Candid Crowdfunders
Two years ago I didn’t even suspect that there was such a thing as crowdfunding. Last year you had to dig deep to find out much about the topic, beyond whatever project was hot of course; I know because we here at Caffeineforge were digging for every scrap of information to give us an edge.
Today, while not quite ubiquitous, it is certainly much more common to see news stories or advertisements for crowdfunding without looking too hard.
Monday Miniatures: Galedon
The reason I love doing this column is so regularly emphasized by the emails I get with pictures of people’s painting efforts. So often I am told that the mini probably would have never been finished, or that a particular artist might have not gotten any painting done at all this week, except for this artificial deadline.
I feel their pain. I certainly wouldn’t have done any painting this week if not for the target.
Review: Sandman: Overture #1
It’s hard to believe that it has been 25 years since Neil Gaiman’s and Dave McKean’s Sandman first hit newsstands. For many readers, Sandman was the first comic to give them the inkling that the medium held literary potential, or that there was room to innovate in storytelling and narrative construction. I can only imagine what it must have been like to get each issue one by one—to see the story unfurl so languorously over time—as I, like so many others, read Sandman in collected editions long after the series had run it’s course (to be fair, I was just seven when it came out, and my tastes at the time ran as you might expect, towards more ham-fisted comic fare…).
Now, at long last, a new generation of fans can experience the exquisite agony of waiting that long month between visits to the Land of Nod, as Gaiman and Vertigo have brought the King of Dreams out of his quiet repose for a new prequel miniseries to celebrate the original series’ quarter-centennial. Peek below the fold for a spoiler-free review of Sandman: Overture #1.
Monday Miniatures: Clay Golem
This week was messy. The blog went fine, but I almost didn’t have a chance to do any painting at all because of work.
Fortunately I held myself to the high standard that frequent contributor Clint has been setting so far this year (45 weeks of painting straight and counting) and carved out some time to practice.
After all, if you don’t practice, you’ll never get better, right?
The Statistics of Crowd Funding
As regular readers know, I keep an eye out for the ever-elusive “statistics on Kickstarter.” More often than not Kickstarter stats come from data mined infographics cobbled together by clever citizens of the Internet. But sometimes–like today–they come from Kickstarter’s own blog.
Whatever their source, these numbers provide a valuable insight into the nature of this near billion dollar website–that is, once you get past the spin they are trying to sell you. Lets dig into this latest nugget, shall we?
A Big Week for Comic Book Movie Fans
Caffeineforge has been following the ups and downs (mostly the ups) of the comic book movie renaissance since the site’s inception. With this post, we’ve almost come full circle, as I sit here jamming on one of the topics that inspired us to start blogging in the first place. Its been a big week for comic book movie fans, as new trailers dropped for some of Marvel’s mightiest properties. Click below the fold for my impressions of the movies on the horizon.
Monday Miniatures: The Griffon
After the dragon, the griffon is probably the most iconic of all fantasy monsters. Half eagle, half lion, and all predator, this creature is the subject of today’s painting session.
This week we have 8 painters, and 3 projects to share with you.
Wardenclyffe Refund Update
Over the last couple weeks we have started our refund process, refunding almost $4,000 to over 40 backers. Unfortunately I have spent a week traveling for work, and so we have fallen a bit behind in the refund process – at present there are about 30 unanswered requests in my inbox. We will start catching up on that backlog over the weekend.
I’m sure that all of you realize that failing, especially in such a public way is very painful. We were extremely grateful for the support of our backers during the funding process and doubly so during the de-funding process. Everyone that has asked for a refund has been unfailingly polite and supportive, and almost everyone has requested to be reminded when we relaunch so they can help us try again. It’s really very moving.
Additionally we have had just over 30 backers wave their refund in whole or in part. These shows of generosity and understanding are impossible to over estimate. We knew there was an element of risk to trying to Kickstart our graphic novel, and while we acknowledge that every backer has the right to expect a full refund in the event of project failure, we are touched by those that share that risk with us.
The above numbers mean one more thing: we have only heard from about half our backers. If you haven’t yet contact us, please do so we can fill up the queue and see everyone made whole as soon as possible.
When we have exhausted the funds on hand, we will switch our focus to releasing a digital copy of the first issue so that everyone can see what we were able to accomplish, and share in our vision. We will get this out to our backers along with a detailed post mortem sometime in November
Thank you again for your patience and understanding.
Kickstarter Comic Round-up!
I wasn’t able to get to the comic store this week to get my browse on, so in lieu of a review, I turned to our favorite crowd-funding platform to see if anything caught my eye. I go through phases where I check the comic section religiously for new projects, and others when I get so discouraged by what’s there that I don’t go back for weeks. Well, I’m glad I went hunting, because there are definitely some diamonds among the dross. Peek below for this week’s top comics (on Kickstarter, and IMO…)
Caffeineforge 
Hells to the Yeah: Marvel and Netflix are having a Baby!
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