Full disclosure- the comic in question is mine, the campaign was run by me, and we’re now up and running on Indiegogo for anyone interested, and one of our perks is actually writing your name on an egg and throwing it at a Kickstarter poster. We haven’t made back a fraction of what we’ve lost so far, but at least we’re still in the game.
While Horrorfuel readers might know me for my reviews, news, and general writings on the horror community, I’ve also been co-writing a comic for about a year now, Tales From The Whorehouse of Horror. Maybe you can guess from the title it’s not something you read to your kid before you tuck him in at night. And I fully admit, and in fact relish, that The Whorehouse of Horror is a book full of filth, depravity, and everything that mainstream sensibilities tell you to steer the fuck away from.
But it’s also a book that I stand behind as the best written, funniest smut on the internet. Yes, there’s a lot of naked ladies (and men), but there’s also a lot of jokes, most of them even kind of funny. I like to call it the highest caliber of the bottom shelf of entertainment. And as someone that loves the bottom shelf, I couldn’t be more proud of the work put behind this comic. A lot of other people agreed with us too. 27 actually, donating $700 in just eight days on Kickstarter, with backers getting copies of the finished book, prints, cameos, and more.
But after eight days and over 70% of the funding needed to print the book, Tales From The Whorehouse was unceremoniously kicked off of Kickstarter, all the money we raised up in smoke, and we who had poured so much into this project left to start over again. Why was our project axed? Did we run a credit card scam? Lie to our backers? Get caught crossing the Mexican border with coke stuffed up our ass? Nope, our project was deemed to have “graphic content”.
‘WET SCREAM’, One Story In the Upcoming TALES FROM THE WHOREHOUSE OF HORROR #1
Well no shit, Kickstarter. A comic titled Tales From The Whorehouse of Horror has graphic content. Who the fuck could have guessed? Well, maybe you should have when you initially approved our project. That’s right, Kickstarter has a process where they review and approve every campaign before it’s launched. And instead of telling us to edit our campaign, or that we weren’t a fit for the site at all, Kickstarter decided to wait until we had the support of 27 different backers and over $700 before pulling the plug.
Is this comic for everyone? No, it’s not, but what Kickstarter decided is that its for nobody. When it banned our campaign, Kickstarter said loud and clear that not just Tales From The Whorehouse of Horror, but media with controversial themes in general don’t deserve to be heard, don’t deserve to be given a voice, and that those who ask for it don’t deserve to get it.
Many horror fans are used to being seen as weirdos and freaks for loving gore and embracing the macabre, but one thing they don’t do is take shit from anyone. And they certainly don’t let some big name company bully them around. And the Whorror Comix team isn’t going to either. If Kickstarter doesn’t want us, then we don’t want them.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/tales-from-the-whorehouse-of-horror-comic/x/16885023#/