Indie Comics

Kickstarter has become an avenue for cartoonist to get funding for their projects. Lately more and more working professionals have taken full advantage of this major platform. Here are some projects that are promising and deserve support.

By Paul Mellerick--

Walking Dead shoots up in sales with two issues this month, while X_O Manowar marks the return of Valiant with the second best-selling indie book this month. Saga, Buffy and Fatale follow shortly behind, with a nice handful of strong new launches from all of the major players as the indie books continue to make their mark in the upper part of the chart.

And back in the real world. Toronto-based indie publisher Koyama Press has announced three fall releases from Julia Wertz, Michael DeForge and the Team Society League collective. Details below:

For all you stay at homes who are sick and tired of endless San Diego talk, we hope to provide a distraction or two. Like KUTIKUTI, a Finnish comics anthology. You can download all the issues as pdfs. We've always found Finnish humor to be equally fatalistic and merry, and so is KutiKuti.

Well, well, well. This is gold rush time for new digital comics imprints/initiatives. Not only did MonkeyBrain roll out its lineup today, but we also have The Whole Story, a new portal for original graphic novels for some of the top indie creators including:

After teases over the last few weeks, details on the new Monkeybrain Comics imprint from Chris Roberson and Allison Baker have been announced. The line launches on July 4th with five titles: Aesop’s Ark by J. Torres and Jennifer L. Meyer Amelia Cole and the Unknown World by Adam P. Knave, DJ Kirkbride and Nick Brokenshire Bandette by Paul Tobin and Colleen Coover Edison Rex by Chris Roberson and Dennis Culver October Girl by Matthew Dow Smith The line will be distributed digitally, exclusively with ComiXology. As Roberson explained in a press conference this afternoon, it's essentially an Image Comics like deal: Monkeybrain will take a small cut for packing and marketing, but all copyright will remain with the creators. According to Roberson, the line is very focused on completely creator owned projects. "Neither writer or artist can be working in a work for hire capacity. We do ask the projects that come to us if it's a collaborative team, that everyone share share some level of ownership in the property."

J.T. Yost writes to alert us to a successful Kickstarter for a great sounding project called DIGESTATE, a food-theme anthology:

This past weekend's CAKE show in Chicago was important for a few reasons, but mostly because CHicago has a rich vibrant indie/mainstream comics scene, and having an event to take advantage of it is a boon to the entire Midwest. The show had a stellar guest list, so we've been eagerly awaiting word on how it did. So, from reading a few reports the word seems to be: great show, so-so sales but awesome atmosphere.

Chicago's inaugural CAKE Expo kicks off with a bunch of events tonight, and we expec this to be an awesome show, based on the amazing guest list alone. Jessica has already informed you of the debut of Gabby Schulz's WEATHER, but there's a ton more going on. Here's the event list below, more info at the site. And please -- we are looking for reports so hit us up.

Pretty much what it says. The show is curated so just applying doesn't mean you get in, but it should be pretty lively and awesome.

One of the most watched cartoonists to graduate from CCS, Chuck Forsman's work has been mostly available only in small mini-comics editions. But that's changing, as Fantagraphics will reissue THE END OF THE FUCKING WORLD in book form and then publish a NEW graphic novel, CELEBRATED SUMMER, in 2013. Exciting!

A fantastic launch for Dynamite's Shadow relaunch snags them the number one spot for indie books this month, while Walking Dead just pips Saga to the second spot, by less than 50 copies. A little further down Fanboys vs Zombies, Star Wars Boba Fett is Dead and America's Got Powers get off to very strong starts.

 

We had a very interesting comments section last month, with Ed Brubaker and Brian Wood amongst others commenting that the figures reported here are quite far below what the actual sales are. The general consensus seems to be that actual sales are at least 10-20% higher than reported, which makes sense when you account for reorders and foreign sales. I considered adding a percentage to the figures here, but I think that's likely to make these already estimated figures utterly meaningless, so I'll stick with the ICv2 figures for the moment. However, if a creator or publisher would like to contribute completed figures, I'm happy to consider including them, as I'm doing with Fatale #1 this month.