Happy Monday! It’s raining here and from what I can tell via a cursory glance of my social media timeline, it is pretty much crap weather across much of these United States. Rain, snow, wind, excessive heat, it’s a veritable feast of bad. Well, come on over and dip your toes into the latest offerings from creators across the web as we dive into this week’s Crowdfunding Watch.

1. The Art of Kaneoya Sachiko

The Japanese artist Kaneoya Sachiko (Sac) has been creating art for over a decade. Their work frequently explores monstrous, romantic and submissive themes. While Sachiko’s work is well known online, North American audiences don’t have the privilege of obtaining her work easily in print. That’s something Iron Circus Comics wants to help change. The Chicago-based publisher is hoping to bring audiences the art work of Sachiko with a 200+ page bilingual volume of artwork featuring works not previously published in North America.

Siva, 2015

This is Iron Circus Comics first art book and as noted on their Kickstarter page, it’s an ambitious one, here’s the plan for it:

We’ve planed a 9″ x 12″ hardcover volume, 224 pages long, with reticulation, pink edge gilding, and gloss. Kaneoya’s art has never been showcased in such a volume, and its production specs guarantee it won’t just be an art book, but a collector’s item… especially if the stretch goal is achieved.

You had me at ‘pink edge gliding’ to be honest.

Dimensional Convenient Man, 2014

The book will also feature sketches, Sachiko’s painting process and a forward written by the artist. If Iron Circus Comics plans to continue to bring impressive artists like this to the States, well I for one am here for it.

There are only three backer reward levels currently but that’s by design. Iron Circus Comics wants to keep things simple, so you have the option to pay $18 for the DRM-free ebook or for $35 you can get yourself the published hardcover (as well as the ebook). Should funding be successful the team at Iron Circus will announce their stretch goals, which I’m super curious about because they tend to not disappoint when it comes to stretch goals.

I’m originally from the Chicago-land area and I think what Spike and Iron Circus Comics is doing makes the comics and publishing universe a better place for everyone. Given their past Kickstarter success and experience (13 successfully funded projects and counting), I can’t imagine any scenarios that would stand in the way of this piece getting into your hands.

Iron Circus Comics is hoping to raise $40,000 and is a little over half-way there with a funding deadline of April 24. This is a chance to help bring a truly talented artist to new audiences, so go take a peak at the Kickstarter for more art work and information.

2. Group Chat — A Comics Anthology About Friendship

A few years ago I moved away from Chicago, leaving behind friends and family. Transplanting myself in the Bay Area meant that I had to find new friends, make a home away from the place I had always well, called home. You don’t really appreciate the value of a friend until you risk losing the unique love, support, and compassion they offer you. Well, at least I didn’t. That’s why the concept behind the planned anthology Group Chat warms my heart.

Companionship is essential and celebrating the bonds of friendship is something I am always here for. From POMEgranate Magazine comes their first ever Kickstarter and it’s a lovely one featuring a diverse lineup of stories from 24 up-and-coming writers and creators. POMEmag is an internet magazine dedicated to the nerdy, the witchy, and the oddball. They will be publishing this anthology through their small press called POME Press.

Here’s a look at what Group Chat is all about:

Group Chat spans genres from sci-fi to slice-of-life; from westerns to witchy shenanigans to coming-of-age stories. These comics —feeling good about your body after a mastectomy, two friends supporting each other through the creation of a trans fashion line, learning to appreciate your best friend’s chucklehead boyfriend, and others—were carefully chosen for their humor, heart, and beauty from a wide range of up-and-coming creators.

Victoria Grace Elliot (Balderdash) has been commissioned to do the cover art and it’s as wonderful as you might expect:

Planned cover art for Group Chat Anthology

Here’s a peak at a few of the contributors, for a full listing you can peep their Kickstarter page:

It’d be great to see some planned interior pages or a sample story, but I’m going to venture a guess that what’s inside will warm and inspire us. The backer rewards for the collection include digital and physical copies of Group Chat as well as POMEmag’s past works (Charismatic Witchcraft, Sensible Witchcraft, and more.) Most of the planned $10,000 budget will go towards paying creators and printing. Funding for this project will continue through May 9, 2018.

3. Heroes of the Public Domain

I get it. There’s a lot you don’t know about me, well here’s something: I am a copyright law fiend. Researching copyright law is legit something I do in my spare time. Works within the public domain are not protected by intellectual property law (copyright, trademark, patent). Essentially, the public owns these works. Naturally there are some caveats to that so if you want to know more about how the public domain works you can read more about it here.

Anyway, Heroes of the Public Domain is a planed multi-issue series featuring profiles of superhero characters whose copyright and intellectual property claims have expired. It’s a neat idea that hopes to shed some light on what are perhaps lesser known superheroes. This particular campaign is only seeking funding for the first issue. Each issue will contain 32 profiles of public domain characters like:

  • Fantom of the Fair
  • Green Giant
  • Lone Warrior
  • Masked Marvel
  • Miss Fury
  • Miss Masque
  • Moon Girl
  • Pat Parker, War Nurse

If there’s one thing I’d like to see more of in this Kickstarter it’s what exactly each issue will contain. While we do get a sense of the artwork available–characters are drawn by comic artist Chris Malgrain–we don’t really have any sense of what these profiles are or how they will be laid out. The one sample interior provided has difficult to read text and it’s hard to imagine how this comes together into a series.

Planned profile for Heroes of the Public Domain Golden Age via Kickstarter

It’d also be great to know about the length of each issue and how frequently they plan to publish. Hopefully the team will update their Kickstarter to answer some of these questions. I think there are some good ideas here and it’s certainly an intriguing concept but I’d love to see some more details about the project itself and what their plans are for the future.

The team at Temporal Comics (which apparently also goes by Omniverse Comics) is seeking $1784 to help publish their first issue. I’m not sure if they changed their name recently or if Temporal Comics is different from Omniverse Comics, but a little clarification on that would be helpful! Interestingly, they are also funding this project over at IndieGoGo. The team will be funding this project through May 13.


Hopefully the rain stops just long enough for me to hop on my bike without turning into some sort of mangled wet possum, which is what I imagine I look like when I get wet.

Until next week, tah-tah.