Thank You For Reading The Comics

A quick note, I Eat Monsters has launched on Kickstarter. I’m very happy to be making this comic again and taking the time to finish the first storyline. We have all four comics available as single issues, the first three were previously in an anthology.

I think one of the things I appreciate most about you guys is that you’re actually reading the comics.

I spend a lot of time looking at other campaigns in the same comics ecosystem Kickstarter recommends to people who back my books.

After a while, you start to notice that people back comics for all kinds of reasons: the art, the covers, the collecting, the nostalgia, the creator, or simply because something about the book grabs them.

None of that is wrong. In fact, most of us rely on some combination of those things to keep making comics.

What my own data tells me is that you care about the stories as much as the covers. You’re also willing to follow me when I jump between genres, tones, and styles. Maybe that’s why so many of you have stayed with me from one series to the next.

There’s not always overlap—not every Blue Geisha reader is going to be a Voltessa reader, and I Eat Monsters is a different beast altogether. I like moving between genres, and I don’t see that as a liability. Even when I experiment with marketing—like the food-themed cheesecake covers for I Eat Monsters—it’s because I’m paying attention to what readers respond to while staying true to the story I’m telling. I prefer genre diversity.

My own tastes have always been all over the map. I grew up loving Marvel, monster comics, crime fiction, horror paperbacks, science fiction, exploitation films, samurai movies, and weird B-movies. But I also love biographies, historical fiction, and documentaries like Marwencol, about Mark Hogancamp, who, after a brutal assault left him with severe memory loss, created an elaborate miniature world populated by dolls representing himself, his friends, and his attackers.

I can get just as invested in a documentary about trauma and creativity as I can in a giant monster comic. Hell, as a lifelong football fan, I somehow found myself becoming a WNBA fan. Yes, Caitlin Clark got me through the door, but she missed much of last season and I ended up falling in love with the sport anyway. I don’t really separate “high” and “low” culture. I never have.

The truth is, I’ve always been fascinated by people. By what they create, what they love, what they survive, and how they make sense of the world. Sometimes that becomes a monster comic. Sometimes it becomes a crime story. Sometimes it’s a samurai revenge tale, or a science fiction book, or something else entirely.

As a reader and as a person, I’ve always wanted a bookshelf—and a life—full of different experiences.

As a creator, that’s what I’m trying to share.

—Justin

Bleedingpulp.com.