The webcomics blog about webcomics

The Long, Quiet, Year-End Slowdown Has Begun

Creators heading tither and yon to be with their families and loved ones, updates cued for delivery, newsmaking announcements back-burnered until the new year … just saying, things could get pretty quiet over the next week or so.

  • Okay, so the assorted SMBC Enterprises projects are gonna hit 500% of funding goal whenever they put something up for support, but is there anybody that can beat that on a percentage basis? Glad you asked. Allow me to point out that the board book project by Dern and O Abnormal is (as of this writing) sitting at more than 1350% of goal with a mere 29 days to go.

    One might attribute the massive oversuccess to several factors, including (but not limited to):

    • The relatively sparse number of kid-targeted offerings among webcomicker Kickstarts
    • The relative scarcity of independent board books in general (cf: inquiries as to where to find a board book printer)
    • The relatively low point for funding (a mere US$500)
    • The objectively awesome subject of the funding — a kid’s alphabet primer based around monster-type critters, with iambic heptameter rhymes to ease your little replicants to sleep

    In any event, you still have time to get your own copy of The Monster Alphabet for as little as US$12 (which is a bargain for board books, especially considering the wee one will probably try to eat it at the first opportunity).

  • Speaking of Kickstarter successes, about 240 people will have to clear space on their bookshelves, as the massive one-volume version of Order of Tales completed its funding round (with a comfortable 50% to spare). Order of Tales creator Evan Dahm will also have to clear some prodigious space in his apartment to store the print run, and hopefully included in his US$12,000 budget some money to hire Strong Men to cart all the boxes around. My back twinges in sympathy for whomever has to move that print run from place to place.
  • Still on the Kickstarter front, Kel McDonald’s fairy tale anthology has three weeks and 29% to go to reach full funding. If it keeps up present trends, it ought to clear goal with a bit of a cushion, but don’t let it get caught in the end-of-year rush — hardback copy of a 200 page book from comics superstars, for delivery in March? This is a woman who has her publishing plan together, and in a creative field that regularly blows deadlines and pays creators late, that is sufficient reason by itself to lend support.
  • Finally, today marks the 500th update for Octopus Pie. That’s 1682 days, or less than four days between updates, all of which were full pages, showed ever-growing artistic and storytelling mastery, and some of which were goddamn masterpieces. Meredith, you keep getting better and better, and it almost hurts me to think how good your work will be in another 500 updates. Brava.

[…] campgain. We at Fleen would be remiss if we didn’t point out that said campaign, for a children’s alphabet primer featuring woo scary monsters is currently at 4260% of goal (no missing decimal, that’s more than 40× the original […]

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