BareBones Ent had the privilege of sitting down with the creator of one of our absolute favorite indie comic series out, Morgan’s Organs. Daniel Brodie has been writing Morgan’s Organs for a few years now and has seen the fan base for the series grow with each issue. Daniel sat down with BareBones to discuss his series, Kickstarter, and much more. Sit back, relax, and find out everything you need to know about this awesome series.
BS: How did you come up with the idea of Morgan’s Organs?
DB: Back in 2013 while I was backpacking Europe, I was spending a few days in Amsterdam. While strolling through the streets (read into that as you will), a vague idea just floated into my head. It’s tough to remember exactly what it was but it had to do with the idea of “what if our insides could talk to us, what would they say?” It was more of a frightening thought than anything, as I’m sure my body would not be too happy with some of the decisions I make! But the idea really stuck with me and I became motivated to make it a story.
BS: Was this always the vision or have things changed since your initial thought?
DB: In terms of the concept itself, it has gone through many changes before landing where it is today. For example, one of the executions imagined the organs being more of floating voices that followed Morgan wherever he goes that he could speak to (I’m happy I didn’t end up with that!). As well, when I first began writing I do so imagining this as a television series. Since I wasn’t really getting anywhere with that, I decided to pivot and make Morgan’s Organs as a self-published comic book series.
BS: When you came up with the idea. How did you envision the reader response?
DB: When I first came up with the idea, there was definitely quite a bit of hesitation, maybe even embarrassment. This is mostly because I was writing about a talking penis, which seems quite immature at face value. While I definitely felt strongly that this would be a great concept to tell stories around, I had some fears putting my face on this idea. Now that we’re an established comic book series, I definitely feel more confident and open about my position as the creator of the series. The best feeling really is when fans are super excited about the Kickstarter’s or come up to me at conventions, because it reassures me that what I am doing is great.
BS: How many books have you done? Do you have a planned number to make?
DB: So far we have completed 2 books, and we are currently completing our 3rd book (which we have a Kickstarter running now to help fund). The great thing about this series is that each book is a stand-alone story, so I’m not really limited in the number of stories that I can tell. I would love to make hundreds of these stores, as I have so many stories in mind! It really will just come down to whether the audience will continue to enjoy what I do, time, and finances.
BS: What made you first go to Kickstarter?
DB: Kickstarter seemed like a great medium for launching the project because I see it as a sort of insurance vehicle. When I first created Book 1, I had only funded about 6 pages upfront from my artist team. If the Kickstarter was a failure, I wouldn’t be out as much money compared to if I had funded the entire book production up front. Thankfully, the first Kickstarter started off very strong so I knew immediately we were likely to get funded, so I had my art team continue working on the book before the campaign was complete.
BS: How did you feel when running your first Kickstarter compared to now?
DB: As a team, we are definitely more confident in the Kickstarter’s being a success. While initially we had only produced a handful of pages going into the campaign launch, for Book 3, we had basically 75% of the book complete because we felt confident we’d hit our funding goal.
BS: What advice would you give other creators about running a Kickstarter?
DB: I have two pieces for advice. For one – you just gotta take the plunge! You’ll never know if your idea will have any legs unless you put it out to a potential audience. If that seems daunting, do as I did and start off small by only having a few pages in the book ready. Or, go super small and start by just funding a shortened version of your idea. The audience is where your idea will live or die, so let them decide if there is a market for it.
My second piece of advice is to really focus on running a great campaign – have a great campaign page, solid rewards options, clear tier distinctions and great visuals. Sometimes, I make the decision of whether to back a project based on the effort that is put into a campaign page, and not just on the end product itself.
BS: What is the new book about?
DB: Book 3 is going to be a lot of fun, and it’s going to be very different from the previous 2 books. The big difference is that this story will be told in an experimental narrative format that I think is similar to Chirstopher Nolan’s hit movie, Memento. The story switches between the “Night Before” and “Morning After”, and only when the two halves of the story meet at the end of the book does everything come together.
The main premise of the story is that it’s Morgan’s birthday, so he gets heavily intoxicated. Meanwhile, his organs throw a party too. When they wake up, they find that a crime has been committed, and so it becomes a sort of “who dun it” mystery. I can’t wait to release it!
BS: What do you think it is about this series that makes it special?
DB: I think the most obvious thing that makes it so special is the fantastic art style. Robert Jennex has such a unique yet interesting artistic style that really captures the concept well. Between the zany background visuals or the great character expressions, each panel really has a lot to say.
Hopefully, the stories are also great too! I try to come up with stories that challenge what’s been told in the past, that keep the audience gripped and that aren’t predictable. I hope I’ve been able to do that.
BS: After the campaign is over and orders are fulfilled. What’s next for you?
DB: Onto writing Book 4!
BS: Anything else you’d like to add?
DB: We got about a week left in our Kickstarter campaign! If you like shows like Rick & Morty or movies like Sausage Party, you’ll really love this series! Please help us out and support the campaign and you can get some great rewards too for doing so.
