Q: Why did you decide to go the crowd funding route instead of courting an established publisher or self-publishing as you have done in the past for your other comic projects?
SKG: I started using Kickstarter simply as a way to take advance orders for my books.  Kickstarter began to take off around the same time I was working on Skin Horse Volume 2, and I’d been looking for an easy way to take advance orders and gauge interest.  It worked far better than I expected.
KL: After doing an informal survey to test the concept of the book, my original plan was to pay for printing Steampunk ABC myself. Kickstarter allowed me to share my work with more fans of steampunk. I wouldn’t have considered making the book hardcover with spot gloss otherwise as the cost was too much.
JBT: The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath Kickstarter was actually my wife Jay’s idea. (She also made the video!) I actually went to it as a last resort; for several years I had been trying to find a traditional publisher for Dream-Quest, but to be blunt, the book was rejected by everyone. (And I’ve just gone into a second printing! The fools! Mwa ha ha!) For awhile I doubted whether an audience really existed for Dream-Quest, so I was thrilled that the Kickstarter did so well. Surprised first, and then incredibly grateful to everyone who made it happen.

Q: How does crowd funding via Kickstarter, Indiegogo, etc. change self-publishing?
SKG: It certainly makes it easier to self-publish!  I think it also helps create a connection between creators and readers.  Readers get a better idea of what goes into making a book, and get a sense of participation in the project.  That kind of connection is one of the things I like about web comics in general, so I enjoy building it with the print books, too.
KL: Crowd funding makes it easier to create independent books. I really enjoyed sharing my process with current and new fans of my work. I think they also liked being on the inside track of the new book project before anyone else.
JBT: It’s the best thing to happen to comics in years. Compared to a few years ago, it’s MUCH easier to self-publish; it’s so much easier to spread the word and find a “long tail” audience via social media. Crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo are obviously much, much more effective than traditional publishers at helping creators find people who like their stuff (and vice versa). I’m sure there’s still a role for publishers as a partner and part of the creative & promotional process, but when I hear that a book like (for just one example) Mark Andrew Smith and James Stokoe’s Sullivan’s Sluggers didn’t get enough pre-orders to justify releasing it through its original publisher, and made $100,000 on Kickstarter, it’s obvious that the old system is broken.

Q: Other than completing the actual book, a pitch video, funding goal and pledge levels are needed too for setting up a project. What tips do you have for creating the video and deciding pledge levels in relation to the funding goal?
SKG: I’ve written about running a successful Kickstarter elsewhere, but the most important thing is to be clear about what you plan to do and how you plan to do it.  It’s not fair to your backers if you go in without a clear plan.
KL: Treat the Kickstarter campaign set up like a business plan. You’re going to produce a product and then reward people for supporting the overall project. Be realistic about what kind of rewards you can deliver in timely fashion. Make sure to work with real quotes, so you can minimize surprise costs. Keep the pitch video short, have clean audio and use clear visuals and/or text on the screen. I think keeping the video to under two minutes is ideal.
JBT: I think the best videos show the creator talking onscreen and making their pitch directly, since you want to emphasize the connection between audience and creator…although good music, good visuals and not rambling on too long (like in the video for Sandy Petersen’s failed Kickstarter for a Cthulhu Mythos tactical iPhone game) are also important. About pledge levels, I’m still not sure I know how the magic works. Had I done the Dream-Quest Kickstarter over, I’d probably have offered original art at a lower funding level and sketches at a higher level, since the sketches took so much time. (Though they were fun to draw.)
KL: I too found that it took longer to fulfill the rewards with sketches attached to them, so don’t forget to build in extra time to complete similar rewards!

