How We Release Kickstarters on a Monthly Basis
Want a more concrete schedule for your comic book releases? Find out how to release your comics on a monthly basis through Kickstarter!
Hello Lifeline Comics readers!
If you follow our work, then you know that Lifeline Comics is at the point of releasing monthly Kickstarters. In this post, we’ll dive into how we keep that constant production line moving, and what the pros and cons are for this frequent release schedule.
We’ll also talk about our first Horror Convention experience, take you behind-the-scenes on our Slice of Life and Like Father, Like Daughter fulfillment journey, share our opinions on new films Abigail, Civil War, and Challengers, and more!
Let’s get into it!
“The Case of the Melted Witch” Crossover Art Print
Phil: Before we dive into our main topic, a quick reminder that we have two campaigns live right now: The Witches of Oz #1 and The Last Case of Deven & Taylor #1!
If you support both projects, you get the below Crossover Art Print by Mauricio Mora for FREE - featuring “THE CASE OF THE MELTED WITCH”!
This is honestly our favorite Cross-promotion Print yet. We love how well both series are represented! Don’t miss out!
How to Release Monthly Kickstarters
Phil: Lifeline Comics has pretty consistently released at least one Kickstarter per month for over a year now.
Maintaining a consistent schedule requires a lot of hard work and coordination. So for our main topic this week, we’ll dive into how we made this production schedule happen and what some of the pros and cons are for crowdfunding this frequently!
Start Small
Phil: Nobody enters the comic game with a full slate of comics. Each individual property is the culmination of hundreds of hours of work. So before you even start considering an aggressive monthly release schedule, you should focus on building up your library of comic series.
It all starts with your first comic. For Kat, it was Like Father, Like Daughter. For me, it was HAUNTING. Once Kat had a few issues of LFLD under her belt and production of that series was well underway, she was able to work on her second series: The Dancer. Then once we started to collaborate, we created our HAUNTING/LFLD Crossover oneshot. And after having a great time working on that, we began work on what would become our most popular series: Slice of Life.
The key lesson here is that nothing happens overnight. Before we began working on “the next big thing”, we had to build our existing library. The idea of a monthly release schedule honestly didn’t even enter our minds until we had enough titles under our belt to justify it.
Once you have a handful of comics being worked on in parallel with each other, you’re able to get a sense of when each project will be complete and plan your schedule accordingly. And where you see a hole in your schedule, it becomes an opportunity to slot in another fun project – be it an anthology, a oneshot, or a brand-new series!
Organization
Phil: Okay, you’ve built up a steady stream of ongoing series or miniseries. Now you need to get organized to keep track of them all.
We talked about the importance of Organization and Project Planning before in our “Work-for-Hire” newsletter post. And like we said there, getting your comic business organized can honestly be its own full post. But it’s an absolute essential for maintaining a consistent schedule.
The most important step to accomplishing is being very on top of our production schedule. Are we meeting all of our writing deadlines? Have we set realistic art deadlines with reasonable check-in dates at production midpoints? Have we built wiggle-room into the schedule for unexpected delays?
All of our projects are worked on in parallel with one another. So any given week, we’re getting updates on Slice of Life, one or more EverAfterVerse books, our upcoming anthologies, and any number of our other books.
Keeping track of it all is tough. When we first begin work on a comic, we outline our planned production schedule. And we have bimonthly review sessions where we ensure that all of our active projects are moving along at the pace that they need to. If not, we adjust accordingly.
Everything is meticulously planned and tracked in our Master To Do List where we manage all of our projects. The list helps us keep track of admin tasks required to run our business, maintain our writing schedule, and set check-in dates for art and other production tasks.
Knowing Your Audience
Kat: There’s a fine line between expanding your library and creating titles that don’t make sense for your current audience. Every title should build on one another! How do you expand into queer titles if you’re just a superhero writer?
We are proud of the array of genres that Lifeline Comics has been able to publish from horror to superhero to queer romance. But every title bridges into another! As mentioned above, I started as a superhero writer with Like Father, Like Daughter and Phil was a horror writer with HAUNTING. Our first collaboration with each other was the HAUNTING/Like Father, Like Daughter Crossover. BAM! Now our horror and superhero fans are exposed to different styles of our storytelling.
