Bro Town artist talks the ins and outs of crowd funding

Comic book artist Ant Sang had a Spark Festival audience in the palm of his hand when he described how crowd funding meant he could publish a collector’s edition of his cult-classic comic the Dharma Punks.

The renowned artist, who also worked on Bro Town as a character designer, managed to raise $8500 in five days through crowd funding website Kickstarter.

The comic was first conceived in 2001, and follows anarchist Noodles in a plot to blow up a multi-national fast food restaurant being opened in Auckland.

Two years of work lead to an eight-issue collection of Dharma Punks and in 2013 the decision was made with friends to try crowd fund a reprint due to demand from fans.

“The response to the crowd funding campaign was what we hoped it would be but we weren’t sure.  As the date of the campaign launch grew nearer we got really nervous about whether we had misjudged things – will there be enough people who will actually want the book? But the response was really great so we were relieved about that.”

Sang spoke as a member of a panel that had collectively raised nearly %500,000 through crowd funding for projects that ranged from film to pallet gardens in post-quake Christchurch.

Panelist Kat Jenkins said that crowd funding actually gives power to individuals to decide what projects they want to go ahead.

“As much as it is about the crowd, it is about the individual and what you value,” Jenkins said.

Coralie Winn said the main question anyone should ask when considering whether to crowd fund or not, is “why should anyone care about my project?”

Anna Jackson said for successful crowd funding you needed to convince people your projects “are important and deserve support.”

Click here to see the Kickstarter profile that earned Dharma Punks $13,967 of support through crowd funding.