Q: Beyond the printing costs, what else can change the initial funding goal?
SKG: You definitely need to factor the expenses of the Kickstarter into your funding goal.  Amazon takes a chunk of whatever you raise, so be sure to include that in your estimate.  And the rewards may cost money, too.  For Skin Horse 3, I offered slipcovers designed by Liz Conley, which were gorgeous, but also cost money to produce.  Then there are the usual costs of publishing a book, like shipping.  You really have to treat it as a business.
KL: In my case, US Postal rates went up, so the extra funding over the goal definitely helped to cover that increased cost. You want to factor in all the extra rewards and shipping required. Don’t forget taxes.
JBT: As Karen pointed out, you have to watch out for USPS rate increases, as well as the taxes.

Q: Once the project is accepted and ready to launch, what can creators do to get the word out?
SKG: Tell social media.  Send press releases to comics news sites and anywhere else that might be interested.  And send out additional reminders throughout the campaign, whenever you unlock a new pledge level or reach a stretch goal, so people don’t forget.
KL: Keeping folks informed via social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) and asking them if they’d be willing to share the campaign. I also had a few friends talk up Steampunk ABC on various online groups. As the campaigns wears on, keeping people posted on how much more funding is needed and reward updates becomes important to hit your goal.
JBT: In my case, I’d saved every email from someone asking about Dream-Quest since I printed the original series as floppy comics back in 1999, so I emailed them all, in addition to the usual social media promotion. A few amazing people mentioned the series on German and French fansites, helping me get backers from those countries. Of course, I had the advantage of doing an HP Lovecraft-based project, which meant there’s a certain built-in audience and lots of people and sites that volunteered their time to help publicize the Kickstarter. But even if your project doesn’t have an obvious fandom, you need to figure out who might like it and spread the word to bloggers, magazines and forums. It’s just like publishing any book.

Q: What can creators expect during the campaign?
SKG: Every campaign is different, so…expect the unexpected, I guess?
KL: A project can get a lot of backers throwing in at the beginning, but then it tends to slow down a lot after the initial rush. Keep on sharing updates during the lull. Some backers may wait until the end to see what more rewards are offered. Press on!
JBT: It slowed down a lot after the first week or so, and for awhile I was worried I wouldn’t make it. But luckily, some big reviews helped boost the momentum.

Q: How did you get potential backers to click that pledge button? And, are stretch goals a necessity?
SKG: My current campaign is the first one for which I’ve done stretch goals, so no, they’re not necessary.  But I do think it’s necessary to stay engaged throughout the campaign and give people reasons to keep checking up on it.  If you do that, and your work is awesome, hopefully they’ll click that button.
KL: I factored in most of the rewards before I launched, so I didn’t do stretch goals myself – I just added bonuses to existing reward levels. Showing more of your project before the campaign closes piques people’s interest. Be sure to interact with backers online.
JBT: I didn’t do stretch goals; I probably should have, but I don’t think they were as big a thing back in 2011 (and/or I just wasn’t aware of them). Although it wasn’t a stretch goal per se, one result of getting nearly twice my original goal was that I was able to do the book in hardcover, as well as doing the Dreamlands map in 24″x36″ instead of a smaller size. I did add a new backer level, the Randolph Carter Dolls which my wife and my friend Katia made. Also, my friend Jake donated at the $1000 level meaning that I did a new comic for him (which turned out to be 20 pages long), gave him his choice of the original art and posted the scans online for all the backers to read… so that’s sort of like a stretch goal? Well, kinda.

Q: Assuming you didn’t print the exact number of books for the backers, what do you do distribute and sell the book?
SKG: My books are mostly sold online through the Couscous Collective online store.  I sell through some comic shops, too, but online sales are my bread and butter.
KL: I sell Steampunk ABC online via my site and the Couscous Collective online store. I’ve sent out promotional copies to independent book stores, indicating the wholesale price and how to contact me for purchases. Currently, it’s selling at the Cartoon Art Museum Bookstore, Treasure Island Comics and Mission: Comics & Art. Most of those sales are on a consignment basis. I’m also looking to list the book on Amazon.
JBT: Happily, two distributors carry it: the book is available from Diamond Comics, as well as from Bud Plant. So, rock on! Also, I sell them at my store.

