TO KICKSTARTER OR NOT KICKSTARTER..
Loading...If you’re new to my strip, you may not know that I was a Mikey J impersonator my senior in high school and my freshman year in college (1984-85). It’s a funny, bizarre coming-of-age story that would make a great graphic novel. So much so that I had a deal to do it a few years ago. But the deal fell through and I’ve been mulling kickstarting it for the past year or so.
Not sure if folks have seen what’s been happening over at Kickstarter for the past 30 days..If you haven’t, take a look.
Basically, this dude wanted to reprint his first book. And people tossed a million dollars his way!! Jaw-dropping…I watch with a mix of envy and joy, disbelief and “good on him” sentiment. You can do this comix thing independently with the help of a few (thousand) friends.
It’s inspiring, and got me really hyped about funding I was a Teenaged Michael Jackson Impersonator through Kickstarter.
Yes, I know. There’s gonna be a deluge of cartoonists throwing up projects on Kickstarter. There already is! But I hope this’ll appeal to not only comic fans, but music fans, Mikey J fans, and those hopelessly caught up in that decade of high-hair, M-tv, and jheri-curls!
What do you think? I’d like to hear feedback, like: What sort of schwag should I give away to donors?
*REMEMBER MY K CHRONICLES CARTOON ABOUT DAVID CHOE (2008)?
If you don’t, here it is.
It’s David Choe’s world, we just live in it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPdAiQEWi8Y
Much more interesting and honest is Choe on Howard Stern.
*NEXT SIGNINGS:
-I’ll be doing an event with my fellow members of the Culver City Cartoonist Collective, Lonnie Millsap and Ken Tanaka. Saturday, March 10th 6pm-9pm @ Meltdown Comics, 7522 West Sunset Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90046
-I’ll be in Artist’s Alley at Wondercon at the Anaheim Convention Center, Fri-Sun March 16-19th.
I hope you go for it. You have nothing to lose, except any dignity you have left. Ha ha. Rrrrr.
For schwag, of course you can give away original drawings and whatnot. But what might be cooler and more unique, and perhaps bring in more money, is if you collaborated with one of your cartoonist friends and drew something together.
Or put that kid to work and have him draw some stuff on an IHOP placemat with some crayons.
Give this week’s This American Life a listen. An Obama impersonator, a wild ride for him. He’s a physical ringer, but has trouble with the voice. More of a lookalike, but working toward impersonation. Interesting.
Keef,
Yeah, let us know when you launch your Kickstarter project. I’ll throw in a few bucks!
-jp
Make sure you have lots of the lower level options, I’ve found myself priced out of giving to a couple KS projects and not being able to make the next level. If it seems doable, do it! I’ll help spread the word (fwiw), and it’s a great idea!
Defnitely dude. I’ll fund you for sure.
Depends, obviously, on what number you’re shooting for, but I would think you could make it and more. As for giveaways, signed copies of your various books, posters…signed CDs from your band if ya got ’em…personalized drawings for the bigger donations…acknowledgments in the book. You know I’d be all over it on the podcast and twitter!
I’ve seen a couple of guys with much smaller followings put together enough for small collections of their strips. I don’t know if they did much better than break even.
However, I think you’ve got a solid and loyal base that consider you a great investment.
I think a lot of your fans would love signed copies of the book, cover or other art as a limited edition poster, and original sketches. I’d encourage you to focus on anything that’s a natural part of the process. That maximizes the time you can invest in the project and keeps the donation connected to the final product.
Can the funding be in the form of old comic books? No! Not X-men 94! Nooooooo!!!
Go for it.
Keith, I would try KickStarter.
Do it! The world must see this story!
Short answer: YES! DO IT!
Long answer: Yes, do it. This project sounds especially well suited for Kickstarter. Give yourself time to study a few Kickstarter projects (not just the ones that rake in half a mil in 10 minutes, even looking at failed projects can be helpful), talk to people who have done it (holler!) and figure out a solid rewards program.
My personal favorite reward, both as a project creator and a backer, is a copy of the finished product itself. If possible. Maybe one tier could get an e-book (if you’re into that sort of thing), and a little higher up there’s the physical copy, signed by the author.
Kickstarter also sets up a blog for you automatically, and you can set certain entries “for backers only” – so that right there is an incentive to pledge for ‘behind the scenes’ blog posts! See how the sausage is made and all that.
And a list of acknowledgements in the back of the book that lists all your backers’ names. That’s good too.
You’ve got a great back catalog of books and merch, so that could be implemented into the rewards as well depending on your inventory. Even when a Kickstarter drive is for one project in particular, I always dig it when creators put their entire “brand” behind it like that.
And I dunno, what about a limited edition illustration print of the man himself? This project will reach people outside your fanbase, and even outside comics, so an artistic tribute to MJ of some sort would be a good incentive.
For the upper level stuff, how about pages of original art from the book?
Those are just some basic ideas that wouldn’t take a ton of extra work on your part (besides the drive itself, which will be a ton of extra work on your part) so you can focus on the book itself.
And finally for ONE MILLION DOLLARS… you break your sequined glove out of retirement and perform at one lucky backer’s birthday party or social function of their choice.
Yeah, I’d say go for it. I’d chip in some dough.
Kenny’s suggestion of “for backers only” blog entries is a great idea. You could get feedback on ideas and we could be witnesses to the process and maybe even feel like we helped.
Have your legions contribute items for big ticket patrons. The women’s comic anthology gathered cash very quickly, but some great animators did not. The longer posts above are closest to reality, sadly. Various editions should be a cinch.
All success.
Giveaway ideas: I love the sketch page I got for making a donation, I think that’s a really cool thing to give away. Somewhere I saw a cartoonist makes little bound books out of cut up sheets of sketch pages (probably does the whole thing at Kinkos). A thumb drive with every Knight Life loaded on it? Make your own flexi-disc (see WFMU’s marathon giveaways this year)? Kenny’s ideas above seem good, and boy I LOVE that $1 million idea, terrific!
Fantastic. I’d definitely pledge. (Might a concurrent Kickstarter project involve reissuing MPs music? That’d get my pledge too!)
Thanks everybody! I’m putting it together this week…
THAT’s all all y’all can ask for? I mean, I realize that Keef is a respectable, married citizen now(*), but whadda ’bout nekkid pictures, booze (or more) cruising/pub crawling, and other such? I mean, as long as we’re talking blasts from the debauched past? No one even wants an original immitation signed glove from the original immitation Michael Jackson? (:3
(* Insert disclaimer here.)
Good news! Project approved! I should be launching at Kickstarter sometime next week!
I don’t know if you’re still looking for schwag ideas, but what about a certain level and the donor gets an audio file of you singing an MJ song? (from back in the day if you have it, or you could record one now) At a higher level – video of you performing same.