Kickstarter's comics director speaks on the successes in 2022, and challenges ahead for the company and crowdfunding in general

One of the biggest successes in the past decade for comics (and in creative endeavors in general) has been crowdfunding, and Kickstarter is almost synonymous with said movement. But the pandemic, supply chain issues, and the company's announced plans to be involved in the highly-suspect world of blockchain are bound to have affected the bottom line for Kickstarter comics, yes?

No, not really.

For the comics section of Kickstarter, 2021 was the best year ever - and 2022 is tracking to be similarly successful. According to Kickstarter's director of publishing & comics outreach Oriana Leckert, Kickstarter comics campaigns have raised over $5.5 million in the first quarter of 2022 - less than a $100,000 difference than in Q1 of 2021. The first quarter of 2022 has had some previous Kickstarter success stories return such as Let's Play and Stand Still. Stay Silent, as well as some new faces such as Kolchak: The Night Stalker and Arsene Lupin, Gentleman Thief.

Popverse spoke with Kickstarter's Oriana Leckert to dig into the story of Kickstarter Comics in 2022 so far, as well as the factors that are pushing and pulling it along. In the conversation, we cover Kickstarter's decision to get into blockchain, the rise of ancillary fulfillment companies in a Kickstarter ecosystem, and what goes into curating what should be a Kickstarter project.

We've just passed the halfway mark of 2022, and in the past, Kickstarter has been very transparent about statistics of what's happening inside the company. 2021 was Kickstarter's best year ever - so how is 2022 so far?

Oriana Leckert: My purview is #KickstarterReads — publishing, comics, and journalism — and in those categories, we’re tracking to do just as well or slightly better than 2021.

Since Kickstarter campaigns run for about a month, we won’t have full H1 data until the end of July, but as of June 1st, we’ve had 3,628 projects launched (there were 6,778 total in 2021), and the success rate is 62%, the same as it was last year.

We also look at the success rate for projects with at least 25 backers, which is a strong predictor of crowdfunding success as it indicates creators who are reaching beyond their inner circle. Sitewide, that success rate is currently 78%; in publishing, comics, and journalism, it’s 84%, and looking at just comics, it’s an astounding 87%.

Comics have been the Kickstarter category with the highest success rate for years now. Is that still the case? If so, why do you think that is?

I’m delighted to confirm that it’s still the case, for the sixth year in a row. I think there are two main reasons for this: the savviness and originality of Kickstarter comics creators and the support and dedication of Kickstarter Comics backers.

Comics has always had a strong DIY spirit, and concepts like crowdfunding