Scaling Up Pesto Comics
So I’ve been trying to scale up Pesto Comics over the past few months as we enter the direct market and find all kinds of new readers out there that we never would have imagined finding before.
If you’re new here, thank you for being here. I really appreciate it.
But right now, I want to give you a little bit of behind the scenes of what’s going on.
Scaling is very important to the health of Pesto Comics. I could just do one comic every few months on Kickstarter, and that’d be very safe - even prudent to do.
I’d be able to hire an artist, make sure they get paid via the Kickstarter campaign, and really come out without having to carry too much debt for too long.
However, we’ve entered the direct market, and the direct market has certain needs.
The Direct Market Pipeline
And the need that the direct market has is that there’s a book on the shelf every month.
The way it works now is that Pesto Comics, in theory, has a home on the shelf. From Parts Unknown did a really good job selling 5,000 copies to 3,000 stores.
So on the Wednesday that From Parts Unknown comes out, it has a place. It has a spot on the shelf.
And now that From Parts Unknown has done the hard work of making sure there’s a slot for a Pesto Comics comic on the shelves, what you want to do is make sure there’s a Pesto Comics comic there every month.
So From Parts Unknown comes out monthly. Issue two is on your shelves now as of yesterday, and then one month from there you’ll find issue three, and then issue four, and issue five - and then we’re done, and we go on to SNIP.
But the whole point is we have to have this pipeline going. And in order for this pipeline to keep going, I need to make sure artists are working on the books well ahead of schedule.
Financing & Paying Artists
And how do I get them working well ahead of schedule? I pay them to do so.
And how do I pay them? With money from my day job. Out of my personal bank account, I make sure that these artists get paid.
So there’s a whole financial aspect to that - shareholder loans and all that kind of stuff, when you’re talking about the business side. Go talk to your accountant about that if you’re really curious.
But the idea is I’m paying for these out of pocket with hopes that I get the money back on the back end.
So there’s a lot of risk involved, and also just a lot of stress with having my personal bank account get drained to gamble on myself and the artists.
Now, I feel like this is the right bet and it’s the right thing to do. I think it’ll pay off in the long run - and you could tell me whether that’s silly or not.
Seeking a Government Loan
The other thing I was trying to do to maybe take a little bit of the risk off my shoulders is to get a government-backed loan.
To get a regular line of credit at one of the big five banks here in Canada, you have to have at least two years of financial history, and you have to have some income - which we’re still waiting for the payouts from, from From Parts Unknown.
And we did SNIP at the beginning of the year. That’s the only income we’ve had since January.
That’s not something that’s going to convince a bank that this is a business that’s going to do well in the long run, if we’re only getting paid every six months or so.
So there are reasons for all of it, and it’s not as bad as it sounds. Things will even out. We know that money is on the way. It’s just not here yet, and it’s not in the bank account, so it doesn’t look great.
So there is a way around this. There are a couple of programs here in Canada.
One I am no longer qualified for, because I just turned 40. And then there’s another one that I’m also not qualified for - which is kind of the topic of today’s conversation.
Naked Kaiju Woman Flagged as Explicit
So I applied for what is called a BDC loan. It’s a government-backed loan, and being a government-backed loan, they have a few moral clauses in there.
So: no anti-government talk, no excessive violence, and - what’s the third thing? - they don’t want anything sexually explicit.
So if you know the catalog that we have here at Pesto Comics, you could probably guess which one flagged that. And that is Naked Kaiju Woman.
Now, would I argue that this is a sexually explicit book? Absolutely not.
Is she naked in the book? Absolutely. Are there other naked people, including men, in here? Absolutely. Are they doing anything explicit? No.
But the fact that they are naked is a problem. Which is kind of ironic, because the whole story of this first issue of Naked Kaiju Woman is literally about how people are more upset that she’s naked than they are about her destroying the city around her.
So it’s kind of funny that the satire of the book became the undoing of Pesto Comics, to a degree.
Now, we’re fine. We’ve been surviving without the loan for a long time. Would it have made things much easier if I had access to it? Absolutely.
Does it change the perspective on how we need to do things? Kind of, yes.
I was given the option that maybe I could have stopped Naked Kaiju Woman. That would be extremely painful, because Rafael’s just two pages away from finishing the book - meaning we’ll be able to launch in two weeks on Kickstarter. And we’re going to.
