Tomorrow at 5:00 am PST I’ll push the big green button.

I feel optimistic but realize my campaign has a good chance of crashing and burning.

Wish me luck!

I’m launching my Kickstarter campaign for “Elon Musk and his Sweatshop on Mars” at 5am PST on Tuesday, May 4th.

As stated in the previous post, I stepped back from launching the campaign because I wanted to try to gather online followers.

I spent a couple of weeks trying to infiltrate the internet comic scene but gave it up as not for me. I posted on Webtoons, GlobalComix, Instagram, made my own Doug Sharp Comics and posted there.

I joined a couple of indie comics Discord servers and went out of my way to be friendly, jolly, and helpful and to post good art. I submitted Zondor for critique by a popular youtube indie comic maker team and got good reaction and feedback. In Discord threads I got some good reactions to my art and help and jokes, but didn’t connect with anyone like I usually do.

A fun crit of “The Flying Squids of Zondor.”

I realize that I don’t have the time or energy to work on my art AND to try to gather a social media following.

So I dive into Kickstarter counting on the title, the premise, the art, the video, and the spiffy campaign page to attract backers. I’ve seen other Kickstarter campaigns succeed with far less than that going for them.

I set the goal at $2,500.

Here’s the opening of the campaign story page:

“What’s Sweatshop about?

In space, no one can hear you scream… unless you work in Elon Musk’s Martian sweatshop.

Imagine being offered the chance of a lifetime: a front-row seat to witness history in the making as Elon Musk leads humanity’s first mission to colonize Mars. That’s exactly what happened to me when Musk hired me to chronicle his Mars Xpedition. But little did I know, I was about to uncover the ugly truth behind his Red Planet empire.

At first, I was Musk’s obedient scribe, documenting and praising his every move and decision. But as we journeyed through space, I witnessed cracks forming in his grand vision. I traveled in the same Starship as Musk and his bride, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and I saw things that appalled me.
 
Once we landed on Mars, Musk’s leadership grew more erratic and tyrannical by the day. He fired people on a whim. He implemented oppressive and arbitrary rules. Anger grew among the workers as he mercilessly pushed them to work until exhausted.

The insanity peaked when Musk and MTG  crowned themselves Emperor and Empress of Mars. Their reign was marked by chaos, scandal, and rebellion. And when Musk made the mistake of firing me, I knew it was time to expose the real story.

In “Elon Musk and his Sweatshop on Mars,” I’ll take you behind the scenes of this cosmic power trip, filled with shocking revelations, space adventure, wild twists, and a revolution that will shake the Red Planet to its core.

This isn’t just another space colonization story. It’s a satirical take on unchecked ego, abuse of power, and the consequences of letting tech billionaires shape our future. If you’ve ever wondered what might happen when megalomaniacs try to rule a planet, this is the graphic novel for you.

Trust me, you won’t want to miss how this ends.”

I hope that makes you want to read Sweatshop.

Here’s the campaign trailer again. Will it grab people? We shall soon see.

I’ve got $5 Early Bird deals on PDFs of the Sweatshop for the first few days.

I’d love it if you backed me. I’ll announce loudly on Tuesday.

The length of my campaign is 30 days. May will be a verrrry interesting month.

Wish me luck!

I halted launching my Kickstarter campaign for “Elon Musk and his Sweatshop on Mars” to gather followers, but am reconsidering.

Webtoon is the biggest webcomic platform. This is its front page for Sunday. Regular comic readers aren’t interested in quirky political satire. They want Romance in the style of Korean mahwa/Japanese manga. with familiar storylines. They want long series. They want them to be in vertical scroll format.

GlobalComics is the 2nd biggest comic site. After one week on the the platform my book “Your War: A Child’s Guide to World War III” has 107 views. I’ve got 3 followers there. Better but not encouraging.

I’ve been watching lots of youtube videos about how to make popular webcomics and I break just about every “rule” There may be some readers who would like more “challenging” comics but they will never see “Elon Musk and his Sweatshop on Mars” because it won’t be recommended to them.

The other promo sites are Instagram and Twitter. It would take me years to build an audience on either. And if a creator does build a huge following on these platforms, their follower don’t significantly back Kickstarter campaigns unless they have hundreds of thousands of followers.

According to experts, Facebook is the worst in converting followers into KS backers.

I’m not deluding myself into thinking Sweatshop will be a best-seller. Selling a few hundred copies would be cool.

Another recommendation to promote your comics is to go around to local comic stores that sell indie comics and see if they’ll take some on consignment. I may do that for fun after the KS campaign, but it’s not much exposure.

I’m considering launching my Kickstarter campaign for Sweatshop and crossing my fingers, There are many more “experimental” comics that get funded there. I have to hope the title, the quirky art style, and my supercool ( ) trailer video pique interest on the KS site.

In the next week I may pull the Kickstarter trigger for the campaign and hope for the best despite breaking all the “rules.” I’m pessimistic but–as ever–hopeful.

I’m learning a lot about the indie comic world.

I devoted the past month to preparing a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for “Elon Musk and his Sweatshop on Mars.” II put together a pretty nifty campaign page and reward levels and trailer. I was just about to launch it when I reconsidered and stepped back.

I had watched a lot of videos about how to run a successful KS campaign. They ALL said to gather online followers before starting. I thought Sweatshop was so brilliant that it would succeed just by attracting Kickstarter regulars.

But why should I handicap my campaign by not giving it the best chance to succeed? There is really no hurry other than Elon’s and my mortality, and I feel pretty healthy.

So I am changing direction for a while. The most important step I took is setting up a home for my comics–DougSharpComics.com. I set up a mailing list. Please subscribe!

I started posting on Instagram again. I’m started posting my comics to a couple of the biggest comic-hosting sites: Webtoon and GlobalComics. I’ve started posting on Xitter. It’s fun posting on Musk’s playground under the name “Graphic Novel: Elon Musk & his Sweatshop on Mars”. I will persist in trying to get him to notice one of my tweets.

One video I watched about promoting comics advocated taking your comic to local indie comic shops and talking to the owner about leaving them on consignment. That sounds fun.

Learning a lot about the indie comic business.

Here’s the trailer.

Wish me luck!

And please join my mailing list.

Working hard on this site. I uploaded two of my books:
“Your War: A Child’s Guide to World War III“

“The Flying Squids of Zondor“.

Your War still makes me sad. Zondor scrambles my brain and leaves me giggling.

Getting into the world of indie comics. Fun new adventure.
I’m sharing my books here and with Globalcomix, Webtoons, and Instagram.
After I set up this website I’ll upload some pages. Then back to work on “Elon Musk and his Sweatshop on Mars”.