Failure to Launch: A Tour of Ill-Fated Futures, currently being crowdfunded by Iron Circus, is a full color 300+ page comics collection that's a "light-hearted, educational look at unrealized technological and societal advances."
"Failure to Launch is a fascinating project because while we frequently idolize pioneers, we forget that a lot of pioneers don't make it," said editor Kel McDonald. "I think showing the missteps and stumbles in the march of progress paints a more complete picture of history. Ideas rarely spring forward fully formed and are immediately accepted. Every success learned from those who came before. The luddites covered in 'The First Union' was the first step for collective organizing. The idea for wind power in 'The Paradise Within Reach of All Men' was impossible but the idea is carried forward and made real by those covered in 'The First Wind-Power Revolution.' Star Trek imagined a version of several inventions we now have. So even if they didn't get there in the end, they can still play a part in building a better future, no matter how ill thought out, idealistic, or impractical they are."
Failure to Launch is Iron Circus Comics' thirty-seventh crowdfunded project and is now crowdfunding on BackerKit.
Here is a preview, an excerpt from "Lead Balloon" by Katie Tiedrich.