The crowdfunding campaign for The Power Pack of Ken Reid project – collecting some of the amazing humour strips created by the legendary British artist, Ken Reid, closes tomorrow (Friday). If you haven’t backed it yet then there’s still time to pre-ordering these incredible, limited edition collections of the best humour strips of the 1960s!
As we previously reported, the two-volume hardback set reprints all of Ken Reid’s work for Odhams – “Frankie Stein”, “Jasper the Grasper”, “Queen of the Seas”, the utterly bonkers “Dare-A-Day Davy”, and his run on “The Nervs!”
Originally published in the weekly comics Wham!, Smash!, and Pow!, most have never been seen since their original publication between the years 1964 to 1969.
One of the endpapers for The POWer Pack of Ken Reid Volume 1
One of the endpapers for The POWer Pack of Ken Reid Volume 2
This rarer pencil art by Ken is included in the The POWer Pack of Ken Reid
The two collections includes smashing introductions from comics archivist Steve Holland and artist Nigel Parkinson, which we’ve now seen and enjoyed, along with background material on Ken Reid’s life and work in comics, accompanied by great photographs and art samples, some cortesy of Ken’s family, who have given the project their full support.
A photo of Ken Reid featured in the The POWer Pack of Ken Reid collections
Publisher Irmantas Povilaika (interviewed here), tells downthetubes rights holder TI Media Ltd (who purchased the assets of Time UK, who owned IPC Media, fairly recently) are delighted with the success of crowdfunder, which in our opinion, bodes well for further collections of classic comic material that, realistically, will only appeal to a small but enthusiastic audience.
Irmantas Povilaika by Gintaras Jocius
Irmantas himself has been blown away by the support his project has had through the IndieGoGo campaign.”
“Crowdfunding is a great tool to present and promote a project like this one,” he tells us. “The IndieGoGo platform is easy and convenient to use and offers project owners some good insights. I would confidently recommend it to anyone who is considering a comics project.
“There are other platforms out there, so it might be worthwhile checking them out,” he acknowledges, “although from what I hear Kickstarter and IndieGoGo are the leading ones. I should receive the funds within two weeks from the end of the campaign, and I hope the disbursement process will be just as smooth as everything has been to this point!
“I was lucky that my promotion efforts were supported by many bloggers and fellow fans,” he continues. “It was vital for the success of the campaign. I wouldn’t have reached the target without all the help in spreading the word, so many thanks to all who helped me!
I have received many enthusiastic and encouraging messages from Ken Reid fans,” Irmantas also reveals. “They were always nice to read and greatly appreciated. I am glad so many people showed trust in a project by someone who doesn’t even live in the UK.
“On the other hand, I suspect quite a few were cautious about pre-ordering, and preferred to wait until the books were actually printed. Well, the wait is now nearly over and individual books will soon be available to buy online, but I will keep my promise to my IndieGoGo supporters who will be the only ones to enjoy the luxury of the box set and the artwork prints.”
Rare pencils of “Frankie Stein” by Ken Reid, as featured in This rarer pencil art by Ken is included in The POWer Pack of Ken Reid
Bouyed by this success, is he now looking at further collections of 1960s comic material?
“The good experience with my first crowdfunder makes me want to consider other projects of this kind,” he says, “but I have no specific plans to share at this point.”
Fingers crossed!
• You can now back the The POWer Pack of Ken Reid project on Indiegogo at www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-power-pack-of-ken-reid-books#/
• Read our interview with publisher Irmantas Povilaika
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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.
Categories: British Comics, British Comics - Collections, Crowd Funding Projects, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News
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