Detail from variant cover art by Mark Brooks for BRZRKR #1, Keanu Reeves’s comic. Photograph: Mark Brooks/Boom!
2020 was a bumper year for crowdfunded comics, and 2021 has continued to see this success across platforms.
”By October [2020] backers had pledged $22m (£16.5m) to comics projects, up from $17m by the same point in 2019. Since the platform began in 2009, Kickstarter has funded 10,000 comic book projects, to the tune of $127m. With Marvel and DC putting out around 850 individual issues this year between them, that makes Kickstarter far and away the single most prolific publishing platform for comics in the world.“ - David Barnett, for The Guardian
Which is why we were delighted to be invited along to Creative Scotland’s inaugural ‘In the Frame’ to discuss crowdfunding as an alternative funding route for creators. The day is designed to demystify routes to funding, publication and distribution, the free online event is produced by Creative Scotland in partnership with industry specialists Hannah Berry, Nyla Ahmad, and Woodrow Phoenix and backed by the Society of Authors.