Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Anti-Bullying Indiegogo Project Features Strong Female Teen

Jun. 19, 2013 - LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- LOS ANGELES, CA - Intent on making a difference in the prevalence of bullying in school-age children living in America Khamicom Entertainment has done an innovative thing. To explore not only race but gender the company has chosen a strong female character as the lead in their new comic book and web series, Mind Over Bullies (MOB). Margo is one of six multi-racial teen characters who use their wits to help the minds and hearts of troubled teens - in this case, bullying victims.

An overwhelming number of bullying induced suicides have involved female bullying victims. In a North Carolina State University Wolfwiki report it was estimated that no intervention takes place in eighty-five percent of female bullying incidents while about forty-two percent of girls acknowledge having been bullied online. Young women are being forced to deal with the stress of bullying alone which has apparently contributed to a strong female character being portrayed in the MOB comic. “Margo is sort of a symbol, we want young women to look at her and say hey I can be smart and tough just like her. I have four nieces and I want them as well as other young women to see images of strong women as they grow up.” said Damon Smith, Creator of the comic series MOB.

Margo Rios -
Main character from MOB comic series

With the novel idea of having comic book heroes fight for their fellow teen’s rights to not be the victims of violence from others or themselves, the MOB movement hopes to make a strong impact through the use of the strong female hero and her five counterparts. “Is a comic book the answer to the bullying problem, not at all, but it is another tool that can be used to send a positive message .” added Smith.

Specifically, in the series the main character will think about the actual cause of bullying - the bully’s own weaknesses. It is her well-thought-out solution that eventually teaches empathy on the part of the bully in question.

Creating a brand that lends itself to anti-bullying, Khamicom Entertainment has launched an Indiegogo crowdsourcing campaign that will support the comic and web series launch.

Bullying Project Launches on Indiegogo

We just had to let you know about the launch of the MOB comic book series project on Indiegogo. Instead of doing a lot of talking, we figured we would just post the press release from this morning.

You HAVE TO check out the video...VERY COOL!

Khamicom Entertainment to Launch Indiegogo Anti-bullying Project

With an epidemic of teen suicides in America due to bullying, Khamicon Entertainment will launch a crowdfunding comic book project that hopes to change the way victims look at bullycide.

Mind Over Bullies Comic Book Logo

Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) June 19, 2013

Inspired by the 2012 story of Felicia Garcia, a fifteen year-old girl who died at her own hand in front of classmates at a Staten Island train station due to her experience with bullying at Tottenville High School, Khamicom owner Damon Smith hopes to present a different message about handling bullying. Creating the movement Mind Over Bullies (MOB), the new comic book and web series will help readers engage in tools whereby they will consider the many ways to handle a bullying situation without using violence or reaching a point of despair that will lead them to consider ending their own life. “I want kids to use their wit, intelligence and skills to handle their difficulties,” added Smith. “It’s literally, mind over bullies - it’s just a new state of mind.”

Focused on creativity that benefits children, teens and young adults, the entertainment company’s first venture was the highly successful “Sock n Boots” adventure series. “Basically we started with one story and then graduated to apps and comic books,” said Smith. “We plan to do the same here and can only hope that this newest venture will be as successful as our last.”

Creating a brand that lends itself to anti-bullying, the Indiegogo campaign will support the series launch about six multi-racial teen characters. Very intentionally, the characters are without invincible superhuman ability and are everyday teens who decide to stand up to bullies in their high school. Studies show that the cure for bullying is the strength of numbers - hence, the six brave teens banding

together to make a change as the MOB. Additionally, the series will highlight the fact that bullying victims need to see their aggressors as having a terrible flaw they are in need of covering in themselves.

Keeping attention on cyber bullying and the exploitation of kids who are on the fray of the “in crowd,” Smith hopes to incorporate a free app that will feature the MOB animated cartoon web series.

For more information or to make a pledge when the project goes live, visit their Indiegogo campaign:http://igg.me/at/MindOverBullies/x/3329800.

To connect on Facebook and Twitter, visit:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-MOB/382907091790733,

https://twitter.com/A_MOB_Forms

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Sunday, June 16, 2013

Sunday Morning Reflection on Life......Bullycide...Trending????

All around the world Sunday has traditionally become known as a day that people set aside to reflect on their reverence to God, some unidentified force or higher power or just their own internal ideology about life.....and for the most part for those that have these moments of reflection.....LIFE.....is generally at the heart of it all.

Paris Jackson - 2012
Photo Credit: People

This morning in the midst of reflecting on life it was interesting to read different takes on the recent suicide attempt of 15 year old Paris Jackson, the daughter of the late pop sensation Michael Jackson. The mention that young Jackson may have attempted to take her life as a result of relentless cyber bullying was of interest.

