Welcome back to The Beat‘s weekly crowdfunding comics round-up! Crowdfunding has reshaped the comics landscape, and there are more independent comics available through sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo today than ever before. Each week we’ll spotlight comics projects we think would be a great investment, whether it’s a one-shot story or a sprawling anthology. This week includes werewolves, karaoke, and more in projects including Missed Connection.

Let’s get going!

1. Reprint: Can I Pet Your Werewolf?

Goal: $20,000 USD
Ends: Friday, July 12 2019 8:30 PM EST.
Creators: Kel McDonald
Best Value Tier:  $20 USD plus shipping for a physical copy and PDF.
Can I Pet Your Werewolf? is a light-hearted anthology featuring tales of friendship, family, and romance shared between those who get hairy under a full moon. Just because they have sharp teeth and claws doesn’t mean they have to be a monster out for blood. It is organized by Kel McDonald (Sorcery 101 and Misfits of Avalon) and co-edited by Kel McDonald and Molly Muldoon. It was originally printed in 2017 and funded through kickstarter. Now there are only 100 copies left. So we’re to returning to kickstarter to help keep the book in print! 

You can back the campaign here.

Can I Pett Your Werewolf is a wonderful anthology featuring more than a dozen fantastic comics creators, all about the fluffy and sweet side of lycanthropy. The reprint campaign is fully funded and had a successful first run and fulfillment on Kickstarter, making this a safe bet for anyone looking for more werewolf tales in their lives!

2. PiNKHEARTS #1

Goal: $2,500 USD
Ends: Wednesday, July 17 2019 11:56 AM EST.
Creators:  Jess Crayons, Levi Buchanan, Melissa Capriglione
Best Value Tier:  $15 plus shipping for a print and PDF copy of PiNKHEARTS #1 and two sticker sheets
Issue #1 of PiNKHEARTS finds protagonist Kailani reeling from signing divorce papers with her now-ex-wife. She’s feeling completely adrift in Portland, 10,000 miles from her home in Hawaii and on the verge of taking a one-way trip back home. But something unexpected happens when she reluctantly accepts her friend Tom’s invite to meet up at PiNKHEARTS, Portland’s most popular karaoke bar. 

PiNKHEARTS is a gorgeously-illustrated found-family tale centered around a karaoke bar. What’s not to love? The colors on this book are stunning, and even the short glimpse of the story in the preview pages will get you hooked. While this is Buchanan and Crayons’ first campaign, Capriglione has been involved in successful campaigns before. If you’re curious but not ready to commit to $15, a PDF of issue one is available at the $5 level.

You can back the campaign here.

3. Missed Connection

Missed Connection artwork by Tess Smith Roberts

Goal: $4,763 USD
Ends: Sunday, August 11 2019 5:00 PM EST.
Creators:  Tess Smith-Roberts through Rope Press
Best Value Tier:  $13 USD for a PDF edition
Playtime proudly presents Missed Connection, the premier graphic novel by Tess Smith-Roberts. After gaining popularity with her playful style, distinctive gestures and colourful images -and language, Smith-Roberts art is full of life embodying the cuteness, wit, fun and normal and making that interesting to the audience.

Tess Smith-Roberts’ Missed Connection has a distinctive and eye-catching style that truly captures the strange loneliness that can happen even in a big city. The Rope Press team ran a Kickstarter earlier this year that still appears to be in the fulfillment process, so while there are several cute physical rewards including a delightful tiger enamel pin, the PDF tier may be a safer bet in terms of quick delivery.

You can back the campaign here.

4. Braxton: Regenesis

Braxton by Mayke cover

Goal: $25,000 USD
Ends: Thursday, July 18 2019 10:15 AM EST.
Creators:  Mayke
Best Value Tier:  $15 USD for three PDFs
On the run from a league of assassins with a bounty on her family’s head, a queer Black mother receives a chance to face her past with the help of a legendary tall-tale figure. Now she must choose between a life of running or a life that only exists to put others before herself and the person she loves most, her 8-year-old son.

Braxton: Regenesis is a brand-new superhero tale from Mayke, formerly Arclight Comics, co-written by Stephanie Williams and Valerie Complex, with art and colors from Miguel Angel Ruiz and Tim Wasney. The $15 tier is your best bet — you’ll get the first and third installments of Mayke’s “Volume One” of superhero stories by August 2019, with Braxton (the second installment) out February 2020. Williams and Complex are incredible writers, and a superhero team headed up by the legendary John Henry is a fascinating concept that’s worth checking out.

You can back the campaign here.

The following campaigns from our previous round-up are still running: