What happens when a bold idea for the future doesn’t quite go as planned? That’s the concept at the center of Failure to Launch: A Tour of Ill-Fated Futures, a new anthology edited by Kel McDonald. The anthology features contributions from the likes of Ryan North and Shannon Saar, and a crowdfunding campaign is now up and running to bring it to print. We’re pleased to present an excerpt from the book: “Magic City, All of Fire” by Evan Dahm.

“My comic deals with a few intersecting futurist projects around Coney Island in the first decade of the 20th century. This is an interesting moment to me because a lot of the modern world is being built: a generalized pop culture, a new technological image of what a city can be, and the beginnings of clear trajectories for global capitalism and a ruthless criticism of it,” Dahm said. “I live in New York and love Coney Island — like comics, it’s ended up being a hugely influential part of American pop culture, while at the same time remaining ephemeral enough that much of its history is effectively lost. It was fun to get into the history of it and emphasize some interesting bits of it.”

Failure to Launch can be backed as of now.

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