Welcome to The Beat’s crowdfunding round-up: a collection of some of our favorite campaigns from the week including one-shots, on-goings, anthologies and everything in-between! This week, we’re checking out the absolutely stacked fantasy/sci-fi anthology Dagger Dagger, John McCrea’s The Mighty World of McCrea and more.

Let’s get started!


Dagger Dagger

Dagger Dagger

Creators: Matt Emmons (author/team assembler), Al Gofa (author/team assembler)
Goal: $7,500
End date: August 28, 2020
Goodies: Grab a PDF for $10, upgrade to physical for $20, or pledge more for t-shirts, commissions, and more.

A Dark Fantasy/Sci-Fi Comic Anthology.

Dagger Dagger is bringing together an unstoppable force of creators for this anthology, including Linnea Staerte (Stages of Rot), Sloan Leong (Prism Stalker), Simon Roy (Protector), and Artyom Trakhanov (Protector), and many more. This campaign page is to-the-point. It displays a sample of each creators’ style, and offers just a couple rewards, with stretch goals going back to hardworking creators responsible for the project. The comic itself will end up around 180 pages, with each of the seventeen creators writing and drawing their own self-contained stories, all in one pulpy place.

Become a backer here.

A Christmas Witch’s Candy Cookbook

A Christmas Witch's Candy Cookbook

Creators: Meredith McClaren (author)
Goal: $7,500
End date: August 28, 2020
Goodies: A PDF is just $5, an upgrade to physical is $25, and one higher tier includes a postcard, a pin, and McClaren’s “heartfelt love.”

50 sweet recipes.

A candy-centric cookbook written and illustrated by Meredith McClaren (Hinges, Jem and the Hologram, Adventure Time) is an easy sell. Her cartooning is frequently adorable, always emotive, and this preview promises a toffee recipe loaded with butter. As she notes, the book itself is complete and only needs an edit so, if all goes according to plan, A Christmas Witch’s Candy Cookbook could be in your mailbox this December along with 50 recipes and accompanying stories.

Become a backer here.

I Am Hexed: Issue #3

I Am Hexed: Issue #3

Creators: Kirsten Thompson (writer), Amagoia Agirre (interior artist), Little Corvus (cover artist), Taylor Esposito (letterer)
Goal: $10,000
End date: August 22, 2020
Goodies: Grab a PDF of issue #3 for $5 or issues #1-3 for $10, go physical for $15, and pledge higher for back issues, temporary tattoos, variant covers, and more.

Equality is Magic: A comic book about the ongoing political struggles of modern day witches.

I Am Hexed is a supernatural political thriller following Charlotte “Charlie” Helm in her position as junior staff member to a Senator in a world where witches find themselves deeply entwined with government policy. Things are heating up in this penultimate issue, as Charlie finds herself hunted by with authorities, and is forced to go on the run with her ex-girlfriend Jaya and her friend Florence. 

Become a backer here.

Cinder #1

Cinder #1

Creators: Zan Miller (author)
Goal: $19, 550
End date: August 23, 2020
Goodies: Get yourself a digital copy for $8, a print version for $10, and consider getting a few character prints, stickers, and more with higher pledges. 

Spooky, medieval adventures!

I am a sucker for a lot of things, and Cinder is one of them. Miller is setting out to create a wordless, ‘borderless’ comic that breaks the language barrier by using picto-balloons (as seen above) to communicate dialogue. It’s a little-used style that always gives the reader space to make their own inferences. His illustrations, meanwhile, are formatted so that panels are separated by visual elements of a scene that he says creates fluidity. And, oh yeah, the story! Cinder follows the story of Cinder and Derpo, a sword-wielding skeleton and a candle friend, as they grow and change for the better in the face of what appears to be a horde of sentient pumpkins. 

Become a backer here.

The Mighty World Of McCREA

The Mighty World Of McCREA

Creators: John McCrea (author)
Goal: $9,691
End date: August 31, 2020
Goodies: Jump on board at $13 for a digital copy, grab a softcover for $33, or look into higher tires for holiday cards, sticker sheets, and more.

 A collection of creator owned work from John McCrea spanning his 32 year career. Also includes new, never before seen material.

This collection is the first of four volumes featuring John McCrea’s 30+ years of creator owned work with Phil Hester, Garth Ennis, Nick Abadzis, Gerry Duggan, and more. He’s also taking inspiration from one of his beloved childhood memories, the British annual. It arrived around Christmas time, and was packed with all sorts of strips, puzzle pages, and interviews. Similarly, this campaign would ship annually around the holiday season over the next four years, and include non-fiction content alongside the reprints of McCrea’s earlier work, totaling up to 200 pages of content.

Become a backer here.


Don’t forget to check out last week’s ongoing campaigns if you haven’t already: