crowdfunding – SMASH PAGES

Smash Pages Q&A | Joshua Viola on ‘True Believers’

The writer and owner of the publishing house Hex Publishers discusses his new comic with co-writer Stephen Graham Jones and artist Ben Matsuya about cosplay gone very wrong.

This weekend the Colorado Festival of Horror returns to Denver, giving fans the chance to interact with creators, actors and more, and even dress up like their favorite slashers, from Jason to Freddie to … Killr™?

If you aren’t familiar with Killr™, don’t fret — this serial killer is a new creation debuting in the pages of True Believers by Joshua Viola, Stephen Graham Jones and Ben Matsuya. The trio has teamed up to tell the fictional story of cosplay gone wrong at the very real festival.

Viola, who in addition to being a writer is also the publisher and owner of Denver-based Hex Publishers, was kind enough to answer some questions about True Believers, which is currently on Kickstarter.

Check out Chrissie Zullo’s variant cover for ‘Armored’ #2 [Exclusive]

The Kickstarter for the five-issue miniseries from Clover Press is now live.

Screenwriter Michael Schwartz is making his comic book writing debut with a five-issue miniseries called Armored, which is about a boy and his new best friend, a haunted suit of armor. Schwartz has teamed up with artist Ismael Hernandez and letterer Ferran Delgado on the project, which publisher Clover Press is currently crowdfunding on Kickstarter.

“A few years ago, my entire comic book collection was stolen,” said Schwartz, who penned the screenplay for Gnome Alone. “After that I started to re-collect and revisit the thousands of books I loved — from Silver Age classics to modern era epics — and realized the potential comic books offered me for telling this ambitious and personal tale. Working with Clover has been a real pleasure as they truly understood the scope of the story and how Ismael Hernandez and I wanted this narrative to unfold for the reader.”

Each issue will feature covers and variants by different artists, and we’re pleased to debut Chrissie Zullo‘s variant cover for Armored #2, which you can see below. Her trademark whimsical style has been featured on covers for Archie Comics, the various Fables titles, Star Wars and many more, and it’s great to see it here:

Jeff Smith will collect his college paper comic strip ‘Thorn’

A Kickstarter campaign for the strips that serve as the precursor to ‘Bone’ will launch in October.

Prior to the release of Bone as a comic book — and it eventually becoming a worldwide phenomenon — Jeff Smith had a college comic strip called Thorn. It introduced several of the characters who would eventually evolve into the ones we know and love in the Bone series, including Thorn and Phone Bone. In fact, Smith would reference many of those early strips directly in the early issues of Bone.

Thorn has never been collected in its entirety, but that will change when Cartoon Books launches a Kickstarter later this year for Thorn: The Complete College Strips.

“Talking Jeff into this book wasn’t easy, but fans have been asking us for years,” said Cartoon Books Publisher Vijaya Iyer, Smith’s partner.

Kickstarter’s comics projects have increased by 14% this year

The crowdfunding platform shares some of their data for the first half of 2023, as comics projects continue to flourish on the site.

Crowdfunding continues to serve as a viable method for creators to fund their creative endeavors, as comic-related projects flourish on sites like Kickstarter. Even with the rough economic environment we’ve seen over the last six months, with rate hikes, inflation and layoffs, comics-related projects on Kickstarter have remained resilient — and have even grown compared to last year.

With Comic-Con on the horizon and the first half of the year complete, Kickstarter shared some of their recent data with us.

In the first half of the year:

Comic projects on the platform grew by 14% when compared to the first half of 2022. Comic projects in the first half of 2022 numbered 1,457 and increased to 1,666 in the first half of 2023.
Dollars pledged to comics campaigns also increased, from $14.4 million in 2022 to $17.6 million in 2023.
While the number of overall projects increased, so did the number of successful projects. 1,171 comics projects, or 78.1%, successfully met their funding goal this year. This is a 13.5% increase compared to the same time last year.

