Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, HRL

Tales of Fractured Worlds, a Socially Conscious Sci-Fi Anthology

Published Sun, 11 Feb 2018 14:00:01 -0600

Roddy McCance writes:

Last year, I launched a Kickstarter campaign for an anthology called Tales Of The Fractured Mind, which was written by myself and illustrated by Rolands Kalnins. We were funded within 13 hours and we achieved two times our (admittedly quite humble) target. Our latest Kickstarter, Tales Of Fractured Worlds, just launched a week ago, and we're excited to share it with the world.

A lot has happened in the space in between these two projects for me and the world of comics. Since launching our Kickstarter last year, I've done five conventions: MCM Belfast, Q-Con, ICE Birmingham, DECAF Dublin, and Thought Bubble. There were some highs and a few lows, but I wouldn't change a thing. This experience has been a blast, and entering the landscape of independent comics has been a very interesting one. I've written short stories for anthologies published by Markosia, Swamp Line Comics, FutureQuake Press and Gray Haven Comics, but it was Tales Of The Fractured Mind that helped me develop as a writer and open up a lot of doors for me.

I always loved the idea of anthologies. To me they're like an album — each story is different, but it plays into an overall structure to make one cohesive structure. Tales Of The Fractured Mind helped me launch my career in comics and it was all about mental health awareness. Each story was about a different mental illness, and the entire anthology was designed to generate awareness for comics readers. Off the back of Tales, I started up a small press publisher to publish these books. I have a few ideas for where to go and what stories I want to tell with these books. Another thing that happened with Fractured Mind was I got to start working with Inspire (a mental health charity) in Northern Ireland, where I help take creative writing classes and we are also developing a comic about recovery together.

For me, comics and art is where you put your ideas about the world. If I have an opinion about something, it goes into a story. Seeing how bitter and twisted the landscape of comics is on Twitter is pretty heartbreaking at times. Fans vilify creators and there's no real structured arguments, just angry shouting. We don't really have any discourse, merely shouting at each other. For me, our books are socially conscious and we'll wear that on our sleeve. They're designed to be that way, I feel a lot of art should be like that. To make you think; to generate discussion.

Our second anthology, Tales Of Fractured Worlds, is a retro science fiction anthology with over 10 artists from around the world with the stories being written by myself. Our aim is to bring to light environmental, ecological, social, and human issues at the core of the book. Good sci-fi is about creating worlds that seem so far from our own, yet share this one similarity or truth that we cant escape from. All the stories in Tales Of Fractured Worlds are inspired by Huxley, H.G. Wells, and Orwell. All the stories here are from my heart. Tales Of Fractured Worlds has a message. It's a message about the world we live in, and at its core, it's a graphic novel about human stories. Thanks for reading, and if you look at this page, think about the comic or back it, truly, thank you.

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