Crowdfunding Comics
With crowdfunding platforms proliferating in every industry (from publishing to aerospace), it is no surprise that the comic book industry would launch their own crowdfunding platofrm. This month, iVerse Media introduces Comics Accelerator, which is a new comics-focused crowdfunding site with some key differences from Kickstarter (and other similar crowdfunding options).
Sure, Comics Accelerator takes a fee for processing donations and simplifying the process (5%), but it caps that fee at $2,500 so that projects that take in a remarkable amount of money still retain a significant portion of their donations. That would have helped Rich Burlew who launched a campaign on Kickstarter to create a graphic novel about his role-playing stick figure characters called The Order of the Stick, which raised over $1 million.
They also let project creators access those funds before the funding of their project is complete, unlike many platforms which wait for the funding cycle to complete before the money is available. It also offers digital delivery methods for donor rewards (so that e-comics can incentivize donors).
Of course, crowdsourcing and comics are often pairing up. Amazon Studios is making a surprising leap, however, on their crowdsourcing site. While Amazon Studios is mostly concerned with creating films, they are considering adapting one of their more promising screenplays into a graphic novel. The graphic novel will launch later this summer and the screenplay will continue to be groomed for Hollywood in the coming months.
Comics Accelerator was announced at Comic-Con last week and launches next Monday, July 23rd.
What do you think about the crowdfunding of comic books? What is good about launching a story in multiple mediums?