Help me publish my 80's camp LGBTQ graphic novel

THE ATOMIC RISE AND FALL OF ONE RADEA GAGA (sample pages at bottom of this post)

Something's fishy about nightclub Atomic Pearl...

Assigned female at birth, a transmasculine drag queen works stealth at Atomic Pearl nightclub in hopes to someday start his medical transition. When his paycheck is cut short one night while performing as his drag persona, Radea Gaga challenges her employer to a round of Discovery—a mysterious arcade game kept in the basement of the club. Radea soon finds out that this is more than a game. The not-so-innocent nightclub regulars are actually part of a violent brainwashed cult, with Discovery as the hivemind source. What's more, Discovery doesn't work for free—this arcade cabinet hungers for more than just quarters. Using the cult's control via Discovery to advance his medical transition, he must ask himself: How far will he go to transition? How much blood is worth a level up? And can Radea Gaga do it all without losing her wig?

With audacious colors, a rock opera narrative and lyrical dialogue, this 80's-esque gothic camp fiction explores gender as a performance, the "stealth" experience, and the catharsis that comes with embracing one's transness.

To read more about this graphic novel and its process, please click here to visit The Atomic Rise and Fall of One Radea Gaga page on my website.

Socials where I post updates: TikTok / Instagram / Twitter / Website

Hi, I'm Rick and I'm a trans artist. This graphic novel began as my undergraduate thesis at the University of Florida in 2020. It was fully written and illustrated by me, and edited during critiques by my peers. Completed in 2021, I hand-printed and hand-bound a limited edition of nine hardcover books. This is a comedic horror graphic novel about a transgender experience. It's a super campy short read (100 pages) and all the dialogue is written like a musical.

While I always wanted to publish this book, other things seemed to get in the way. Last year I illustrated a tarot deck that was very helpfully funded by GoFundMe donors. That gave me the confidence to take my artwork more seriously and revisit some projects I'd like to mass produce.

I would need donations to print and sell books, including an ISBN number and boxes for storage. Once enough donations come in, I plan to order mockups through a few companies to find which one works best. I will keep you updated on my socials. I am starting this fundraiser with an initial goal of $3000, which would be enough to pay for mockups and roughly 100 full-color books of this size (about 7.5" to 8.5" x 10" to 11"). Excess of this goal will contribute to higher quality and more books that will be printed and sold. The initial intent is paperback books, but I will consider hardback options should the budget allow depending on how many donations this receives.

I will likely conduct all sales on my website. The price for this book is still in deliberation. I am happy to take suggestions for pricing. I will keep this page updated once the final pricing has been determined.

For clarification, this is NOT a presale. This is meant for donations to get the project started, and sales will be conducted separately once I have the books. I have chosen Gofundme over Kickstarter for a few reasons. Kickstarter charges a fee for creators, whereas Gofundme does not. From what I've read I believe Kickstarter does not allow refunds but Gofundme does and I want donors to always have the option to back out or change their donated amount. Additionally, because I am still deliberating the final price of the book, and I would like to include other options for this book (such as a hardback version), I don't want to conduct a presale-like fundraiser just yet.

Thank you for your donations and for supporting this project!

Sample pages: