Are Kickstarter Comics Really Comics?
I undertook a project to examine which comics self-published via Kickstarter are legit.
After funding more than 80 comics on Kickstarter since 2011, I’ve witnessed first-hand the meandering marketplace that is the Kickstarter Comics category. Once a singular hope for small-time, spare bedroom self-publishers like me, it’s now also become a monster cash source for corporate publishers. Hell, even I backed Skybound’s G.I. Joe Compendium. I’ve been a Joe kid since 1982. OG, baby. It was a great campaign and an amazing product. Right now, Image Comics’ Hack/Slash is live on Kickstarter and about to fund north of $51,000. Yes, these are corporate comics taking up space and dollars many feel should be saved for under- and un-funded self-publishers, but they are, yet and still, unequivocally COMICS.
The same can’t be said of much of what gets launched within the Kickstarter Comics category. As I write this post, there are 264 projects in the Comics category, and, these days, this volume hovers around or above 250, which probably represents 100+ more projects in the category than 5-6 years ago. This high traffic dilutes the buyer pool and, thus, the available funding dollars for all projects with a comic to create. The influx of corporate comics certainly contributes to this dilution, but so does the uncurated presence of a lot of campaigns that simply don’t involving making an actual comic.
It occurred to me recently that it’s every Kickstarter backer’s personal responsibility to wade into Kickstarter’s cumbersome search feature and dig through those 250+ Comics listings and attempt to figure out which ones involve actually creating a real comic with cover and sequential art and story. Kickstarter doesn’t help with this. Their “Project We Love” label now goes to high-dollar campaigns and niche social campaigns. It’s useless for determining which campaigns will truly produce a comic book or graphic novel, let alone a good one.
So, I undertook the daily task of reviewing each launch from the day before and summarizing critical data for each (e.g., funding goal, end date, page count, least expensive reward tiers, etc.) and pairing that with first impressions for an information capsule on each. I’ve been publishing these via my new Substack publication, The Comic$ Crowd, and what I’ve found in just over 10 days is stunning.
The hallways of the Kickstarter Comics category are stuffed full with approved projects that do not really involve comics or that will never become comics. Here’s a short list of the most prominent examples I found:
Art books or calendars (there’s a separate Art category)
NSFW/porn books that include no sequential art or story
Grand ideas for comics that include no art, no story, no product
AI-generated porn covers over more pages of AI porn pin-ups
None of these are really comics. There are certainly legit NSFW/Mature Readers/Adults Only comics available on Kickstarter. These include sequential art and story, some by renowned comics creators with decades of experience, like Brian Pulido and Pat Shand. Some are by lesser known creators with just as much creative juice. The non-comics I’m referring to are the cash grabs with AI-exaggerated bodies on covers and full-page images between them with no sequential art or story. They’re being approved by Kickstarter and launching on an almost daily basis.
Then, there are the campaigns totally comprised of vague daydreams by people who propose to make comics but never have. There are ambiguous paragraphs about (predominantly) new and better superhero universes or fantasy realms, but there is not one line of art to show proof of concept, nor is there any coherent plot outlined with any specificity. There’s no artist attached, and the daydreamer has no means of partnering with one, either creatively or financially. This will not result in a comic.
All of these non-comics campaigns bog down the searchability of the Comics category and make it difficult and FRUSTRATING to wade through it all and actually find the real comics amidst all the muck. There are real comics on Kickstarter, and many of them are good. Most of them are just hidden under poor curation and piles of campaigns that would be just as viable in other categories on the platform.
And that’s exactly why I started The Comic$ Crowd Substack, to bring the real comics on Kickstarter to YOU.
Join me over there. The daily posts are absolutely free.
More soon -
Kevin
Really cool post. I myself Kick-started two comics several years ago, each time barely making the goal and spending a lot of time shopping out the rewards. Now, I see these porn books and established creators making thousands and thousands of dollars on there and it definitely annoys me. I know I'm preaching to the choir, but the system needs to change. The whole concept of Kickstarter has gone out the window.
It would seem, that just like comic conventions - non-true comic book folks have come and mucked up the system. The key is finding new ways to re-game the system to work in your favor. I can see a few paths to victory ... but as you said these bogus campaigns are sucking too much money out of the room.
Of course there is the possibility that these bogus projects are actually appealing to the average buyer in that they just want NSFW pictures and don't want to be challenged by a real story.
#Thoughts