Overhead + Standard Fees like shipping / printing if applicable

Generally this is "everything" needed to make the thing. So fees for the artist, sometimes applicable, filing for copyright fees (or filing for patents), ISBN costs if applicable, cost of materials (if you do it yourself) or cost of it being made (either in country, or out of country or through contracts). And then a standard amount. You can break up the tiers, too.

Tier 1 is just support and gets the comic and a thank you card. Also a small name in the book for supporting.

Tier 2 gets the comic and some kind of shout out in the book, thank you card, and usually some small thing like a matching bookmark or sticker.

Tier 3 usually gets all of tier 2, but also gets something extra like copies of original sketches or doodles that would not be in the book. Usually they're signed.

And if you do a tier 4 they get not copies, but originals, of sketches and doodles, and they're matted+framed.

Tiers 3 and 4 naturally cost more, 1 they're getting better stuff, and 2 they're getting "bigger" fancy stuff that will cost more to make and more in shipping handling.

An important thing is that all tiers should get the "main" item you're marketing, and all tiers should get their name in the book as a thank you.

This might sound negative, but I just want to prepare you for the reality of running a Kickstarter campaign so that you know what to expect. It can be a very effective way to get funds, but it's also a huge obligation that may dominate your life for months, even years, and involve huge up-front work.

People nowadays are a lot more wary of pledging to Kickstarters in very early development, and a lot of the ones that are successful getting funded are already well along the way to completion, or even have all the pages completed and are looking to print. That said, you are more likely to succeed on a new project if you have a body of completed work on other finished projects that people can see, and an existing fanbase for it. You have a polished looking site with polished looking content on it, and that could be a huge help!

I would assume that people would expect a kickstarter comic project to result in a physical item and would pledge more to one that would, because usually kickstarter rewards are physical. People expect to pay a LOT less for digital-only projects (yes, even though paying an artist and developing and making a comic costs way more than a print run of books, I know, people are... frustrating at times, but... yeah, "them's the breaks" as they say).

Some other notes from my experiences of being involved with both successful AND unsuccessful kickstarters.

• Presentation means a lot. If your Kickstarter has some great art to show off and a fairly polished video, those will both really help, and if somebody browsing kickstarter has never heard of you or your work, you'll be relying on this a lot to catch peoples' eye and to look professional and like you get things finished with polish. Pretty pictures, nicely themed banners for reward tiers, concept art, teaser pages... The more, the better.

• Having a big "high concept" really helps. People will throw money at projects from total unknowns with zero industry experience if it sounds like something they want in their lives, or something they want to support. Whether that's more of a genre or type of content most mainstream publishers don't cater to, work from a creator from a marginalised or under-represented group in the industry, or an absolutely amazing story concept that's unique or just very appealing.

• Don't set your cost right down to the wire. You will inevitably find extra costs pop up here and there, from the substantial cut that Kickstarter takes (about 10% I believe, and yes, that's out of the total visible on your campaign, leading the people who pledged to tend to think you got more money than you did), to the cost of mailing out all the rewards, budget for an extra 10-15%, and don't just assume you'll get that by going over your initial goal, budget for barely passing the finish line and be thankful if you do better.

I hope that helps you make an informed decision. If it was me in your position, I personally wouldn't do it. I'd try to come to an agreement with the artist to do a few pages, then try to get funding coming in via patreon or similar to fund a full issue, then when I could put that on the web, I'd consider running a kickstarter. That's just what I'd do though, I'm a stingy, risk-averse person, and as an artist, I've never had to make that call. Do what you think seems best.

Kickstarter is definitely more for physical products and people probably won't back a project where they won't be getting a book. Even if it's a single issue. I think a the collected 5 issues would be preferable BUT since the project hasn't even begun, you have't started working with this artist you found, and you don't have the following yet, keep it small. Have a sample of the comic so that people know what they're investing in.

We had 800 backers for our last Kickstarter so I disagree with the advice of putting all of your backers names somewhere on the project partially because of the potential for it to get out of hand, the possibility that some people do NOT want their names on there, and it just looks a little unprofessional.

Make sure you account for printing costs of the actual project itself, any of the costs for the extras you might have to produce for higher tiers, shipping costs (especially for out of country sales) and paying your artist out and keep in mind that Kickstarted takes a cut. Be sure to also give yourself enough financial leeway too because this WILL take up a LOT of time if it manages to get kickstarted.

Also make sure you set a very realistic deadline for shipping out the project.

Not sure if you know but we've a comic anthology Kickstarter funded before. (I'm not the one creating it but I'm in the anthology).

You can see our page on the link down there and @faeriesandents can tell you more about t since they're into their second Kickstarter for a novel anthology :

To be honest, we're all small creators and we almost not able to get it totally funded before the time limit. Everything was kinda smooth the first two weeks but then we don't get many despite a lot of us promoting it everywhere and lacked like, half of it(?).

We got lucky a generous anonymous backer help us with the last 1.600, if not this comic Kickstarter might not be able to be funded completely and have to cut the comic production, so you probably really need to think about the cost and everything thoroughly And planning About the promotion.

Like others have said, people pledging to Kickstarter are often looking to own a thing, preferably a physical thing. Not to say you can't have digital only tiers, but are you planning on posting the comic to Tapas or Webtoon after the Kickstarter is done? If so, you really ought to disclose this, but that means you're asking people to pay for something that's going to be free for everyone else as soon as the comic is finished and posted.

That's not much incentive. You'll have to come up with some extras that your Backers will get to make it worth it for them.

Also, don't start your Kickstarter at the end of the year. I don't know about the laws of your country, but for tax purposes it's much easier if you're able to spend all your funds in the same year that you earned them, so that you can deduct some of the expenses.

If you can't fund your artist to do the first issue of your comic exactly as you have it planned, how about to cut costs? Like drawing it in b/w instead of colou,r or any other related stuff that helps the artist put less hours in the work. You could get to an agreement with him.

I say this because, regardless of you doing Kickstarter, or Patreon, or whatever you decide, you need to start the work and make the people before make the money.

I remember an animation project (I can't remember the name ) that funded the episodes of their story with Kickstarters. Their first Kickstarter didn't achieve the money goal, so they posted what the money they gathered let them do.

So that first episode has some scenes that are just sketches, or just the lineart, but posting it let them reach to more people, and with that they could make it in the Kickstarter for the second episode.

With this I don't mean "do the Kickstarter", I mean use the money you already have wisely.

In the case of comics, this could relate to do a raf webcomic, build audience, and then fund a print version that's all neat and fabulous

Regarding the copyright part:

When you do something like make a printed vers of your work, you should put a copy of the stuff you're going to put in that book in the office that takes charge of that.

Copyright doesn't protect abstract stuff, like ideas. But it can protect that physical expression of your work before it goes through the hands of editors, printers, etc.

It's just a legal proof that it is yours, like have a proof that your house is yours signed before notary.

You still have your rights over the work from the very moment you create it, that's just an irrefutable proof in the eyes of legality and something you can signal to your editor/printer when you send them the work.

"I already put it under copyright so I can send it to you on..."

You don't have to leave the exact final version all edited and marvelous in the office, just the content, and you still can do small changes after, as long as that content doesn't radically change (like change the plot of the story).

Copyright is handled by the gobernment and it's only valid in that country, you should look there (in their site) what you have to do and where to go to register a work.

Still, keep in mind if a big company stole your work, would you have the money to sue them?

It may not be absolutely effective, but nothing is, they're just small measures, like lock your door when you go to sleep, it won't stop a burglar to enter if decided, but it may help in many situations.