Planned Parenthood serves over two million people, mostly women, every year, providing necessary reproductive and sexual health care services to populations that dearly need them. This comics anthology aims to help.
Mine!, helmed by Joseph Corallo and Molly Jackson of ComicMix, is devoted to raising money for Planned Parenthood and telling its story. To do so, it’s gathered a wide range of writers and artists to contribute 40 stories about Planned Parenthood, its importance, and themes around it. Featuring creators include Gail Simone, Mara Wilson, Louise Simonson, Mags Visaggio, Neil Gaiman, Mark Waid, Denny O’Neil, Becky Cloonan, and Gerard Way, Mine! hopes to both raise awareness and money.
“Planned Parenthood is important because it provides affordable healthcare options to some of our most vulnerable communities,” Corallo told me.
This is especially true of the comics community. Since most creators, even those who work for Marvel and DC, are freelancers, health insurance isn’t cheap or easy to get, which means affordable community options like Planned Parenthood are incredibly important.
“The comics industry is not a steady employment one,” said Molly Jackson. “Many creators, as you’ll see in the pages of Mine!, use PP for their healthcare services.”
Planned Parenthood has been in the news constantly ever since the election as a frequent target of ire from the Trump administration. Trump’s proposed budget would cut all federal funding to the organization, and PP’s abortion services (which make up a vast minority of its given care) have been used as a wedge issue in the ongoing healthcare debate.
But while the 2016 election fueled the work on Mine!, it actually began much earlier. “The project got started back in December 2015,” Corallo said. “Molly and I were getting pizza and discussing how we’d like to do an anthology with ComicMix as we’re both contributors. We had a few ideas kicking around until we settled on it making it a benefit book and that it would benefit Planned Parenthood in March of 2016.”
Now, the project is on Kickstarter, seeking $50,000 funding for printing, production costs, and associated fees. Once the book has been funded, all proceeds from its sales will be donated to Planned Parenthood.
You can check out Mine!’s Kickstarter here, and a few pages, courtesy of ComicMix, are included below.