[a white transwoman stands in front of a Ms. Marvel poster. She is wearing glasses, black T-shirt, and a brown studded leather jacket] Hello, I’m Renie Jesanis, she/her.
[a white woman with pink hair and glasses stands in front of a wall of boxes. She is wearing a DC’s Young Animal tshirt.] Hi, I’m Steph Glass, I use she/her pronouns.
[A white, androgynous transmasculine person sits on a couch with a cane. They are wearing glasses, a pride t-shirt with a pug in rainbow suspenders, and a denim vest with a few enamel pins.] I’m Kyri Lorenz, they/them.
Renie: and I’m also the editorial team lead for the new LGBTQ comics anthology, Being True. [An image of the title, displayed as white words on a large rainbow pride banner, fades in at the bottom of the screen. The cover image, from which the banner is taken, is shown with a slow pan.]
Renie: Being True is a new comics anthology put together by the Boston Comics Roundtable,
Steph: that’s meant to celebrate and uplift LGBTQ narratives.
Renie: Being True tells the stories of the power and heart that comes from being true to oneself.
Steph: So much of what’s out there is about the negative parts of being LGBTQ, like the struggles, the hardship, facing homophobia and transphobia, and we wanted to be able to celebrate our lives and our narratives.
Kyri: We’re keeping it for a Middle School audience, because that’s really the age that people start to realize who they are, and making sure that they understand that it’s a good thing to be yourself is super important to us.
Renie: So the comics in the anthology range from slice of life, to high fantasy and sci-fi, to just plain old lovable characters. And they all just revolve around the theme of what being true means to you, and the joys that come from that. [Various pans of art from the anthology can be seen: Barbarra Kochman, Beth Barnett, Maura McGonagle, Margaret Love, Khale McHurst.]
Steph: We wanted to represent LGBTQ people in any genre that you can imagine.
Kyri: We have over twenty contributors from all over the world, including Brazil and Warsaw.
Renie: We think it’s a great opportunity to showcase the different perspectives that come from being queer in different parts of the world.
Steph: Our initial Kickstarter goal is $5,000 which will cover printing costs for black and white, paying our cover artist, LB Lee, paying all of our teams $30 per page, and paying taxes and Kickstarter fees.
Renie: So this is where we need your help! The LGBTQ community already faces a pay gap in everything we do. LGBTQ creators specifically face difficulties in job prospects, or even getting paid work!
Kyri: We deserve to get paid!
Renie: We have several stretch goals that are detailed below that we hope will pay the creators even more.
Steph: So our first tier is if you contribute $1 we will give you a high five and we will print your name in our book. Thank you for supporting us. [Fun Fact! The high-five was invented by a gay black baseball player Glenn Burke, along with Dodgers teammate Dusty Baker, in 1977.]
If you contribute $5 we will give you an awesome sticker designed by one of our friends, and you will also get your name printed in our book, and if we see you, we will high-five you.
$15 gets you your very own book, and a sticker, and your name printed in our book. We do have to cover shipping costs, so there may be additional costs on top of that.
We also have retailer packages of 3 and 5 books for $30 and $50 respectively, which will sell for a $5 profit.
So feel free to contact us if you have any questions about any of these tiers or the retailer incentives. We’ll also send you some cool stickers for your store. [Salimata Kamara of Pandemonium Books & Games gives a thumbs up to the camera while holding a Being True postcard.]
Kyri: Any extra money we make will go directly into the pockets of our queer creators,
Renie: So the more you donate, the more they get paid.
Kyri: The BCR (Boston Comics Roundtable) has already accomplished over a dozen anthologies in the past, so we have the resources and experience to make sure that this anthology is completed and gets into your hand.
Renie: So the Boston Comics Roundtable is a coalition of independent comics creators.
Kyri: We meet every Thursday at Lesley University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Renie: At 7 o’clock. It’s free and open to the public.
Steph: You can find more information on our website, bostoncomics.com.
[Renie gives a double thumbs up to the camera and there is laughter.] Renie: Yeah okay, I think we’re good!
Renie [off screen]: I think that’s everything.
Steph: Cool. [Steph pretends to kick the camera and it fades to black.]
Script by Renie Jesanis
Directed by Steph Glass
Edited by Kyri Lorenz
“Super Friendly” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Many thanks to Heide Solbrig and the Boston Comics Workspace for letting us film on location.
Thanks also to Pandemonium Books & Games and Salimata Kamara for letting us film in their store. ccgs@pandemoniumbooks.com