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Friday, April 20, 2012

Ace Kilroy on Kickstarter!

sg
As most (all?) of regular Aquaman Shrine readers know, last year I and my co-creator/artist pal Dan O'Connor launched our online daily comic strip Ace Kilroy. Starting on October 31, 2011, Ace Kilroy featured daily black and white installments with an extra-large "color supplement" on Sundays, just like the classic American comic strips of the mid-20th Century.

During its initial story arc, Ace Kilroy managed to rack up some nice attention from various news outlets and some great reviews (from places like The Onion A.V. Club, Robot 6, Geekadelphia, Rue Morgue, and more), as well as an Eagle Award nomination for Favorite Web Comic. I'm sure I can speak for Dan when I say we were truly touched at the reaction our efforts got; working on Ace Kilroy has been enormously satisfying and it's been great that so many people enjoy it.

But as anyone even modestly involved in the world of comics knows, putting out an independent comic book--either in print or the web--is a money-losing proposition, unless you get really, really, really lucky. And while a decent amount of luck has fallen in Ace's way, we're still working hard at making the strip successful financially as well as creatively.

To that end, one of the things we're trying is a Kickstarter fundraising campaign, which went live on April 16. We're hoping to raise $2,000.00, and we're already over 50% there in less than one week, which is fantastic. But I would be a fool if I didn't try and maximize every advantage I had to get the word out about Ace Kilroy in general, and the Kickstarter campaign specifically--which is why I'm interrupting the Shrine's normal laser-like focus with this commercial announcement!

The Aquaman Shrine is not, and never has been, a moneymaking proposition. Because I don't own the character (oh, if only...), I cannot take advantage of the numerous, potentially-lucrative merchandising opportunities a blog with the Shrine's large and dedicated audience could have. When I first started the Shrine back in 2006, I had no idea I'd still be doing it six years later, and that it would grow into a multi-platformed brand, and would demand so much of my time, energy and, yes, money, to keep going.

Ace Kilroy is one of the ways I've been trying to come with something I could be proud of (like the Shrine), something I'd love working on (like the Shrine), that could potentially bring in some income (not like the Shrine). So I am asking everyone reading this to at least consider heading over to the Ace Kilroy Kickstarter page and help us reach our goal. Short of that, consider the spreading the word on your blog, Facebook page, or Twitter feed about the strip. By doing so, you'll be helping independent comics, helping me, and helping the Shrine.

Thanks for your attention!
sg

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