It bridged the two genres! Our next big success was Bi Visibility, a title that truly helped us carve a space in the Kickstarter community. We didn’t know how successful Bi Visibility was going to be (we hoped!), but we could have never imagined the results we received.
Following Bi Visibility’s success, we wanted to lean into more queer content so we thought it would be the perfect time to launch our LGBTQ romance, Slice of Life. It worked! Our Bi audience came to support the Kickstarter, and it helped that we were creating a growing audience on WEBTOON simultaneously!
Fast forward two years later, and we’ve been able to blend our different audiences and genres to create one cohesive brand that allows us to experiment with new exciting projects on a monthly basis. But that took a lot of planning with sister projects that made sense to launch closer together.
Balancing More Than One Live Kickstarter
Kat: Kickstarters are a marathon. You’ll get sucked into the highs and lows of its inevitable cycle. But once you get your feet wet and find your groove, you’ll start to better understand how to handle the emotional roller coaster. If you have the tools to tackle these moments in your, campaign you’ll be ready to balance two if your comic slate allows for it.
Obviously, all the sections above still apply. Make sure your organized, figure out if these two campaigns can help each other if they’re live at the same time (do these two audiences feed into each other in some way?), and most importantly make sure you have enough capital to double dip without putting your business in danger. Does this actually help your business or harm it?
Pros & Cons
Phil: Monthly releases are not the right choice for everyone. It’s important to weigh the pros and cons of this release strategy to decide if it’s actually right for you.
A huge pro is a consistent revenue stream. Crowdfunding is the biggest (but not only) slice of our monthly earnings. And the monthly campaigns have allowed us to expand our business pretty rapidly over the last year and change.
Another pro is rapidly expanding your audience. With each new release, you’re hitting new people who could become fans of your work. And when you release at least one book per month, you have monthly opportunities to find new readers.
And as a creator, it’s awesome to get to create consistently. Making comics is a slow process. But balancing multiple series means you always have something to be excited about in the moment. And it gives us the opportunity to tell a wide variety of stories – all of which we really love for different reasons.
On the cons side, you will need to accept that the bulk of your audience will not support every title. When you’re releasing at least twelve comics per year, a relatively small section of your audience will be able to get every comic (major kudos to those of you who do!), so you’ll need to accept a disparity in performance between some titles.
For example, there is a HUGE difference in performance right now between our two live campaigns: The Witches of Oz and The Last Case of Deven & Taylor. But this was expected. You build expectations into every project and budget accordingly, with each project having a set “goal” in your mind for its performance. Despite the big difference between these campaigns, both of them are successes in our eyes and met the expectations we had for them.
Another con is time management. Balancing a long list of series and campaigns is a huge time suck – and actually takes time away from the creative process which is the reason we make comics in the first place. It helps us having two people to balance it all. But making the frequent releases happen, especially as a solo creator without a team behind them, is a task not to be underestimated.
Tying into the previous point, monthly releases also mean constant fulfillment. There will always be at least one campaign in the fulfillment backlog. If you (or your team) manage your own fulfillment, it’s a task you need to constantly bake into your monthly schedule.
Conclusion
Phil: Monthly crowdfunding campaigns are a model that has really worked for Lifeline Comic. It may not be the model for everyone – and anyone considering monthly releases should be aware of the pros and cons before diving in. But it has allowed us to expand our business and our library at a rapid speed.
We’re so excited to continue to share all of the exciting things we have coming up for you this year and beyond!
Announcing “Mob Princess”!
Kat: I remember watching Goodfellas for the first time in high school and globing onto the idea of women’s roles in such a masculine space. I wanted to know if we would ever see a story that focused on a more feminine side.
There were pockets where women belonged, but they could never fully be “made”. Women couldn’t be in the room where things went down. They were around the corner hearing the whispers.
A few years ago, I made a spec script called “Mob Princess” that explored all these ideologies I was obsessed with as a Staten Island kid. I’m proud to announce that this little seed of an idea has now become a full-blown miniseries. I can’t wait to share more about it this summer!
Terry Moore Original Art is back on the market!
Phil: You may recall that the Original Art of Terry Moore’s inked cover sold out within the five first minutes of The Witches of Oz launching!
Well, if you were interested in this one-of-a-kind item, you’re in luck - IT’S BACK ON THE MARKET!
The pledge that claimed this art dropped from the campaign, so one lucky backer can grab this piece via our $2,000 Reward Tier.
