While Kickstarter is an excellent tool to get great comics like Rocket Girl funded and brought into the world, every once in a while, someone ruins the party and makes it harder to want to back projects.

This is the story of deantrippe‘s Something Terrible.

Primer

Something Terrible, by deantrippe​, is an excellent story of why comics are important and save us with tales of overcoming great obstacles and doing our best to help each other out. It’s digital-only and 99 cents!

On January 3rd, 2014, Trippe launched a Kickstarter project to fund both a hard- and softcover print edition. Fans excitedly threw money at their screens and the project was backed in a single day, eventually reaching 1,768 backers and pulling in nearly 8x the goal ($48,269).

This is where our story begins…

Delays

When it comes to crowdfunding comics, delays are expected and usually reasonable. While Trippe listed a May 2014 release date, it wouldn’t have been unreasonable to expect a delay of a few months. After all, printing was a new endeavor for Trippe and he was creating a few new pages and other stretch goals. No small task, especially for one human.

However, in the “Risks and challenges” section of the campaign, Trippe says:

As the work is already completed, and requires only minor layout work in order to add the new materials, I don’t foresee too many obstacles beyond reaching the goal. I have a very capable partner in bringing this digital comic into the physical world in Print Ninja (Shout out to my bat-ally, Ashley!), and I’ve been ordering shipping materials via Uline.com (which I also recommend wholeheartedly). I had advice on how to plan this Kickstarter from several of my friends who have done successful campaigns, so I think I’ve got it structured just right. If there are any unforeseen obstacles, I will alert all donors to them as they arise, but again, as the story is already completed, it really is just a matter of funding the print run. So unless I die, I think we’re on track. (Hey, Jason and Scott, if I die, can you get this stuff done for me?) I’ll try extra hard not to die, everybody.

So what happened?

Blogger Princess Geek has a post that chronicles it all.

As it has been nearly 16 months with no end or ship date in sight, many of the project’s Backers who’ve tried to get updates, update their shipping address, or simply express displeasure have been met with silence and/or being blocked.

Kickstarters have delays all the time. Why is this one any different?

Here’s where this situation gets kind of nasty. Simply not receiving the book is frustrating in itself, but there’s also the issue of where the money’s gone and what exactly caused these endless delays.

In a Backer Update from December 26, 2014, Trippe says:

Last summer, I used part of the KS money to travel to comic conventions, especially ones that invited me to speak about my experience. I can see how some folks may be bothered by my use of KS funds to do things like this, but honestly, I’ll make the calls I feel best further my mission of using my experience to help those still searching for a path out of the darkness, and besides, the costs of these trips were offset by print sales and sketches at shows.

Traveling to conventions was not what the Backers agreed to fund.

Of note: while rumor has it that Trippe opened a comic shop, according to his Backer Updates it’s possible that he is simply the manager of the shop and didn’t buy in.

The Bigger Picture

While Trippe has gained some infamy for not delivering on commissions (there’s a bit more on that below; there’s also a reddit post and a forum thread), the Kickstarter campaign is what we want to focus on.

Backers who simply want off the waiting train have no recourse. Kickstarter doesn’t offer refunds. Not only that, but Trippe has been disappointingly sparse with project updates, often offering shipping dates that come and go without an explanation as to why, and has blocked and ignored several people that just want information.

Kickstarter’s Trust & Safety page states:

Creators are responsible for their projects. When you back a project, you’re trusting the creator to do a good job, so if you don’t know them personally or by reputation, do a little research first. Kickstarter doesn’t evaluate a project’s claims, resolve disputes, or offer refunds — backers decide what’s worth funding and what’s not.

as well as

Some projects won’t go as planned. Even with a creator’s best efforts, a project may not work out the way everyone hopes. Kickstarter creators have a remarkable track record, but nothing’s guaranteed. Keep this in mind when you back a project.

And while there have been a few reports of successful refunds from Trippe directly, there’s no mechanism in place to do this through Kickstarter. You have to hope Trippe feels like issuing a refund from his personal PayPal.

The “Did this man just steal all of our money?” feeling comes with a bigger issue: Should people be allowed to do this?

Absolutely not. And the US government agrees.

Recently, the FTC went after a similar Kickstarter project, in which a project creator cancelled after 14 months and never delivered promised refunds and was considered a case of fraud.

Many consumers enjoy the opportunity to take part in the development of a product or service through crowdfunding, and they generally know there’s some uncertainty involved in helping start something new, but consumers should be able to trust their money will actually be spent on the project they funded. — Jessica Rich, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection

Woah, woah, woah… fraud?

While we’re not trying to accuse Trippe of fraud, we can’t ignore the behavior. Over the past few months, several people who have commissioned artwork from Trippe have not received anything and have stopped getting responses or updates. Some of these instances involve commissions from nearly 2 years ago. When trying to get an update, people are met with… silence and/or being blocked.

As I said in the beginning, Something Terrible is a great comic that I and many other backers just want to see finished and on our shelves. But on the path to making this happen, we’ve found ourselves in a situation that can no longer be ignored. We hope this, in the very least, helps people take caution when doing business with Dean Trippe in the future.

#NotAllKickstarters

I want to make sure you walk away understanding this: Not all Kickstarters are like this. To reiterate: one of my favorite books in recent years, Rocket Girl, was a Kickstarter project and it delivered and is awesome (are you reading Rocket Girl? It’s really fun!).