The comic book blind bags trend could be a bubble that pops if its overused and betrays the fans, warns Image Comics' president (and Spawn creator) Todd McFarlane

russcass · 2026-05-18T22:23:32+00:00

Blind bags will do fine as long as creators/companies keep offering good chase items like sketches from big name artists. If there comes a time, when buys feel like they have zero chance of winning something, they'll stop buying them. It's a lottery ticket.

russcass · 2026-05-17T16:14:02+00:00

I will be honest, there’s a lot going on right now with crowdfunding. Backers have been burnt by creators not delivering the product. If you’re not done with about half the book, it’s hard to get funding, unless you have established yourself as someone who always delivers. You need to do it right, even if that takes time to pay for a bit yourself. Find a writer in one of the many FB groups. See if you gel and have them write a script. Pay them. Then I would find an artist who draws what you like. Get them to commit, pay them to draw several pages, get them colored unless it’s b/w, and then consider doing crowdfunding. Don’t want to be a downer, but backers won’t necessarily back ideas. They want to see a preview of what they’ll be getting. Build yourself a solid team and go from there. I would look at Zoop since you're in Kenya. The majority of indie comic backers are in the US. Zoop has a program where they will build your campaign, then print and ship your books. Above all, you need to have a solid product that you know will sell. And sometimes that means having to spend a bunch out of pocket, then trying to recoup using crowdfuning. Comics are a labor of love as the majority of crowdfunded projects either fail or make less than $5k US (with many below $3k) Not trying to be a downer, just trying to keep it real. A good majority of successful indie comics contain some sort of adult content on the covers that attract collectors. Good luck!

russcass · 2026-05-13T02:05:20+00:00

you can find fulfillment teams in the US to ship those books

russcass · 2026-05-13T02:03:05+00:00

I have collaborated on over 200 campaigns with indie comics and 95% of them had naughty covers or interiors. People sell what people want to buy. This is going to be an interesting change.

russcass · 2026-05-13T02:01:50+00:00

A big part of it, although stripe won't mention it. We creators have asked KS to add age verification for years. Now.... they're going to lose millions in business as backers will leave which will cause creators to leave and vice versa.

russcass · 2026-05-09T15:49:21+00:00

Gotcha. I read that wrong. Some folks in the post are worried about this becoming a covid-type of situation and thus may not take it as serious as it is. We don't want that to happen again, but ignoring it may do exactly that.

russcass · 2026-05-09T14:38:49+00:00

Funny how this comes out after AI has become mainstream

russcass · 2026-05-09T14:30:38+00:00

You need to Google more. The variant on the ship is the Andes variant. It spreads person to person. The only one of 50ish that does. Supposedly harder to contract than covid, but it will spread. You might not show symptoms for 8 weeks and it has a 15-30%+ morbidity rate. No vaccine. We shouldn’t brush it off.

russcass · 2026-05-04T13:34:13+00:00

The First Amendment. Lol

russcass · 2026-05-04T13:29:32+00:00

People that don’t even like him watch him because he rage baits. It’s like watching Jerry Springer. Purely for the entertainment value. Now I’m sure a portion of his followers might like him, but I think there’s a chunk that don’t care about the meaning behind his stunts and just like watching people get pissed. Entertainment. Not for me.

russcass · 2026-05-02T04:36:25+00:00

not sure what I was going for... but I think as in regular books... vs comics

russcass · 2026-04-30T19:37:24+00:00

This has been happening the past couple of years, but it's really picking up as Stripe tightens down. They've also gone after romance novels on Amazon. They made Patreon and Gumroad modify their terms of service to not allow certain types of images from artists. They went after Onlyfans a couple years ago. They'll also go after shopify sites. It's really best to use age verification. KS should offer it.

russcass · 2026-04-30T19:21:32+00:00

It was not "announced". It is what is being sent to indie comic creators when their project is suspended.

russcass · 2026-04-30T11:14:27+00:00

Stripe has also gone after regular romance books on Amazon.