Q: You asked your established fan base to make the campaign a success and now you have a larger audience for your work. How do you keep new fans interested in your work and upcoming projects?
SKG: Keep doing awesome work!  It’s the only way I know.
KL: Keep on making art and sharing it!
JBT: Like you said, keep drawing. I’m involved in several different fandoms which don’t have that much crossover: chiefly (1) manga, (2) tabletop RPGs and (3) HP Lovecraft stuff. Perhaps for the best, even I’ve never done a particular piece of work that hits all three points of that particular Venn Diagram, but I feel at home in these areas. Of course, I’m interested in other themes too, and I love it when other people are interested in them with me.

Q: What upcoming projects do you have?
SKG: I’m drawing Skin Horse every day and Monster of the Week every week.  They keep me pretty busy.  There are a few other projects I’m working on, but nothing I can announce yet.  Also, I build a tiki bar/office in my back yard.
KL: I’m working on various short comics for upcoming Couscous Collective anthologies, a longer one to debut as ongoing web comic and possibly another project for Kickstarter at the end of the year. More announcements in the future!
JBT: I’ve got a story in Northwest Press’ upcoming anthology Anything That Loves about nonbinary sexuality. I’m also doing a 16-page story for the horror comics anthology The Sleep of Reason, which is Kickstarting right now. I’m also working on another Lovecraftian comic; re-posting and resuming my comic The Stiff which I originally did from 2003-2005; and working on a drawing/card game called Mangaka which will be my next Kickstarter project.

Thanks to Shaenon, Karen and Jason for offering crowd funding insights! Be sure to check out Shaenon’s current Kickstarter for Skin Horse 4 and The Sleep of Reason Kickstarter, a horror comic anthology, where Jason is a contributor. Both are currently funding! Follow Shaenon (Twitter and Facebook), Karen Luk (Twitter and Facebook), and Jason (Twitter and Facebook) online for more upcoming news about their projects.

Stumptown Comics Fest celebrated its 10th con on April 27th to 28th. The Couscous Collective had a booth with Chloe Dalquist, Karen Luk and Jason Thompson. We had a great time, chatting with fans and first-time con goers about comics and art. Our latest comics anthology Spirits debuted there and it’s now available in the online store now. Go check it out!

Shaenon K. Garrity
Chloe Dalquist
Evan Waldinger
Andrew Farago
Lauren Davis
Liz Conley
Pancha Diaz

-Karen

Another Alternative Press Expo has come and gone.  This was my 12th year at the show, which was launched by publisher Dan Vado (SLG) in 1994.  This was probably my busiest show yet, too.

For the third year in a row, the APE organizers asked me to run some DIY workshops, so the convention really started back in August for me, when I began lining up cartoonists to conduct one-hour seminars on subjects ranging from building a webcomics audience to finding a collaborator to Watercolors 101.  This one always requires a little bit of juggling, but we had a really enthusiastic group of teachers this year, and things went pretty smoothly by all accounts.

As for the hard work for the convention, that also started pretty early.  It was two or three years ago that I realized we were approaching the 30th anniversary of celebrated indie comic Love and Rockets, and I mentioned that fact to Fantagraphics after another 2012 exhibition I was working on fell through.  They were excited about it, so we made note of that and went on about our business.  In the months leading up to APE, I made arrangements with the Hernandez brothers and some art collectors to borrow 60 really nice examples of their artwork for an exhibition, which I matted, framed and installed in the days leading up to the convention.  Somewhere along the way, I wrote a 1500-word appreciation of Love and Rockets for the APE program book, as well as putting together additional text for the Cartoon Art Museum‘s exhibition.

This was all hot on the heels of installing two additional exhibitions over the past three weeks, Sketchtravel and The Art of ParaNorman, as well as a showcase of local artist Jonas Madden-Connor the same week as I was installing Love and Rockets.  Really, all of that would have been enough for me to call it an October and take a break.

