Category: Crowdfunding

Clover Press completes their ‘Tom the Dancing Bug’ collection with two new volumes

Check out the slipcase artwork created to hold all 8 volumes.

Great news for fans of political satire comics: Clover Press has launched a Kickstarter campaign this week to publish the final two volumes in their eight-volume collection of Ruben Bolling’s Tom the Dancing Bug comic strip.

The two new books will collect the earliest strips from the 1990s: Secret Origins (1990-1994) and Sex, Tom the Dancing Bug, & Rock ‘N’ Roll (1994-1998). Each volume will be over 200 pages in the 8″ x 9″ format.

“With the announcement of these two volumes, The Complete Tom the Dancing Bug program will soon stand as a full eight-volume chronicle of 35 years of comics – my life’s work,” said Bolling. “I’m grateful to Clover Press for its commitment to the project.  The quality of the books has been extraordinary, and I’m honored to have this complete set in print.  These two volumes will document this strip’s earliest years, and in some ways, my most audacious and ambitious work.”

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Let’s Do the Time Warp Again: ‘Bride of Rocky Horror’ brings back the madness

Bit Bot Media’s Kickstarter will feature a sequel graphic novel, as well as Rocky Horror–themed hoodies, hats, plushies and more.

Fans of the cult classic The Rocky Horror Show are about to shiver with antici…pation once more. Bit Bot Media has announced Bride of Rocky Horror, an officially licensed graphic novel sequel to the original stage production that includes exclusive collectibles, a retro video game and newly revealed Rocky Horror–themed apparel — which we’re happy to share today.

You can sign up now to be noticed when the crowdfunding campaign launches.

Written by Magdalene Visaggio (Girlmode) and illustrated by Noemi Vettori (X-Men Unlimited), Bride of Rocky Horror picks up seven years after that fateful night with Janet Weiss and Brad Majors. Janet has embraced a life of decadence and debauchery, but when a mysterious invitation reunites her with Brad, she’s pulled into a new mystery involving an enigmatic figure named Bridget Von Frankenstein.

“It was the safest queer art I had access to when I was young because my parents were both huge fans,” said Visaggio. “So to get the chance to look beyond it and see how it could have played out once that fateful night ended was a dream come true.”

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Stan Lee and John Romita’s ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ newspaper strips return from Clover Press

The campaign is now live on Kickstarter.

Clover Press and The Library of American Comics are teaming up to bring The Amazing Spider-Man Classic Newspaper Comics back into print—this time in an affordable softcover format—and they’re turning to Kickstarter to make it happen.

“The Library of American Comics remastered and collected the strip in a series of hardcover collections—but so many of them are out of print, making the collection highly sought after and almost impossible for your average comics lover to get their hands on,” said Clover Publisher Hank Kanalz. ”Now, Clover Press and The Library of American Comics are bringing the collections back to print in an affordable softcover format! We’re collecting the strip strictly by year, reprinting each installment from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31. We can’t wait to help get these iconic comic strips into the hands of Spidey lovers everywhere!”

The campaign’s first offering will collect the strip from 1977–1980 across four softcover volumes, each measuring 11″ x 8.5″ in a horizontal format, housed in a protective slipcase designed for easy shelving. Backers can pick up all four volumes as a bundle, along with campaign-exclusive extras including a puzzle, stickers, lithographs and more. And today we have your first look at the sticker sheets:

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Lone Star, Full Moon: Zack Quaintance + Anna Readman bring ‘Macabre Valley’ to Kickstarter

The campaign for the Texas werewolf grindhouse miniseries ends Oct. 15.

Zack Quaintance and Anna Readman, who worked together on last year’s Death of Comics Bookcase anthology, have teamed up for Macabre Valley, a “Texan werewolf grindhouse comic” that draws from Quaintance’s days as a reporter on the Texas.Mexico border.

