This week on War Rocket Ajax, Blast Furnace and God Hates Astronauts creator Ryan Browne joins the show! We talk to him about his success with Kickstarter, his unique approach to Blast Furnace and how he feels about watching owls eat (super gross) -- and you can listen to the entire show right here at ComicsAlliance!War Rocket Ajax #153: Owl Facts with Ryan Browne

(WARNING: Contains NSFW language)


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In this week's show, Chris is gearing up for his WrestleMania trip even though he has a cold, and Matt has an audiobook! It's a big week!

When Ryan joins us, we talk about how he found success on Kickstarter twice:

When you start getting more exposure, you get a lot of emails from strangers, which I enjoy and am totally fine with. I like writing them back. But a lot of times, it's people saying "your Kickstarter was successful, how can I make mine successful?"

I don't really think there's a trick to it. I spent six years building the brand of God Hates Astronauts, I gave it away for free forever and built my audience, and when it comes to comics, I think you'll find that the most successful kickstarters are done by someone who's really really well known and has tons of fans or they have an Internet fanbase. That's a lot of it, just building your audience over time.

There are a lot of people who just rush into Kickstarters and think that it's a good way to just make a lot of money, when the actuality of it is that, for example with God Hates Astronauts, I didn't make a lot of money. But I did make a lot of fans, and I made the book that I wanted and a lot of people are going to read it, which is awesome.

That's the big mistake for a lot of people: They go on Kickstarter to make $100,000 or whatever in profit, but really it's there to make your project happen. The more successful your project is, the more money you have to spend on the project. It's very interesting, but I'd just say that to have a successful Kickstarter, you just have to build up a fan base beforehand, and then you make your message as clear as possible, you make your Kickstarter fun and exciting, you make it something that people want to be a part of, and you just be sincere with people. Those were the rules for me. Being very responsive with people, being very enthusiastic. Just being social and having a clear vision.

If enough people see it, it's going to do well.


Plus, a surprising number of owl facts!


Show Notes:

Follow Ryan on Twitter and check out GodHatesAstronauts.com! You can buy the hardcover at his Etsy shop!

Owls eating: It's gross.

Two movies none of us have seen, but have influenced Ryan greatly: The Astronaut Farmer and Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole.


Chris's Rec: Delocated Season 1 on Netflix


Matt's Rec: BioShock Infinite


Comics Reviewed:


Detective Comics #19: "Matt, you know that I found a magic monkey's paw in a haunted mansion last week, so this one is on me. I made a wish that DC would acknowledge that this would be the 900th issue of Detective Comics and that they'd do an 80-page giant by a writer I enjoy, but that monkey's paw gave me an 80-page giant about Man-Bat."

Indestructible Hulk #5: "It is wonderful." "It is one of the prettiest comics I have seen in recent memory. Walter Simonson, obviously, is great, but Andres Mossa's coloring could not look better."

Adventure Time #14: "I honestly feel like the comic is hitting those notes better than the show at this point."

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