Smash Pages Q&A | Cullen Bunn + Brian Hurtt on the return of ‘The Sixth Gun’

The creators of the horror/Western ‘yarn’ talk about returning to their signature creation with a new Kickstarter project.

The 50-issue The Sixth Gun series — along with its several spin-off series — was a hallmark of independent comics publishing from 2010 to 2016. Co-creators Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt not only created a compelling “yarn” of a story that combined horror with the Western genre, but they also did a phenomenal job of creating a world that always seemed ripe for more exploration.

They wrapped up the initial story of Becky Montcrief, Arnold Drake and the battle for control of six mystical guns, and now Oni Press has announced The Sixth Gun Deluxe Omnibus Library, which is currently up on Kickstarter. Not only are they releasing all the issues of The Sixth Gun, plus all the spinoff miniseries, plus the spinoff series Shadow Roads, in this deluxe format, but Bunn and Hurtt are also creating new material for it — three new prelude stories will unlock as the campaign reaches new milestones over the course of its 30-day run. It’s also a precursor to a new The Sixth Gun project coming in 2025 for the comic’s 15th anniversary.

I spoke with both creators about what it’s like to return to The Sixth Gun after all this time, their collaborative process and what to expect from the new material they’re creating.

Exclusive Preview | ‘Dead Jack and Oswald Meet Frankenstein’

Check out some preview pages from Monstrous Magazine, which is currently up on Kickstarter.

Kevin J. Anderson, David Avallone, Nancy A. Collins, John Jennings, Joe and Kasey Lansdale, Rena Mason, Steve Niles and more have united for Dead Detectives Society, a prose anthology that lives at the intersection of crime and horror. Accompanying it is the launch of Monstrous Magazine, a digest-sized magazine featuring prose, comics and articles.

Currently up on Kickstarter, the project has blown past its goal, raising almost $20,000 to date. It brings together several fictional detectives with supernatural origins, including Dan Shamble, Cal McDonald, Sonja Blue, Matt Richter, Dead Jack, Johnny Fade and more.

“Dead Detectives Society is my pulpy passion project,” said editor James Aquilone. “With this annual anthology series I hope to expand the weird detective subgenre and have a blast while doing it.”

Courtesy of Monstrous Books, we’re pleased to present some preview pages from “Dead Jack and Oswald Meet Frankenstein,” written by Aquilone and illustrated by J.K. Woodward (Star Trek, Fallen Angel). Check them out below, along with the anthology’s cover by John Jennings and the cover for Monstrous Magazine by Colton Worley.

Gaiman + Pratchett’s ‘Good Omens’ is coming to comics, courtesy of Colleen Doran

The graphic novel will be funded through Kickstarter.

Colleen Doran has adapted several of Neil Gaiman’s prose stories into comics in recent years, including the Eisner-nominated Chivalry and the Eisner-winning Snow, Glass, Apples. But now she’s turning her attention to a Gaiman work of Biblical proportions.

Teased by both Doran and Gaiman on social media, Doran will next adapt Good Omens, the 1990 novel Gaiman co-wrote with Terry Pratchett about a young antichrist and the end of the world.

The Terry Pratchett will crowdfund the project via Kickstarter; you can check out the campaign page and sign up to be notified when it goes live.

Jason Copland’s ‘Full Tilt’ blasts through its crowdfunding goal

The campaign on Zoop tops $20,000 on its first day.

Kill All Monsters artist Jason Copland’s been working on his latest project, Full Tilt, for the past five years. Fueled by passion and Slurpees, Copland has created an “action-filled future noir epic,” loaded with love, grit and numerous two-page spreads.

The 300+ page black-and-white hardcover went live on Zoop yesterday, asking for a modest goal of $10,000. Full Tilt was well over $20,000 by the end of the day, and is approaching $30,000 as I type this.

