Failing Successfully: the truth behind Part-Time Comix crowdfunding

the happs and the craps of an Indie Publisher

For immediate release, ok to publish-

Hey hey! People seemed to enjoy the honest look behind the scenes of PTC and comic cons, so we thought we would give you some more dirt on the indie scene. Let’s break down some crowdfunding numbers, fresh off our FIRST 5 FIGURE campaign ever! Or was it??

Funding isn’t always a Fun thing.

First off, we are super grateful to all who backed and shared and cheered on the campaign (or any campaign!). We are going to be honest here, but we don’t want you to take this as a complaint session. We have had a TON of success on crowdfunding and we would not be here without it and without the backers. Times are tough and we respect any dollar people are willing to give us. We recently had an $11,000 campaign for 3 issues of Drumsticks of Doom with 171 backers. Kickstarter is an all or nothing funding platform and people seem love to rally behind that “all or nothing” mentality. We decided to offer a sort of subscription campaign this time, hoping to save our backers time and money and save ourselves from launching multiple times this year. As we neared the end, it was pretty clear we would not make minimum funding. I like to say “we” a lot, to feel like a legit company, but 99% of all decisions are made be me, Jon Westhoff. I made the decision to ask a relative for a large loan to supplement the last part of the campaign, rather than start over. It’s not just that I hate to fail, it’s also extra stress on the backers and myself to relaunch. It’s not a huge deal, THE BOOKS WILL STILL COME OUT, we take pride in delivering 100% of what we offer. My collaborators and I have never failed to deliver a book and we will not this time. And this is not the first book I have done this. Let’s back up.

I started Part-Time Comix in 2019 with about $5000. I used these funds to shift around to multiple projects, to get them started. In Fall of 2021, after 2 successful Kickstarters for Child Possession Services and On the Stack, Part-Time Comix launched Depowered 1. Following 2 modest goals, we decided to go set a higher goal of $4000. The production cost for Depowered was a bit more so we set the goal there. It failed to fund. We barely broke 50%, but we had 127 backers strong and I decided to relaunch on Indiegogo… to almost no backers. I usually balance 2-3 books at a time and at that time, our highest cost book was set to launch in January 2022 (Drumsticks of Doom). I felt like I needed to recoup some cost and fast. I decided to do a preorder campaign with no frills and about 60 people supported. So, I started that series a few grand in the hole, but our art team got their agreed upon rates and I was okay with moving forward. We had a great launch to Drumsticks of Doom, but my fear of losing funding “momentum” had started.

With Drumsticks, I started setting goals below the “break even” mark. I see a lot of peers set goals well below that, starting at $500 or $1000, but that is not a strategy I have employed yet. I felt like it was better to have money coming in, so my limited start up money wasn’t tied up and preventing projects from starting.

The next year, in 2022, ended up being a very successful year with 4 books funded! Two of those were Drumsticks of Doom! We were still reaching goals about 20% below “break even”, but we were building momentum now. I had made the decision to continue with Depowered, behind the scenes, and launch issue 2 in 2023. Here’s where I made another blunder. I decided to pair up Depowered 2 with our clear “Flagship title” in Drumsticks of Doom. This did not allow either book to really shine and neither reached their needed financial goals. And to make matters worse, I did it again in 2023 with three books (including Depowered 3). I fell into several pitfalls, the most common referred to as “the sunk-cost fallacy.” The sunk cost fallacy is the irrational tendency to continue an endeavor based on past investments of time, money, or effort, rather than current benefits. Instead of slowing down and acknowledging the clear struggle a book was having, I allowed it to derail some of the momentum we were gaining. I am still very proud of Depowered and I am confident it can find an audience in collected form, but it was clear what I should have done after issue 1. Unfortunately, I made some similar mistakes in 2024.

Each issue of Drumsticks of Doom was doing well, still a little below break even, but the trade paperback had given us a small boost. Even better, it was something that really supported online and in-person sales to a great degree. However, even some Drumsticks and more “non-Drumsticks” books started to stall before reaching funding goal. This was the year I started to borrow money to fund books. In fact, since the start of 2024, more than half the books have required anywhere from $400-$1000 to reach the minimum funding goal and (again) the initial goal was already 20% below what I needed. I will avoid naming books, because I already feel I have, unfairly, tagged Depowered as a negative experience. Really, I am fortunate to have a good job and I can balance a little more toward creative goals, while I figure out how to line them up with financial needs of the business.

TL:DR- The last 5 years have had much success, but poor financial decisions, such as using personal funds, personal loans and a refusal to let a project “fail”, have culminated in an unsustainable business model. And to clarify, the books have made GOOD MONEY with a lot of hard earned dollars supporting us. I take great pride in paying any contributor the page rate agreed upon(and providing COMP copies, ya cheapskates ;) ). I have never missed an creator/artist payment and that is 99% due to the amazing backers. Also, we have copies to sell at conventions and online. We have also had some new avenues open up, like Distribution with Massive Indies, that will bring in new revenue streams, which is AWESOME(and I will talk about in an upcoming article). However, that brings us back to the current timeline. With balancing the money you have to pay ahead to produce retail books and prep it for mass distribution, I, like many, am now borrowing large sums of money to keep it afloat. I take 100% responsibility and I am proud of the books we have made, even if that means we are likely to change drastically next year or end our journey in comics publishing. My hope is that others read this and know the struggle is real (even if others “look successful”) and I hope you can do better than I at managing the business side.

FINAL ISSUES- LATE PLEDGES STILL OPEN for a short time!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/parttimecomix/dofdqofq1

Covers by Dan Dougherty, Chuck BB, Tyrell Cannon, Daniel White, Mike Norton and Robert Hafferman

Coming to Local Comic Shops!

We are so excited to have our first TPB coming to stores! In stores in July!

The time to tell your LCS is now!

https://www.lunardistribution.com/home/search?term=Drumsticks

Retail: $19.99

Initial Due Date: 5/28/2026

FOC Date: 6/29/2026

In-Store Date: 7/29/2026

ISBN: 9798893729221

Page Count: 112

Product Code: 0526MP0997

PTC appearances!

Jon got to talk about one of his favorite Albums, from one of his favorite bands!

We tried to not bring the Troubadour energy!

CBAM 4 is go! May 30!

I am helping Dan put on a show this year! And my band is playing for the first time in YEARS!!!!!

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cbam-4comic-books-and-music-tickets-1984727073103