This past Friday my particular corner of the comix internet blew up over this Comics Journal post where Dan Nadel heavily criticizes Kickstarter in general and the Secret Prison #7 Kickstarter in particular. I’ve been riveted to the ensuing shitstorm in comments threads, blog posts, and my Twitter feed. I feel compelled to post my thoughts here.

Before I begin discussing this post and the issues it raises, please note my biases: I’ve worked with both Ian Harker and Box Brown (the editors of the anthology that drew Nadel’s ire) on several projects. Although I’ve never done my own Kickstarter, it’s been the funding source for several anthologies that my comics are in (such as RUB THE BLOOD and Digestate) and for comics that my friends have put out (such as The City Troll and The Melinderly). On the other side, I’ve been reading and enjoying Nadel’s posts about comics for half a decade, from the Comics Comics blogspot days to his new position as editor of The Comics Journal site, and I respect his opinion as a comics scholar and content curator.

Let’s get to the meat of it.

Nadel’s post begins by calling out Brown and Harker for an imprecise description of comics history in the advertising copy for their Kickstarter campaign. I don’t have enough knowledge about manga or Garo to have an opinion on that. I do know that for the 90’s Image tribute anthology that Harker edited with Pat Aulisio (and that I was published in), Harker was spot on in pointing out how influential Rob Liefeld and the rest of the Image founders were on me as an adolescent. Moreover, that anthology was a hell of a lot of fun to participate in. I’m confident that regardless of whether or not they got the history right, Secret Prison #7 is going to be good.

The cover for Garo #19 from this site.

In the bulk of Nadel’s post, he questions whether Kickstarter is an ethical, respectable way to fund the printing of comics. Nadel points out that 5% of the money a project generates on Kickstarter goes to Amazon (for payment processing). I think that’s a valid critique. I don’t like that Amazon puts independent book stores (and comic book stores) out of business. I avoid buying things through them for the most part, especially since there are great alternatives like Domy and Bookpeople here in Austin. So maybe Indiegogo is a better alternative. They do their payment processing through PayPal and I’m already putting money in the pockets of that corporation through my online store. But Nadel’s beef with Kickstarter is more than just Amazon, he seems to be against the idea of crowd-funding in general (this is the money quote): “Take pre-orders on your site. Sell your boots. Do what you have to do. But don’t go begging for money [on Kickstarter.]” I really can’t begrudge someone getting the money to print their comics anyway they can. When Kickstarter is used to sell pre-orders or other tangible products I don’t see what the difference is between using Kickstarter’s in-built social networking tools and whatever network you have through your personal site. It’s definitely not begging. Your fans are paying for a product that you’re selling. I do worry about the current enthusiasm for crowd-funding being a bubble that could break if people contribute to too many projects that fall apart before delivering the rewards.

I got married in these boots, they’re too sentimental for me to sell!

Personally, however, I’m not at the point where I want to run a Kickstarter campaign. I’m still learning how to self-publish with minicomics and zines. Thinking about print runs, where to send out review copies, which stores to contact, and how best to sell my comics online has taught me a lot about the comics world, mostly that I still have a lot of work to do before I’m running a self-publishing empire. It’s a lot of work and the only thing that the self-publishing skillset has in common with creating comics is tenacity, but fortunately I’ve got truckloads of it. Luckily, I have a day job that pays me enough that I can afford to print small prints of short comics like Vortex #2 until I get laid off. Lately, I’ve been trying to be more frugal with my comics and art expenses so that I can get to the point where the money from current print run of comics funds the next one (I’m not there yet). Watching my wife run her small greeting-card business Glademade has been an eye opener in this regard. She’s so good with managing her business money! And a handmade greeting card costs about as much to make as a minicomic.

The Heidelberg printer at 1984 Printing from Elly Blue’s Flickrstream. If I were going to self-publish an offset book I’d want to go through this printshop.

Eventually, though, I’m going to finish the whole story of Vortex and I’m going to want to print it in a single volume. That’s a bigger printing bill than I can easily afford on my own so I’m going to have to seek outside funding. I want to try publishers first. I love the respect that the comics community grants self-publishers and I admire people like Alec Longstreth who’ve declared that they’ll self-publish forever, but I’d like to work with a publisher and see that side of things. But hey, if no one wants to publish Vortex, expect to see an Indiegogo campaign (if it still exists in 2014).