Comic book artist John McCrea has officially launched a Kickstarter campaign for The Mighty World of McCrea, a collection of creator-owned work spanning the Belfast-born artist's 32-year career. The Mighty World of McCrea includes existing work, as well as never-before-seen material, and serves as the first in a four-volume series of such collections from McCrea.
The Kickstarter campaign has only just launched and has already achieved its target funding and then some. At the time of writing, The Mighty World of McCrea has made just over 250 percent of its goal, currently sitting at £18,810 GBP (or $24,423 USD) in donations from 344 backers. The original target amount was £7,500 GBP (or just over $9,700 USD). The campaign still has 31 days to go.
The Mighty World of McCrea Vol. 1 is 200 pages long and is oversized, measuring in at 19.7 x 29.7 centimeters, with both a hardcover edition and a softcover edition available. It includes The Atheist by Phil Hester and McCrea (including never-before-seen design work, script pages and a new cover), The Tosspot Four by Garth Ennis and McCrea, Dinosaurs Rool! by Nick Abadzis and McCrea, Carla Allison by McCrea, Wyrmwood by Mal Coney and McCrea, as well as Rocket Station Charlie -- a brand-new comic by Gerry Duggan and McCrea.
"But that's not all," McCrea promises. "As a kid, one of my favorite things at Christmas was getting the British annuals, be it Marvel, the Beano or the Six Million Dollar Man! These annuals had comic strips, sure, but loads of other things too -- puzzle pages, interviews, articles, prose stories and more! And that is what the Mighty World of McCrea is going to have, too... Vol. 1 has an article on Belfast's first comic shop, Dark Horizons, which I helped start and it's connection to Belfast's punk scene in the late '70s/early '80s. There will be an interview with Gerry Duggan and an all-new Dead Eyes prose story written by Gerry, with all-new illustrations by me. There will also be short comics by some of my fantastically talented friends, like Hunt Emerson, Laura Howell and Martin Hand! Plus the aforementioned puzzle pages and more! It's a wonder we can jam it all into 200 pages!"
Every person who contributes to the Kickstarter will have their name printed towards the back of the book. Of course, like with most campaigns, there are also various donation tiers and rewards, which can be pledged to in order to receive various perks and bonus materials. The first stretch goal has also already been unlocked, with the fact that the campaign has crossed £15,000 adding a PDF coloring book to the mix. Additional mystery stretch goals are set for £20,000, £25,000, £30,000 and £35,000.
In addition to his creator-owned content, McCrea is known for his work on such titles as Judge Dredd, Hitman, Spider-Man and Star Wars, as well as for his various collaborations with writer Garth Ennis (Hitman included).