Fodongo is now on OpenCollective.
I have been thinking for a while of a way to make the finances for the zine more transparent, and this platform provides an excellent way to do that. If you are interested in donating to this specific project through here (or by buying zines), I appreciate it.
Right now I have added the current budget I have set aside for the zine, which comes from zine sales and previous donations to Jectoons.net — via Ko-Fi, mostly –, and from my own personal pocket. This amount totals $1300CAD for now.
A brief explainer on how this project has been managed so far
The only person administrating this endeavor is me, Emiliano (AKA Jectoons). I contact artists, pay them, design covers, put together the zines, fiddle with the website, account for sales, distribute residuals, upload older issue .pdfs, etc. It’s a lot of work, and I hope in the future I can enlist someone else’s help to tackle some of these tasks, but honestly my main priority right now is ensuring that the zine is sustainable first.
This means that at least the production of it has to break even, and we’re not there quite yet.
This is fine: This is a project I believe wholeheartedly on, and I intend on doing it as long as possible regardless of what happens.
So how has this worked so far, from a financial point of view?
Ok, so for the First Batch of the zine (the first 12 issues, November 2023-December 2024) I commissioned 3 artists per issue to make 3-page black and white comics released under free-culture licenses. For this work my budget was $75CAD per comic. I am beyond thankful to all artists that have taken on making a comic and believing in this project; I acknowledge that this is way below the standard for professional comic making, and my goal is to right that wrong as soon as possible. As a single administrator/organizer it is hard for me to come up with the funds that I think these artists should be paid for their work (my goal is to be able to pay $300CAD per page, so yeah, I still have a ways to go), but I think that if I just wait to have the money necessary I’ll be waiting forever. I am very open about what my budget is, I pay in-full as soon as the commission for the work is accepted by the artist and I am forever grateful to them.
This being said, I believe that every year payments should go up. So I have saved up a bit and I have increased the budget for the next 12 issues (the Second Batch) to $80CAD per comic. Not much, but still some progress.
I will also mention that as of right now I have not paid myself for my involvement in the project (aside from the stuff listed above, I draw a comic for every issue of the zine), and I won’t until the project becomes sustainable.
The zine’s income streams are:
- Donations from Ko-Fi, Liberapay and Patreon, and now from OpenCollective. The main difference is that I use Ko-Fi, Liberapay and Patreon to also fund my other personal projects, and I take a portion of that and put it towards Fodongo. The idea is that OpenCollective will collect donations exclusively for the zine.
- Digital and physical sales via GeeseGoose.ca. (GeeseGoose Media Co-Op is a Producer Cooperative I set up with some friends in order to sell our crafts and to support each other and our artistic community)
The way the zine sales work digitally is that the issues go up for sale on the GeeseGoose store and for 4 weeks after that each comic is released on https://fodongo.jectoons.net. Once all comics are released on the site the issue is freely downloadable by anyone, with the option to pay $3CAD for it. The physical zines are also sold through the GeeseGoose store for $5CAD, as well as whenever the co-op tables at events.
As of today (January 5th, 2025), throughout zines 1-12, 98 copies have been sold, most digitally and some physically. That is a total of $399.20CAD in sales. Of that $199.60CAD has been and will be paid in residuals to participating artists (I pay residuals once the total per artist per issue reaches at least $5CAD, and I have a few payments to send out right now); so the other half, $199.60CAD is what remains with the zine for administrative purposes, commission payments and such.
Jectoons.net (the landing page and publisher for all my projects, including Fodongo) has gotten $515CAD in donations through the platforms mentioned above in the past couple of years, and of that I have destined about $400CAD to Fodongo.
So that means that the project has made almost $800CAD on its own. Minus the $200 in residuals that amount is $600CAD, to which I have added $700CAD of my own money right now to get to the amount in the budget, $1300CAD.
This is the operating budget for the zine right now.
About the goal
The current $4000CAD goal for the yearly budget will allow me to fulfill my goal of paying $80CAD per comic to all artists in the Second Batch, as well as have a little extra to cover other costs (printing paper, staples, ink, taxes, web hosting, etc.).
The Second Batch
With 2025 already started the Second Batch of zines has begun production. 2 Artists have been hired already for Issue #13 (3, counting me), and am currently waiting for a 4th person to join. Will post updates when I have the roaster for the next zine ready.
Thanks for your attention! Hope that gives enough context for the project’s finances. I intend to nurture and help this project grow as much as I can, and I would be honored if you could lend a hand along the way. If you can’t right now, please send the comics to people you know, and make derivative works if possible!
Solidarity,
Emiliano.
