Islands in the Sky is a 112-plus page, full-colour comics anthology documenting the impact of Hurricane Helene in 2024 through the voices of Appalachian survivors, co-written and illustrated by some of the most acclaimed names in comics, including Brian Michael Bendis, Matt Fraction and Greg Pak, among many other amazing talents.
Some of the work already shared, some drawing on the stories of survivors, looks absolutely stunning and the Kickstarter is deservedly speeding toward its initial goal.
On 27th September 2024, Hurricane Helene tore through Western North Carolina and Southern Appalachia in the United States, destroying everything in its wake. In the heart of Appalachia, this tragic natural disaster left a lasting impact on communities, livelihoods, and culture.
Islands in the Sky will contribute to the rebuilding of the Southern Appalachian economy and infrastructure by putting impacted survivors back to work.
The Appalachia Comics Project is a collaborative effort between real survivors and award-winning comics creators. Each story reflects someone’s lived experience: from rooftop rescues to community rebuilding to moments of quiet resilience.
Together, these creators aim to share these powerful stories through a nonfiction anthology that conveys their firsthand accounts of the historic storm and its aftermath.
“When Hurricane Helene devastated Southern Appalachia in the fall of 2024, it left both our landscape and our communities forever changed,” say the team. “But in the aftermath, something remarkable emerged: stories of survival, solidarity, and strength. Islands in the Sky brings those stories to life, to preserve what happened and help the region recover.”
Survivor accounts include Dr. David Easterling, former Chief of the Scientific Services Division at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, North Carolina, presenting a science-based exploration of what occurred.
The project was initiated by the award-winning New York Times bestselling author Andrew Aydin, former congressional aide to the late Civil Rights icon Rep. John Lewis and co-author of Lewis’s best-selling graphic memoir series, March.
As Forbes reported ahead of the crowdfunding launch in April, Aydin was among the many personally impacted by the disaster the creator, who’s been publishing educational and issue-oriented comics through his company Good Trouble, and saw an opportunity to address that through the power of a medium he knows well: comics.
“I live in Edneyville, one of the hardest hit areas,” Aydin in told Forbes. “There are towns here that were decimated. Roads, infrastructure destroyed. This entire part of the country was completely cut off from communication during the disaster.”
Islands in the Sky will feature work by creators such as writers Michele Abounader, Brian Michael Bendis, Matt Fraction, Matthew K. Manning (author of the updated Superman: The Ultimate Guide) and Greg Pak, artists Josh Adams, Jonathan Marks Barravecchia, David Marquez, Val De Landro, graphic novelist, comic artist, and educator Thien Pham, artist and writer Alex Segura, cartoonists Briana Loewinsohn and Gene Luen Yang, colourist Nick Filardi and letterer Nate Powell,
The Project plan to provide no-cost copies of Islands in the Sky to bookstores to sell to help keep their businesses afloat, and supply them to public and school libraries to help rebuild their collections. In turn, this will help establish a lasting record within these collections, accessible to the broadest audience, fostering a shared understanding of the incident.
“This anthology is more than a recount of a catastrophic event,” we’re told. “It’s a bridge for cultural understanding, a resource for future disaster preparedness, and a vital tool to aid Appalachia’s ongoing economic recovery.
“The survivors of Hurricane Helene need your help to tell their stories in their own words as they rebuild, rediscover, and readapt while facing adversity.”
“When you pledge, you’re doing more than funding a book. You’re helping us pay survivors to tell their own stories, getting this history into schools and libraries, and providing income and visibility for a region still rebuilding. This project is part record, part resistance, and part recovery. Join us.”
Andrew Aydin hopes the overall Appalachia Comics Project will provide employment to survivors of the hurricane, creators and journalists, while bringing much-needed funds into the community. Eventually he, told Forbes back in April, he would like to see it become a trusted, grass-roots alternative to the dominant media, which he says both condescends to the local culture and exploits it for political advantage.
“No one is valuing the culture of the working class people here who have carved out a living for hundreds of years in very difficult terrain,” he said. “The idea is that if we can tell stories made by the people who live here, it will help bridge that divide where people don’t automatically discount something because it’s from this region. The will see the value and learn from people who have devised all sorts of innovative, creative ways to survive.”
• Check out Islands in the Sky here on Kickstarter
• Appalachia Comics Project – Official Site | BlueSky
• Andrew Aydin is online at andrewaydin.com
• Forbes: March Co-Author Spearheads Comics Project To Uplift Appalachia
- About the Author
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as 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: Comics, Creating Comics, Crowd Funding Projects, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, US Comics
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