The Nib is Turning Five! 🎉 Help Us Keep Going for the Long Haul ✒
Five years ago, I launched The Nib as a destination for the kinds of comics I wanted to see more of in the world: scathing political satire, great journalism, and powerful non-fiction.
The Nib was going to exist in defiance of print and online trends and carve out a space for cartoonists. And if you told me back then that in five years we would have published thousands of comics from over 300 cartoonists and just launched a print magazine, I would have said to you, “Well, shit, that’s my plan exactly. Must be easy getting there.”
I also may have innocently asked, “So, who’s president in five years?”
It has not been easy getting here.
We’ve had ups and downs, great successes, and near-death experiences. We’ve had comics reach over a million people in a single day and we’ve had the rug pulled out from under us and publishing halted. We’ve re-launched and re-tooled, animated and live-drawn.
And now we’ve launched our most ambitious project: a quarterly print magazine and membership program called The Inkwell to support The Nib for the long haul.
Not only do I love comics in print, but I’m bullish on the business model of direct reader support. We make readers a great magazine and daily online comics and in exchange you all support The Nib’s continued existence, through the Trump administration and beyond the apocalypse, where postal workers will brave hordes of mutants to deliver to you each magazine and your Official Nib tote bags.
I did say the long haul.
Our first print issue’s theme is Death, and we came at it from every angle for 112 pages, from the personal to the political to the absurd. Members of The Inkwell also get our special newsletter, which features a behind-the-scenes look into the goings on at The Nib. Just today we sent out the Oral History of The Nib magazine detailing our months long race to hit our September publication date (we made it with two days to spare) and a short interview with contributor Gerardo Alba.
Here’s a small sampling of the work your membership will support:
- Raw and real comics on the issues of the day from a diverse range of creators, like “I’m Tired of Performing Trauma: Five Cartoonists on #MeToo.”
- Weekly cartoons tearing down Trump from the likes of Tom Tomorrow and Pia Guerra.
- Comics journalism on under-covered issues like how homeless people are politically organizing.
- New voices like Chelsea Saunders, who started drawing for us this year and has already become a regular contributor.
The Death issue is shipping now to new members. Join The Inkwell today and help The Nib keep publishing another five years. We’ve got thousands more comics to draw.
Matt Bors
Founder and Editor-in-chief
Anniversary gif by Erlend Sandøy