That is the plan.
This book has made Pesto Comics what it is today. It’s created a whole new audience that I wouldn’t have been able to find otherwise.
This book in particular, the first Naked Kaiju Woman, was on the front page of Kickstarter. So I owe it to this series to keep going, regardless of what’s happening.
So the loan isn’t the only problem out there.
Kickstarter Policy Changes
I kind of avoided that blip we had with Kickstarter a couple of weeks ago, where they changed the terms for explicit content on Kickstarter.
And again, I guess Naked Kaiju Woman may fall in that category, depending on who’s looking at it. That would have prevented me from even launching at all - which, again, may have had me thinking about how to run this business.
Now, would I not continue Naked Kaiju Woman? Definitely not.
There are other homes for this. Yes, it would be hard to get people from Kickstarter to move over to these other platforms, but I would definitely make it available and do the work to try to get people from one platform to the other.
Commitment to NKW & Future Plans
We’re going to be on Kickstarter. We’re going to stay here. It should go through approvals. I’m going to put it through very soon, just to make sure that we are able to launch in a couple of weeks.
But it’s been an interesting theme to the past couple of weeks - that Naked Kaiju Woman in particular, this book that I am planning to launch very soon with the third issue, has created problems for Pesto Comics and really had me thinking about the business.
And what I thought about the business is this: much like you stick with the friends who’ve been there, I’m going to stick with the properties who’ve been there, and the fans who’ve been there - who have enjoyed the work and kind of get it, that it’s not naked women for the sake of naked women.
It’s a funny story. It’s a satire. It’s a story that has a message and a point. And I think you guys enjoy it because of what it is.
So I’m going to keep making this book. You’re going to keep being able to get it.
And if you haven’t read issue one, and you haven’t read issue two, you can certainly catch up.
The last book had 750-plus backers, which is absolutely wild - because every other campaign I do usually does in the 1-to-150s. This one, 750-plus. We’re already at 320 pre-launch followers.
So I’m very excited to get this launched, and I’m going to launch it.
It’s going to be part of the catalog for the foreseeable future. We’re going to keep Rafael and JP doing amazing pages.
I’ve been lettering everything from Pesto Comics up until now. I’m lettering all of SNIP. I’ve lettered all of From Parts Unknown, and I’ve lettered the first two issues of Naked Kaiju Woman.
With number three, we’re handing the reins off to Mattias Zanetti. He’ll do a much better job - but more importantly, much quicker than I am capable of doing. So that’ll be one less thing holding everyone back from getting the book in their hands.
So I’m very excited to finally launch Naked Kaiju Woman number three. And don’t fret, because I’ll already have Rafael working on number four as soon as he delivers that last page for number three.
So this series will be going at least through to 2027.
I have a plan for another five issues after this series. We’ll see if we give it to another artist - and maybe Rafael does some artistic direction while he works on a different series I have planned.
But the point is, Naked Kaiju Woman is not going anywhere. It’ll be on Kickstarter. It’s going to be a part of the catalog for the foreseeable future.
It does well because of fans like you who have been here to support it - who get it, who understand that this isn’t just exploitation for the sake of it. It’s not just naked ladies because naked ladies are fun. It’s not just naked ladies for the sake of selling a mediocre book.
It’s not frivolous. It’s not “look, naked ladies.” Certainly, that’s part of it, and that’s kind of done tongue in cheek. But the story is about the nudity.
That’s kind of the point. So I think anyone who’s read it appreciates that. If you haven’t, again, feel free to catch up.
But the main thing is: if we’re going to scale, we’re going to scale, and we’re going to grow - pun intended - because of Naked Kaiju Woman.
That’s the plan. This is the funding model.
Naked Kaiju Woman is the engine that keeps all of Pesto Comics going. It makes sure that we still have cool new stories on Kickstarter for you, that we have even more stories in the direct market, and something new every single month for you.
So thanks to Naked Kaiju Woman. Thanks to all of the supporters who have backed it, or those of you who are waiting to back number three. And thank all of you who are here listening to me ramble on about trying to make this business bigger off the back of a giant naked lady.
So with that, I want to thank you for being here.
We’ll talk again next week. Have a good one.
