I Found the Worst-Ever Comic on Kickstarter

As I daily scour the Kickstarter search function to review and analyze each and every project launched in the Comics category, I discover some real stinkers, lots of campaigns without one pixel of art (when comics, by definition, consist of art) or with non-sequential art generated by AI or with art on the interior that’s of suspiciously lower quality than that on the covers.

But never before have I come across something as egregiously negligent or as simply laughable as this:

That is the one and only image from a campaign launched in the Comics category on Wednesday, February 19. Scrabblers the Comic describes itself as “an all originally drawn and written single frame stick figure wordplay comic”, but it’s really the biggest damn joke to hit Kickstarter since potato salad recipes (IYKYK).

The fact that the cover image for this travesty includes an actual unflushed piece of shit is somehow poetic, given that Trust & Safety approved this 3-sentence, and 1-image campaign page for the Comics category when:

• There’s not a single sign of a single attribute of a comic;

• There’s no description of any sort of what might comprise the end product for this campaign;

• The only visual evidence that anything is likely to be created here is literally a pencil-drawn turd on a shred of lined notebook paper.

If you’re currently funding a Comics project on Kickstarter, this could be the image adjacent to yours on a page of search results, particularly if you launched on February 19 or if the “sorted by Magic” option is selected. And how does that cheapen your hard work and talent for creating comics in the eyes of prospective backers when this bullshit is your visual neighbor? It’s a real and valid concern.

We already contend with frequent porn-ridden Kickstarter page cover images that ward away potential backers who want comics and are not of the smut mindset. We don’t need to also worry that many of those same backers consider Kickstarter comics in general to be as worthless and devoid of value as Scrabblers the Comic.

In all likelihood, this project was automatically approved by Kickstarter’s program, because it’s from a first-time creator. It’s ass-backwards, but that’s how their submission process is set up, while long-time creators with proven track records of timely and reliable fulfillment (ahem, like me) always wait from 3-10 business days for campaign approval every…single…time. And, if I, a person who doesn’t work for Kickstarter, so easily identify (in a few minutes per day) this sort of hollow campaign that’s guaranteed to produce nothing but disgust and disdain from backers, why doesn’t someone at Kickstarter see it and do something about it, even if it was auto-approved for launch?

Easy fix:

1. Stop auto-approving first-time creators.

2. Set minimum standards for Comics campaigns to show evidence an actual comic is in production.

3. Apply and abide by those standards.

Thank you for your consideration.