Wow! Let's Go! A Kids Comics Studio Anthology is in the hands of our Kickstarter backers, and now it's available on Amazon!
www.amazon.com/Lets-Go-Comi...
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Let’s Go!: A Kids Comics Studio Anthology
Let’s Go!: A Kids Comics Studio Anthology [González, Alberto, Araujo, Alondra, Samuel, Annie, Steinberg, Sarah E, Giles, Sarah, Perks, Anne-Marie, Wagner, Ashlee, Zahnrei, Rowena, Lugo, Patrick, Tzeng, Bert] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Let’s Go!: A Kids Comics Studio Anthology
![[black and white image from film with caption Yes, that is Margaret Hamilton: The Wicked Witch of the West!]
As the situation worsens, their seemingly quixotic example starts to inspire the dispirited townspeople to recognize their rights.
[black and white image from film of man at typewriter with caption The power of print!]
Ultimately, the townsfolk step up and use their power to unseat the wealthy, chiseling swindlers who’d been exploiting their resources, sapping their hope, and bleeding them dry for years.
[black and white image from film of woman with arms outstretched and caption Give ’em heck, Mary: the (second) toughest gal in town! (after Vinnie McLeod, of course.) ]
Yeah. This was Cagney’s message. His first independent production after leaving Warner Brothers. The first role he chose after winning the Oscar. He made it then, and left it for us. And if there’s, perhaps, some whiff of familiarity about it…
Well maybe, that – at last – is the point.
Sure, Cagney had fame and fortune but, even with those advantages – or, perhaps, obstacles – his attempts to produce stories that fell outside studio and audience expectation left him facing rejection, judgment, and some meager reviews. Still, Johnny scored an Oscar nomination for Best Score. And Cagney continued to pick projects that held something he wanted to say, wanted to share, wanted to leave behind. He accepted the risks, and made it happen.
[black and white image of 2 men in suits with caption William and James Cagney]
And he’s not alone.
That spirit, that need to create and share despite the odds – it’s very much still with us. It exists in our Kickstarter Campaign, our Anthology project, our collaborative efforts to bring our stories to life.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:caojtzz4a56w667fm4zf6wrm/bafkreic6nptshlhha7jm7o4l45omh625kl4ewvhzqq7mcy7fr7igiexhli)
![To craft a book our readers can hold in their hands.
[image of our anthology book in mock-up with the title Let's Go and kids crossing a tree branch over some mermaids swimming down a river with the words OUR PROJECT next to it over a treasure map path with red x]
Support our Kickstarter Campaign for Let’s Go! A Kids Comics Studio Anthology
In today’s climate, the examples left to us by creators like Cagney shine like a golden thread, connecting past to present. That matters, because it’s only in the present that we can make choices, toss pebbles, start ripples that may still be felt in the future.
[stock color image of water drop with ripples and caption Behold: the clichéd stock image!]
So, let’s keep writing, keep drawing, keep creating, and keep supporting each other’s efforts. Because it’s not always about what will sell. It’s about the stories we share with each other, and produce for ourselves.
And that, I’d argue, is the point.
Thanks for reading,
Rowena
P.S. Here’s my own crowdfunded graphic novel trilogy, The Adventures of Nicki and Ricky, Baffling Birds! Created in collaboration with fellow KCS Anthology contributor, Sarah E Steinberg!
[image of book cover for Baffling Birds with 2 kids waving on the front one in a yellow jacket and the other in blue sweatshirt]
To quote the great Cagney: “Made it, Ma! Top of the world!”
Thank you so much for supporting independent projects like ours! 😊
More Resources:
If you enjoy movies like Johnny Come Lately (1943), check out Storm Center (1956). Starring the incomparable Bette Davis as a small-town librarian facing a book ban, this was the first movie to overtly confront and criticize McCarthyism. Like Johnny Come Lately, it’s a time capsule of a film, and much of what it reveals still resonates today. Enjoy!
[image of the movie poster form STORM CENTER]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:caojtzz4a56w667fm4zf6wrm/bafkreidtjpcniql7t3zxiqfiptavkf2e37bjs63n75mzt5h3lyqlinl7ye)
![You’ve probably heard some of these ol’ chestnuts:
You want to write for kids?
Don’t give up your day job!
Reading comics isn’t reading!
Studios and publishers only take projects they already know will sell. What’s the point sending your stories out?
