Riddle Me This: Kickstarter Funding For Comic Books
Who’d win in a fight between Superman and Spawn? How the f*ck old is Cable? And what in the holy hell is a Megatron? When the tough questions arise, Panels on Pages will gather the facts, but it’s up to the PoP!ulation to draw its own conclusions. So come on… Riddle Me This!
Kickstarter has been a great resource for comic book creators, writers, and artists. Womanthology raised 437% of its $25,000 goal, making it, at the time, the most highly-funded Kickstarter comic project. TwoKinds, a published book seeking higher-quality printing, shot past its $25,000 goal to make over $197,000. And the current highest funding project as of today is a reprint drive for The Order of the Stick, making over $1.2 million in its Kickstarter campaign.
However, there are many comic book Kickstarters that don’t get funded, and one wonders why that might be. Could it be that the artist or writer doesn’t have a wide fanbase? Could not having a finished product hurt the Kickstarter campaign? Or are they simply asking for too much funding?
Joanna Draper Carlson wrote an article about The Garlicks, a Kickstarter campaign by artist Lea Hernandez that recently failed. Hernandez was asking for $40,000 to create and publish The Garlicks and raised almost $17,000.
Commenters had a lot to say about the project. Some believed that The Garlicks needed to be more complete than a sketched-out six-page pilot. Others felt that $40,000 was a lot to ask for a brand-new serialized webcomic that wouldn’t be collected into a trade for at least a year. Still others had reservations because Hernandez wasn’t just using the money for publishing costs, but was also going to be paying her own salary from the Kickstarter funds.
Another Kickstarter failure was The Mouth-Watering Adventures of Bacon. In this funding project, three artists were vying for a shot at drawing the book. “Your pledges determine which of these talented illustrators will bring The Mouth-Watering Adventures of Bacon to the printed page. Every dollar you pledge is equal to one vote,” says the funding page.
This project probably succumbed to a perceived lack of direction and the fact that there was no product currently in production. While the campaign raised $2,334, it was well short of the $19,754 they were looking for.
Looking at the top three most successful comic book Kickstarter campaigns, you notice a trend. Two out of the three had completed projects that needed funding for printing and distribution. This seems to be a trend with the most-funded projects. Womanthology didn’t have a finished project, but had a large fanbase and great promotion behind it. Plus, none of the writers or artists on the project were being paid with Kickstarter funds.
What are your feelings on this topic? Do you feel that Kickstarter funds should be used to pay the salaries of artists and writers on a project? Are you less likely to fund a Kickstarter if it is too ambitious financially? Or do you feel that failed Kickstarters are under-promoted? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Filed Under: Columns • Riddle Me This
i think it’s all about getting the word out to the people who would care about it & asking for too much. thats for all Kickstarters, not just comics. i have seen a few great projects for animations and movies just kind of flop, and i think its the lack of “press” getting to the right people.
im not sure about the artist pay coming out of the fund… if you are up front about it, i don’t think its that much a problem.
the real problem will be if someone finally just takes the money and Runs, gets the funding and blow it on stupid crap or something like that. thats the real problem with Kickstarter i see coming…soon.
I’ve funded 2 Kickstarter projects from artists that I know and like.
I love Lea’s art and own several of her books. However, I specifically did not fund her Kickstarter because she has a track record of not completing projects — and there’s always some excuse and a promise to complete it at some future date (which never happens). I hate to sound mean about it, but that’s just how I have seen it happen with her several times.
Agree with A.Non. Remember ‘Near Life Experiences’ x, xd, and 2kx?
The twitter spam didn’t help either with30 to 50 a day. Even if she was up 24hrs that’s over one an hour.
Near-Life Experience, aside from when it was on Modern Tales ten years ago, was never an ongoing concern. I usually did them over summers when there were kids underfoot.
Some people found the tweeting excessive, some did not. I’m sorry it turned you off and I didn’t get a pledge, but I did what I thought was best to get the project funded.
As for not finishing projects, all I can say is I have 5 graphic novels, thousands of pages of manga lettered and/localized, many short stories, and many commissions, not to mention a daughter who just graduated from high school and a special-needs son with lifetime care needs.
P.S.: FYEAH DERBY!
There were also some not nice tweets made. Gave me vindictive vibes. That’s why I’m anon.
Love Lea Hernandez’s past works, but she lost me when she changed vampires to eating pork meat. She changed what fundamentally makes a vampire a vampire. It’s bad enough mordern vampires sparkle and have no fear of the sun. Why not just make them demons?