In a surprise to many, Top Cow has announced it is turning to Kickstarter to fund the return of Cyber Force.
That concept for funding a series sounds very familiar…
Top Cow will be the first US major comic publisher to launch one of their biggest properties with top tier creators via the independent online fundraising campaign website Kickstarter. Utilizing the crowd funding website, Top Cow will reach out directly to fans to raise funds to produce at least the entire first 5-issue story arc for FREE. Supporters of the Kickstarter will be rewarded with one-of-a-kind incentives for funding including exclusive variant covers, an exclusive hard cover edition, and original art.
CyberForce is Top Cow’s best selling property, and with the 20th anniversary continuing this seems like a good test bed to see if this will be an approach other publishers take going forward.
Comics legend and Top Cow founder Marc Silvestri returns to the property that helped launch his company and Image Comics as co-writer, art director, and cover artist, spearheading his unique vision for the new series.
Joining Silvestri on the new series is interior artist Khoi Pham. Hot off of top-selling Marvel Comics titles including Avengers, Daredevil, The Mighty Thor, and X-Men, Pham’s art will bring to life this bold new vision of CYBER FORCE. The new series will appeal to fans of the original, as well as reach out to a wider audience by creating a cutting-edge world based on real technology. Co-writer and Top Cow President Matt Hawkins (Think Tank, The Test) will utilize his background in science to brilliantly lead the series in a never before seen direction.
While the campaign hasn’t appeared on the Kickstarter site yet, if it is funded, Silvestri (in an interview with the LA Times) says the entire five issue mini-series will be free in both print and digital forms.
While most everybody uses Kickstarter to fund a project in order to build it and then sell it, we at Top Cow are going to use the funds to build “Cyber Force” and give it away — for free! Plus we’re not talking just one issue but five full issues of the comic. And it won’t be free just digitally, but also as a full-color printed comic that will be available at any participating comic shop.
I don’t see this as a one-time gimmick, but a way that publishers will be creating projects in the future, and I hope that Top Cow is successful in their campaign.
via Top Cow, Image Comics, and LA Times