“Full Tilt is a gritty, violent tale about a 23rd century crime family consigliere who must face the consequences of a choice he made between love and loyalty,” Copland said in his newsletter. “It’s an action filled future noir epic that touches on many eternal themes such as love and hate, family and power.”

Iron Circus launches a crowdfunding campaign for Sage Coffey’s ‘Wine Ghost Goes to Hell’

The campaign runs on BackerKit through June 1.

Glamor, the supernatural and disaster will all collide in Wine Ghost Goes to Hell, the new project by Bugsnax story editor Sage Coffey.

Iron Circus Comics has launched a crowdfunding campaign for the graphic novel through BackerKit, their 38th crowdfunded project.

“Imagine if the magazine Hollywood Insider was a person,” said Coffey. “Now imagine that person is a dead alcoholic. That’s Wine Ghost! She is drama. She is fashion. She insists that wine counts as a fruit. And she may be her newly dead friend’s only hope of having a life after death.”

Smash Pages Q&A | ‘Boris Karloff’s Gold Key Mysteries’

Zane Barrow, Michael Conrad, Craig Hurd-McKenney and Jok discuss their work on the first title from the revived Gold Key Comics.

Gold Key Comics first began publishing comics in the 1960s, focusing heavily on licensed material from Disney, Warner Bros., King Features and Star Trek, among others. They also published some original material, including Solar, Turok and Magnus Robot Fighter. Their titles showcased a broad range of genres, from children’s titles to science fiction to superheroes to horror, through the 1970s and early 1980s.

It’s been almost 40 years since Gold Key was active, but one of 2023’s pleasant surprises has been the revival of the company. Entrepreneurs and comics fans Lance Linderman, Adam Brooks, Mike Dynes and Arnold Guerrero have not only relaunched the company, but also have revived one of its biggest titles from back in the day featuring iconic horror actor Boris Karloff.

The Kickstarter campaign for Boris Karloff Gold Key Mysteries, a new anthology title featuring new stories by Michael Conrad, Craig Hurd-McKenney, Jok, Steve Orlando, Kelly Williams and more, surpassed its funding goal very quickly. With three days to go, it’s just south of $40,000, so you still have time to get in on the ground floor.

I caught up with Hurd-McKenney, Jok, Conrad and editor Zane Barrow about the project, the draw of working on a Boris Karloff comic in 2023, their contributions to the anthology and more.

Smash Pages Q&A | William Potter + Philip Bond on ‘Geezer’

The Britpop washouts known as Geezer return to Kickstarter for a second issue.

As grunge took over the American rock music scene in the 1990s, the United Kingdom had its own musical movement — Britpop, a style of alternative rock made famous by bands like Oasis, Pulp, Blur, Elastica and CUD.

William Potter, the bassist for CUD, would go on to become a writer and editor, writing puzzle books, non-fiction, magazines and comics. While Potter was living the life of a musician in the 1990s, artist Philip Bond was drawing comics like Tank Girl, Kill Your Boyfriend, Shade the Changing Man and more.

And now the two of them have teamed up on a new comic series, Geezer, which tells the story of a fictional band during Britpop’s heyday. Published by Off Register Press and edited by Vertigo alumni Shelly Bond, the first issue was published following a successful Kickstarter campaign.

And now Potter and Bond are back for an encore. Geezer #2 is currently up on Kickstarter, having already doubled its initial goal. Potter and Bond were kind enough to answer some questions I had about their plans for the series, revisiting the 1990s music scene and more.

Dean Haspiel puts out a warrant for ‘Covid Cop’

The creator of ‘Billy Dogma’ seeks to crowdfund a new comic book.

Emmy Award-winning cartoonist Dean Haspiel has announced Covid Cop, a new horror/romance comic he’s crowdfunding on Kickstarter about an antihero attempting to save what’s left of humanity — and his marriage.

“A cross between Judge Dredd, Toxic Avenger, Mad Max and Sin City, Covid Cop is my response to a pandemic that never found its cure and has wiped out 98% of mankind,” Haspiel said.

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