Perusing the news these days, it can seem like the whole world’s become a plague pit of discouragement. The plight of print! Local bookstores replaced by gyms! Books banned, libraries and archives purged…and our reactions to it all somehow both dulled and exacerbated by overwhelm, ennui – the distraction of social media as attention spans continue to fracture and shrink.
[drawn image of a stack of books, their spines read out READ_BANNED-BOOKS]
Seriously, where would we be without Atticus Finch – or Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland!
Thing is, for writers, artists, playwrights, actors, vaudevillians, creatives of all kinds—
It’s kinda always been that way. Just ask Voltaire – he spent a month shy of a year locked up in the Bastille and later faced exile for his satire. Sure, his wit remained unblunted to the end. But we, here in the second quarter of the twenty-first century, may expect to boast a few demonstrable improvements over pre-revolutionary 1717.
[Image of Voltaire]
Here’s Voltaire looking smug with a book. 😊
Still, censorship and self-censorship remain an ongoing and growing concern. New works struggle to root, let alone sprout in the shadow of culturally-entrenched intellectual properties. Chasing trends is like entering a race after the fact, and pop fads get outdated quicker than slang.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:caojtzz4a56w667fm4zf6wrm/bafkreibozy45nd2ebqztm3i2ssb57g3xd3gwojyajhu5a4hj6wgrfdgrfy)
![Skibidi.
People say they want the new, the different, the cutting edge. But they buy the familiar, the popular, the nostalgia-bait husks of beloved cultural touchstones. So...
What’s the point?
Let me tell you a story…
Back in the Golden Age of Hollywood, studios polished and packaged celebrity like baubles to tantalize the paying public. Pigeon-holing talent simplified marketing, and Jimmy Cagney’s gleaming star reflected his tough-guy image as the galaxy’s favorite gangster.
[Black and white photo of James Cagney in tux and bow tie with caption: James Cagney: “Hollywood renegade.”]
Well, mine, at least. Edward G. Robinson was pretty snappy too.
[black and white photo of Cagney and Robinson in suits and fedoras with caption Cagney and Edward G. co-starred in Smart Money (1931).]
Anyway, Cagney was a dynamic guy, eager to learn and try new things. That’s great for a creative mind; not so much for a pre-packaged star. His dancing and singing skills didn’t quite fit the bullet-scarred box Hollywood provided, and his refusal to curl up and keep quiet in there led to several scraps with the studios. So, after he won the Oscar for the musical Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), James Cagney teamed up with his brother William to start an independent filmmaking venture.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:caojtzz4a56w667fm4zf6wrm/bafkreifz4dq4nugj3lwyttrkkvirnd53qaqqly6rccua5i2364lfwhzeqi)
![[Image of YANKEE DOODLE DANDEE movie poster]
I love the scene where Cagney tap-dances down the White House steps!
And from all this tumult, we were left my favorite Cagney movie…possibly tied with 1949’s White Heat. It’s pretty close.
Johnny Come Lately (1943) marked Cagney’s first film after Yankee Doodle Dandy, and his first chance to play a character he wanted to play in a story he wanted to tell without a studio head peering over his shoulder.
[Image of JOHNNY COME LATELY movie poster and a picture of a green book cover titled MCLEOD'S FOLEY]
It’s a period piece (and cinematic time capsule), set in 1906, based on the book McLeod’s Folly, by Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Louis Bromfield. And, despite a lukewarm reception and similarly critical subsequent descriptions, Cagney’s film, the characters in it, and the obstacles they face are anything but – as Cagney’s biographer characterized it – “mild” (Cagney, John McCabe).
Here’s the basic breakdown:
In the time of the robber barons, like Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, and Carnegie, Cagney’s discouraged, drifting reporter finds himself dragged out of a public park and into court on overblown vagrancy charges.
[black and white image still from the film with caption Is it a crime to read a book in a public park without a shave?]
At sentencing, he’s rescued and hired by the town’s lone surviving independent news publisher: a little old lady with a civic mind, a caring heart, and the fortitude and character of an Old West pioneer.
[black and white image still from the frame with the captionVinnie McLeod, played by Grace George, meets Tom Richards, played by James Cagney.]
Together, this unlikely pair risk assassins’ bullets and worse to fight censorship, expose graft, satirize corruption – only to face the town’s resigned indifference, while gaining very little support.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:caojtzz4a56w667fm4zf6wrm/bafkreicopvqjdq4nmpvzxp6y4jk4gvpkziqac4u2j6tcv7vw3zbd54xz7u)
