A Kickstarter To Rename The Birds

13 years ago, I was the managing editor of the student newspaper at the University of Massachusetts, and one day, in the middle of the afternoon, we realized we didn’t have enough comic strips for the next day. I asked if anybody could gin up something. I promise you that’s all I asked for. But this is what the Arts and Entertainment Editor heard:

“You need a comic strip? What about multiple comic strips? What if I don’t just have something for you tomorrow, but for the entire next year, and when I’m done with that, for another year after that? What if I don’t stop after those two years? What if I create a website to publish my comic strip? And what if it isn’t so much a comic strip as it is an odd and lonely rumination on a world inhabited only by a small creature who looks very much like the Grim Reaper and a menagerie of animals, as well as the occasionally odd visitor? What if I take your need for this one simple thing and create something very different instead, something meaningful and something genuine and something beautiful?”

Or at least, that’s what he seemed to hear, because that’s precisely what he ended up doing with his creation, Buttercup Festival.

We are older now, obviously. He is in England, an avid hiker, a husband, a father, and yes, still working on his drawings. But he has a newer, more ambitious project now, The Renaming Of The Birds. He explains the project on his, yes, Kickstarter page. As I do not stand to profit in any discernible way, I feel no qualms about encouraging you to watch that video, visit some of the links that I’ve embedded, and then give consideration to the possibility of support.

Thank you.

Update: My friend reached his goal in less than 5 days, an incredible accomplishment.