Don’t miss out if you’re a super fan of Terry Moore!
What have we been up to?
Let’s talk about some of the stuff that’s kept us busy since our last post!
Trade Paperback Fulfillment!
Kat: We warned you that monthly Kickstarters also means near-constant fulfillment. So even though we just wrapped The Beast & Snow a few weeks ago, we’ve already moved onto our recent trade paperback campaigns: Slice of Life & Like Father, Like Daughter. We’ll also be bringing in our recent enamel pin campaign into the fold in the next few days.
Trades are actually one of the easier campaigns to fulfill because most of the packages are just slipping books into silver age bags. Enamel Pins are even easier to get a lot of packages done in a short amount of time. So we should be going through these pretty quickly. We aim to get everything done before our busy Pride Month.
First Horror Con
Phil: We attended our first Horror Convention a couple of weekends ago: New Jersey Horror Con and Film Festival!
With our library of horror books expanding, we’ve been looking to try more specialized events where comics will stand out more compared to other offerings in artist alley.
It was really great to see a different crowd - and tons of really cool and creative horror cosplay!
While we had a fun time, this con didn’t end up being a huge sales weekend for us. But that’s a part of the game - researching different events to find the ones that work for you. This one ended up being more of a minor celebrity show than a comics show. But we had a fun time with the change of scenery and are looking forward to experimenting with more horror cons in the future!
A Big Gay Market
Kat: Pride season is coming very soon (AKA our busiest month of the year). A Big Gay Market was a fun way to start the season early.
When we went to Emerald City Comic Con we heard about the event from a fellow WEBTOON artist, creator of My Dragon Girlfriend. It’s about a 3-hour drive away from our backyard. It was like a farmer’s market for gay content!
We met some Slice of Life super fans, which truly warmed our heart. We’ve never sold books in Albany, so it was also nice to hit a whole new crowd of potential comic readers.
One day events are magical because you get to do the hustle without sucking up the whole weekend. A Big Gay Market has a few events during the year. This was a success! So we hope to hit up some more moving forward.
Media
And let’s discuss some non-comics media!
Abigail
![REVIEW] Abigail (2024) - Mad Monster](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3e29ee53-3486-462e-8329-bf9ae1ccbb96_1024x576.jpeg "REVIEW] Abigail (2024) - Mad Monster")
Phil: This is a movie that I’ve been excited about since I saw the first trailer last year. In fact, it’s been at the top of my 2024 anticipated movies list! And thankfully, I had a really great time with Abigail. I liked the movie a lot…BUT…I had two very big problems with the movie that prevent me from saying I loved it.
Let’s start with the good. Every member of the cast delivers a fun and engaging performance - Alisha Weir as the titular Abigail delivers a particularly memorable performance. In moments where the script is a little weak or exposition heavy, the talented character actors always bring their A-Game and make it easy to lose yourself in the movie. The action and horror are phenomenal. There’s some very strong gore, and the shots of Abigail doing her ballet during kill scenes are instantly iconic. And the ensemble is strong almost from the very beginning and make for an engaging group of characters to follow.
My first big problem with Abigail is the first forty minutes of the film. Without spoiling anything, the “hook” of the film (the thing used in all of its marketing) is positioned as a reveal that comes a full third into the movie. While I fully understand not diving right into it, I wish the movie had sped things up in the beginning. It’s unfortunate because in a world with no marketing, the reveal so deep into the runtime could’ve made a fantastic twist. But the filmmakers had to know that this reveal would be central to the marketing of Abigail, so it’s perplexing that they spent so much time building up to a twist the vast majority of viewers would already be aware of.
My second big problem is a little hard to talk about without spoiling the movie, so I’ll just say that a particular character takes a villainous turn in the third act that I strongly disliked. Prior to the turn, this was the character I was enjoying the most. And the switch felt very sudden and unearned to me.
All of that said, I do recommend Abigail for fans of Radio Silence (the team behind the newest Scream films and Ready or Not) and for horror fans in general who enjoy a fun and gory movie.
Kat: If you’re looking for original storytelling then you need to be checking out more horror movies! Horror is a weird genre where it feels like everything has been done before, all while having so much baggage that there are plenty of films that put its history lessons on their head. Abigail takes a “Clue” styled mystery and throws in a kitschy ballerina vampire Big Bad to add some flavor to the genre.
