distractingdelusions 
July 11, 2013
The Importance of Non-Violent Protest
I actually started to write this in a notepad late last night with no intention of sharing it on here. But, after today’s events at the Shard, it seemed pertinent to share my personal take on the importance of peaceful protest in raising awareness of causes that would otherwise be overlooked.
I’d also like to say congratulations to the #iceclimb team for being so successful in their endeavour. You stole the spotlight and made a lot of people who didn’t know much about the Arctic drilling – myself included – a lot better informed, and outraged, in the best possible way.
The Importance of Non-Violent Protest
When I was ten, I was a chorister at Westminster Cathedral in London. This involved singing mass in the Cathedral itself six days a week with Monday off. In exchange for this, I received a private school education between the ages of eight and thirteen. It was a very regimented, sheltered environment
I had no clue about anything.
The real world might as well have been another universe. Please don’t misunderstand me here, I wasn’t a “true believer” or anything like that. But all I knew was the ritual and the songs and, frankly, the ritual didn’t mean anything to me. It just meant standing up and sitting down in a pre-ordained sequence, and occasionally we would get to sing something cool in between the day’s plainchants. I certainly wasn’t alone in viewing it that way. Though I will admit that the pageantry of the main feast days was quite fun in a purely theatrical sense.
My friends and I were just kids that could sing. We didn’t think much of the wider implications of anything we were participating in – we weren’t required to.
The first real indication I got of the reality that existed beyond the high, protecting walls of the choir school happened on a Sunday in 1994. I believe that the gospel had just been read and the presiding priest was mid-sermon when, all of a sudden, there were white balloons floating up to the high arched ceiling, and a small group of people were being escorted from the building amidst tuts of disapproval from the general congregation.
Of course, they weren’t balloons. They were helium filled condoms. But no one bothered to explain that to us. Nor was it explained that the people being escorted from the building were members of the LGB rights group OutRage! who were protesting the incumbent pope’s stance on homosexuality.
It wasn’t until after I’d left the choir school a few years later that I was able to find out any of that information. No one told us a thing. But I’d caught a glimpse of something different. There were adults that disagreed with the established narrative and these people… protested?
“What’s a protest?”
No answer.
As far as epiphanies go it wasn’t anywhere near the level of a particular Mitchell & Webb sketch. But my mind began to open to the possibility that not everything I had been told was necessarily as sacrosanct & agreed upon as I had been led to believe. So I started to ask questions, and when I continued to be ignored, I read books and learnt about things no adult would willingly share with me.
Needless to say, by the time I eventually heard of a band called Rage Against The Machine, a year and a half later, I was already well on my way to leading a much more interesting life than the one that had been chosen for me.
All because a small group of people weren’t afraid to stand up in public and say, “No!”