Well, we hit the goal! Just barely, but I will take it for sure. I really appreciate everyone's support!

There's still 7 hours left until it ends, so hopefully we'll get a couple more backer before it ends, but I'm just relieved it funded. I'm probably going to set a lower goal for the next issue so it's not as stressful. And I am trying to figure out some ways to make this series more sustainable so I can keep it going.

Of the 14 Kickstarter campaigns I've done, the only ones that I've lost money on are all three Quest issues. I'm basically running just 20 backers short of break even but I haven't been able to really grow the backer base at all from the first issue to close that gap. Barring a last minute surge for this campaign, all three issues are going to come in at almost the exact same number of backers and money raised. So I will need to try and cut costs to bring the cost in line with the support that I do have.

I already have most of issues #4 and #5 done and paid for, so I might just have to eat more losses with those, but starting with #6 I'm going to have to do some belt-tightening, probably meaning fewer variant covers from other artists and more by me. I might also start doing the back covers myself as well to save money, though I already have the back cover for #6 done, so that wouldn't be until issue #7.

Quest #4 is launching two weeks from today!

That's Monday, September 23.

Here's a look at some of the covers:






And here's the link!

I'm exciting to finally get this one out, especially since I already have the line art done for issue #5 as well. The faster I get this out, the sooner I can get #5 out to everyone too!

And already backed! Got my pledge in for the rpg edition this morning.

-M

You'd think this would get easier after 16 Kickstarters, but it seems to be getting harder. 😛

There are just 54 hours left in this campaign and we're at 70% funded. Statistically speaking I'm likely to fund, but it's not a certainty, and it's not just going to happen on its own accord. I have been burning myself out on this, just promoting it on every possible channel for days and days. I'm cleared my work schedule from now until Friday at 11 pm so I can just promote it for the rest of the week and my brain is already coming out of my ears.

I love making the actual comics, but the stress of trying to fund them is really no fun at all. 

🤮

The good news is, I just got the copies of Geek Love #1 from the printer, so I should be able to mail those out next week. Packing boxes is actually one of the most satisfying parts of the experience, so I am looking forward to getting them out. Then I am going to have a sit down and think about how to emphasize the fun parts of this and minimize the crap parts. 

This is pretty much what I'm thinking about doing. I just don't have a big enough base for Quest for it to be financially sustainable unless I begin drawing it myself. I already have the art done for issue #5, but once I manage to get #4 and #5 out -- whenever that ends up being -- I'm going to have to draw #6 myself in order to be able to afford it. If I do that, I can use some of the money I'm saving on paid promotion, and possibly some to try out some of the more expensive/popular variant cover artists -- which is basically also paid promotion, as the point would be to hire someone with a huge following and get them to promote my comic on their platforms.

In the 5 1/2 years I've been working at this, I've never been as discouraged as I am right now. The good news is that people who read Quest all seem to like it - of my 107 backers right now, 99 of them are returning backers who read previous issues. That's great, except... it's actually, literally insane that after 3 months of promoting this book around the clock on every possible channel, I've managed to only get 8 new backers. EIGHT!

When I did the first issue of Quest 18 months ago, I was able to bring in 142 backers for this new project. How that could drop to 8 is beyond me, but it certainly makes me feel as though I have been completely wasting my time and effort trying to promote it. It's great that people like it when they read it, but if I can't convince anybody to read it, then so what?

Once I have time away from this stress, I'm going to have to have a rethink of everything. 

I know there are social media platforms you try to avoid, but there are a lot of posters and communities on both bluesky and twitter whose sole purpose is to promote and crosspromote small press comic projects and kickstarters. I try to post to them when I back one of your projects (usually using the share to option provided by KS), but I'm not the creator. I'm not sure how successful they are, but a lot of small press creators on those platforms seem to participate and spread the word about books. Might be something to explore and do some cost-benefit analysis on to se if its worth expanding to those platforms you have avoided (with perfectly understandable reasons why to avoid them).

-M