The Palladium Robotech Kickstarter video I posted was posted for a reason. I get asked to publicise quite a few kickstarter projects that are comic related and I say "no". The people behind it will bitch and name call and ask how I can call myself a comic fan and not support the project? After the second email from them they get marked as Spam.
Kickstarter or GoFundMe or whatever for "#1 of a great new series by---" which is followed by another fundraiser for issue 2...then issue 3....then 4...you see how this goes?
Print on Demand means you print the number of copies you need rather than 10,000 copies when you only need 300 copies. If it is an ongoing series do not even think about backing it. Seriously.
You get a copy with some incentive but you are still paying out money for issue after issue hoping that others also have an endless supply of money to keep the series going. You get to that cliff hanger ending in #3 and "We've been unable to raise funds for issue #4..." usually followed by asking you not to give up or suggesting that maybe putting the series together as a trade paperback will get the whole thrilling series to you? If you fork out more money. It's called "sucker catching".
There are genuine creators out there but they may have no real idea about business so the project fails.
There are also those who make a nice living from this.
Does Donna Barr beg her readers to send her money to print books? No. She knows how it works. The same for other creators.
People keep whining about CBO only accepting real,printed books for review. No PDF files. Let me explain for, literally, the 1000th time why.
In the early days I got PDF files of comics and details of how people could order. Then I heard from people asking why I gave a good review to a very poorly photocopied comic. You see, I was sent scans -cleaned up and made to look good. The publisher then printed up copies cheaply on a photocopier. I reviewed based on a PDF NOT a printed copy.
I did the same thing and then I got blasted because people were ordering but not getting books -the publisher had simply not bothered. Took the money and ran. There was no comic.
This was not just once or twice but several times. Now I do not promote or review unless I have a physical copy in my hands. Also, jerks like adding viruses of all types to download and file share sites (ALL of them) and I am not going through any of those things again. And if you think I am going to put a disc sent to me by someone I do not know with only "for review" on it -no. Straight in the bin.
From comics, gaming figures, comic related toys, boardgames, wargaming -there is pone story after another similar to these. Unless it is an actual physical object you can buy and own immediately do not back a project.
Just do not get ripped off.
Remember Shocker Toys? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shocker_Toys
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