Get Sam to the Queers and Comics Festival

WHAT'S THIS FOR?

The Queers & Comics Conference was created to celebrate, explore, document, and analyze LGBTQ cartoonists and their work. The biennial conference alternates between New York City and San Francisco, California.

This year I have been invited to attend as a panelist. I'll be selling my books, meeting other queer and trans comic creator, learning heaps, and promoting queer and trans comics from New Zealand.

I just need some help to cover the costs of getting there and for food and accommodation.

ABOUT ME:

I've been working in Rainbow communities for over a decade - telling stories, creating art, and doing youth and community development projects. I'd like to share my knowledge of combining these things, as well as learn from queer comics leaders New Zealandly.

Talking about the impact of my work is hard for me to write about, so I crowd-sourced this section. You can see what people have to say about my work in the pictures above, but here are some of the things people had to say:

"You are lovely and diligent and talented and kind. You care about the communities you are part of and always try to share resources and opportunities. You're always drawing attention to stories and perspectives that are marginalised and trying to make room for them in conversations where they might be missing. You're willing to be vulnerable and take risks to make art and to make change." - Philip W

"You combine critical thinking, compassion, community building and innovative social media approaches that engage a wide audience to progress social justice issues" - George P

"I always read your Roostertails comics whenever I see them! They are compulsively readable, beautiful drawn and have incredibly sympathetic characters (that I know are you IRL!) They are the perfect length for an internet micro-break. I really love how they express the transguy and genderqueer experience, showing all the obstacles, hardships and prejudices that come your way, and yet they still have a light, humorous, engaging touch. They are really specific in their detail which makes them so affecting - your most recent hospital comic is case in point. They invite an enormous amount of empathy from both queer and straight readers. And I think you should get a QSM for the work you did on #wearebeneficiaries." - Sarah L

"You say hard things in a gentle way that people can hear" - Julie W

"Sam writes and illustrates comics that give the world real insights into queer life in New Zealand and in general, as well as donating his time to a variety of queer-positive initiatives over many years of youth work. Sam draws cute diverse characters too! Sam is p great." - Sian D

"Sam Orchard uses a great openness and honesty to help us feel real and seen. Both emotionally and situationally, as queer people finding ourselves & our intersectional responsibilities" - Harry B

WHY THIS IS SO IMPORTANT:

Your support would be life changing!

I have been needing to go to this conference since it's inception, I want to meet my queer comics heroes and learn amazing things from them. This will help me share my comics with a USA audience (where the majority of my readers are based), promote queer and trans comics from here, and give me a chance to pitch a new comic project that I've been working on, to USA publishers.

My friend Sarah actually says it way better: "It's vital as an NZ creator that you get the opportunity to go and meet other creators. When you meet people face to face you really make connections - that's when you get invited to collaborate, or a US publisher realises how important it is that they publish you under their imprint, or people want you in their anthologies. The NZ comics community is super small so you have to have the chance to go overseas where the community is larger and the audiences are. The conference will be super inspiring because sometimes it's hard to remember why we do these things, but when you see a whole bunch of other people dedicating their lives to drawing comics, then you are reminded that it is actually a thing that people do, and it's important and you're doing the vital work of making more diverse stories so that the world doesn't get swamped by the dominant narrative."

WHAT'S THE MONEY FOR?

Making queer comics and doing community work isn't... lucrative. I try my best to make it work, because this is the work I love to do. But - the truth is I can't go without fundraising to get there. I've tried to choose the smallest amount to ask for - to cover the costs of my flights and some accommodation - but if we can get over this base amount it means that I won't have to be reliant on borrowing money from my partner, or credit cards. So, yeah - any and all amount will really, really help!