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Crowdfunding Spotlight : Doug Wilson’s bonkers space comic, “Jack Astro”

By John Freeman on August 24, 2021

Doug Wilson is an independent animation and comics artist who’s worked on various productions in the UK and abroad on projects including The Brilliant World Of Tom Gates on Sky, Pinkallicious and Peteriffic on PBS, the LEGO Jurassic World, Avengers and Teen Titans projects, Ranger Rob, Boj, and Cloudbabies. Recently, he finished writing and drawing the Jack Astro comic book, entering the final day today of a successful Kickstarter – and there’s still time to back this fun-looking project!

Jack Astro is a test pilot for the experimental Singularity Drive program. After sending a duplicate version of himself and his ship to multiple galaxies in the universe, the drive scattered across space. Now, he must reassemble the lost pieces before the drive re-activates to send him home…

In a strange and rather densly populated galaxy, Jack finds himself allied with outlaws running from the space Fuzz. Un-wittingly, and un-willingly thrust into the centre of a power struggle in this new Galaxy, Jack is entirely uninterested in getting swept up in the drama of these events. He basically just wants to return home where, “A: He’ll be a decorated hero and 2: None of this crap matters.”

In short, Jack Astro is not a heroic protagonist. He careens from one disaster to another with supreme efficiency, as you can read for yourself, right here.

Doug’s pitch for this fun-sounding 164-page graphic novel has clearly captured a lot of hearts already, which, thanks to pledges already made is to be a hardcover book after smashing that particular stretch-goal.

“I’ve been working on this project around my day job in animation for about five years,” Doug, aka Band of One, explains. “I love collaborating in animation. However, a comic provides me the opportunity to work completely solo, which has its own challenges and rewards.”

Utilising his experience of self publishing four books before this one, learning a lot along the way, it’s great to hear Jack Astro is on course for the stars – but if you want to push still further, you can make a pledge on Kickstarter here.

• Check out Band of One here

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.