Kickstarting Now: That One Matt Bors Comic

It has been nearly a decade since I created the “Mister Gotcha” comic, which introduced the phrase “we should improve society somewhat” and gave birth to a thousand remixes. While I have moved on from political cartooning as my main creative outlet, the staying power of the comic as a reaction meme has endured through multiple presidential administrations and various social media epochs.

My work becoming a recognizable meme—one so closely associated with my own name—has been in turns frustrating, flattering, cool, and baffling. You lose control of the work, but gain a kind of cultural cachet you can’t quite figure out how or if to leverage—Matt Bors Comic Consulting? Participate in plushies?

Recently, writer and editor Glenn Fleishman pitched me on an idea that I liked. He wanted to make an entire book examining the comic as an object of internet discourse—to pull it apart, celebrate it, criticize it, and examine it from all angles.

And so today, with my involvement, Glenn has launched That One Matt Bors Comic on Kickstarter. The book will feature the comic’s history and showcase the various remixes made over the years, along with new essays and cartoons by people who think about memes, society, cultural conflicts, economics, and politics. It will also feature an interview with me about about the strip’s memeification, my ambivalence about its uses, and the politics of gotcha-ism that dominates online spaces.

You can pre-order a copy here and even get a signed print of the comic, which I’m offering for the first time ever.

One of the big draws for me on this project was getting other people contributing real writing and cartoons about the subjects at play in the comic and its cultural perch. These are the confirmed contributors, with more to follow: Anna Merlan, Box Brown, Laura Hudson, Shay Mirk, Parker Molloy, Greg Pak, Gemma Correll, K.C. Green, Mattie Lubchansky, James Kochalka, Tom Tomorrow, and Ben Passmore.

I’ve known Glenn Fleishman for years. He commissioned illustrations from me when back he ran The Magazine and has helmed a number of impressive projects like How Comics Are Made, a visual history of print production techniques for process freaks like me. I trust him to make a great book here.

As mentioned above, I’m heavily involved in this project. While Glenn is the editor and publisher, I am being paid well (if it funds!) for my main contributions to the book: cover art, licensing, writing an introduction, and new production art. I am also getting the lion’s share of any signed prints and original art sold through the campaign, which includes a very lush giclée print of the last panel. Grab one on the Kickstarter page!

There are signed special editions of the book at a higher tier and I’m offering art commissions for the first time ever. That is, if you want an original ink drawing of pretty much any character—my own or the big intellectual property you adore most—I’m taking a limited number through this campaign and not opening anything up again until next year.

Being the creator of such a celebrated comic has honestly been strange. If I have to be associated with it forever then a project like this is how I’d like to do that. I have much more to say about it all, but I’m saving it for the book!