A little over a month ago, though, I committed to moderating four APE panels, and ended up running five of them.  Here’s a brief recap of each one:

*Saturday, 12:45: Comics as Political Statement, with guests Eric Drooker, Ben Katchor, Miriam Libicki, and Stan Mack.  I knew everyone but Stan Mack going into this panel, so I didn’t do very much prep.  It takes very little effort no effort to get Eric Drooker talking about politics, and once I introduced everyone, it was just a matter of getting them all to talk to each other about free weeklies, the New York vs. California political scenes, and whether it’s possible to not make a political statement with your comics.  Not my best panel ever, but solid, and pretty well attended.

*Saturday, 4:45: Using Childhood Experiences to Create Adult Stories, with guests Derek Kirk Kim, Miriam Libicki, Kraig Rasmussen, and Jim Woodring.  Another one where I didn’t do much prep, since I knew everyone but Jim Woodring going into the panel.  This was fun, in its own strange way, since everyone just talked about miserable childhood experiences that shaped them into the cartoonists they are today.  Jim Woodring’s stories of his childhood were incredible, since he had stories about childhood hallucinations and struggling with mental illness.  The stories that really stuck with me were Woodring seeing the Fleischer cartoon “Bimbo’s Initiation” at age four and spending several years of his life trying to discover that world in our reality, and Derek’s story about seeing a slacker artist at his Korean grade school get smacked for lack of effort, which goes a long way toward explaining the effort that goes into each and every one of his drawings.  I was getting into a good moderating groove by the end of this one, and it would have been my best panel of the day if not for:

*Saturday, 5:45: Spotlight on the Hernandez Brothers: 30 Years of Love and Rockets, with Mario, Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez.  This was the high-pressure Saturday panel, since I knew it would have a big audience, and that most of the attendees were going to be huge Love and Rockets fans.  I’ve read the vast majority of Love and Rockets (pretty far behind on Gilbert’s side projects, though) thanks to the big hardcover collections from Fantagraphics that caught me up to almost everything prior to the most recent series, but I decided to keep the conversation fairly general and accessible to anyone who just wanted to catch a discussion with this year’s featured guests.  That’s my goal with every panel I moderate, actually, since I’ll typically have about 35 minutes of my own questions followed by 10-15 minutes of audience questions, and that’s never quite enough time to get into a really involved conversation about someone’s career.

I’ve chatted with Jaime and Gilbert a bit at conventions over the past couple of years, especially this past summer when it came time to start work on our 30th anniversary exhibition.  I’ve known Mario for about five years, and in his day job as a contractor, he’s done a lot of work on my house dating back to 2010, so that helped to take the edge off for this one, which immediately followed the previous panel.  And having three brothers on a panel also makes things easier for me, since it wasn’t going to take much to get them trading stories about growing up together or life in comics over the past 30-plus years.

Lots of cool stories about Oxnard, California, where Los Bros. grew up, and how it was this weird mix of Latino culture, surfers, migrant workers, rich and poor neighborhoods, and how music, pop culture and comic books shaped their lives.  They loved all kinds of comics growing up except, oddly enough, romance comics, which boys just didn’t buy.  Fun stories included submitting their first/only self-published Love and Rockets mag to The Comics Journal, since Los Bros. didn’t have an advertising budget and that seemed like the best way to get their names out there (along with drawing pinups for every major fanzine that would take them).  Thirty years later, they’re still at it, and they expect to be doing this as long as audiences will support them.

*Saturday night was the Cartoon Art Museum’s annual APE party, and this was our most successful one in years.  Having the Hernandez Brothers as guests, premiering our new exhibition that night, offering a limited edition 30th anniversary print courtesy of Fantagraphics, and the fact that there seemed to be a lot less competition for people’s Saturday night entertainment options this year resulted in a really nice turnout and a big fundraising opportunity for CAM.

The Museum used to have a lock on APE Saturday, but 5-7 years ago other parties and events sprang up like wildfire.  Since people are still getting into town on Friday (the night of the annual Last Gasp pre-registration party) and are either exhausted or leaving town on Sunday, Saturday’s the night everyone’s vying for attention.  Our usual big competition is the party at Isotope, The Comics Lounge, which apparently gets so many people that the party has to spill out onto the streets, since one comic shop can’t contain the whole thing.  I’d much rather be at a party where you can relax, casually talk to artists and friends, and never wait more than a couple of minutes for a drink, so it’s probably for the best that we generally host the kind of parties I’d like to attend.

