Tag: crowdfunding

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.

Continue reading “Smash Pages Q&A | ‘Boris Karloff’s Gold Key Mysteries’”

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.

Continue reading “Smash Pages Q&A | William Potter + Philip Bond on ‘Geezer’”

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.

Continue reading “Dean Haspiel puts out a warrant for ‘Covid Cop’”

Naso + Muhr look to crowdfund a ‘By the Horns’ deluxe hardcover

The Scout Comics series comes to Kickstarter for a hardcover collection + a range of extras.

Markisan Naso and Jason Muhr followed up the excellent Voracious with the even better By The Horns, creating a rich fantasy world with modern sensibilities — and a woman who hated unicorns. They’re looking to collect the first miniseries, By The Horns: The Wind Rises into a deluxe hardcover, and they’ve turned to Kickstarter to fund it.

The series and its follow-up, as well as trade paperback collections, were released by Scout Comics, but to do something special like a hardcover, the team said they had to turn to crowdfunding. Scout Comics is not involved with the crowdfunding campaign.

“Sure, By The Horns has a publisher and loyal fans, but the series still takes a lot to put it together and it’s a small, indie comic,” they said on their Kickstarter page. “All the costs to create the book come out of our pockets up front. So, when it comes to doing something really big thing like a hardcover edition, we just need a little help to make it happen.” 

Continue reading “Naso + Muhr look to crowdfund a ‘By the Horns’ deluxe hardcover”

Uncivilized Books launches a new ‘Comic Book Club’ on Patreon

See what comic books will arrive from the publisher later this year.

Uncivilized Books is probably best known for their graphic novel releases these days, but according to publisher Tom Kaczynski, “The stapled floppy comic book is a perfect format.” So they’re doubling down on comic releases in 2023 and have even launched an Uncivilized Comic Book Club on Patreon.

“I love graphic novels, but the comic book is my first love,” Kaczynski said in their most recent newsletter. “Uncivilized started as a mini comics publisher; eventually, we transitioned to graphic novels, with only rare comic book thrown into the mix. Since we began to serialize Ginseng Roots a few years ago, the comic books bug has taken hold!”

Craig Thompson’s 12-issue Ginseng Roots series may be wrapping up soon, but you’ll be able to find plenty of comics from Uncivilized. Here’s a look at what they have planned for 2023:

Continue reading “Uncivilized Books launches a new ‘Comic Book Club’ on Patreon”

TinyView is raising money to offer more webcomics

The site that carries comics by Matt Bors, Brian Gordon, Jimmy Craig and more could use your help.

TinyView, the aggregated webcomics site that features comics by Rob Rogers, Brian Gordon, Matt Bors, Gemma Correll, Jimmy Craig and more, is currently running a fundraiser campaign to “reach sustainability and offer more comics.”

While social media can help creators build an audience, they typically don’t provide any payment when people read their content. That’s where a site like TinyView can come in. The site isn’t looking for direct donations, but rather is asking readers to become paid subscribers.

“Artists and creators are often forced to post work for free on the main social media platforms to gain a following. Tinyview enables artists to be paid for the work they post, while bringing lovers of classic funny-page comics together,” said Raj Lalwani, CEO of Tinyview. “Our current fundraising campaign will allow Tinyview to generate revenue from readers which will support artists they love and help usher in a stronger creator economy.”

Continue reading “TinyView is raising money to offer more webcomics”

Cornell + Kelly crowdfund the finale to ‘Saucer Country’

The former Vertigo series will finally conclude if it hits its goal on Zoop.

Paul Cornell and Ryan Kelly’s Saucer Country has followed a rocky road — or would that be turbulent flight? — to publication over the years, starting out at Vertigo in 2012 before returning at IDW in 2017 for a new miniseries, Saucer State, that was never finished.

But now Saucer Country is back — Cornell and Kelly have teamed with Syzygy Publishing to kick off a crowdfunding campaign on Zoop that will fund publication of not only the final chapter of their story, but also a complete collection of the entire tale. The creators are looking to raise $20,000 to bring the saucer in for a landing.

“This project is so close to my heart,” Cornell said on his blog. “And this is my first crowdfunding campaign, which makes me extremely nervous. So please take a look and see if you’d like to help. As you’ll see from the page, we’re well on course to deliver exactly what we’re offering pretty swiftly once we’re funded. Zoop have successfully landed many such campaigns, which is why I went with them.

Continue reading “Cornell + Kelly crowdfund the finale to ‘Saucer Country’”

Iron Circus seeks to crowdfund a final volume of the ‘Cautionary Fables’ anthology series

The final collection of fables and fairy tales will focus on stories from across South America.

Iron Circus Comics has kicked off a crowdfunding campaign for the final volume in their Cautionary Fables series. This final volume, The Lizard Prince and other South American stories, will be edited by Alberto Rayo, Kel McDonald and Kate Ashwin.