“Right after college, I spent five years as a newspaper reporter in South Texas, a wild place filled with news and legends,” said Quaintance. “I was in way over my head. It didn’t go well, and it’s always felt like a bit of a horror story to me—so now we’re taking my real life experiences and crafting a fantastical, monster-filled version of events.”

The result is Macabre Valley, which Quaintance is currently funding on Kickstarter. The campaign is for the first issue of four, and it actually hit its goal already, so all you need to do is pledge and wait for your copy to arrive before Halloween.

“By doing the comic through Kickstarter, we’ll be able to do the book our own way, with all the twists, gore, and gritty terror this story demands. It’s going to get bloody, y’all,” he said.

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Exclusive | Meet Zarigazami, a new kaiju debuting in ‘Monstrous Magazine’

Check out the designs for the new creature by manga artist Itaru Kinoshita prior to the Kickstarter campaign launching next week.

Monstrous Books is making big plans for their next issue of Monstrous Magazine, and by “big” I mean “Kaiju sized.”

Monstrous: The Kaiju Issue will debut on Kickstarter soon — you can sign up to be notified when it launches — celebrating all things giant monster in an oversized issue. It’ll feature short stories, comics and artwork by author Greg Cox, publisher James Aquilone, artist Dave Swartz and more.

“When I decided to do a Kaiju issue of Monstrous Magazine I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to do a Kaiju-size magazine, so we’re going from 5.5 x 8.5 to 8.5 x 11 inches,” said Aquilone. “And that’s just the beginning. We’re resizing the Monstrous Magazine back issues, too, and now, for a limited time, they will be available in the new collectible, oversized Kaiju format.”

Zarigazami is one of several new kaiju that will appear in the issue. Designed by manga artist Itaru Kinoshita, the monster will appear in black and white in the magazine, but Aquilone is offering a full-color print as one of the rewards in the campaign.

This isn’t Kinoshita’s first time drawing giant creatures. The fan-favorite creator is best known for Dinosaur Sanctuary and the series Gigante o Utte, which is also about dinosaurs. Dinosaur Sanctuary is published by Seven Seas Entertainment and was nominated for Best Continuing Manga Series at the American Manga Awards in 2024. Volume 7 is due to be published in English on Sept. 30.

Here’s a look at the print, which will be available when the Kickstarter goes live:

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Smash Pages Q&A | Craig Hurd-McKenney on ‘Curse of Dark Shadows’

The writer of the new graphic novel that dives back into the world of the cult classic supernatural soap opera discusses the project, which is currently up on Kickstarter.

Dark Shadows was a supernatural-themed daytime soap opera that ran on ABC from 1966 to 1971, but still holds a place in the hearts of many fans. Barnabas Collins and his brood have lived on in books, movies and through streaming services over the years, bringing new fans to Collinsport, Maine — a city inhabited by vampires, zombies, werewolves, witches, warlocks and more.

Hermes Press has kept the story alive through a series of novels and reprints of previous comics, but now they’re returning to the world of Dark Shadows with an original graphic novel that moves the story into the present. Craig Hurd-McKenney, writer of the recent Station Grand from Oni Press, and Jok, artist of the under-appreciated In Hell We Fight with John Layman at Image Comics, are bringing these characters back to the forefront and continuing the drama that made the show so popular.

Here’s the description of Curse of Dark Shadows:

Carolyn Stoddard-Hawkes made a deathbed promise to her mother. But, in order for Carolyn to complete that promise, she must rely on the one person in the world she doesn’t want to see: vampire Barnabas Collins. His return home after an extended period away sets in motion a chain of events that will change the Collins family forever. Can Carolyn and her cousin David survive the newly-awakened CURSE OF DARK SHADOWS, or will Barnabas be the end of the Collins family line?

The project is currently up on Kickstarter, and Hermes Press has a small number of limited edition copies at the San Diego Comic-Con. They’ll also host a panel this afternoon at 3 p.m. Pacific at the con, featuring Hurd-McKenney and actress Kathryn Leigh Scott, who played Maggie on the show and will join the conversation remotely.

