Well unfortunately this is cancelled...

Those toys aren’t something I would’ve bought into, per se, but I did wonder in one of the political threads recently if American companies might have more luck bringing this kind of small-scale, limited-material, nearly entirely automated tchotchke and doo-dad manufacturing back to America instead of a) being beholden to China and all of the inherent problems with that, and b) believing that massive factories will spring up overnight to start building big-ticket items like cars, planes, chips, and whatnot entirely on U.S. soil just because a certain deluded, outdated old man says so. I know none of it will ever happen, anyway, but considering how long China’s been eating the west’s lunch – after decades of us giving it to them – perhaps thinking small in terms of achievable manufacturing goals might be a more realistic way of starting to put some of that lunch back on our own tables. But nope, gotta be cars!

I think the reason they go overseas is because of price. I'm actually not aware of any major (or minor) action figure brand that is manufactured here. While it's true that a smaller plant is probably easier to create than a bigger one, I don't know if you'll save much if anything in costs with American labor/manufacturing at the small levels these kickstarters need and you need someone big to put this up for these small companies to use.

A ton of my kickstarters talk about printing their books in China, so I’m just waiting for some of them to start blowing up.

Kickstarter for the Skybound Transformers Compendium (basically Marvel and Marvel UK):
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...compendium-set

Two different versions, one that separates out Marvel and Marvel UK runs and one that integrates them. Like the Joe one, there's a good guys (Autobots) and bad guys (Decepticons) versions with limited options with signed plates. I think they got me this time.

I bought the first issue of GI Joe and liked it enough to back the kickstarter, and I've really enjoyed the 20ish issues I've read so far.

Not so sure about Transformers. I might just look into the mass-market paperback compendiums assuming they're doing those again.

Joe is the superior comic book from a writing standpoint (Hama is great). But Transformers the comic (and the toys) just has so much nostalgia to me. I was leaning autobot but took the decepticon one because the signed plate was still there.

Well, this really sucks...

Kickstarter Suspends Don Simpson's Megaton Man Over Iranian Artist

That makes zero sense. Who cares if an artist lives in Iran? I mean, if they have videos of him beheading people or making Iranian violent propaganda, then I would understand. But just living there???

And thankfully, it looks like Kickstarter has come to its senses:

https://bleedingcool.com/comics/kick...an-fundraiser/

spider-man comic strip Kickstarter, early bird still active, $99 for the first 4 books/years

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...wspaper-strips

I would love to have those, but I know that I could not just live with the 4 years and would be sucked into having to have all 42 volumes. 42 more books on my shelf is the last thing I need.

I can imagine my wife's look right now.

If it's any consolation, Romita only drew the strip for the first four years.

Yikes, I had no idea the strip ran that long. Were they still even making newspapers in 2019?

I'm backing the campaign and will see how it goes. I'm not familiar with the strip and don't feel any kind of OCD about having all the volumes.

Dude! Leave!

I think they kept the marriage alive in the comic strip until the very end since Stan Lee didn't agree with One More Day.

I'll be honest as a kid I was too impatient to really enjoy the strips. Plots would take months of daily strips to advance even a little bit, which frustrated me.