McDonald and Ashwin have worked together on previous volumes, and will typically recruit a third editor from the region they’re focusing on for each anthology. Rayo is a creator and editor from Peru who started self-publishing works at 17 and has since formed his own comic book studio, Broken Panel Studio. He is majoring in Economics at Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú and aspires to help develop a comic book industry in his country. 

“The Cautionary Fables and Fairytales series has been chronicling folktales from around the world for nearly a decade, hopping from Europe to Africa, over to Asia, Oceania, and finally teaming up with Iron Circus Comics to hit the coasts of America,” McDonald said. “Our previous volume of North American tales told by Indigenous artists and writers smashed all records to become the highest funded comics anthology on Kickstarter, and now we’re fully onboard with Iron Circus’ crowdfunding, we can’t wait to see what happens next!”

Continue reading “Iron Circus seeks to crowdfund a final volume of the ‘Cautionary Fables’ anthology series”

Three Count | Gogor, Steeple love, Mary Marvel’s eyes

Here are three things to support, to buy and to know today.

Three Count spotlights, as the title suggests, three things from comics today. It’ll be three things with links, no more, no less. No. 5 is alive.

1. To support: The Book of Gogor by Ken Garing

Gogor was a five-issue miniseries written and drawn by Ken Garing and released by Image Comics back in 2019. I was looking through our archives to see if I ever wrote about it beyond the initial release announcement from Image, and it doesn’t look like I did — which is a shame, because I remember enjoying it a whole bunch. So did my son.

Garing created a really interesting fantasy world ruled by a bunch of jerks called the Domus. A student named Armano awakens this mythical champion called Gogor to fight them, and together they go on an adventure across the many islands that make up their world, which float in the sky vs. the water. I remember what I really liked about it was the world-building, as you could tell Garing put a lot of detail and thought into it, even the parts that didn’t make it onto the page.

Image collected the first five issues but the story never continued beyond that — until now. Garing is crowdfunding a follow-up story, The Book of Gogor, which will offer a definitive conclusion to the one he started.

Continue reading “Three Count | Gogor, Steeple love, Mary Marvel’s eyes”

Ramón K Pérez seeks to crowdfund ‘Kukuburi: A Cotton Candy World’

First posted online as a webcomic back in 2007, the co-creator of ‘Stillwater’ seeks your support to finish the story.

Transmission-X was a webcomics collective that was active about 15 years ago and featured webcomics by Michael Cho, Scott Hepburn, Karl Kerschl, Ramón K Pérez and several others who would go on to form RAID Press. Now Pérez is looking to crowdfund a graphic novel collection of his webcomic from the time, Kukuburi.

Kukuburi: A Cotton Candy World collects the story in print, along with 40 extra pages. It’s the first volume in a planned series from the artist of Stillwater and Tales of Sand, who hopes to produce a volume of it every year.

Continue reading “Ramón K Pérez seeks to crowdfund ‘Kukuburi: A Cotton Candy World’”

Three Count | Steve Lieber, ‘Griz Grobus,’ newts

Here are three things to know, to read and to support today.

Three Count is a new column that spotlights, as the title suggests, three things from comics today. It’ll be three things with links, no more, no less. This is the second one, and a big bwahahaha to everyone who thought I’d only ever do one of them.

1. To Know: Steve Lieber’s alt.text skills are unparalleled

Earlier today DC revealed that the Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen: Who Killed Jimmy Olsen? team of Matt Fraction, Steve Lieber, Nathan Fairbairn and Clayton Cowles have reunited for a new story featuring Perry White as part of a one-shot that’s coming out next month.

While you can visit my original post from today to see what the final cover will look like, Lieber took to Twitter to show off an alternative cover he had created for the issue:

Continue reading “Three Count | Steve Lieber, ‘Griz Grobus,’ newts”

Nick Pitarra’s ‘Ax-Wielder Jon’ chops through its crowdfunding goal

The new graphic novel is available now through the crowfunding site Zoop.

Ax-Wielder Jon is a new graphic novel by Nick Pitarra, artist of The Manhattan Projects, The Red Wing and more, and just a few days into its crowdfunding campaign it has more than doubled its stated goal of $25,000.

The graphic novel is currently available through the comics crowdfunding Zoop, where it has raised more than $65,000. The 148-page graphic novel is complete, according to the campaign page, and it’s about “a ruthless killer in a world of monsters and mayhem” who “makes a precious discovery and learns what a man is willing to lose to protect what he loves most.”

Pitarra’s hyper-detailed art is a thing of beauty, and this project looks like it puts it under a much-deserved spotlight.

Continue reading “Nick Pitarra’s ‘Ax-Wielder Jon’ chops through its crowdfunding goal”