Kickstarter, the website that allows creative types to raise money by direct appeal to a community of supporters, has been helping all sorts of folks get their dream comics out there — from reprints of obscure old comics, to webcomic collections. Most projects we’ve seen are fairly modest. But some are much bigger in scope.
Tony Harris has just turned to Kickstarter for his new project ROUNDEYE: For Love
. That would be Starman/Ex Machina, five-time Eisner nominee Tony Harris.And he needs $60,000 to get his project going.
A 96 page graphic novel Written, Pencilled, Inked and colored by Tony Harris. The $$ to be raised is for a page rate to produce all the art, cover production costs, and keep my children in PB&J samiches!!! The publisher is to be announced once the book is complete.
You can watch Harris’s pitch below.
Roundeye — once set to be published by Desperado — is his dream project for over a dozen years, he explains, but one that he can’t afford to do instead of lucrative paying work. So…take it to the streets. At $60k for 96 pages that’s $625 a page — although that doesn’t take into account printing or marketing costs.
In all the talk about publishing models and worries about piracy and the great darkling plain that a career in the arts has become, it should be no surprise that a top drawer artist is going the Kickstarter route. And $60,000 isn’t really that much money in the larger scheme of things. There isn’t much art posted but what there is looks wonderful.
Does he have enough fans to get there? So far, he’s raised $2,475. The deadline is January 30th. So get to it, Tony Harris fans.
PS: on his twitter feed, Harris reveals that he’s doing 12 painted covers for a James Robinson- penned Shade mini-series. WE’re guessing this marks Shade’s return to the DCU proper after a sojourn in Vertigo-land
PS: on his twitter feed, Harris reveals that he’s doing 12 painted covers for a James Robinson- penned Shade mini-series. WE’re guessing this marks Shade’s return to the DCU proper after a sojourn in Vertigo-land
At Wizard World Atlanta, Cully Hamner said he was working on something with Robinson (actually he said the writers name rhymed with Bobinson), and that it was a return of a character. I assumed it was Starman (Jack), but after seeing this, I’m guessing this is the project.
Yeah, he’s not gonna be raising that amount of money!
what a doofus!
Its an agressive publishing plan…I sure hope he reaches his goal.
Nothing wrong wih trying and totally cool to see creators stepping out to try something new.
Good luck tony!
and now for some constructive criticism: I don’t think TOny Harris has done any research into Kickstarter. If he did, he’d have seen that the people on Kickstarter don’t donate money just so you can get a fat page rate, with little to no reward. On average the amount of money successful comic projects have raised are between $2000 and $3000 .
And that was towards the actual production of the book: printing costs etc…
If he loves this project so much, do what so many others do: do it in your spare time. One page a week isn’t that much and in 2 years you’ll have your project done. Many webcomickers do it like that.
Already done (thanks to Joe Jusko’s facebook page). Hope it will be successful.
Just curious…in children’s publishing no one will touch a finished project. If a publsiher is going to pay for printing and promotion, they want to be involved in the editorial stage.
Can you actually sell a completed work in the comics industry? Or will you be asked to change some stuff eventually.
“Can you actually sell a completed work in the comics industry? Or will you be asked to change some stuff eventually.”
My guess is that if Harris went to Image and said “Here’s a completed graphic novel” they would be happy to run with it. That’s probably true of a lot of companies that aren’t Marvel/DC.
I’d be happy to kick in, if he ever finishes War Heroes.
At NYCC it was announced that Robinson was writing a 12-issue Shade mini. Nice to hear that Harris will be doing the covers.
@Mike: yes, as Joe said, most comics publishers outside of Marvel and DC are not only ok with finished projects, they often prefer them. Of course, this is because they’re not paying a page rate and are guaranteed on-time delivery, so it’s sort of a win-win for the publisher. I know of at least one creator whose graphic novel pitch to Image was initially reiected, but when he went ahead and finished the entire project and showed it to them, they picked it up.
I was hoping he’d finish up War Heroes after he completed Ex Machina.
If I wasn’t struggling myself, I might contribute to this venture. But as it stands, I’ll have to wait to support the comic when it comes out.
Mathieu,
What does my Facebook page have to do with ANYTHING here? This is the first I’ve even heard of this.
Ar any rate, good luck, Tony! I hope this works out for you!
I second the motion for a Kickstarter for Tony Harris to finish War Heroes. Maybe a new program called Kick-Ender.
First I’ve heard of this Robinson SHADE minis-series in the works. I loved Starman and the Shade mini he did for it.
If its going to be as awful as his recent JLA work, please don’t bother…
You’d think for a $25 DONATION, you’d at least get a copy of the book.
So is this a retitled completion of War Heroes?