Though, the vampire “twist” may actually be the movie’s weakest element. The movie’s marketing makes it very clear that the young girl is a vampire, but the film makes this as a “big reveal” halfway through. Its plot relies too heavily on the twist, but luckily you have actors like Melissa Barrera that make the characters engaging enough to have a fun time through slogging moments.
Civil War
Kat: As someone who has a degree in journalism and as a former journalist, I have a soft spot for stories that focus on the subject. Civil War was getting some solid buzz. So we went to see what all the hype was about!
I was already a fan of Alex Garland’s work as one of the few people who enjoyed his abstract take in Annihilation, and I was actually expecting a similar story structure for Civil War. But I was pleasantly surprised to see how easily this film was able to carve out its own identity.
If you’re going to create a movie surrounding photojournalism it better be visually stunning, and Civil War delivers in stride. The folky music is a perfect backdrop for this visually striking political upset with the best mixing I’ve heard maybe…ever.
Phil: Unlike Abigail, Civil War was a movie I went into knowing absolutely nothing about. So imagine my surprise to see it dethrone Love Lies Bleeding as my top movie of 2024 so far.
The first act of Civil War is a bit of a slow burn. Not the slowest I’ve ever seen, mind you. But it definitely took its time establishing its world and its characters. That first act is where most of my criticism for the movie lies. After an explosive and exciting opening, it takes a little while for things to kick back into gear. I was never having a bad time, but things could have definitely been sped up or spiced up in places.
But following the first act (which, again, I didn’t even hate), the second and third acts had me glued to the screen. You become really immersed not just in the world of Civil War but specifically in the profession of wartime journalism. The weight and importance of the work that our leads are doing - even at high personal risk and cost - is very much felt throughout the movie. The characters are endearing and real, and their relationships between one another are thought-provoking and layered.
Everything leads up to a crazy third act that leaves you on the edge of your seat. Civil War is a strong recommendation from me if you’re a fan of thoughtful, character-driven action movies that don’t feel the need to fill every moment with guns and explosions. It’s bleak, but it’s smart. And it’s certain to leave you with a lot to talk about when the credits roll.
Chucky Season 3
(Minor Spoilers)
Phil: If you know me, then you know I’m a HUGE fan of the Chucky franchise. The killer doll is without a doubt my favorite horror villain. And my office is decked out with Chucky merch (including a Trick or Treat Studios Glen/Gigi doll that is my pride and joy).
Child’s Play/Chucky is a franchise that alternates pretty heavily between horror and comedy. The first three Child’s Play films leaned more in the direction of horror (albeit with a snarky comedic villain) while Bride and Seed of Chucky were more straightforward comedies. And the final two films (Curse and Cult of Chucky) “course-corrected” to be more horror-leaning, once again relishing in gothic ambiance and spending a lot more time building suspense and tension than its camp predecessors.
I love both sides of the Chucky coin - the horrific and the comedic. And one of my favorite things about Chucky Season 1 was that it felt like the perfect marriage of both aspects of the franchise. And while there was a lot I enjoyed about the most recent Chucky Season 3, I felt that it leaned too heavily in the “comedic” and “camp” directions - to the detriment of its human characters.
I’m ride-or-die for Chucky. And I had a lot of laughs watching Season Three. Tiffany’s trial, in particular, was a real stand-out moment. Our eponymous killer doll had a lot of amazing moments, running jokes, and one-liners (shading M3gan was delightfully fun). The kills were also top-notch and disgusting. You can tell that showrunner, Don Mancini, really wants to top himself each season in the gory kills department. And there were plenty of crowd-pleasing moments for long-time fans of the franchise, particularly in the second half of the season. Seeing Brad Dourif portray Chucky in the flesh again was a real treat. And a surprisingly touching conversation between Chucky and Tiffany ended up being my favorite moment in the season.
On the more negative side, I wasn’t a fan of the supernatural lean of this season. I can appreciate that Don Mancini always likes to try new things with the franchise. But the “White House Ghosts” storyline didn’t resonate with me and felt like it went on for too long. As mentioned previously that the heavy turn towards camp and comedy (as opposed to more of a balance with suspense and horror) was a bit of a disappointment.
