Look into the future and envision a government that tracks you not through phone records, but a microchip under your skin. Now imagine you’re a young female immigrant without one.
The Illegal Kickstarter campaign from Jeremy Whitley, writer of the Eisner-Nominated series Princeless, and Heather Nunnelly, artist of webcomic sensation Vacant, aims to raise money to create a fifteen issue comic book series.
The story revolves around Gianna, a girl from Mexico with abusive father and no future, who makes a split second decision with her mother to leave it behind for a chance to be something better with a dash of microchip sci-fi, government tracking and parkour. And it’s a complex look at racism, sexism, abuse, and the US immigrantion system.
For Jeremy, it’s a way to tell a story involving his experience “as a white kid growing up in the South, [where] other white kids used to talk trash about ‘Mexicans’ and ‘illegals’ around me all the time.” Since he was raised in part by a Mexican grandfather, he was able to see the other side of the story and understand that a lot of the “Mexicans” the kids referred to weren’t actually Mexican.
Backer rewards range from $1 level which includes Thank You on the back cover of Issue 1 to a retailer pack of 25 copies of Issue 1 and an signing at the $350 level. Show your support for either Team Jeremy or Team Heather at the $50 level for signed copies of their best known work.