*Sunday, 1:30: Spotlight on Miriam Libicki.  This one was a late addition to my schedule.  I’ve known Miriam for a few years now, and this year she was an invited guest of the convention, which means that she gets a spotlight panel at APE.  Since she didn’t have time to prepare a slideshow or lecture (having a baby can wreak havoc with your schedule, I’ve heard), she asked me Saturday morning if I’d mind moderating a discussion with her.  What’s one more panel between friends?

This one went really well, and it helps that I know Miriam but don’t know absolutely everything about her and her career, so I just sat down and asked about any aspect of her cartooning that I wanted to know more about.  Most mindblowing to me is that she’s got a five-month old baby who’s already been to five comic conventions.  You can order her comics (including the must-read series Jobnik!) at her website:  http://realgonegirl.com/  It hasn’t been updated in a while, but she’s been busy.  Another really good panel all around, since it was just a casual Sunday afternoon conversation between friends.

*Sunday, 4:45: Bay Area Comics: Past, Present, and Future, with Shaenon K. Garrity, Justin Hall, Alec Longstreth, Thien Pham, Jason Shiga, and Jason Thompson.  This was the last panel of the convention, and it was basically just a free-for-all initiated by me and Thien Pham.  The program book description mentioned that we’d be talking with Oakland native Jason Shiga and past, present and future Bay Area cartoonists, so we filled out the roster with Jason Thompson (who grew up here, but moved to Seattle a few years ago), recent transplant Alec Longstreth, Justin Hall (who’s been here since the late 1990s or early 2000s), and my wife, Shaenon Garrity, who moved here from Ohio in 2000 (just like me, coincidentally).  Rina Ayuyang was going to be on the panel but had to drop out when she couldn’t get anyone to watch her table, which is unfortunate, since she’s probably one of the best people on earth when it comes to scrapping with Thien.

Thien kicked things off by delivering a long monologue about his earliest childhood memories, which involved a treacherous boat tide to the United States and an attack by pirates.  He started in about two minutes before the microphone was switched on, then kept going without interruption for several minutes after the AV crew activated it.  We all just sat there, listening politely and waiting for Jason Shiga, and I half regret that we eventually interrupted and started talking about comics.  There’s an alternate universe where we never stopped Thien and he’s still narrating his life story to whomever’s in that room at the Concourse.

This was another fun, casual conversation panel, with all of us talking about the good and bad aspects of making comics in general, and in making comics in the Bay Area.  We all agreed that San Francisco and its surrounding areas have incredible resources (Shaenon made an impassioned plea for everyone to visit and support the Cartoon Art Museum, which scored her some not-really-needed bonus points), and the strong and active comics community is a big part of why people come here and stay here.  I think that 90% of the people in my address book are there because of comics, which is something I couldn’t have imagined back when I was in college, even if I’d gone into comics professionally.

**

Sales at this year’s convention were pretty decent.  Shaenon has a new book or two almost every year, so she’s guaranteed at least some sales because of that.  Our cartooning group, The Couscous Collective, had a new anthology available, called KITTIES!, and we moved at least a few copies over the weekend (and it’s been selling steadily since we started selling it online the following week).  We started doing anthologies twice a year not long after we started our group, and that’s a way to keep those of us without regular projects knocking out at least six pages a couple of times a year.  I haven’t made any new mini-comics or updated a webcomic in a while, so it’s nice to have something new on the table in front of me.

I sold three copies of The Looney Tunes Treasury to families with kids, which made for an above-average weekend on that front.  Shaenon sold enough original art to justify spending some cash on a hula girl commission from the legendary Sergio Aragones of MAD Magazine fame, and sold enough other stuff to justify buying a Story Minute original from Carol Lay (not that we needed to spend much effort “justifying” either one.  Both were excellent purchases).

