Starting off with full disclosure, I’m the marketing manager for Zoop. It’s why we haven’t covered the new crowdfunding platform at all, I just felt it weird crossing the streams and one who cares about the “ethics” of journalism it’s a bit hard to mix things up for me. But, today is National Comic Book Day and the platform is celebrating that with a cool sampler of all of the crowdfunding projects past and present on the site. You can catch more of that below.

I more wanted to talk about why I’m excited about being a part of the Zoop team. The simple answer is, we get to do stuff like this. I’ve been reading and collecting comics for over 35 years. My collection is massive (100+ long boxes) and the variation of comics is… a lot. There’s big publishers, small publishers, indie comics, paper stapled together after being xeroxed. It varies. I really like comic books. And, I like talking about comics and sharing what I like and promoting them. Hence this site.

That’s part of what drew me to Zoop and the team. I get to promote cool comics. I get to help try to make them a reality. So far, we’ve succeeded with them all and I’ve backed every single one. We not only get to help make these comics a reality by getting them funded but we’re building a community while doing it. Unlike other crowdfunding platform, this isn’t every creator in their mostly walled off garden. We use each campaign to build on the next. We’re attempting to bring together comic fans who want to help make this creator-owned indie comics a reality. To be a part of that is really cool.

When I was 20ish I helped published an indie comic that was released during San Diego Comic-Con. I got my name in the credits. That won’t happen here but to see that at 20 is such a cool exprience. I helped create something that others could enjoy. I get to do that every day with Zoop. And that’s what’s cool about this sampler, I feel like I’m 20 again with its release.

Today, I’ll be out promoting the current projects that are looking for funding, all three of them, and in-between spending some time reading some comics myself.

Check out the first Zoop sampler release and all of the comics that you can currently help make a reality. Links are within the comic sampler, so dive in, enjoy, and help celebrate today by reading some comics and maybe help make some a reality.

Current projects currently funding found within the sampler include:

• Trickster by Neil Gibson, Connor McCreery, and Veronica Saraceno
• The Brothers James by Brian Level, Ryan Ferrier, and Eamon Hill
• Cornerman by Ray-Anthony Height and Chris Robinson

Successfully funded projects include:

• Slow City Blues by Samuel Haine, Shawn Moll, John Livesay, David Baron, and Thomas Mauer
• Scarlett Couture – The Munich File by Des Taylor
• Resolution by Ron Marz, Andy Lanning, and Rick Leonardi
• Heads Will Roll by Bart Sears
• Remember Andy Xenon? by Tom Pinchuk and Nikos Koutsis