This is a question I bring up actually because of a twitter question.
"Will Shifters ever run more than once a week?"
Right now, it can only be produced once a week for a couple of reasons. One is that I have to work on other, paying projects (design freelance, commissions, teaching classes, working at work.. you know) to pay my bills, so I can't spare a lot of extra time to draw more Shifters comics. I don't make any significant money on Shifters, yet. The shirts were a first step, but so far, the sales have been very slow.
Mysti, our fab colorist, is doing the coloring for free, but she is a freelance artist. Meaning that she needs to spend most her time taking paying work (like me) In order to pay her bills, eat, and keep a roof over her head.
Colorists normally get paid a 'page rate', which if I /could/ pay Mysti, would make it more worth it for her to put aside time to color more shifters. Pencilers/inkers also get a page rate, which if I could pay /myself/ would make it more worth it to turn down other work to make Shifters.
Currently we're producing 4 pages a month, for nothing. If we were getting paid, say we each got 25$ a page (which is a pretty average page rate, and easy math), that would be 100$ each, so the equivalent value for two artists bringing you 4 pages a month is 200$. If we double the pages, say to 2x a week, that doubles to 8 pages a month, or a total cost of 400$. You can do the math from there, I'm sure. The more pages per week, the more it costs.
Now, I'm open, if the fan demand and money is there, to finding a way to finance extra pages. You get your first 4 for free, but the question here is what would you do for more? And how would you like more?
This is the question I post to you guys, the readers.
What are you willing to support to get more Shifters? Or are you happy with once a week updates?
The most practical model I've seen to pull this off is the donation drive. There's a goal and when the goal is met or when X dollars is collected, it equals +1 pages for the following week or something. I had already had plans to re-instate the tipjar with a donation wallpaper incentive, but perhaps the donation threshold is something you guys are interested in?
Thoughts?