KickstarterForum.org

Hello everyone,

I'm Phillip Kelly. One half of the founding members of Identity Comics. I'm running a kickstarter campaign for the first issue. I've been reading comics since I was 10. Performing and involved in theatre since the age of 12, and went to film school and have become a professional screenwriter in Hollywood these past couple years. I'm excited about this endeavor. I have so many story ideas, and this is a way to explore them all!

Here's the press release!

Lars Canty and Phillip Kelly, founders of Identity Comics, get rolling with their first exciting anthology of original stories in their inaugural comic, Verge...with a little help from their fans.

Lars Canty is an artist and writer. He worked at Malibu Comics and Marvel back in the 90's as a colorist on titles like X-Men, The Avengers , and many others. He's spent the last several years marketing and designing graphics for motion picture campaigns. Phillip is a professional screenwriter, a student of everything from live theatre to literature to film. They've shared an equal passion for the comic book medium since their youth, and their desire to bring their experiences together, led to forming Identity Comics.

Identity Comics is creator owned and created, with a twist. Using the interaction of the online world, readers will be able to influence the direction of the stories. Phillip explains, “The immediacy of facebook and other online community sites thrills us. To that end, we're putting a system in place that will allow our readers' feedback to influence what happens next. It'll keep our audience involved in a way they aren't allowed to be in other arenas, and keep us on our toes,” though he adds, “Be careful what you wish for! You may inspire something you aren't expecting.”

Lars says their first endeavor, Verge, “Will showcase different stories and art from different talent across the country. We will be featuring exciting stories ranging from science fiction to classic comic superhero tales. There will be something to attract every fan of every genre!” Phillip adds, “Several of the stories will mix genres in incredibly idiosyncratic ways.” The first issue of Verge will contain four such stories:

"Concrete Shoes" is a film noir, cyberpunk, gothic horror hybrid that takes place in 2056, when a deceased bulldozer of an ex-mafia member forces himself back to life to protect his son, he comes back partly covered in concrete. It's going to be a violent ride, psychologically and physically painful for the heroes.

"El Fantasmo" is a true serial in which a boy from Columbia escapes the disease ridden and fanatical village he grew up in to become a lucha libre style hero to the people.

"The Girl Made of Ice" is a science fiction, adventure, horror story that takes place in a slightly altered Los Angeles. It begins with a 13-year-old inadvertently setting free the worst war criminals and sociopaths the Universe has to offer.

"The Sheet" is a satire-parody of some of the worst and best comics out there today. It stars a living, breathing, thinking bed sheet.

As with many creative endeavors, they are currently running a kickstarter campaign to help build awareness and initial funding for Verge #1, the campaign runs until September 14th, 2013. To help fund this endeavor go to their kickstarter page: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/182 ... omic-books and spread the word!

If all goes well, Verge #1 will hit Amazon.com and some local comic stores around Los Angeles sometime in November.

Wow! Super close to raising 3k! Hope you make it. Where did the huge push come from on the 5th?

Hey, thanks!

We did get a huge boost! It started out solid, and then dipped. We had $1500 to make in 7 days. It looked insurmountable. A lot of our donations have been friends and family, and people like to do things at the last possible minute in Los Angeles. But that's not it.

I've spent years, in all the jobs I've worked at, plays I've produced, films I've made, being a complete professional and working at 100% of my creative capability. I've gained a level of trust in the community that I work in as putting forth good work - not necessarily in comic books.

I spent the first three weeks emailing people individually...many people. When we came to the third weekend, I sent out 30 messages to 30 people at a time and explained, through simple math, that only 10 of each of those people had to pay $5 to help us to our total. I had to lead them to water and make them see that the each person's help would get us there, and that did wonders. I found you have to lead a horse to water. I asked everyone who already donated to help spread the word, making them aware, even if they already knew it, that they were invested, and the only way this would work is if we make the money. I asked them to help spread the word - and they did. Several donations came from that. I also asked them to keep an eye on the total. If it feel like we're almost there, if even a handful of them donated $5 more, we'd make it.

I also sent out press releases to every blog I could, reached out to every potential contact, even if they were acquaintances, in the comic/video game industry and asked for them to simply spread the word, I joined some kickstarter groups on linked in and asked for advice. I joined every comic book group on facebook I could find. The one thing I didn't get around to is spreading flyers around to comic book stores...which I wish I would have, but we have $205 left to rally together in 3 days. I'm feeling pretty positive right now.

Really, it was just doing every possible thing I could think of!

That's awesome! Old fashioned hard work. Thanks for taking the time to share some awesome insights. I'll be sure to forward a few people to this thread who are struggling with promotion and marketing.

Lots of hard work! Several of your articles really helped.

A couple things I didn't get to, from sheer volume of messageing:

1. I didn't get the pinterest site set up.

2. I realized a blog would have helped. I just didn't have the brain power to focus my energy on it.

3. I really wanted to flyer some comic book stores. To reach people outside of the realm of the internet, but I just didn't have time.

4. We didn't have a website up and running. That I think really hurt us with potential donors outide of our circle.

A couple of these things would have helped tremendously if I had set them up in advance of the kickstarter campaign and amassed some kind of a following. Or level of trust with people I didn't know. I had trust with all the people I did know, but you have to attain that before people give. I might have come off as just another guy that wanted to make a comic, in the video, to people who didn't know me.

One thing I did do, which I may not have posted above, is as we got to certain points of the run, once was within 5 days of the deadline, I did an update to the already donors, thanked them profusely for supporting our team, and the only way their support will help is if we reach the $3000, so if any of them saw us falling short, it would be helpful to all involved to consider donating another $5 or $10. A lot of times a couple weeks will have passed, and they may have a few bucks again to throw in. I worded it a lot better than this, but that's the gist!

If I can think of anything else that could be of help, I'll post.