Can comic books change the world? That's certainly the hope of the creators of Kickstarter project Comics Uniting Nations, which hopes to change the world by educating people about the United Nations' goals for sustainable development.
The United Nations plans on establishing these goals in September. The goals revolve around some of the world's greatest challenges, including fighting international problems in education, poverty, gender equality and disease.
Of course, once those goals are in place, the United Nations needs to communicate those to people across the world of different nationalities, all who speak different languages. A nonprofit group called Reading With Pictures hopes to accomplish this by using comic books.
Reading With Pictures plans on coordinating with the United Nations in creating a total of 17 comics it believes will inspire the world. The organization will distribute these comics online in a variety of languages, with hopes of reaching a global audience.
Reading With Pictures has also partnered with some major players in the comics industry, including Archie Comics, Boom Studios, comiXology, Dark Horse, Humble Bundle, IDW, Dynamite, Tokyopop and Valiant.
Reading With Pictures also set up a Kickstarter project to fund Comics Uniting Nations. With just seven days to go, the project has reached about half its $60,000 goal, but still needs backers.
"We will be reaching millions of students in some of the most impoverished parts of the world with life-changing and life-saving messages in comic form," says comic book writer and co-founder of Reading With Pictures Josh Elder, who recently wrote a story arc for Sensation Comics Featuring Wonder Woman. "The Kickstarter campaign just determines how much free, open source comics content we'll be able to deliver. We're trying to do something great for the children of the world, but we can't do it alone."
Backers of Comics United Nations receive a multitude of perks, including a digital copy of the comics, a one-year membership at GoComics.com, digital comics bundles from comiXology and bundles of comics from other publishing companies.
Comics Uniting Nations also hopes to bring their comic books into classrooms as part of an initiative called The World's Largest Lesson.
"Comics are the ideal format for communicating complex ideas to diverse populations," says Elder. "Having Comics Uniting Nations as part of The World's Largest Lesson means that we can communicate a message of global unity to children everywhere and inspire them to become heroes for change in their own communities."
So can comics really change the world? If Comics Uniting Nations meets its objectives, the answer to that could very well be "yes." And you can help by donating to the project.
Photo Credit: Comics Uniting Nations
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