Spike Trotman’s Iron Circus Comics — the premiere publisher of award-winning, critically-acclaimed graphic novels in the American Midwest, also the region’s largest comics publisher — has launched a BackerKit campaign to publish the first ever, highly anticipated print edition of the cartoonist S.E. Case’s webcomic hit series ‘Rigsby WI’.
The funny, naturalistic graphic novel series chronicles the lives of a group of average teenagers in a small city in Northern Wisconsin. It’s a series about growing up and the things that shape us, including relationships, poverty, race and sexuality, and how we choose to present ourselves to our friends, family, and the rest of the world.
Sometimes as a teen in a small town, you can feel trapped — trapped enough to want to gnaw off your own leg to escape. Main character Bethany has gotten some much needed stability in Rigsby, WI — she’s away from her oppressively disapproving mother, and the other local teens Jeordie, Erik, and Anna have welcomed her in — and together the four of them know how to escape from the world that is closing in on them.
While Case’s vibrant art and naturalistic writing doesn’t shy away from the rougher experiences and feelings of teens, it also covers the truly important topics like, “is Phish a good band?”, “is the neck the dong of the torso?” and “Ernest Hemingway: Was he a piece of shit?”
“When you’re young, you have so little control over your own life — you are subject to the whims of your parents or guardians, which is not always a bad thing if they truly have your best interests at heart, but unfortunately that’s not the case for all kids,” said cartoonist S.E. Case, in a press release.
“Part of being a teenager is trying to figure out who you are, and that’s hard — but even harder when those around you cannot accept who you discover yourself to be. Will anyone recognize your value as a person when your goal is not to make the football team, or get into a prestigious college, or be crowned homecoming queen, but to simply get through the experience of being a teenager relatively unscathed? Maybe smoking weed in the woods and stealing sunglasses from the mall aren’t the most productive coping mechanisms, but what else is a disaffected 16-year-old in a rural town to do?”
Nostalgic, sweet, bitter and funny all at once, ‘Rigsby WI’ feels like a teenage afternoon spent with friends, with all the pathos, boredom and absurdity inherent therein.
‘Rigsby WI’ began life in 2019 as an independent webcomic, and creator SE Case’s vibrant art and ultra-authentic writing have never shied away from the unsanitized experiences and feelings that so often accompany life as a teenager. A dark horse gem in the online comics world for years, Iron Circus Comics is proud to present the first volume of ‘Rigsby WI: Foothold’, into a 120-page color paperback.
We are fortunate to share an exclusive excerpt from pages 75-80 from ‘Foothold’ which you can see below. If you’ve every struggled with body image as a teen, you will relate to this scene. You can contribute to the Backer Campaign while it is still running, and check out more titles from Iron Circus Comics via the website.
