The Kickstarter for three new titles from Archie Comics raises a lot of interesting questions for potential backers.

Archie #1 Variant Cover by Francesco Francavilla.

Archie #1 Variant Cover by Francesco Francavilla.

When Archie Comics announced in December that they were ending their main line of books and starting over from scratch with a new Archie #1, my interest was instantly piqued. It doesn’t hurt that they’ve lined up Mark Waid and Fiona Staples to launch the book – that sort of ‘mainstream’ talent is a great way to draw in new specialty shop readers who may otherwise thumb their noses at Archie. Personally I think Archie Comics, as a decades-old publisher of solid all-ages-appropriate comics, plays an important role in keeping the comics industry going; after all, who among us didn’t read some Archie comics when they were a kid? And given their other recent intitiatives (the horror line, Dark Circle), the publisher has a lot of great stuff going for it right now.

(Sidebar: the final issue of the long-running Archie series, and effectively the end of the ‘classic’ line, is #666. If that book doesn’t end with the Dark Lord opening up a hellmouth and swallowing all of Riverdale, I’ll be really disappointed.)

That’s why their latest move is a little puzzling. On Monday Archie Comics issued a press release announcing a Kickstarter campaign to fund the launch of three new series: Jughead, Betty & Veronica, and a new Kevin Keller series, Life with Kevin. It’s not puzzling that they’re launching new titles, or that they’ve lined up great talent for the books (Chip Zdarsky writing Jughead is really exciting, Dan Parent continuing the story of Kevin Keller is a no-brainer, and the absolute stunner – Adam Hughes writing and drawing Betty & Veronica). What’s puzzling is the Kickstarter itself.

Archie #1 Variant Cover by Chip Zdarsky.

Archie #1 Variant Cover by Chip Zdarsky.

Hasn’t Archie been around for seventy-five years? Obviously the answer is ‘yes’, as they’re promoting the new books as part of their 75th anniversary celebration. Why, then, does an established company that has continuously been publishing comics for three-quarters of a century need a Kickstarter to put out new books?

The obvious answer is obvious: maybe Archie’s not doing so hot financially. The level of experimentation that we’ve seen from them over the past several years has been fantastic and has yielded some great comics, but it’s also somewhat indicative of a company with nothing to lose. It seems hard to believe that would be the case, though, since Archie Comics can still be found at grocery stores and drugstores, and will soon be carried at Walmart and Target, all of which is more than can be said for any other comic publisher. They may not be as big a player in comics as Marvel and DC are, but they’re probably not hurting, either.

Life with Kevin art by Dan Parent and J. Bone.

Life with Kevin art by Dan Parent and J. Bone.

Another possibility is that they’re just doing it because it’s different, in which case, mission accomplished. The fact that it’s different has driven more online chatter (both positive and negative) about Archie than even the death of the character himself did, and has surely led to more eyes on the project. In just over twenty-four hours the campaign had already surpassed the $25K mark – still a long way to go from the goal of $350K, but a nice start nonetheless. As more information comes out, that’ll likely bring even more people onboard. Even if that’s not why they did it, the fact that it’s different is certainly working to their advantage.

Turning to Kickstarter’s not just different, but it can also be somewhat dangerous. I’ve seen my fair share of comic Kickstarters turn ugly after a few months pass with no finished product for the backers. I know I’ve personally gotten frustrated when projects that I’ve backed have been made available for sale to non-backers before all of the backer rewards are filled. Without more details on what Archie Comics’s schedule is for these books and how they’re planning to fill their rewards, there may still be too many unknowns for a lot of people to feel comfortable backing the project.

Betty & Veronica #275 Variant Cover by Adam Hughes.

Betty & Veronica #275 Variant Cover by Adam Hughes.

Perhaps the greatest of those unknowns is Adam Hughes. He’s the highest-profile creator attached to these books, and full interior work from him is few and far between anymore. With all of the cover work that he does and the quick paydays that those one-off projects bring, will he have the time (or, indeed, the motivation) to work on a full monthly book, especially one that’s not for a ‘big two’ publisher? When asked in an interview whether the Kickstarted books would be monthly, Archie CEO and publisher Jon Goldwater replied, “In an ideal world these books would be monthly, yes. We would strive to have them out as regularly as possible.” I feel like that has to be a sideways acknowledgement that Betty & Veronica might have trouble sticking to a regular schedule. Hughes is a great artist, and his work is definitely worth the wait, but this has to be on the minds of the publisher and fans alike.

The thing I find most interesting about this Kickstarter is the potential precedent it could set. When the Veronica Mars Kickstarter launched I recall a lot of gnashing of tweets about major studios asking people to fund their movies and the fear that this would become a new normal thing. So far it hasn’t happened, but it’s a model that I could almost see working for comics. Think about low-selling, fan-favorite books like She-Hulk that have ended recently. Conceivably Marvel could launch a Kickstarter for an additional six or twelve issues of the series, provided people agree to fund the project at varying levels ahead of time. It’s actually something that Mattel has been doing for a few years with their collector action figure subscriptions – if they sell enough subscriptions it’s a go, and if they don’t, the sub doesn’t happen. It’s basically just a different form of pre-order, but Kickstarter backers have the option to decide to what degree they want to support the project. Talk about voting with your dollars. How much is another year of your favorite series worth to you?

I’ll definitely be reading the Archie relaunch, and the prospect of the new books in the Kickstarter is exciting (Chip Zdarsky writing Jughead is an inspired choice). I hope that it’s successful and that we get to see everything that Archie Comics has planned for their revamped characters. In the aforementioned interview, Goldwater said that, even if the Kickstarter doesn’t reach its goal, those books will still be coming out. I look forward to picking them up, whenever and however they may be available.

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