Better Grab Your Shades--The Future Is Bright!

What’s up, Bad Bugs?

A LOT has been going on in the Indie Comics world this week. But before we jump into that, a quick note to those who are new here:

Some of you may be seeing this newsletter for the first time because we’ve merged subscribers from our BackerKit Launch newsletter into this main mailing list. Going forward, this newsletter will be the primary source for updates on new launches, sales and promotions, exclusive covers, and so much more!

We made this change so we can continue keeping everyone informed, no matter how the crowdfunding landscape shifts. If we ever transition to new platforms or storefronts, this newsletter will be the best way to stay connected and make sure you don’t miss anything.

Back to the news:

If you follow indie comics news on social media, you’ve no doubt heard about the recent mature-content policy controversy surrounding Kickstarter and the pressure coming from their payment processor, Stripe.

While Kickstarter’s COO made a statement today (you can read that here) walking those guidelines back, the bigger issue still remains:

Stripe is the primary payment processor for most major crowdfunding platforms, which means “jumping ship” isn’t nearly as simple as it sounds. As a result, creators and publishers will need to evolve how they present and market projects in order to remain compliant while continuing business as normal.

Right now, any campaign can potentially be flagged by Stripe and shut down without meaningful remedial dialogue. Nobody—including Kickstarter—wants that outcome, which was the entire reason for those thorough mature content guidelines they released last week.

We’ve been in contact with representatives at Kickstarter, and we can assure you they are listening. However, there’s still a long road ahead before creators and backers have the peace of mind they’re looking for.

Bottom line: Kickstarter, mature content creators, and readers like you all want the same thing here and the solution isn’t as easy as anyone thinks, but it isn’t impossible to achieve either. If Kickstarter doesn’t figure it out, another platform will. Bet on that!

We want to reassure our readers and collectors that the heart of Bad Bug isn’t changing. As platforms and policies evolve, we’ll continue adapting how our campaigns are presented while remaining fully committed to wild stories and high-production quality that have defined our projects from the very beginning.

Collectively, our team has successfully launched more than 140 Kickstarter campaigns, and that experience has taught us how to evolve our presentation on the platform without compromising what makes our books special.

In the meantime, we have a website that sells EVERYTHING we’ve had on our campaigns and more: check it out here.

Bottom line: We’re not going anywhere. We’re like this guy:

Junk World 3 was supposed to launch today, however, with the Trust and Safety team at Kickstarter being overwhelmed by all the you-know-what, we believe we’ll need to wait for approval just a little longer before we’re able to launch. It will be launching tomorrow! You can still get signed up by clicking the image below.

What’s coming up:

• Midnight Artbook Vol. 2

• XenoGeist 4

• Bad Pussy 2

As always, if you wish to join in on topical discussions and have an uncensored, behind-the-scenes view into our productions, join our Discord here.

Bugs and Kisses,

The Bad Bug Family