Who am I?
If you don't know, I'm Ken Mahon, a cartoonist from Dublin, Ireland. I mostly specialise in autobiographical work and that puts me in a unique position to do this campaign, as I have been making them regularly since the day I adopted the subject of this book.
What is this campaign?
Well, in January 2024, my cat Guts got very sick. This is covered in the book but I knew at the time that when he did pass, I would want to make a book compiling diary comics from our eight years together. This is that book. Unfortunately, it cost more money to put him to sleep than it did to keep him alive, and beyond that, adopting a new cat is even more costly, so I didn't have anything left to get this book printed. I also wanted to raise money for Dog's Aid, a charity in Dublin that runs an affordable vet clinic on Tuesdays that I relied on for days I was struggling. They fell in love with Guts there and if it weren't for the work put in, he probably would have died six years earlier. So here we are. This campaign is for two things.
1. The initial goal covers a print run of 200 copies of this collection.
2. All overflow will go to Dog's Aid.
Now, obviously there's a bit of extra logistics like processing fees and shipping costs that I tried to account for, but 450 is an easy goal and the book is not large enough to put a significant dent in postage if we do go over, so I'm hoping we can raise a lot after that to send on to Dog's Aid.
What about all your other comics?
This is a one-off project that's primarily a charity fundraiser. My existing books can be purchased elsewhere, but this is just for the Guts tribute and a thanks to the people who helped out along the way.
When can the book be expected?
It's done! I've already made it (And you can read the preview PDF on my second Patreon tier), I just need to add general copyright stuff, a list of contributors and send it off to print. So pretty much as soon as the campaign finishes, I should have all books printed and shipped within the month. The donation, which will be posted with a breakdown in the updates of this campaign, will follow soon after.
Pick up?
After my last campaign, a few people picked up their rewards at a local event, DCAF. This time, I've arranged with Little Deer Comics to hold books for pick up, so if you're in Dublin and want to save on shipping, that's an option.
What happens if the goal isn't met?
As I said, the book is ready to go. Obviously I hope we go well beyond the goal so I can pay back Dog's Aid for the years of treatment, but what happens if I don't hit it is I still make the book, but it takes a lot longer to sell something outside of a campaign so accumulating enough to balance printing costs and donate after that would take another year at least.
