Kickstarting the Kenosha Cartooning Festival

Last year I was honored to be one of the speakers at a fantastic cartooning event in Kenosha, WI called…oddly enough…the Kenosha Festival of Cartooning. The festival was organized by Anne Hambrock, wife and assistant of cartoonist John Hambrock (The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee), and featured Tom Bancroft, Sandra Bell Lundy, Paul Gilligan, John Read, Scott Standis, John and myself. While there were no guarantees this would become a recurring event, it was such a big hit there was a lot of talk about having another one down the road.

Well, Anne and Company are ready to go down that road . . . but they need a little help.

Today is the start of a Kickstarter fundraising campaign to raise money for the second annual Kenosha Festival of Cartooning, which will take place Sept. 27th-29th, 2012 in . . . you guessed it . . . Kenosha, WI. This year’s guest speakers:

• Stephan Pastis of Pearls Before Swine
• Greg Cravens of The Buckets
• Michael Jantze from The Norm and Jantze Animation Studios
• Norm Feuti of Retail and Gil
• Dave Coverly of Speed Bump and Parade Magazine
• Tom Racine of Tall Tale Radio will moderate panel discussions

WOW! What a line-up!! Like last year, the program includes live presentations,  workshops, a gallery show, panel discussions and meet and greets by these terrific cartoonists over three days.

Anne worked hard to drum up local sponsorship to pay for the entire event last year, making sure all the events were free to the public. As anyone who has ever put on any kind of special event (especially in a smaller community) knows, it’s the second year when the fundraising challenges really get tough. To that end, Anne and the Kenosha Festival of Cartooning are doing the Kickstarter thing, with a modest $10,000 goal. If they exceed the goal, she’s committed to adding a few other special guests to the mix.

There are some great premiums based on your level of support, the higher ones include SIGNED ORIGINAL DAILIES from the participating artists.

Please visit their Kickstarter page, and consider supporting this worthwhile effort! If nothing else, go visit the page to see the great video Tom Racine put together for the campaign!