My So-Called Secret Identity art by Suze Shore

Continuing a month of shows about comic book creators who have used crowd funding to launch various titles on Britain’s only regularly radio broadcast comics show, Alex Fitch, with the help of guest presenter Nicola Streeten, discusses the crowd-funding campaign for the webcomic turned graphic novel My So-Called Secret Identity with its writer, Dr. Will Brooker.

My So-Called Secret Identity, created by Suze Shore, Will and Sarah Zaidan, launched online in February 2013. Issues 2 and 3, funded entirely by fan donations, followed later that year, with Issue 4 released in June 2014.

During that time, MSCSI has been acclaimed by the comics press and mainstream media, and featured in international publications like Ms Magazine, The Guardian, Times Higher Education, Femina and Stylist. Issues 1 and 2 were reprinted in a special issue of Geeked magazine, and in June 2014 the MSCSI creators joined the British Library’s prestigious Comics Unmasked event, with Grant Morrison and Warren Ellis.

After a successful Kickstarter campaign in July 2014, which raised over £10,000, the team produced Issue 5 – the final episode of this first volume – and published the complete story in February 2015 as a collected, full colour, high quality print edition.

MSCSI is stocked in a range of good comic stores, and also available through the official web site’s shop, along with signed copies, exclusive t-shirts and prints.

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. Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Star Trek Explorer (previously known as Star Trek 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.