Indie and self-published comics are in a bit of a renaissance right now as the major comics powerhouses are on the decline and tools for independent creators are becoming much more plentiful and accessible. As a result, comic readers can find whatever niche comic they want to read just by going to Kickstarter or Zoop and pitching in a few bucks to whatever suits their fancy.
But, with thousands* of projects across multiple platforms, how does the average reader decide where to put their hard-earned money? Hopefully, this article will help narrow things down, starting with...
Writer: Elyse Russell
Artist: Dany Rivera
Campaign Ends: May 13th
Status: Just Launched!
PITCH:
A clockwork android named Kyra, completely assured of her place in the world, is becoming riddled in self-doubt and burdened with questions of her own identity.
SENTIENCE, an American light novel, is a 13 chapter mix of prose and comic art (containing approx. 20 illustrations including some sequential art) that is ready to shatter the boundaries of the medium.
WHY SHOULD I BACK IT?
It's tempting to strictly talk about the emerging market for light novels and how Band of Bards's newest book is tapping into that because, strictly speaking, it's really compelling. However, that has nothing to do with why you should back it--you should back it because it's a fever dream of bold sci-fi concepts intertwining into a fascinating project made by some extremely talented creators. It's bold, it's exciting, it's new, and that has me genuinely excited!
Writer: Daniel Kalban
Artist: Gabe "Eskivo" Santos & David A. Rivera
Campaign Ends: April 14th
Status: 200% funded (About to hit a stretch goal!)
PITCH:
Knightwrath is a new dark antihero, and a somewhat hesitant one at that. While his "heroic" form is more than willing to go into a fight, his alter-ego suffers from some major self-esteem issues.
Meet Joe Sutton. A corporate drone loser whose life in modern day New York is not going so great. Bad job, no relationships, no friends...he feels like he's better off dead. Well, it seems like fate has a funny sense of humor...or a sadistic one. Seemingly the victim of a random mugging, Joe wakes up in the mad science lab of a secretive mercenary group. Now their lab rat, he undergoes a strange transformation.
It turns him into a hulking brute of fury and destruction; a planned weapon to be used for whoever has the most amount of money. But Joe has other plans. He escapes, and decides to become a dark harbinger of justice...or is that the idea of the voice whispering in his ear. Problem is...he still lacks a lot of self confidence.
WHY SHOULD I BACK IT?
You know what would make Spawn better? If he was also the Incredible Hulk. From the jacked up proportions to the lack of feet on the cover, this is the most 90s Image comic I've ever seen that isn't made by Image. Like Lady Mayhem before it, it's a love letter to a bygone era made by someone who clearly has a lot of reverence for what made that style of comic explode 30 years ago. It's action packed and nostalgic as all hell, give it a look!
Writer: Ben Canny
Artist: Gorkloum
Campaign Ends: April 28th
Status: Fully Funded!
PITCH:
Do you like your horror to tap into the nihilistic despair rooted in the human experience? Do you like the sound of body horror manga aesthetics mixed with a grounded story about family and addiction? Are you tired of the little f***** in the back of your head? Are you over 18?
When a lonely and incredibly angry young man learns he has months to live, he begins an irreversible descent into madness, convinced by his friendly resident brain slug that he can adopt other people’s personas by harvesting and wearing their faces.When a washed out alcoholic homicide detective decides to get involved in a desperate bid for her redemption... chaos ensues.
WHY SHOULD I BACK IT?
It's possible I'm just a sucker for really good body horror, but every time I see a project that's unapologetically trying to get under your skin, a stupid grin hits my face and doesn't leave me alone until I read the book. The black and white art is so detailed you can almost see the color it invokes and the creativity on display in regards to the design and panel layout gives me high hopes for a stomach churning joy ride of horror and gore.
Writer: Matthew Wilding
Artist: Various
Campaign Ends: April 13th
Status: Fully Funded! (First stretch goal almost reached)
PITCH:
Seven short comic stories written by Matthew Wilding, all with different artists. Exploring a variety of complex and challenging worlds, this collection includes cameras that see into the future, a werewolf court procedural, human sacrifice in space, and man-eating squirrels.
Written over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, writer Matthew Wilding (writer of Nightmare Man, which was successfully crowdfunded in 2020 and will be released by Source Point Press on May 25, 2022), teamed up with over a dozen up-and-coming artists from all over the world to tell short, unsettling, and often otherworldly stand-alone stories in the tradition of EC Comics, 2000 AD, and Heavy Metal.
WHY SHOULD I BACK IT?
Though not strictly a horror project, Matthew Wilding's success in that genre with comics like Nightmare Man inspire a lot of confidence in this anthology of mismatched stories. There are some real gems and curiosities here that make it hard to look away from some over zealous squirrels to an all out sci-fi battlefield. It's the kind of project that can say something without taking itself too seriously and I, for one, am on board.
Writer: Nick Bryan
Artist: Robert Ahmad
Campaign Ends: April 14th
Status: 85% funded
PITCH:
When Ralph Foster gets a job as head chef for Deadless Chicken, a new takeaway shop in his lifelong hometown of Tibbin, he doesn’t expect it to demand much of him. Until he dies in an unfortunate accident on the way out of the interview.
Because shop owner Dr Victoria Hedgewood is a necromancer, and the chickens out back aren’t just a source of tasty wings. Before they’re southern-fried, she sacrifices them to her dark god to raise departed locals from the dead – as long as their family and friends can afford her reasonable fee.
Ralph accidentally becomes the first of many customers, but as time goes on and the town fills up with living corpses, he starts to wonder – does he still feel like himself? Is there a dark side to Victoria’s flawless business model? And will the grateful residents of Tibbin listen to his concerns?
WHY SHOULD I BACK IT?
Colorful, funny, and practically bouncing off the page, Death of a Necromancer shows us what a comic look like when the first consideration is the fun. It's not possible to read this charmingly morbid comic without getting swept up in the chaos, magic, and joy that swirls around every page. It's a joy to read and an absolute bargain for how much story is already there.
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Slice of Life - Kickstarter run by Kat Calamia
Amazing Adventures of Bart Bartson and Demolition Dinosaur - Kickstarter run by Don Borgmeyer
Ennead: The Rule of Nine - Kickstarter by J. L. Johnson, Jr.
These projects have all been featured on previous crowdfunding lists and we fully believe they are worth your time and attention. Give them a follow, a pledge, or a tweet!
*DISCLAIMER: Comics are selected from a very large pool of projects, some sent to us for review, some come across on the websites themselves. We tend to favor first issue comics by indie creators that haven't already hit their campaign goals 5 times over, so keep that in mind. While we feel this list is representative of projects most worth the time and money of a comic reader, it is by no means exhaustive and there are many, MANY more projects that you can and should explore on Crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and Zoop.
-Wells Thompson, Reviews Editor