Kickstarter’s a wonderful platform. I love the feeling of finding a good project that helps my community, through art or through service or through just building something amazing. There are two projects that caught my eye this that have DC roots and need your help. First up is Homicide Watch, which is raising $40,000 to build a one-year student reporting lab. 

The work that Chris and Laura Amico have done with Homicide Watch have been nothing short of astounding – and when you think about the void that they’re filling, it’s hard not to get emotional about. The crime reporting that they’re doing at Homicide Watch isn’t something that the local outlets are capable of doing. The service that they are doing is worth your support, and their program to train a whole new generation of crime reporters is a worthy effort. For more, read up on Alex Howard’s profile of Chris Laura.

Backer rewards include digital ebooks of their Year in Review, sponsorship opportunities on the site, lunch with founder Laura Amico, or a guest lecture/teaching spot for their team in your environment.

Homicide Watch has raised $1,920 of $40,000 in the campaign so far.

The second project is a comic book project by local cartoonist Steve Conley. Conley’s resume is fairly impressive, with an Eagle Award, and nominations for the Eisner and Harvey awards. His work in the late 1990s on Astounding Space Thrills is some of the most iconic comic art I’ve seen.

When I talked with Steve today about going the Kickstarter route, his goal is simple: find a receptive audience: “Independent comics creators used to be able to get pre-orders through distributors but as the comics market shrunk and distribution got worse, it became tougher and tougher to determine if a project was worth bringing to market.”

Conley’s modest fundraising goal will cover production of the first run of Bloop in hardcover format instead of its online environment and move to quality paper editions,

Backer rewards include original art from Conley, hardcover copies of Bloop volume one with 100# satin paper, case-bound with foil stamp and a color dust jacket, as well as hilarious retro-futuristic posters from the milieu of the series.

Conley has raised $1,440 of $3,000 in the campaign so far.

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