Comic book girls

I have vaguely alluded to the fact that I love comic books. From the strange, dreamlike landscape of Jim Woodring's The Frank Book book, to the dark cinematic horror of Charles Burns' Black Hole, to the straight forward hero escapades of Grant Morrison's Arkham Asylum, Jeph Loeb's Batman: The Long Halloween or Marv Wolfman's Crisis On Infinite Earths. But let's face it - the comic world tends to be dominated by dudes. There are more women involved every year, like crime writer Denise Mina, or the Team Girl Comic collective or Marjane Satrapi, author of Persepolis, but there are still far fewer women choosing comics as the way to make their voices heard.

Which is why I get excited when I hear new female voices emerge. I was contacted via twitter by Tessa Kennedy, an artist who is working on her own graphic novel, which she is attempting to fund with crowd sourcing. Her graphic novel, Ghostcat and The World of the Incredibly Strange, promises to be surreal, whimsical and a bit dark. It follows the adventures of Ghostcat, a lonely creature intent on finding ghosts.

Well, I want to see more. Contibutors of £5 or more get a pdf copy once it's finished - £15 or more gets you a physical copy. There are other gifts and even mentions in the book for donations of different amounts, so check it out. Supporting young artists is a worthwhile thing and will give you a halo for at least a week.