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Grief For A Dollar

Published Sun, 30 Apr 2017 09:00:29 -0500

Frank Gogol writes

This anthology wasn't supposed to be an anthology at all.

About a year ago, I wrote the first story from this collection (the last in the collection) Embrace, the story of a father, his autistic son, and their daily struggles. At the time, and for a while after, I was writing my little comic stories to do just that—to write comic stories.

Then one day, I took stock of the stories I had written and the ones I had planned, and I noticed a thematic link across all of them—they all, in one way or another, mapped to the stages of grief.

For most people, when you mention grief or grieving, the immediate and almost universal association they make with it is to death. But grief is a process that applies to so much more. Yes, you can grieve the loss of a loved one, but you can also grieve the loss of a job, the end of a relationship, a disappointing outcome, or even the situation you might have with your autistic son.

Grief is one of the few truly shared human experiences, and the coolest thing about doing this a book as an anthology with lots of genres is that there's something for everybody. These are stories about superheroes, monsters, aliens, and all of the other things to love about comic books, but with a strong focus on people, like you or me, who are struggling.

More recently, while I was producing the last stories from this collection, a close friend asked me, "Why Grief? Isn't that kind of…bleak?"

At the time, I didn't necessarily know how to answer. I just knew it in my bones that it was the right direction for this book. I've since spent a lot of time mulling it over, and the truth is I wanted to write about hope, and grief, to me, is really about hope.

The truth is, as painful as it is when it's happening, grief is always the story of healing and of moving forward. And we, as people, do it over and over throughout our lives. No matter what horror and tragedy comes our way, we always rise above it and move past it. And that's what hope is, right? A feeling that better days lie ahead.

So, we hope that with just a few days left to go, you'll come by and check out the GRIEF Kickstarter campaign.

It's not about the money for us. The project funded in its first 10 hours, and while we are ecstatic about that, it's not the point.

We think this book is important, and we just want it to reach people. That's why we're offering the digital book for less than the cost of a cup of coffee. For just $1, backers can enjoy Grief in its entirety.

In the front of the book, there's a dedication: "For anyone who's ever struggled. If you're reading this, you survived." If that's you, this is a book for you.

Grief is on Kickstarter until May 4. Check it out here.

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