WILMINGTON — A local resident’s crowdsourcing for his comic book really blasted off.
Matt Fife — Wilmington High School Class of 1999 graduate — and his friend Matt Rodgers have raised over $1,400 in crowdfunding for their comic book “Happy Astronaut.”
The two were able to meet their first goal of $1,250 within two days after starting it on September 13.
“I wasn’t confident we’d meet our goal at the 30-day deadline,” said Fife. “I’ve seen some crowdfunding projects that you think they’d succeed, but don’t.”
Fife, the book’s writer, and Rodgers, the illustrator, have already moved on to their next goal of $1,500 by this Friday.
According to the fundraising page on zoop.gg, “Happy Astronaut” is an all-ages comic book that tells the story of Happy, “an introverted young adult who decides that the best course of action for his life isn’t a job at the local factory with all those *shudder* people.”
“Our goal is for it to be all ages,” said Fife. “People three to 99 can read and enjoy it. We do fun sci-fi stories that pull in things we love. I love Conan the Barbarian, so we put in a story where Happy meets a barbarian character and go on an adventure.”
The main character takes the job of an astronaut to spend time alone, and enjoy his favorite books, comics, movies, and records, without any interruption.
“But even the most introverted are bound to get lonely and bored! And sometimes, adventure just comes knocking on your shuttle door,” the page states.
The webpage describes the book as a combination of the original “Star Trek” series and the cartoon show “Adventure Time.”
Fife told the News Journal the idea began back in 2018 when Rodgers sent him a drawing of Happy and told him to come up with a story for the character.
“In Happy’s origin, he had a factory job and was miserable. He saw an opportunity and he went for it. I added a lot of myself in it because at the time I was unhappy where I was working,” he said.
He always wanted to work in comics, so after he and Rodgers began working he decided to go full speed ahead with “Happy Astronaut.” Fife added that motivation and drive into Happy and hopes the audience pick up similar motivation.
“I guess the story is all about taking that leap of faith. You don’t know what’ll happen unless you take those risks,” he said.
To help contribute to the campaign and find out how to get a copy of the book, visit https://zoop.gg/c/happyastronaut1.
