I AM IN THIS!

earlier this year I was lucky enough to be selected as an artist to contribute work for an Akira Fanzine, and finally all the details are out!

Black Mass, a unique and rad small press out of Nottingham in the UK have been putting together risograph printed zines, comics and art prints for a while now, and this is the latest offering from them.

It is a kickstarter, with about 300 copies of the zine being available, as well as Pins and Prints. The calibre of artists and writers involved is awesome, so have a look here:

Alexandre Godreau (Artwork) || Andy Williams (Comic) || BAKAkid (Artwork) || Bon Idle (Comic) (Sword Hunt) || CROM (Comic) (Raiders, Bird King) || David Lawrence(Artwork) || Freya Nicolson (Artwork) || James Perrett (Artwork) || John Bryers (Essay) || Marcus Cripps (Comic)|| Pocketwei (Artwork) || Pikimik (Artwork) || Rock Paper Riso / A.T. Zimmer (Artwork) || Thom Goward (Artwork)

Here is some more information from the kickstarter page, and read to the end to see my artwork in full, kinda mocked up to look like a riso print. Riso prints are magical, and there is no real way to digitally emulate the warmth and look of an actual risograph print, so you will just have to buy the zine!

The Campaign

Bright neon lights and towering skyscrapers, political and social unrest, religious movements and doomsday cults, military police and warring biker gangs of troubled youths. This is Neo-Tokyo, and it is about to E•X•P•L•O•D•E.

To celebrate 31 years of Akira and year it is set, the distant, dystopian future of 2019, Black Mass is creating NEO-TOKYO 2019, a risograph fanzine, dedicated to the world of Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira: Neo-Tokyo.

We wanted to create a book that celebrates the rich world of Akira by focusing on the people and places at the edges of Tetsuo and Kaneda’s stories, and the impact of Otomo’s dystopian vision of a future Tokyo. I decided to do this through Kickstarter to allow people to pre-order the book in a secure and open way without worries.

Rewards

The Neo Tokyo 2019 Fanzine will be saddle-stitched, 195mm x 265mm and risograph printed in black and red throughout. 40 pages, including the cover, containing 35 pages of short comics, original artwork and writing.

The Capsule Gang Pin will be a 25mm diameter soft enamel pin with a rubber clutch and black dye finish of the iconic Akira capsule design. These pins will come on risograph-printed backing cards.

The A3 Print will be a 3-colour variation on Bon Idle’s cover artwork. Risograph produces vibrant, vivid colours and we want to take advantage of that, so the final colour combination for the print will be decided by you! We will send out a backer survey with colour options once the campaign is funded and the most popular option will be printed.

We are aiming to print around 300 copies of the zine. The exclusive bundles in this Kickstarter will cover the initial costs to realise this project. The costs which roughly break down like this:

• £1100 for printing and other production costs (i.e. the Pin, ISBNs etc.)
• £2100 for packaging & shipping
• £400 kickstarter fees

Please note for international backers (outside the UK) any custom taxes or fees are not covered by shipping costs and are your responsibility should any occur.

What is Risograph?

We are working closely with our long-term print partner Dizzy Ink who have helped us print all our risograph books since we started in 2016. They have worked with clients such as Kingston University London, Pentagram, Tate, GF Smith and more.

Risograph printing is similar to screen-printing in the sense that images are printed one colour at a time using a stencil. Risograph machines push ink through a stencil that is wrapped around a drum as paper is fed through it at high speeds. As these machines run cold and use soy-based ink, they are energy efficient, create minimal waste and are a generally more environmentally friendly way to print.

Due to the way these printers work, sometimes you get what’s called misregistration as well as small differences in ink coverage. This means that every single print is totally unique and special. While slight variations are beautiful, we do endeavour to maintain a consistent and high level of quality in the printing throughout, and any prints that don’t meet our high-standards are not used.

You can support the zine here!

And here is my work – NEOtokyo Ramen – The Akiramen Recipe…