Comics Kickstarters were 24% more successful than other books in 2020

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A breakdown of Kickstarter's record-breaking $25 million year for comics

How to Think When You Draw
(Image credit: Lorenzo Etherington)

Kickstarter has closed the books on 2020, and as expected it was a record year for the comics division. A few months back, we reported that Kickstarter had already broken their year-over-year record of $16.9 million by October 2020 with $22m. Now with the dust settled, over $25 million was taken in for comics on Kickstarter.

$25,784,658 to be exact. 

(Image credit: Boom! Studios)
  1. BRZRKR by Boom! Studios: $1,447,212
  2. How to Think When You Draw 3 by Lorenzo Etherington: $1,100,139
  3. Ava's Demon: Reborn by Michele Czajkowski: $530,310
  4. Cmon Comics Vol. 1 by Cmon: $501,632
  5. Lady Death: Treacherous Infamy #1 by Coffin Comics: $376,256
  6. Madi by Z2 Comics: $366,610
  7. Let's Play Volume 2 by Leeanne Krecic: $355,563
  8. Lady Death: Malevolent Decimation #1 by Coffin Comics: $347,045
  9. Stand Still Stay Silent Book 3 by Hiveworks Comics: $315,830
  10. Michael Turner Creations by Aspen Comics: $275,496

And it's not just the revenue has increased, but also the percentage of successful comics Kickstarter projects has increased. 73.9% of all comics Kickstarters were successful in 2020 - up 4.9% from the previous year, and up over 15% from 2016. This success rate is emboldening, and atypical for Kickstarters as a whole - publishing Kickstarters had a 49.4% success rate in 2020, and games 57.4%.

As of February 17, 2021, Kickstarter's 'comics' category has received over $137m in pledges, with 10,900 comics projects successfully funded with $128m raised from those since the company began.

The growing involvement of major publishers and creators in Kickstarter has been a hot topic of conversation. 

Chris Arrant
Chris Arrant

Chris Arrant covered comic book news for Newsarama from 2003 to 2022 (and as editor/senior editor from 2015 to 2022) and has also written for USA Today, Life, Entertainment Weekly, Publisher's Weekly, Marvel Entertainment, TOKYOPOP, AdHouse Books, Cartoon Brew, Bleeding Cool, Comic Shop News, and CBR. He is the author of the book Modern: Masters Cliff Chiang, co-authored Art of Spider-Man Classic, and contributed to Dark Horse/Bedside Press' anthology Pros and (Comic) Cons. He has acted as a judge for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the Harvey Awards, and the Stan Lee Awards. Chris is a member of the American Library Association's Graphic Novel & Comics Round Table. (He/him)