Dahm for Baum Kickstarter: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz- a Graphic Novel by Evan Dahm

If you've ever taken an art history course, you have probably heard about the Medici family. For those of you who aren't in the know, the Medici dynasty was a very powerful family in Florence, Italy, who rose to power as financiers and politicians. Their love of art caused them to sponsor an incredible amount of starving artists throughout the 14th-18th centuries. By supporting these artists, they were able to create a prolific amount of art and cultural advances, which we now call the 'Italian Renaissance'.  Now that, you've definitely heard of. Nowadays, in 2014, we creative folk are doing a bit better, but unless we sell our souls to advertising devils, it's still as hard as ever to support yourself full time as an artist.

This is why I love Kickstarter.com . It's like a modern version of the Medici family, except it allows each of us would-be Medicis to sponsor artists like Evan Dahm through crowdfunding. 

Now that one of the most enchanting children's books of all time has turned 100, "The Wizard of Oz" is now public domain. Evan Dahm is an illustrator, and he decided it would be fun to create a bright new vision of the story through his graphic novel style illustration. So he illustrated over 100 pages of colorful, imaginative drawings in his style, which he will be pairing with Frank L. Baum's full original text, and have printed into a handsome hard-backed book, which you can pre-order on his Kickstarter page.

I ordered my own copy of the book, with a signed bookplate, which will arrive next Spring, and I encourage you to order your own copy. Keep it for yourself, or gift it to your favorite kid!  In fact, it even has enough funding that it will have a dapper foil-printed cover, a silk bookmark.. and new art for the end-covers!

Being able to directly support an artist like this- especially being an artist myself- makes me feel wonderful. If we all keep supporting each other like this, we can make sure beautiful things keep happening in the world.