Digital Comics: Funding

There are several challenges to getting a comic book made. I don't think anyone would argue that money is the largest of those challenges. It may not necessarily be cold hard cash were talking about here, money could easily be replaced with time if you were doing a comic completely on your own, but the value of time = money as we all know so the point stands as far as this blogger is concerned.

What if you found a way to easily provide the money needed (which in turn would afford you the time needed depending on the structure of your project) to get a comic book made? How many of you would begin making one tomorrow?

Lets say you much prefer reading comics to making them, and don't have any real desire to produce one your self. Is your favorite comic book; series, mini, or character, being published often enough for your taste? I wonder what a fan of All Star Batman & Robin would do to get DC to speed up the process and finish the series? Has Kevin Smith completed all of his comic book work? If so, there were some large gaps in the production runs on some of the books he wrote.

I'm sure there are lots of fans out there who'd have loved to have been able to influence Marvel's production schedule so that they could have seen the completion of those series quicker. In fact, I'm betting that there are lots of books, being published from lots of different companies, that fans would love to be able to have a bit more influence than they have now (Stump Town, Queen & Country, Dynamo 5 to name but a few).

I wonder how many fans would still be purchasing comics, or begin purchasing them again, from defunct comic book production lines such as: Epic, Chaos, Valiant, or the Ultraverse if they were able? Is there a high enough price, if offered, that could accomplish the goal of getting those books and characters published again?

If money equals influence then let me show you a way:

Kickstarter is a funding platform for artists, designers, filmmakers, musicians, journalists, inventors, explorers...

"We're focused on creative projects. We've got a pretty broad definition of creativity: art, music, design (fashion, product, game, app, etc), film/video, food, journalism, and other projects that spring from the imagination. Creators keep 100% ownership. Kickstarter is a new form of commerce and patronage, not a place for investment or lending. Project creators inspire people to open their wallets by offering products, benefits and fun experiences. Funding is always all-or-nothing. A project must reach or exceed its funding goal or no money changes hands. Why? It's fun, dynamic, and really efficient. Our fee is 5%. Kickstarter collects 5% from the project creator if a project is successfully funded."~KickStarter

KickStarter allows all comic book creators, established or new to the business, the ability to offer something a bit like TopCow's "Pilot Season" where the creators pitch the fans potential books they want to release and allow the fans to pledge money toward the creation of one or more of those comics. You're pledge is only collected if the total funding goal is completely met & then you are now entitled to extra content that the general public doesn't have access to because you were a part of the fan base that got the comic book made in the first place.

It's happening now:

Pledge $10 or more:

You will receive a signed and numbered Kickstarter.com-EXCLUSIVE cover copy of JOHNNY RECON No.02 ONLY available to people who pledge for this project (FREE SHIPPING). Thank you so much!

Pledge $100 or more:

You will receive all of the above as well as a page of original inked artwork from the book itself (artist's choice)

You may have heard of Johny Recon, or even purchased a copy of it's first issue on the shelf of your local comic book shop. As you can see, they've reached their funding goal so JR2 will be made and all of the contributors will have access to the JR kickstarter production blog, updates on the project, and of course extra special JR content along with a copy of the actual comic book being made. I wonder how many of the contributors would have gone out and purchased original page art or a hard bound deluxe edition of the book anyhow? Now they actually have the chance to do that as the comic will definitely be made, and in a timely fashion as there is money to produce it.

Pledge $125 or more

EXPLORER REWARD • An ORIGINAL ART PAGE from The Collected Webcomics or The Flight of the Falcon. Artist’s choice, but if you have a particular page you want, we’ll do our best to accommodate your choice on a first-come, first-served basis. • EXCLUSIVE LIMITED SIGNED HARDCOVER containing The Collected Webcomics and Flight of the Falcon —available ONLY to Kickstarter.com supporters— INCLUDES AN ORIGINAL SKETCH OF ATHENA VOLTAIRE on the inside! • Limited edition Athena Voltaire sketchbook, available only to backers of the project. • Your name will be printed in the Acknowledgments section of the book. • PDF edition of Athena Voltaire and the Volcano Goddess • Access to the exclusive AV Kickstarter backer-only blog, Athena Voltaire Production Diary.

Pledge $300 or more

SHARPSHOOTER REWARD • The ORIGINAL TITLE PAGE ART to Athena Voltaire: Terror in Tibet #1, the lead story in The Collected Webcomics. • EXCLUSIVE LIMITED SIGNED HARDCOVER containing The Collected Webcomics and Flight of the Falcon —available ONLY to Kickstarter.com supporters— INCLUDES AN ORIGINAL SKETCH OF ATHENA VOLTAIRE on the inside! • Limited edition Athena Voltaire sketchbook, available only to backers of the project. • Your name will be printed in the Acknowledgments section of the book. • PDF edition of Athena Voltaire and the Volcano Goddess • Access to the exclusive AV Kickstarter backer-only blog, Athena Voltaire Production Diary **VIEW THIS COVER ART HERE: http://bit.ly/dzouix

Like Johny Recon you may have also heard of, and purchased a copy of, Athena Voltaire at your local comic book shop or elsewhere. Unlike Johny Recon AV has yet to achieve it's funding goal so it's future is up in the air.

There are other projects on Kickstarter, some more comic book themed projects in fact, all with various levels of funding proposed and achieved. I wonder, would you be willing to (essentially) pay for your favorite comic book to be made ahead of time?

Have a great weekend,

Caine