“God Hates Astronauts” is back! Well…almost. Ryan Browne is funding a new volume of the series via Kickstarter. “3-D Cowboy’s 2-D Spectacular” features – surprise! – 3-D Cowboy, the narrator of the story who briefly lost his job to Charles Soule. Joining Browne on this journey are a murderer’s row of talent, including James Harren, Zander Cannon, Rob Guillory, and more. You can check out the full list, and back the project, on Kickstarter.
But that’s not all!
Ryan has agreed to do something special for you, the Multiversity faithful. When you back the project, if you tweet it with the hashtag #MC3DCowboy, Browne will pick one of the tweeters at random to award a special sketch to. He promises it will be “way, way better than all the others – but don’t tell anyone else.”
Oops!
Even if you’ve already backed the project, just send out a tweet with the hashtag and you’re eligible to win the sketch.
So, check out this interview with Browne, pick up your copy of the book, and make sure to tweet out the hashtag for a chance to win the sketch!
You are no stranger to Kickstarters, Ryan. Why do you prefer to take our money directly, as opposed to going through a publisher?
Ryan Browne: I love publishing with Image Comics (as I am currently doing every month with “Curse Words”) but there are some benefits (and huge challenges) that you can only get through crowd-funding. When you work with a publisher, you project has to be approved and worked into the company’s schedule. With Kickstarter, I make those decisions myself so I don’t have to write as many emails–I can just start making the comic. Another big reason is that it’s a true direct market to my readers. They pre-order the book and then 91% of their money (Kickstarter takes about 9%) goes straight towards, printing, shipping, fulfillment, and then paying for the artists that make the book. With a publisher, a lot of the sales money goes to Diamond’s distribution and not to the creators.
I think it’s thrilling that the creators make money for their work rather than the middle-men. That’s why I’ve backed over 50 Kickstarters myself.
“God Hates Astronauts” had a run at Image, but it appears that you are bringing it back to a self-publishing model. What are the pros/cons of putting our your book through someone else? Will we see these comics, possibly, put out in the future through Image or another publisher?
RB: A lot of this goes back to the previous answer. Doing a Kickstarter means I get to add all these goofy things for my fans, like shirts, toys, and weird handmade special editions. That’s the kind of personal stuff you don’t get when you solicit a book through a company like normal. I’m not sure what the future of “God Hates Astronauts” or this new volume will be, I’ve had nothing but great experiences with Image and hope to keep working with them. My current focus is just on making this weirdo book as a limited edition fancy ass hardcover, and once that’s done, I’ll have to figure out the next step.
Your KS is already funded – are you a greedy sonofabitch, or is there a reason why it is important for it to go above and beyond its goal?
RB: HAHA! Pretty pumped about getting funded–but that goal was in place for a reason. The $30,000 pays for printing books and shirts, shipping, fulfillment, and paying all of my collaborators for their work. At $30,000 I actually don’t make a dime–but I get my book made, which is so worth it. Sales beyond the goal is where I make some money for my hundreds of hours of work. But yeah, on the surface it does look like I made a ton of money, but it’s always good to remember that the money is put into the project and Kickstarter is a fantastic way to get something made and not necessarily to get rich.
GHA has become your epic, going from a webcomic to this large, multi-volumed extravaganza, but it also seems totally off the cuff and improvisational. How much planning goes into these stories? And, how different is it to be writing these tales for new artists to tackle?
Continued belowRB: Oh there’s no planning–especially with these short stories. All of the creators picked a character they wanted to draw and then I just winged it. That’s part of why it’s so fun to work on! I’ve gotten pretty good at improv comic writing and I’ve been trying to write in various callbacks to earlier stories to build an overall narrative.
I’m friends with everyone who is working on this book so the scripts have a bunch of fun inside jokes and dumb references which don’t appear in the art. I’ve actually added the script as a stretch goal down the line so hopefully I will get to share that with everyone.
What are some of the stretch goals you’ve set out for the book?
RB: Well I’m most excited for people to get a PDF of the script and process art. We have since hit stretch goals for a bookmark and a sticker and we are getting close to adding a UV spot-coating to the hardcover book. Y’know, that stuff that makes certain parts of the book really shiny!? Well that’s what I’m talking about!
If we get that far I’ve got more up my sleeve–but we will talk about that when we get closer. Secrets!
How long do you see this series going on for, and do you think KS is going to be the way forward afterwards?
RB: My initial plan is to do two hardcovers via Kickstarter but that will depend on how difficult all of the fulfillment ends up being. I know what the second GHA book will be so hopefully I’ll be able to tackle it down the line. It is great publishing books through Kickstarter and I will consider it as a publishing option for all of my projects in the future.
Thanks so much to all my awesome fans that make this a possibility!
