Patrick Pinto (aka @RedHoodWing) recently contacted me on Twitter to tell me about an amazing Indiegogo campaign that he has started to try and fund a comic book store in his native home of New Jersey.
Patrick intends to raise USD$100,000 to open Sapphire Comics. He describes it as “…a bright beautiful store, where people, regardless of race, gender, lifestyle, in the community can come into the store and shop, sit down on comfortable couches, read, and have dialogue with each other about their similar passion“.
While the goal of USD$100,000 is going to be hard to achieve, Patrick has shown great optimism and recently said that “ [there are] 270 million twitter users…all we need is 90k of them to throw in a dollar“.
The funding is going to split up into three categories. The first category will see some money being devoted to securing the physical location of the shop, followed by purchasing the inventory and finally outfitting the store with the necessary fixtures and fittings.
Rewards for this campaign are varied and affordable. Contributors can give as little as USD$1 and receive a personalised thank you e-mail. However, if you are feeling particularly generous, then USD$400 you will receive:
I really applaud Patrick for his efforts with this campaign. His official Indegogo campaign page mentions that “by contributing you can help start a revolution in the comic industry. By creating a store that is created by you and for all of you! Man, Woman, Gay, Straight, Transgender, Black, White, Yellow…its a store for everyone“.
I really believe in such an altruistic cause and I would implore you to consider contributing to this crowdfunding campaign if you too would like to see greater inclusivity in comics.
If you would like more information, please hit this link or contact Patrick on Twitter – @RedHoodWing or @sapphirecomics.