Should major publishers & creators be crowdfunding comics alongside independent and DIY creators? Can the DIY system of crowdfunding mesh with the establishment? Looking into the growing use of crowdfunding by Boom!, Scott Snyder, and others.
Crowdfunding in comics arose as a way for comic creators to fund comic projects that wouldn’t necessarily fit within the traditional comic book publishing structure, but now more and more traditional comic book publishers (as well as A-list ‘Big Two’ publishing talent) have begun using Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and others to make their projects a reality.
For some, having established publishers and creators begin crowdfunding projects feels like the old guard horning in on territory for the next generation. But for others, it’s a new distribution model – similar to the widespread adoption to the Direct Market, and later digital comics – whose time has come.
One of the most recent crowdfunding projects by a major establishment has been Boom! Studios’ BRZRKR series – you know, the comic co-written (and kind of starring) Keanu Reeves. For Boom! co-founder/publisher Ross Richie, it’s not about funding the project directly, but more about reaching a new audience, or an existing audience looking for a new way to buy these comic books.
“Kickstarter offers a ‘set and forget’ single-click solution where fans who have never been to a comic shop or never read a graphic novel can pre-order this trilogy of graphic novels and have it delivered directly to their door,” Richie tells Newsarama.
“This gets more people to read comics and the comic creators financially participate in the Kickstarter, so the more successful it is the more Matt Kindt, Ron Garney, and Bill Crabtree benefit,” he continues. “Keanu has been very excited about recruiting more people to read comics. It’s a medium he has a real appreciation for. When we decided we were going to collaborate on the project, the first thing he said was, ‘And we’ll get Rafael Grampá to do the cover!'”
Comic book store owner Jen King sees Boom!’s Kickstarter strategy for BZRKR being complementary, not competition, for her store, Space Cadets Collection in Oak Ridge, North Texas.
“The way that Boom! is doing their Kickstarter, for example, is how it would work well,” King says. “The single issues are going to the shops first and exclusively. It then acts as an extra reason for fans of the Kickstarter to search out local comic shops to get those issues.”
Former Kickstarter comic book outreach lead Camilla Zhang believes there’s a space for big companies to join Kickstarter, while still respecting the homegrown community.
“One way is to shout out other Kickstarter campaigns that they really like or want to support,” Zhang tells Newsarama. ” And I think that imbuing your own campaign with a kind of fan engagement element is also another way to just really try to connect with your community. Some campaigns do this better than others, I will say.”
Zhang says that Boom!’s current Kickstarter campaign for BRZKR is “ruffling feathers” among the crowdfunding space due to its treatment of the community.
“I know there’s a lot of buzz out there right now about Boom! – likening it to Archie Comics’ failed campaign a couple of years ago,” she says. “Boom! is doing very fine for themselves right now, but they don’t have a great reputation when it comes to paying creators specifically – BiPOC, queer, and trans creators.
“But another thing is that if you read their campaign page it really doesn’t have the community in mind. There’s no sense of gratitude or humility in that campaign, which is fine. If that’s the route they want to go, that’s the route they can go, that’s their choice. But they don’t seem particularly concerned with ruffling feathers because they’re doing very well.”
The groundswell for crowdfunding for many has been about the engagement between the project and those funding – at its base is a business/customer relationship, but Zhang argues many backers “are coming in on the ground floor so that they can feel like a part of something, like a part of the creative process.”
“One of the things is that a lot of these publishers see Kickstarter as just a pre-ordering platform and nothing more,” Zhang says. “And if you treat Kickstarter like a pre-ordering platform, it doesn’t always work in your favor. One of the reasons why Archie, in my opinion, failed is because they really didn’t understand how to treat backers.”
“It’s incredibly exciting for me and other creators because it allows this immediacy and direct connectivity to fans,” Snyder says. “I kept hearing of this relationship with backers that are fluid and organic. You get to do Q and A’s with them. You listen to their comments and you adjust the campaign to fit. That collaborative relationship is something that I feel like I enjoyed and the people I’ve worked with in particular – the people I gravitate towards really love about comics in general.