I spoke with Hurd-McKenney about the project, his history with the show and working again with his longtime collaborator Jok.

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SDCC Exclusive | Get ready to flip for this reveal of Jim Fletcher’s Flippitoons stickers

The former DC Direct creative director has a fun new project coming to Kickstarter — and sticker packs you can get in San Diego this week.

Jim Fletcher was one of the driving forces behind the DC Direct line prior to it being shuttered back in 2020. He helped bring many DC characters to life — or at least brought from the printed page to three-dimensional spaces, creating, co-creating or leading the development on DC Ame-Comi, DC Bombshells, DC Artist’s Alley, the long-running Batman Black and White statue series and many more.

Now he’s turning his attention to his own creations, called Flippitoons. He’s teamed with Clover Press to introduce fans to his brand new characters with a 200-page 10” X 10” deluxe hardcover art book, titled The Flippitoons Field Guide of Fantastical Faces, and a trading card series that’ll be available soon on Kickstarter.

The campaign will launch after the San Diego Comic-Con, but you can sign up to be notified when it does on its BackerKit page. Fletcher will be at the San Diego Comic-Con this week armed with holographic sticker packs featuring some of his Flippitoons, and we’re pleased to exclusively reveal the art for them:

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Exclusive Preview | ‘Playtime: The Post-It Note Drawings’

Aron Wiesenfeld’s new book is currently up on Kickstarter.

Acclaimed painter and Eisner-nominated artist Aron Wiesenfeld is bringing his unique talents to a unique medium — post-it note drawings.

The artist’s latest project, Playtime: The Post-It Note Drawings, is a complete collection of his ink drawings on Post-it notes and is now up on Kickstarter.

“It’s always good to put limitations on yourself,” Wiesenfeld said. “In this series I only allowed myself to use black pens on a 3×3-inch square of yellow paper. It became a challenge to see if I could capture some of the key elements I love in large oil paintings: mood, atmosphere, time of day, weather conditions, character, and story.  I wasn’t always successful, but was often pleasantly surprised with the results anyway.  When you see your lines blown up, every quiver of the hand is captured there.  No falseness, or flourishes of style are even possible, it’s just too small for any of that.  The results always felt ‘real’ to me. One of my heroes is Gustave Doré, who, constrained by the printing limitations of his time, was able to tell visual stories that felt like paintings, but limited to only using black and white engraving lines.”

You can check out an exclusive preview from the book below, and you’ll find more information about the book on Kickstarter.

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Exclusive | Check out the trailer for ‘The Marvel Art of Tyler Kirkham’

The Kickstarter campaign for the deluxe hardcover launches this week.

Clover Press is back with another high-end collection in their “The Marvel Art Of …” line, this time focusing on Ultimate Fantastic Four and Phoenix Warsong artist Tyler Kirkham. And they’ve shared with us an exclusive look at the trailer for the book.

The Kickstarter campaign for the deluxe hardcover launches today.

“I am extremely excited to announce my official art book with Marvel comics and Clover Press,” said Kirkham. “It represents a comprehensive collection of my artwork for Marvel over the years, encompassing hundreds of covers and interior pages. I’m honored to have a book of this scale and quality coming out and I can’t wait for people to see it!”

Check out the trailer below:

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Help conjure Donya Todd’s ‘The Witch’s Egg’ through the magic of crowdfunding

Avery Hill launched a Kickstarter campaign today for the dark fairytale.

As part of their Fall 2025 line-up, Avery Hill Publishing plans to release Donya Todd’s new graphic novel, The Witch’s Egg — and you can help bring it to life through a Kickstarter campaign that will launch soon.