Conventions are a lot less stressful now that we’ve got a group of talented cartoonists tabling with us.  We do between two and five conventions a year, and most of our costs are covered by annual dues that all of us are paying.  A one-time moderate-sized payment each year makes it easier to relax at a convention and not obsess over how much money you’ve got to make back at any given show.  That’s a really nice change from going to APE or Stumptown, making $20 off of my mini-comics, and realizing that Shaenon’s sales were going to make or break the show for us, since I was barely going to cover two days’ worth of convention lunches.

The economy’s never totally bounced back from…9-11?  Actually, I’m not sure when sales have ever been hand-over-fist at APE.  Big publishers like Fantagraphics and Drawn & Quarterly always have new, great books each year and one or two really popular guests signing for them, artists selling prints (an ever-increasing portion of exhibitors) seem to do really well, a few craftmakers always sell like gangbusters (there’s always someone with some knitted thing, or a t-shirt with a Dr. Who/something-else-mashup, or someone with toys or little sculptures who’s probably out-earning 95% of the cartoonists on the floor), but most cartoonists seem to do something in the vicinity of “okay” or “I don’t wanna talk about it” at APE.

Still, I always have at least a good enough time to sign on for another year, and I’m looking ahead to #13 next year.

Whereas I was the spoiled eldest grandchild in my family, Andrew was but one of dozens of kneebiters in a vast Sicilian clan.  He and his siblings generally made do with the classic grocery store smock-and-mask set.  And the greatest of them all, of course:

And this is just a cute kid drawing.  No excuses.

With October nearly halfway done I’m finally getting around to posting the sketches that everybody at Couscous Collective sent my way at the end of September. What’s the hold up? APE preparations of course! If your in SF be sure to drop by the con for a comics fix. Most of us will be at table #307 & 308 but expect to locate Chloe nearby at table # 310 and Shiga at table #434.

Chloe starts of this month’s sketches with some fantastic character and bird sketches.

True to form the sketches Shaenon submitted are full of motion. With any luck I’ll eventually be able to pack half as much animation into one of my drawings.

Karen’s sketch this month is a work in progress for her new Steampunk ABC book that was Kickstarter funded last month. At this point the finished colored version is already floating around her social media.

I’ve saved Pancha’s gorgeously textured full color sketch for last because it’s just not fair to anyone else to have to follow it-

I haven’t seen her for a bit so I’m not sure what the story behind the illustration is yet but I’ve got to say that I’m very curious…

Join the Couscous Collective at Tables #307-308 at this year’s Alternative Press Expo, held at the Concourse in San Francisco on October 13 & 14!  See http://www.comic-con.org for full details, including our busy programming schedule.  Andrew Farago is moderating four panels (including one with fellow Couscous member Jason Shiga)and hosting a party at the Cartoon Art Museum in celebration of 30 years of the acclaimed Fantagraphics comic Love and Rockets.

Hope to see you there!

I scan the thumbnails and size them correctly for the final page layout. Once done, I’ll draw the final pencils using actual pencil or digitally in Photoshop. In Moon Hunt, I also tried out drawing the “pencils” on an iPad.

After the pencils are finalized, I print out the page to the size of my watercolor paper and transfer it by using a graphic rub. You see that I’ve typed in the dialogue, but I don’t transfer that to the watercolor paper.

Unlike my usual watercolor comics, I painted all the light and darks on the watercolor paper, keeping in mind I wanted to use flat colors and/or gradients in Photoshop.

I scan the page back into Photoshop and then color all the flats and gradients. I duplicate the gray tones and tint them blue to enhance the night time feel.

Finally, I add in the speech balloons and sound effects to finish the page. If you want to read the whole story, stop by the Couscous Collective at APE 2012 on October 13th to 14th, tables 307 and 308. We’re debuting our latest comic collection – Kitties – and my story Moon Hunt is included. Hope to see you there!

Keep drawing!
-Karen