
Coffin Comics has announced the Release of Crowdfunding Platform: Coffin Launch
Coffin Comics, the brainchild behind Brian Pullido's many comic book projects, most notably of which is Lady Death, has announced the release of Coffin Launch. A brand new crowdfunding platform dedicated the Coffin Comics brand. So you'll no-doubt start to see new stories crowdfunded on this platform starring Coffin Comics favourites like Lady Death, La Muerta, Hellwitch, Lady Satanus, Lady Gunfighter, Chaotica and so much more.
This should come as no surprise from comic book creators who have crowdfunded their comics on Kickstarter who then get dealt the nasty blow of a 5% Kickstarter Fee of total pledges plus a 5% processing fee. While it might not seem like much, and could only amount to a couple hundred to a thousand dollars for a smaller indie creator, when you're talking in Brian Pullido and Coffin Comics terms, that 10% fee could easily be $2,500 to $10,000 per project. So this move makes plenty of sense and I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often.
Then you've got the thousands of pledges that comic book fans have made to his Kickstarter pledges over the years. When you start a new business venture, not everyone starts off with a mailing list of 50,000 supporters, which Pullido must have at this point.
Brian Pullido ran a live stream two days ago to make this announcement. Here's the bullet points from that presentation:
User Friendly Format
More Bang For Your Buck
Faster Fulfilment
Trusted Customer Service
Satisfaction Guaranteed
Trusted Coffin Comics Brand
No More Backer Surveys
Simplified Campaign Layouts
In fact, during the live stream he kept going back to slides on the Coffin Launch website which reiterated "Trusted Customer Service" and "User Friendly Format". Points which will form the basis about how they plan to differentiate themselves from their number 1 competitor - Kickstarter. The other differentiator being that Coffin Launch is being quite clear who is responsible for what in Brian's company. Adding a layer of transparency that places like Kickstarter and Zoop never have. Unless if you want to consider setting up twitter accounts for your staff? I know I don't.
Coffin Launch does seem quite fan-centric in Brian Pullido's attempts to not only aggregate his previous Kickstarter supporters to this new platform but to also provide a simpler way for hardcore Coffin Comics fans to obtain those previous releases in a cost effective way. At least, cost effective for Americans.
I am, however, curious about the long term strategy of this platform. While Coffin Comics does release A LOT of comic book issues, it would seem an error to only release their comics. Crowdfunding platforms thrive in a quantity over quality market. You could argue against that assumption and say that Kickstarter has both but that's a result of the quality of creators on there and not through any actions that Kickstarter has taken. Perhaps a good strategy here would be to vet other likeminded creators that want to promote their projects on the platform and slap the Coffin Comics sticker on them?
On the other hand, that point I made earlier about how it's unsurprising with the fees Kickstarter takes has resulted in this? Well... yes, but the money saved will need to be equally invested into advertising as Coffin Launch climbs this look mountain of Kickstarter holding the majority market share of comic book crowdfunding. So, is it really a saving? It all depends on what Comic Comics are looking to achieve. I feel like that question will be answered over time.
In any case, Brian Pullido and his team are uniquely positioned to change what the market of crowdfunding comics can and will look like in the future. Not taking advantage of this would seem like a error on their part. I'd much rather trust the future of comic book crowdfunding in the hands of a comic book pro than a glorified handful of website developers. Which is basically all Kickstarter are at this point.
Will this be for the better or the worse? Time will tell.
(And no, I'm not paid by any of the aforementioned companies)