Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Creative community help out comic


Last week, cartoonist Ant Sang launched a crowd-funding campaign through Kickstarter at Auckland Central Library to raise funds for The Dharma Punks, a graphic novel collection of his bestselling comic series. 

The original goal of $8500 was reached in a matter of days, overwhelming even his wildest expectations, and the campaign is now seeking further support to attain stretch goals.

Amongst the supporters of the project are a number of prominent New Zealand literary figures, including VUP publisher Fergus Barrowman, novelists Sarah Liang, Damien Wilkins and comic writer and artist Dylan Horrocks.

Both Horrocks and Liang have recorded videos in support of The Dharma Punks graphic novel.

Sang is very happy to have the support of the literary community. “It’s a sign of how times have changed. When I started making comics it was really only for a small audience and there was very little cross-over between that world and the rest of the New Zealand cultural community”.

Originally published as an eight part comic series from 2001-2003, The Dharma Punks follows Chopstick, a punk who is part of an anarchist plot to blow up ‘Bobo’s’ - a multinational fast-food restaurant. Unable to move on after the death of his close friend, and struggling to reconcile his spiritual path with his political actions, Chopstick’s journey is a meditation on life, love, friendship and blowing things up.

At the time it was a best seller, occasionally even outselling overseas imports like Spider-Man and X-Men in some comic stores. Long since out of print, the comic is now hard to find - even with the advent of Trade Me and eBay. “People seem to want to hang onto their copies”, says Sang. “I’m always being asked for particular issues or even entire sets. Up until now I have not been able to do anything about it.”

To make the graphic novel collection a reality, Sang has teamed up with Earth's End, a newly formed boutique publisher, aimed at bringing some of New Zealand's best comics and graphic novels to a wider audience. The Dharma Punks collected edition is scheduled for a October 2014 release.


About Ant Sang:


Ant Sang is one of New Zealand’s most respected cartoonists. His design work on the animated TV series Bro’Town introduced his distinctive and appealing style to the wider public. He followed this up with the publication of his graphic novelShaolin Burning (2011). The existential kung-fu epic was both a critical and commercial success, spending 10 weeks in the Top Ten NZ Bookcharts and was nominated for the prestigious New Zealand Post Childrens’ Book Awards – where it received the runner-up Honour Award in the Picture Book category.

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