Crowdfunding News and Notes for 22 August 2012

Just a few bits and bobs for the afternoon.

First up: it was just about two weeks ago during our interview with the comedy duo Diani and Devine about their latest Kickstarter campaign that the pair noted some issues with the lack of good backer management tools on the site. Today the crowdfunding juggernaut annouced a “backer info card” that gives creators a new tool to communicate with their supporters. Creators can take notes on the card about the backer, and write them directly through that interface.

The picture above is of the new interface, and it features Fred Benenson, who we interviewed years ago on our old podcast ‘Maker’s New Math’ when we first started getting excited about crowdfunding.

Next: you know I like comics, that’s a big reason why we did the NPR story about Mark Waid’s Thrillbent. What you might not know is that I really, really like comics. Even all-ages comics. Especially if that all-ages comic is about a teddy bear detective.

Writer Alexander Zalben (Thor and the Warriors Four, MTV Geek) and artist Josh Kenfield (of the internet famous Axe Cop) have unleashed a campaign for “Detective Honeybear and the Mystery of the Terrible Llamas“. It’s the sequel to the first Detective Honeybear adventure, which is available on-line for free. They’re looking to raise just $4,873 dollars to get a print run of the new and old story out. We’ll have more from Zalben after an interview this week.

Finally, you may may have noticed our crowdfunding column has been on hiatus. That’s because it’s writer, Lucas McNelly, has been working on the campaign for 4 of a Kind. We interviewed the director a few weeks back, and now the campaign is coming down to the wire. To drum up support in these last hours McNelly is launching a YouTube telethon of sorts.

Of course, in the spirit of the thing, he’s crowdsourcing the hosts of the telethon, and inviting other filmmakers to come and talk about their projects as part of the closing hours. There are plenty of slots left, so if you want a soapbox: here’s a chance.