NSFW Comics Dominate the February 2025 Kickstarter Funding Data

Sexually explicit comics hold steady, while every other genre is mega-project dependent

Every day, I review each and every crowdfunding campaign launched in the Kickstarter Comics category and record its title and direct link by genre in a spreadsheet, for the purpose of doing something nobody else is doing. I analyze those genres by:

• Launch volume

• Success rate

• Total funds raised

• Number of backers

• Average funding per project launched

• Average funding per backer

Today, I share and summarize all the February funding data I collected, but, because it always comes up, let me first clarify how I operationally define NSFW comics:

Features nudity and/or explicit sexual content on covers and/or explicit sexual content on the interior pages of the comic.

It’s that simple.

Want to review my raw data set for yourself? Paid subscribers to either of my Substack publications gain access to my fully complete Kickstarter Comics genre spreadsheets each month.

The Basic Numbers for February, 2025

This is just unmanipulated, aggregate data for the month, sorted alphabetically by genre. Outside of funding totals I dig into below, one statistic here sticks out above the others:

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100% of the 33 NSFW comics launched on Kickstarter in February successfully funded. Not one NSFW project failed to reach its crowdfunding goal.

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I first addressed the launch numbers by genre back on March 6, and the last of the February-launched Comics projects just resolved earlier this week (really). If you missed that post, here’s a link to prepare you for this one that gets deeper into the actual funding:

The Full Funding Breakdown by Genre

Here’s a graphic to better conceptualize the fiscal portions of the Kickstarter Comics category claimed by each genre:

Here’s the essential analysis garnered from this graphic:

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Even in a short month in which both Fantasy and Superhero comics launched more campaigns, NSFW comics accumulated more funding than the next 4 highest-funded genres COMBINED.

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For the third consecutive month, NSFW comics accounted for more than 40% of all funding in the Kickstarter Comics category. Despite huge funding surges in the genres of Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi, and Superhero, the NSFW class was only $17,000 from outgaining ALL of them stacked together. That’s a juggernaut, people, and it’s not slowing down.

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On April 24, I broke down the top 3 funded projects in each Comics genre for February. Check that one out here:

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Shifts in Funding by Comics Genre from December to February

Key Takeaways & Miscellania

• NSFW’s 40% fiscal share TRIPLES its 13% share of total projects launched in the category in February, indicating an absurd 3x advantage in terms of funding per NSFW project. FYI, that’s a 50% IMPROVEMENT over January NSFW projects’ performance. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

• Non-NSFW comics genres are extremely dependent upon one, or a few, heavy-hitting projects to occupy any substantial proportion of the monthly crowdfunding totals, whereas NSFW comics predictably, steadily hold down 40+% of funding each month. Horror, in particular, scored big in February, with 2 of the top 3 highest-funded comics of the month propelling its 3-month trend of accelerated funding.

• The other “Big 5” genres of Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi, and Superhero had a terrific February, with vastly improved launch and funding numbers, with the former directly feeding the latter. These related increases are directly attributable to increased productivity by creators coming out of the holiday-driven Kickstarter off-season of December-early January.

How to Apply this Data

Now, what to do with this information? I preach it every month when we once again recognize the dominance of NSFW comics.

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NSFW needs its own sub-category on Kickstarter.

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This crowdfunding mainstay will not suffer from existing in its own search-function universe, but all other genres currently suffer from being confined in the same murky waters, by having their caped or armored or enamored protags on Kickstarter cover images sit immediately adjacent to bar-blocked buttholes and obvious explicit sex acts, by being lumped in with banal porn cover mills rather than the extreme minority of NSFW projects that also value story and the other artistic hallmarks of the comic medium. While NSFW comics feed the coffers at Kickstarter, they’re draining the potential financial success of their neighbors who don’t offend and scare away sensitive and prudish potential backers. This must happen for the sake of the rest of us who crowdfund comics via Kickstarter.

Want to Review & Access My February Kickstarter Comics Genre Funding Data for Yourself?

Initiate a paid subscription to either of my Substack publications now, and you can access February’s genre launch funding spreadsheet immediately after the paywall below! That’s all 246 verified Comics projects launched from February 1 - February 28, each neatly sorted by genre, titled and linked to its Kickstarter page for tracking, with funding and backer amounts already entered and summed for the month.