But my biggest problem with this season rests with the human characters. Outside of Chucky and Tiffany, the rest of the cast felt like a slog to watch. I quite liked Jake, Devon, and Lexi in the first season of Chucky. But it feels like their characters have been reduced to repeating three phrases (how much Jake and Devon love each other, how much Lexi wants to find her lost sister, and how much they all want to kill Chucky). I miss the awkward outsider artist that Jake was in Season 1. I miss the true crime-enthused podcaster Devon. I miss the Lexi with a bit more bite.
While I had my problems with it, I did have fun with Chucky Season 3. I can always appreciate the franchise trying something different and going in a new direction. And I’m excited to see another new direction if and when the series returns for Season 4.
Comics
Let's discuss some comics we've enjoyed recently!
As always, we'll spotlight a Direct Market Indie Book, a DC or Marvel book, a Kickstarter book, and a Webcomic!
Marvel: The Sensational She-Hulk
Kat: Long superhero runs feel like a thing of the past, but there are still a few diamonds in the rough. Including Rainbow Rowell and Andrés Genolet’s She Hulk run (previously collaborating on one of my favorite runs of the decade - Runaways).
She-Hulk’s biggest strength is having the same voice and art style for dozens of issues. It’s honestly been fun to see how this series has grown from its first volume to its second as the creators find their voice for the fan-favorite character. It’s been a well-balanced volume ranging from Shulky partying with Hellcat to more dramatic scenes with her cousin.
Indie Comic: Feral (Image Comics)
Kat: The creators of Stray Dogs aren’t one tick ponies! Feral has a similar vibe to its sister series without feeling like a carbon copy. Stray Dogs was a murder mystery, but Feral is a zombie thriller that uses rabies as its outbreak. This creative team expertly tells humane stories with darker storytelling elements starring household pets. Feral and Stray Dogs is worth all the hype you’ve been hearing! So don’t miss your chance to follow this series from the beginning.
Kickstarter: American Yakuza Act 1
“Join us on a violent, sexy trip to Japan to solve a murder. It's Succession meets John Wick, Tokyo Vice, and MAX's Warrior!”
Phil: Our good friend and all-around fantastic human being, Charlie McElvy, and Xion Studios bring us their first mature audience AND first non-superhero title! I Invested in an International Conglomerate & Went from an MMA Champion to Becoming the First-Ever American Yakuza - or just American Yakuza, for short.
Xavier has to travel to Japan when his business partner is killed. He uncovers a plot of backstabbing and debauchery that he might wish he left alone.
Co-written by McElvy, Anthony Stokes & Chris Moses, this first chapter in a five-part story promises to be a story full of action and intrigue!
Back American Yakuza here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/xionstudios/american-yakuza
Webcomic: Check, Please!
“Former Georgia junior figure skating champion, vlogger extraordinaire, and amateur pâtissier, Eric Bittle, joins the hockey team at the prestigious Samwell University. But it's nothing like co-ed club hockey back in the South! For one? There’s checking. Second, there is Jack—his very attractive but moody captain.”
Phil: If you’re a long-time webcomic reader on Tumblr or Kickstarter, you may already be familiar with Check, Please! - which ran from 2013 to 2020. A fun slice of life, sporty book with tons of comedy, heart, and queerness (Samwell University is…pretty gay)! And as of a couple of weeks ago, series creator Ngozi is finally bringing the webcomic to Webtoon Canvas!
As someone who is more familiar with the later “Years” of the series (having jumped on for the later Kickstarters), it’s fun to go back to the beginning and see the roots of the webcomic. The Webtoon version is very early in its run, but I can promise that it’s a rewarding read and a lot to offer as Eric continues down his four-year journey at Samwell University!
Read Check, Please! here: https://www.webtoons.com/en/canvas/check-please/list?title_no=954251
In Closing
Thank you, as always, for reading!
Don’t forget to check out our two live campaigns: The Witches of Oz #1 and The Last Case of Deven & Taylor #1! They’re very different books, but we love both of them so much! And supporting both will get you that awesome crossover art print!
We’ll be back in a few weeks to talk about an exciting new anthology that will crowdfund through Pride Month of this year, so stay tuned!
Don’t miss out on future Updates! Subscribe to our Substack Newsletter above!
Current Kickstarters:
The Witches of Oz #1 (Ending 5/16)
The Last Case of Deven & Taylor #1 (Ending 5/23)
Next Con: Fan Expo Philadelphia (5/03-5/05) (Philadelphia, PA)