On a recent episode of The Daily Show, Jon Stewart joked that the $10,000 prize in the Texas Muhammad-cartoon-contest-turned-shootout represented five years of salary to a cartoonist. Were that true, the cartoonists over at Fantoons would be closing in on a decade’s worth of earnings with their Kickstarter campaign, well past their fundraising goal.
Fantoons, an ongoing collection of cartoons and comics dedicated to rock and roll bands, have long found the funny side of bands from Metallica to the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Now they’ve trained their sights on the greatest band of all time, Rush. In a Kickstarter that will end on May 23, Fantoons is looking to cover printing costs on Comicspheres: A Retrospective of Rush Toons by Fantoons.
The collection, Volume 2112 (natch), is a book “made for Rush fans by Rush fans.” It’s an easy claim to make, but, just glancing through the images on the Kickstarter page, it’s also quickly proven true. Most notably, the image that backs up the assertion is the one that shows Neil astride his Beemer motorcycle before the Inukashuk that ended up as the cover for Test for Echo. Peart once told the story about how he found the statue on a motorcycle trip near Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories. The Raciel Silva illustration very closely matches Peart’s description.
Besides Raciel, David Calcano, who created Fantoons, has put together an all-star collection of artists to create this book–names like Charles Brubaker, Drew Krevi, Juan Riera, Cristian Garcia, Samanta Eridini, and many others. The variety of styles is enjoyable, and it’s fun to see the different takes on the band.
There are some great backer rewards and the art is absolutely fantastic. Besides that, the book appears to do a wonderful job of capturing the often understated humor of the band and contains all sorts of little nods to Rush songs, history, and trivia. Get over to Kickstarter and back this 150 page book before the campaign ends!
Dave thank SO much for this wonderful article… I really appreciate the support!