My friend and cartooning colleague Stephanie McMillan is drawing a children’s book, written by Derrick Jenson. It seems like a cool project.
The funding mechanism is pretty cool as well; you can essentially pre-buy copies of the book (by donating $12 for pdf, $25 for dead tree), but your credit card will only be charged if they raise enough money to produce the book. (You could also donate more in return for more valuable rewards, like original art). If they don’t raise enough money, then none of the donors are charged anything.
Follow that link to see a video preview of the book (including the first five pages of art), or check out the more extensive Youtube preview.
I hope they raise the money they need. It’s a really neat idea — crowdsourcing grants for the arts, in effect. (I might try to fund the second Hereville book the same way!)
The webcomic “Multiplex” has been using a similar system – seems to be working pretty well.
The Internet: reinventing centuries-old patronage mechanisms and making them work better!
That is incredibly cool!