As crowdfunding continues to serve as a viable method for creators to fund their creative endeavors, comic-related projects flourish on sites like Kickstarter, Patreon and IndieGoGo. The internet also allows creators to sell their creations direct to fans, through sites like Gumroad, Etsy and of course their own websites. If you’re looking to buy something from or support a creator directly, you’ve come to the right place. And that’ a good thing to do, now more than ever.
Send any suggestions of your own to jkparkin@yahoo.com.
Tinto Press 2020 Comics
Creators involved: Various
Platform: Kickstarter
What to know: Tinto Press is a small press publisher based in Colorado that has published a wide variety of comics since 2012. This Kickstarter will help them print their 2020 projects, which include the following:
- The Cats of Ostia Antica by Julian Brier
- So, Buttons #11 by Jonathan Baylis
- Goiter#5 by Josh Pettinger
- The HairPair by Charlie LaGreca Velasco
- Downtown: A Portrait of the Denver Skyline by Karl Christian Krumpholz
What’s the deal? There are many different levels, depending on what you’re interested in getting from the list above. For as little as $5 you can get a copy of So, Buttons, a single issue, while a print copy of Downtown is $25. You can get all five titles for $25 in a digital format, or $60 for print copies. There’s also a special $20 level that will get you a copy of Josh Bayer’s Tomorrow Forever (it’s normally $25 in the Tinto Press online store). And for there are tiers offering sketches, original art and more.
She
Creators involved: Ryan K. Lindsay, Chris Panda
Platform: Kickstarter
What to know: She is a hardcover graphic novel by Ryan K. Lindsay and Chris Panda that’s being published by ComixTribe. They’re actually running this campaign, while Lindsay himself has several successful campaigns under his belt as well.
Here’s how they describe the project: “After burying her only daughter, the deadliest bounty hunter in the galaxy discovers her next job will jeopardize the only thing She has left… her secrets.” The book will be 64-page “oversized format” hardcover graphic novella, featuring a special die-cut translucent helmet cover. This means you can open the cover and stick your head through the hole, making it look like you’re wearing the helmet. Although I’d recommend caution with doing that, so you don’t end up damaging your book. There’s actually a video of it on the Kickstarter page — of the cover, not someone sticking their head through it.
What’s the deal? $7 gets you a digital copy + an “audio bundle” that includes a theme song for the graphic novel. If you want the physical book — with the die-cut cover — it’s $29. Higher tiers offer all sorts of extras, like glow-in-the-dark pins, mini-figures, prints and, at the highest tier, an “an original, classified bounty mission assigned just for you” written by Lindsay.
Rattle of Bones by Robert E. Howard
Creators involved: Robert E. Howard, Gabriel Rodriguez
Platform:
What to know: IDW’s boutique imprint, Clover Press, presents a collection of Conan the Barbarian creator Robert E. Howard’s short stories with illustrations by Locke & Key artist Gabriel Rodríguez. It also features an afterword by comics writer Steve Niles.
The collection includes eight horror short stories in a clothbound hardcover book with a mounted book plate cover.
What’s the deal? $15 gets you the digital edition, while $30 gets you a print copy of the hardcover book. Higher tiers include other items, like pins, prints and — this is cool — skateboards!
Quarantine Comix
Creators involved: W. Maxwell Prince, Martin Morazzo, Chris O’Halloran, Good Old Neon
Platform: Just a good old website
What to know: The creative team behind the Image Comics anthology series Ice Cream Man has set up a new website where they’re releasing four-page comics to help support comics retailers.
“Half of profits go to the Book Industry Charitable Foundation (BINC), which supports struggling booksellers. This includes local Comic Book Shops, who are facing unprecedented financial hardship after the closure of many of their stores, the temporary shuttering of their distribution system, and the non-operation of pretty much every paper printer in the country,” their website reads.
What’s the deal? $2 gets you a PDF of the comic, which you can download immediately. Only one is available right now, but they plan to add new ones “once or twice a week.”
White Ash #1-5
Creators involved: Charlie Stickney, Conor Hughes, Fin Cramb
Platform: Kickstarter
What to know: White Ash is an ongoing comic book series written by Charlie Stickney, with art and letters by Conor Hughes and colors by Fin Cramb. They’ve been producing and funding the comic on Kickstarter, and are now up to issue #5. It’s a 40-page fantasy comic in a modern setting, as elves, dwarves, etc. populate a Pennsylvania mining town. You can read a 25-page excerpt here.
What’s the deal? $6 gets you a digital copy of issue #5, while $18 gets you a print copy and several other extras. $20 will get you the story thus far — issues 1-5 in a digital format. If you’re looking for a physical copy of everything, check out the $60 tier, which gets you a hardcover of issues #1-4 and a copy of issue #5.
Long Rain
Creators involved: Artyom Topilin, Ray Bradbury
Platform: Gumroad
What to know: Russian artist Artyom Topilin has done an excellent adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s short story “Long Rain,” which was first released back in the 1950s. It’s about a group of explorers whose rocket crashes on Venus, and they have to brave the rainy forests of the planet. It reminds me a lot of the movie Annihilation, as the four characters move through the forest and have to deal with monsters both external and internal. You can’t really go wrong with Bradbury, and Topilin captures the mood very well. I mean, just look at the cover, which is both bleak and beautiful:
What’s the deal? It’s available as a PDF for a dollar — or more, if you’d like to pay more.