Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, entertainment, kickstarter

Watching Your Numbers

Published Sun, 08 Jun 2014 12:00:26 -0500

Peter Hon is the creator of MALDEN, a webcomic that mixes Buddy Comedy Movies with Anime Inspired Action and Looney Tunes. Malden Vol. 1 Kickstarter ends July 2, 2014 and the book will be printed/delivered in October.

Peter Hon writes,

…. this has been the experience I've had with Kickstarter. It is a bane of good feelings, doled out in doses like meth from Breaking Bad. Yet when you go too long without that hit of someone becoming a backer, withdrawal sets in and you feel like spooning your brains out because you need more.

Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself. I'm Peter Hon, and I do the webcomic Malden.

What is Malden you ask? Well, it's what happens when Bill & Ted's Excellent Avdenture met with Calvin & Hobbes, with a little bit of shonen/superhero battles mixed in ala Drangonball Z. Meaning LOTS of collateral damage. What can I say, I have ADD and enjoy destruction.

But why am I here on Bleeding Cool? I'm trying to find new readers of course!

A bit of history, I've worked for companies like Popcap Games/Microsoft, which looks good on a resume, but I was always a mook. The 2D Artist/Production artist that made the art work in the game, but not good enough to keep on after a project finished. It is terribly disheartening to not become a full time employee after putting in 60+ hour weeks, not seeing your friends/family during the whole ordeal.

It is also soul crushing to be turned down for a full time position because your professional work "lacks initiative" (a quote from my last interview) and being told that your Malden stuff is more dynamic/interesting. So I figured, "Hell, I'll just get Malden printed then if that's how it is!"

Which brings us back to the Kickstarter. Malden Vol. 1 is up live on Kickstarter, but it is not exactly burning a meteoric streak to its goal. It was always hard to establish an audience because:

Malden was a long form comedy comic in a sea of gag a day webcomics.
Malden was also vying for adventure comic fans, who aren't all that big on cartoon animals wrecking cosmic collateral damage across Seattle.

Malden was always aiming to be a printed comic, and it reads well in collected comic form.

And I'm a bit scared that may not happen, at least through Kickstarter. Now it's not like there haven't been small victories during the campaign. I have new folks who are hearing about Malden through Twitter/Facebook/Instagram/Tumblr all the time, AND the campaign made it into Kickstarter Staff Pick status. So it's given me great exposure and I learned how to promote myself.

But you know what? What I want?

…. that's what I want. I want to destroy this pledge goal like some super powered Penguin shooting a laser beam out of its mouth at a Platypus Burrito Lord. (This happens in the book, if you're wondering).

So here I am, writing an article for Bleeding Cool. Bleeding Cool?! A production artist who's been struggling for recognition, trying to make it big, and now I'm writing to Bleeding Cool?! It's nerve wracking, but oh so exciting too.

Will you help me do this? Will you join in my cause? Are you a little guy in a world full of big guys keeping you down? Would it feel good to help a fellow little guy out (well more middle class, trying to make ends meet), propelling them into victory? It better, because they've been playing with that trope in Hollywood forever!

AND YOU CAN DO IT! WE CAN ALL DO IT! I'll just need a little bit of backing and a address to send your book when this is all finished.

*cue Pulp's Common People*

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