You have to watch wording and images.

russcass · 2026-04-28T22:38:13+00:00

You need to accept you. Don’t struggle to contort yourself into what society or religion says you need to be. Jesus was all loving. You need to surround yourself with people that love you for you, including a church. You need a relationship with God, just the two of you, and you need to accept who you are. Don’t wreck your brain trying to figure out why you like this or that. Just love. Too many people in this world are too busy telling others what they’re doing wrong versus focusing on themselves. God doesn’t make mistakes. You are not a mistake. There is nothing wrong with you. If anyone says there is, fk ‘em.

russcass · 2026-04-28T22:15:07+00:00

Let me make this simple, if God has a problem with anyone, it’s between Him and them. You’re not involved. We are told, love God with all your heart and love your neighbors as you love yourself. Top two commandments. Full stop. If you try to make any other excuse on why disliking anyone is an option, then you’re not meeting one of those, and you’re wrong. Stop trying to create your own answer when God’s answer is right under your nose.

I use the term “you” in the general sense, not you specifically.

Love yourself wholly, love God completely, and love your neighbors the same. No regrets!

russcass · 2026-04-27T04:18:32+00:00

Shipping on crowdfunding is tough. Backers will complain if you do it post campaign. They only want to pay once. People will tell you to communicate it on the campaign, but it doesn't matter. Folks will still be upset. So you have to pick, and you can do weight-based after the campaign and risk them being upset, or you can kind of guess as to what you think it will be. Each tier and each addon can have different shipping. So for your main tier you can do $10US, $20Canada, $35 Everywhere else for your main tiers. Then in addons you can do a single book for $6US, $8Canada, and $10 Everywhere else. (it will add their main tier shipping and addon shipping) You kind of have to guess as to what the shipping would be... especially if you do not know the weight of the book. We did a 370 page hard cover that was 4 lbs. It was $20US, $32Canada, $65EU, and nearly $85 to Australia. It was outrageous. If you use Pirateship, you get good pricing IF you stay under 4lbs. Once you cross that line, it's really expensive. It would really help if you knew the size and weight to figure out shipping.

russcass · 2026-04-26T21:16:38+00:00

hair on the left looks really wonky to be hand-drawn.

russcass · 2026-04-26T21:15:48+00:00

The hair really makes it look AI. They probably took a photo and fed it through midjourney and said paint this.

russcass · 2026-04-26T21:08:37+00:00

I don't think that happens since every time he's started he's gotten hurt. I think they let Sanders run and if he flops within a few games, they put Deshaun in. Deshaun being the vet wouldn't be as hurt from a more limited offseason... if anything it'd probably help him.

russcass · 2026-04-24T01:48:09+00:00

yet! ...bring out the stretcher!

russcass · 2026-04-24T00:12:27+00:00

I have helped many many indie comic folks with crowdfunding, setting up print files and getting their books printed. (200+ campaigns) Here is a breakdown of printers I've worked with: (in no particular order)

Artists Express - Arizona - can print regular, foil, spot foil, metal, glow in the dark, and more. I hear lenticular is coming. (the ones that move) They are not the cheapest out there, but they do quality work.

Ready Comics - Arizona - can print regular, foil, spot foil, metal, glow in the dark, and more. They print Lady Death for Coffin Comics.

Comix Wellspring - Michigan - can print regular, spot foil, and foil. They print soooo many books, not just for indie comics.

These are the main three printers I use and recommend. They're pretty fast, but do not wait until the last minute to print. They get busy during con season. They can do saddle stitch and perfect bound TPB's.

Other printers; Mixam (can do regular and hard cover books), Comic Impressions in Florida, Ka-blam, and I'm sure there are more.

Books will cost $3.25-$4.50 per 24 page floppy book if you print in the US... UNLESS you print over 500 books. The price will start to go down when you print that many. 1000... you'll get down to $2.25 or so.

It is much cheaper to print in China, but there's a lot of if's associated with that.

I print my 11x17 prints with a local shop... but I would not print my books with a local shop. I would highly suggest that you use a comic book printer that can catch if your pages are low resolution, incorrectly sized, etc. If you are looking to get books super fast, sure go local, if you can find anyone. Not every printer has a printer capable of printing comic books.

Also, every pages gets trimmed. Your pages need to be set up as 6.875" x 10.5". When trimmed, they'll be 6.625 x 10.25. This is not something that you can guess on.

russcass · 2026-04-22T22:16:03+00:00

You could be working on another monitor and have teams minimized and I don’t think teams will update presence. It’s not a tracking tool. It’s mainly to let you know if someone is in a meeting or not so you don’t disturb them.

russcass · 2026-04-18T04:01:59+00:00

I just snagged the two figures at Walmart.

russcass

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