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Country Focus: Scotland Comics publishing
Comics creators in Scotland welcome return of conventions and enjoy Kickstarter boost
While a number of comics publishers in Scotland have been harnessing the power of Kickstarter for some time, the pandemic was a stern test of their direct to consumer credentials
A
Tom Tivnan @tomtivnan
20 18th February 2022
do-it-yourself ethos backed by canny use of crowdfunding has helped see Scotish comics publishers through the pandemic, despite the bite of Brexit and the loss of revenue from selling directly to fans at comic-cons.
Edinburgh-based comics
writer and artist Eve Greenwood established their publisher, Quindrie Press, in 2020. Its use of Kickstarter in geting fans to support specific titles and pre-order up to an entire year’s worth of books has allowed it to thrive despite launching in the teeth of the pandemic. Greenwood says: “I’m not going to say it’s been easy. With conventions stopping—and even now still a bit tumultuous—sales have been hit, and we didn’t really
have a physical store-front, plus print costs have risen. But the readership is still absolutely there; people are so hungry to read new comics and support creators. We hit nearly £40,000 with our first Quindrie Kickstarter. I’ve done a lot of them [as a creator] and it was the most successful project I’ve ever run. So even though the pandemic has been hellish in so many ways, it’s actually been a really interesting time to launch.” Quindrie is currently mid-campaign for its newest Kickstarter, and its first web comic-to-print project, Spire Eaton’s “genre-defying, dark, urban sci-fi, superpower, psycho- logical horror story” Recoil 1. Greenwood has a background in webcomics and has writen their ongoing and popular series,
Inhibit, since 2015—they say the platform helps in drumming up support: “I’ve been building my online audience for seven years, slowly making a name online, but also meeting people through conventions. [Crowdfunding] is not a kind of thing where out of the blue you set up something like Quindrie and say, ‘Hi, give us a lot of money.’ It takes years of prep.” They established Quindrie—it is the name of their childhood home, which “also sounds kind of fantasy, sci-fi and mysterious”— partially to bring some of the lessons they have learned to other creators, particularly up-and- comers and those from previously marginalised communities. They add: “On top of that, Scotland’s convention and comics scene is fantastic. But when some think about UK comics, they think London, Leeds, Brighton. So I wanted to help highlight how many fantastic indie comic creators we have up here.”
Fox in the box
The crowdfunding model has also been successful for Linlithgow’s Blue Fox Press. In fact, when I speak to founder Simon Birks, he is on the cusp of launching his 41st Kickstarter campaign since the indie’s establishment in 2015. He says: “Kickstarter is so tried and trusted now for comics. It’s a core of what we do. And I think it will still be, despite what they are trying to do with NFTs.” (In December, Kickstarter announced its plans to adopt an open-source blockchain
“Scotland’s convention and comics scene is fantastic. But when some think about UK comics, they think London, Leeds, Brighton” Eve Greenwood, Quindrie Press
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