As Comic Conventions are Cancelled EVERYWHERE due to the Need for Social Distancing, Our Small Press Comic Company Needs YOU to Continue Operating.
YOU WILL MAKE THE DIFFERENCE FOR US.
These strange and unfamiliar times bring with them tough decisions. We originally intended to launch a Kickstarter campaign tonight to fund production and printing for my long-in-production comic, Last Ride of the 4 Horsemen (art by Nathan Smith & Ari Arnaldsson Art; colors by Gavin Michelli & Andrew Pate; new covers by Oscar Pinto). With the worldwide developments involving the novel coronavirus, we shifted the launch date back to allow time to make the right decision.
After much deliberation and research, the right decision is definitely to go forward with funding for the book, beginning next Sunday, March 29. We (Amanda Rachels & Kevin LaPorte) have been self-publishing comics for nearly 10 years, most of that as an incorporated small business, Inverse Press LLC. It’s a labor of love that pays for itself but has never (ever) put so much as a penny in our personal bank accounts as salary or otherwise. We make comics because it is our chosen art form, and we love to tell stories.
The reality and necessity of social distancing brings with it the cancellation of all comic conventions – one of our two primary revenue streams that pay our business loans and pay for production and printing of our books (as well as other expenses, including infrastructure and taxes). The other primary revenue stream is crowdfunding. The real story is, if we don’t successfully fund publication of Last Ride of the 4 Horsemen, our budget will go belly up negative, and our business will be at risk of following suit shortly thereafter.
(In case you’re wondering, comic shops typically don’t stock independent comics such as ours, and, if they do, they don’t do so in sufficient numbers to provide us any significant revenue. So, comic shops are not a real revenue source for us.)
Like other small businesses in these times, it is imperative that we continue operations as normally as possible in order to contribute to our little corner of the economy. By moving forward with the Kickstarter campaign, we generate critical revenue for our business, but we also contribute revenue to Kickstarter and their employees, we provide much needed work to our printer, Comic Impressions, and we continue participating in the shipping industry as we send print editions of our books literally around the world. We also get to continue paying freelance artists who are the core of creating our books.
And…we provide ENTERTAINMENT in these difficult times, and that’s something we think all of us who’ve been cooperative with social distancing will appreciate.
Please plan to support us and join the crowdfunding campaign when it launches at 6:00 p.m. Central time next Sunday, March 29.
Thanks for all your support over the years.
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