This Ain't Party... This Ain't No Crowdfunder... This Ain't No Foolin' Around...
So... I'm still "off" of crowdfunding sites. The past two years I've run pre-order sales for new Nix Comics Titles through this website as opposed to Kickstarter or Indiegogo or whatever other site wants to take a cut of little artistic dream. Honestly, it's been liberating: No do-or-die emotional blackmail language needed. No reformatting my vision of Nix Comics to a hacky "reward" system. No cut of the money going to dubious helpers. No firm deadlines. It's a real pleasure, honestly.
Of course, I know there are people out there who like "inside the biz" stuff for small press publishing. And I know there are people who want to root for me to hit my personal goals. (Thank you!) This page is for you, friend! I'll update it as I go along. If you want to share it, cool. If you want to swipe my ideas on the publishing process, even better!
Update #7: 4/14
Not much action last week. Holding steady at 26 pre-orders and now at 7 Sponsors.
The one new sponsor for Undead Ballads #1 is responsible for the little jumps in revenue and # of copies to be printed. I think maybe I've reached the end of what I can expect. I'll try and sell the last available sponsorship(s) in Flipside of Love #1 and then call it a day on that part of the project.
A little more than two weeks left. It's looking doubtful that I'll hit these current goals. While I don't think I'll hit the goal of 200 copies ordered, not hitting $2K through pre-orders is an honest surprise to me. I'd be lying if I said that didn't sting a little. I have to guard a little from falling into the sales tactics born out of frustration and disappointment. (That's an honest personal goal. Remind myself that it's more important to be a decent person than to sell 20 more copies of a comic book.)
Update #6: 4/7
This week's update is based on 26 pre-orders and 6 sponsors. Also, once again I've changed graphics based on changing goals.
As you cab see, there was another small jump in progress towards a goal of $2,000 in total sales thanks to a new sponsorship for Undead Ballads by iNK (Indie Northern Kentucky a terrific shop in Dayton, KY) and the purchase of some back issues of Tales from the Crate by a new fan. Honestly I think that even though the goal is modest and I have 24 days left to achieve it, the $2,000 total is unlikely to happen. I guess we'll see!
Less modest and less modest to happen is my new goal of hitting funds sufficient to print 200 copies of each comic. That's not an arbitrary-round-number objective... It's the next quantity that will provide me with a price break from the printer. This total will likely only be reached if I have success selling the final sponsorship spots and a pile of back issues and/or sketchbook picture sleeves. Fingers crossed, but not really expecting to get there without filling in the money gap from my own pocket.
Anyways, busy-busy wrapping up this last month of pre-orders. I need to focus on highlighting my sponsors and selling the remaining half page available in Flipside of Love. Also, Tales from the Crate #s 1 and 2 are now out of print and I should blog about that.
Also-Anyways, it occurred to me that there hasn't been any sort of visual prompt to the pages on this site that can help you help me reach my goals! I've added some buttons to take of that! Click like the devil is chasing you!
Previous Updates:
UPDATE #5 3/30
This update comin' at you a day early since I'll be on the road tomorrow, heading back east to visit friends and family for a couple days. I'm really excited, though, about the success I had at SPACE this past weekend. Currently there are 26 pre-orders and 5 Sponsors for the 2026 books. Of course, all of the money I made at SPACE is going directly back into copies of the comics as well, so I'm well on my way to the pie-in-the-sky goal of $2,000 in sales, and have reached sufficient funding to meet my goals of number of copies printed. (Basically. A little short on Undead Ballads.)
The next goals for me personally revolve around actually breaking even on the project and getting a decent amount of pay to the contributing artists! I'll probably have to retire/change the existing dashboard again, though this time for good reasons!
UPDATE #4: 03/24
Ah! Slow progress! As of 3/24 I have 20 pre-orders and 4 sponsors for a total of $843 towards the overall monetary goal. Not really on track to hit that $2,000 goal, but it's enough to print 57 copies of Flipside of Love and 51 copies of Undead Ballads. (A good number because it's more than halfway to the 100 copy print runs I promises the artists.)
I'm hoping for a big bump this weekend from SPACE. We'll see... The nature of comic shows is that people kind of want to buy what's right there in front of them. The couple of times I tried to promote crowd-funders at comic shows fell pretty flat. 'sokay, though... whatever I sell in art and back issues will get dumped into the till and will cause some sorta jump in these progress graphs.
UPDATE #3: 03/17
So, of course, the big update this week revolves around having to cancel pre-orders for the collected Rockin' Bones. Details on that here. (Sigh.... and onward.) This of course necessitates updated objectives and revised graphics. Revised graphics for a second week in a row doesn't exactly convey the consistency of my work the way I'd like, but hey... If this was an actual Kickstarter I'd probably have to cancelled the whole sales campaign and start from scratch. I'm at least flexible if not consistent.
No new pre-orders or sponsorships this week, maybe because I knew the cancelation was coming and I took my foot off the gas. Or maybe because I've hit the limit of what I can do with this style of pre-order campaigning. I guess we'll see. If there's a silver lining to this situation, it's that Rockin' Bones was the project with the biggest overhead and so had the biggest risks and biggest expectations. Since I can now concentrate on just Undead Ballads and Flipside of Love, the goals become much more attainable. This is illustrated well if you compare the above new graphic with last week's. I can drop my over all goal to $2K for $5K, and I'm already a 1/3 of the way there. Similarly, money that was going to extra copies of Rockin' Bones can now be divvied up between Flipside and Undead Ballads, boosting the number of copies of those two books that I can order.
(Note I've changed the labeling on the dashboard above. The numbers for books weren't/aren't the number ordered. They are the number I can afford to print based on sales so far.)
UPDATE #2: 03/10
10 days into my 2026 pre-order campaign. (There are 49 days left.) So far I've had 14 pre-orders and 3 Sponsorships.
Hardly setting the world on fire, but I did expect a tough go of it. No Kickstarter or whatever brand crowdfunding service for people to buy into is a barrier. Social media algorithms cutting me off at the knees are also an issue. The general world-weariness and stress caused by the walking-breathing terror in charge of the United States doesn't help. Comics, I imagine, seem like a trivial thing to a lot of people in the face of hate and war.
I can't do much about the terror. I wish I could. The other two issues, however I can do something about. The two strategies that come to mind:
Direct Contact: It may come off as a little desperate to email or DM people directly about my pre-order sale, but it's just the reality of the fact that I don't think I reaching folks. (If I do reach out and people still aren't into it, I'll just have to shake it off) I'll also set myself up to take pre-orders at SPACE on the 28th and 29th, though past experience has been that isn't a strong strategy. People are at comic shows to buy something then and there.
Fill the Gaps: I now how many of each comic I want to print, and if pre-sales don't get me there, then I need to figure out how much I need to sock away from each of my paychecks between now and printing to get that done. Also, I've been meaning to sell off some records and miscellaneous collectibles for a while. That's the strategy I used in year one, selling off stock from my closed store, Evil Empire Records. Selling off my collection(s) doesn't really bug me. What does bug me is that "Fill the Gaps" isn't an ideal solution for my contributing artists. I've set it up so that they get a bonus per pre-order copy sold. I'd much rather maximize their side of the deal.
For what it's worth, here are the breakdowns or where the money for pre-orders on Flipside of Love and Undead Ballads. (Rockin' Bones is a little different because Darren wants a bigger chunk of his payment in copies.
UPDATE #1: 03/03
The pre-order campaign officially opened up at the Kafe Kerouac release party on 2/28, but it ended up being too busy an affair for me to make that clear to the folks attending. (Note to self: If I have an agenda for events, get helpers to make sure everything is communicated.) Things took off pretty well, though, without the party being a driving force. I had already obtained three sponsorships from Lost Weekend Records, Mug and Brush Barbershop, and the Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo (SPACE). On March 1st, I sent out a notice to my mail list that pre-orders were open. On March 2nd I made my first in a series of social media posts.
It's interesting, in a good way, how this is home-grown effort is different from Kickstarter (et. al.). If I was only 14% towards my goal after two days on a third party platform, I'd be in minor panic mode. But, without that irksome do-or-die drama that feeds those sites, I can be happy! Thanks to all the folks who have pre-ordered and sponsored the 2026 Nix slate so far!