Jackson's story is accompanied in the news by story after story of lives being lost to what has been coined as bullycide......bullying induced suicide. First, it's mind blowing that it became necessary to create such a word to encapsulate what has become such a regular and massively disturbing occurrence. Our thoughts this morning though are this....is too much coverage being given to the occurrences of bullycide? Do the benefits of media coverage of the end result of a person being victimized to the point of despair outweigh the potential harm? Is the idea that "suicide is the way out" being planted in the minds of young people with so much attention being given to that aspect of the bullying scenario causing a perpetuation in the instances of bullyicde? Does that idea translate into a way out for handling other emotionally burdensome issues that young people face in today's society?

So much to think about! Without a doubt attention needs to be given to the criminal act of bullying.....and yes we do consider it a HATE crime to bully someone for any reason. But, wouldn't it be more beneficial to regularly reinforce the idea that there are other alternatives to suicide? Maybe even to begin to campaign that suicide isn't even an option in dealing with bullying?

It will continue to be the case that young minds are impressionable......yes, young minds today are more advanced in their thinking and are exposed to a gazillion times more information than previous generations but the fact remains that they are still young and their minds are still impressionable. Toss in the fact that social media has shrank the world considerably and you have a recipe for disaster.....which appears to manifest itself in bullying induced suicides worldwide. It isn't a coincidence!

I wonder if all of the impressionable minds out there would begin to see that LIFE is too precious to end it in suicide as a result of being bullied......if the idea that life is to precious to end it in suicide as a result of being bullied is repeatedly put before them as much as articles on bullying and bullycide are being put before them?

A big HMMMMMMMM to that one!

Why not promote LIFE instead!

Life should be trending!

MOB is life!

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Bullying Comic Book Prepares To Kickstart or GoGo

Of course Kickstarter and Indiegogo are two of the most successful crowdfunding platforms in the business. Each have their own user base and guidelines for acceptance of projects, so where does an anti-bullying comic book fit in? Thus to Kickstart or to GoGo is the question!

Superman (comic book) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Thanks to the ongoing success of D.C. and Marvel, old comic book characters continue to be reinvented on screen to the delight of many....the MOB is life staff included. But as we contemplate the public release tomorrow of Superman (we already have tickets by the way) let your mind mull over a concept that is beginning to intrigue many........comic book heroes that fight bullying! Well how about that?

Yesterday we introduced everyone to the term Mind Over Bullies and today we introduce the so titled comic book. The concept was created by Khamicom Entertainment CEO, Damon Smith. The origin of the whole idea came from a news article of a disturbing teen suicide. “I don’t know where I’d been, I just hadn’t taken notice and then there it was in my Facebook feed.” Smith was referring to the morning that the story of 15 year old New York high school student Felicia Garcia hit the press. Garcia was the target of ongoing bullying and she reached her breaking point. In a moment of despair Garcia took her life in front of peers.

Stories like Felicia’s have become all too common these days as bullying has continued to take on different forms. The Khamicom team decided to contribute to anti-bullying efforts using an age old platform.....comic books. No super powers, no distant planet to call home, just everyday teens with everyday problems (from various races we might add) that decide to stand up and speak out.

Characters from MOB comic book series
(Photo Credit: Khamicom Entertainment)

The concept has been tossed around for months and months and has been met with positive reactions from almost everybody that has had a chance to hear about the project. The response has been positive enough to finally put the wheels in motion.

Enter crowdfunding.....there are plenty of crowdfunding projects hitting the web every day and while comic books aren’t the most popular projects they certainly receive their fair share of support.

Later this month Khamicom will launch their crowdfunding campaign on either the Kickstarter or Indiegogo platforms with the hope of raising enough capital to create 12 months of MOB comics for the series.

Take a look at the preview link (We couldn’t find a preview link for Indiegogo projects so we are using the kickstarter link but both pages look the same):

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/khamicom/1453176982?token=d2d152e8

Take a look at the project and tell us what you think about it and about the concept as a whole.

MOB is life!

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Join The MOB

MOB is life?

First, MOB is the acronym for Mind Over Bullies.....a movement in the making that encourages handling instances of bullying with well thought out solutions.

Bullying has officially become a worldwide epidemic not confined to race, age, gender or any other boundaries.

The MOB IS LIFE project was created to connect with the public and hear your thoughts on the bullying epidemic, share thoughts on handling bullying and see where it goes from there.

We are looking to build the MOB IS LIFE community and we hope to hear from you!

Join the MOB!

MOB is life staff
iMOBb (internet Mind Over Bullies blog)