The Witch’s Egg is one part dark fairytale, one part apocalyptic love story, featuring the macabre, wonderful art of Todd. This is Avery Hill’s second book with Todd, following Buttertubs. Todd has also done work for Cartoon Network, Mercury Filmworks, Blank Slate Books, Guillemot Press, Image Comics and many others.

You can check out the publisher’s description and some pages from the graphic novel below.

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Exclusive Preview | Check out the noir time-travel tale ‘Host Mortem’

The project is currently being crowdfunded through Kickstarter.

Courtesy of Clover Press, we’re pleased to present this exclusive preview from Host Mortem. The new graphic novel is currently being crowdfunded on Kickstarter.

Host Mortem is written by — and stars — Kevin Shinick, former host and time-traveling detective from the TV series Where In Time Is Carmen Sandiego?, alongside actor/host Greg Lee. Both of them appear in the graphic novel, as an appearance at Comic-Con goes horribly wrong, and they find themselves transported back in time. After arriving in 1947, they find themselves involved in a murder mystery set against the Humphrey Bogart film The Big Sleep. When one of the stars winds up dead, Kevin and Greg’s knowledge of random trivia might be the key to solving this Hollywood caper.

“Between the two of us, Greg and I have hosted a number of game shows,” Shinick said. “As a result, we have a lot of random trivia floating around in our heads and I always wished I could put that knowledge to better use other than just, ‘Hey, did you know the singular of spaghetti is spaghetto?’ And since we both played fake detectives on Carmen Sandiego (me a time traveling detective and Greg a classic gumshoe detective) I got to wondering how we might fare with an actual murder? The ultimate question being, ‘Are hosts really smart? Or do they just have the answers?’”

The graphic novel is being brought to life by artists Damien Torres and Andrea Schiavone, colorist Pippa Bowland and letterer Taylor Esposito. Check out the preview and some of the variant covers available through the Kickstarter campaign below.

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Exclusive Preview | ‘The Mask of Haliya: Echoes of the Forgotten Past’ launches on Kickstarter

Check out some of the interior artwork for the new project from Kwento Comics and Clover Press.

For Women’s History Month, Kwento Comics and Clover Press is launching the second volume of their graphic novel series, The Mask of Haliya: Echoes of the Forgotten Past. This Young Adult urban fantasy is a powerful celebration of Filipino-American identity, mythology, and the transformative power of storytelling.

Written by Kaitlyn Fajilan and brought to life by the art team of Susan Bin and Vik Caedo, this graphic novel follows Marisol Reyes, a Filipina-American teenager navigating magical inheritance and personal discovery. As Mari grapples with an emerging power passed down through her great-grandmother, the narrative weaves together ancient mythology with contemporary coming-of-age struggles.

“In this latest volume, Mari’s emotional journey takes quite the turn. As someone who has always maintained a very guarded front, Mari starts to emerge from her cocoon under Bella’s tutelage,” Fajilan said. “Slowly, her internal perspective shifts from that of worrying that all she does is hurt people, to believing that harnessing her ‘true’ self can allow her to *help* people. She dares to hope that she can make real friendships, win her mother’s approval, perhaps even fall in love. However, as the girl comes more and more into her own, that new sense of self begins to splinter. A *second* Mari emerges–a darker one, one that is simultaneously tumultuous and composed. A persona that that may or may not be connected to the moon goddess Haliya. The formation of this new identity is sure to bring about further complications and revelations, culminating in a seismic battle that launches us into the second half of this arc.”

Now available on Kickstarter as a 192-page deluxe hardcover, The Mask of Haliya will be available for 21 more days and has a goal to raise $5,000.

“Kwento Comics is rooted in the Filipino word kwento, meaning ‘story,” said Kwento Comics co-founder and CEO Cecilia Lim. “We believe in the transformative power of storytelling to inspire, empower, and connect communities across the globe. Every story we tell, every panel we create, and every character we breathe life into reflects our mission: to uplift diverse voices and celebrate the richness of Asian heritage, culture, and identity.”

Check out our exclusive preview below.

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