While crowdfunding campaigns can be exhausting to run, and success isn’t guaranteed even with hard work, there’s no doubt that being able to fund comics projects by direct collaboration with readers has changed the landscape of indie comics. Shipping is a big issue and I think it’s already negatively affecting campaigns.” Also, Brexit regulations and taxes are making things a lot more difficult and expensive. Understanding all these new different channels and being able to respond and communicate with all of them while working on your comic and keeping up with social media was very intense, exciting but also draining, and with some amount of anxiety as to what would happen the next day.” He also points out the potential difficulties caused by the rise of crowdfunding, and by world events: “I feel that we might be feeling a bit of saturation in the market. Vargas agrees, noting “The hardest part is the obvious: you’re not a creator anymore, but an editor/publisher, and it’s a very different creature. It’s all about the promo, and I think that the amount you have to do catches some people out.” As Tanner says, “The one thing I always share with creators thinking of crowdfunding themselves is that you can’t be shy about promoting your campaign before it launches and when it’s running. There are also non-problematic but potentially off-putting parts of the crowdfunding process itself, particularly the necessity of promoting projects, something that may be daunting to artists and writers who have little advertising and promotional experience. Tanner notes “I avoid IndieGoGo as a creator and consumer due to that platform’s affiliation with Comicsgate” this reason is also why I have focused on Kickstarter primarily in this article. Of course, there are also dark sides to crowdfunding platforms.

Minority Monsters! by Tab Kimpton