Help me attend The Eisner Awards!

Heyo, I'm Bex!

I'm an autistic freelance comic artist from the UK. I released my first published book, SENSORY: Life on the Spectrum, in late 2022. It's an anthology about autism created by myself with over 40 other autistic artists. The anthology has recently been nominated for an Eisner award - the most prestigious award that you can get in comics! - and I am raising funds in the hopes of being able to attend the ceremony in San Diego at the end of July.

The anthology first began as a series of humble webcomics, which started to get some attention on Twitter throughout Autism Acceptance Month in April 2021. I quickly realised that it would be super cool to turn the comics into a book, and so I self-published an anthology via Kickstarter. We raised over £45,000 to print the book, and the reception was overwhelmingly positive. The success of the Kickstarter campaign caught the attention of Andrews McMeel, a US-based publisher, who offered us a book deal and the opportunity to share the anthology with the world.

SENSORY: Life on the Spectrum has gone on to be nominated for a Ringo Award, A GMIC Award, Broken Frontier's Best Anthology award (which we won!), and finally, an Eisner Award for Best Anthology.

The Eisner Awards are the post prestigious awards in all of comics, it's literally the highest award you can receive. To be nominated for an Eisner for my first book is a ginormous honour and it means the absolute world to me, but unfortunately the awards ceremony is held at San Diego Comic Con, which is a long way away from the UK!

Travel, accommodation and food costs are roughly £2000. I was on the fence about going for a long time, which has meant that a lot of the cheaper options and options close to the venue are taken. It is also roughly a 20 hour journey each way from Manchester, my home city, to San Diego, which will be a lot for me to handle due to not only my autism but also my physical disability, Guillain-Barré syndrome. I will need a rest day after flying and a rest day after the ceremony, so I'm looking at a minimum of 3 nights, most likely 4.

This is all very overwhelming and a little bit scary to me to be honest. I cannot emphasise enough how much it sucks to be nominated for such a huge award and not be able to afford to attend the ceremony, nor to even be able to watch the awards from home, as they are not livestreamed. I feel like this might be the only time I ever get nominated, and it would mean SO much to me to be able to go and be present for that moment.

As a freelance comic artist, following my dreams comes at the cost of financial security. I feel like most people would think that someone who has a published book that is nominated for such a prestigious award would be rolling in cash, but the reality is that most comic artists, including myself, are barely scraping by. Many of us have second jobs to make ends meet or rely on donations to stay afloat. The recent #ComicsBrokeMe trending tag on Twitter has done a lot to open the public's eyes to the reality of being a comic artist; the long hours, the brutal workload, the destruction of your body in the name of passion, commonly for less than minimum wage - my experience is much the same.

And so, I am relying on donations to help me achieve my once-in-a-lifetime goal of being in the room when my name is read out at The Eisner Awards. I know that the competition is fierce and there's a good chance that I won't win the award, but winning doesn't matter to me. I just want to be in the room. Please help me make it happen!

Thank you!!

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UPDATE #1

Wow, oh my god, thank you so much everyone! I can't believe we've reached over £1500 already aah!!! Thank you so so so much for getting me 3/4 off the way there, I can't believe how generous you've all been and I am So grateful for the support. Seriously, thank you so much!!!!!

Since the fundraiser is doing better than expected (THANK YOU), I'm going to add a stretch goal. If we overfund, I would like to take someone else with me instead of going alone. This would help me a lot because of not only autistic overwhelm and anxiety but also because of my physical disability.

I planned to go alone and just suffer because I couldn't even afford myself let alone anyone else. But if we overfund, it would be so so so good to have someone help me with carrying stuff, navigating, getting food so I don't have to walk, and generally just helping me cope

I haven't priced this up yet so I can't say a final figure for the stretch goal right now, but I'll update the fundraiser properly as soon as I do.

Thank you so so much for allowing this to even be a potential option for me, and thank you so much for all the support so far. I will appreciate this forever!!!!

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UPDATE #2

Oh my gosh THANK YOU for funding this!!!!! And in less than 24h what the HECK you're all so generous and kind I can't believe it. It's going to take a while to sink in that I'm definitely DEFINITELY going oh my God dhfjdhjgshdgfjdkghn!! My dreams are coming true right now!!!

I have added a stretch goal to the campaign - I would love to be able to take another person with me to act as a carer and companion on the trip. I've been looking into hotels and flights and this will end up costing a total of £4000 for both of us to spend 3 nights in San Diego and be able to eat while we're there.

----- COST BREAKDOWN -------

(So far, that takes us to £3762)

Day 1: 18 hours of travelling

Day 2: San Diego Comic Con + The Eisner Awards

Day 3: San Diego (recovery)

Day 4: 16 hours of travelling

I'm estimating that everything will come to roughly £4000 for two people.

I know that this is So much money.... I kind of can't believe how expensive this is.... everything we're looking at is economy/not fancy at all like literally just the bare minimum..... but Please PLEASE help us to get there and thank you SO MUCH for all the support so far!

THANK YOU SO MUCH

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UPDATE #3

OK I have some really great news! I've been looking at flights for *weeks* and really making myself sick with how much they cost. It was getting to the point where I knew I had to just suck it up and book them already, and that they were only going to get more expensive and not cheaper.

But I think I am either dumb for not seeing this before or extremely blessed that this appeared now, because at the last possible minute I managed to find two flights for less than £1k each!!!! Which means that I can basically shave £1k off the campaign!!! Which means we've funded!!!

I'm so sorry for how chaotic this whole campaign has been, it's been really hard to know how much things will Actually cost before you book them, especially with flights where costs change Daily. Anyway, I have gone ahead and booked everything so I can say for *sure* now that our final costs are:

Accommodation: 892

Flights: 1914

Taxi to the hotel £15 each way

£200 food (£25 per day per person)

£115 cushion in case anything goes wrong!

TOTAL = 3150

So we have already funded!!! Thank you so so much everyone!!! I still *cannot believe* how much you all came through for me. I will take lots of pictures and post them to my insta stories so that you can see my trip! And I will also never ever ever forget this mass kindness or take it for granted. I will pay it forward wherever I can, thank you!!!

Geez. You guys are amazing, wow. I will remember this forever, thank you so much!!!!!! And thank you to everyone who reassured me that this wasn't a bratty thing to raise money for. Thank you for allowing me to be able to bring someone with me and thank you for making sure I'm going to be in the room when my name is read out ;___; oh god, it's really happening aahhh!!!!!

!!!!!