‘Lackadaisy’s Incredible Crowdfunding Campaign Shows That People Are Hungry for Good Animation

Lackadaisy, a webcomic and animated short film about Prohibition-era cats running a speakeasy and getting into trouble, has been a beloved series since 2006. With one Eisner award under its belt and countless devoted fans, the series is headed for an animated sequel after an extraordinarily successful crowdfunding campaign.

Iron Circus Animation, the animation branch of the series’ publisher Iron Circus Comics, concluded its fundraising campaign on Backerkit.com last night. The initial goal was $125,000, but when the fundraiser ended, Iron Circus has raised over $2 million from over 16,000 contributors.

Here’s the plot of the new animated film starring our favorite tommy gun-toting felines:

Once the pride of St. Louis’ swingin’ Prohibition Era, shabby little speakeasy Lackadaisy is barely hanging on in 1927.

Hidden under the unassuming Little Daisy Cafe and run by the widowed and strong-willed Mitzi May, Lackadaisy still holds its own in the rough-and-ready world of bootleggin’ bandits… but for how much longer? Will tenacity, class, and a little bit of crazy be enough to ensure the survival of Mitzi and her gang? 

Calamity after calamity has worn down the once-popular establishment. Now, jazz band riffraff, a sassy flapper, a tommygun savant, and a beleaguered veteran of The Great War are all that remain to keep Lackadaisy from shuttering… paired, of course, with some halfway-decent booze.

You’ll have to pry Mitzi’s hole-in-the-wall haven from her cold, dead hands.

And unfortunately, her rum-running rivals are happy to take their shot.

Lackadaisy fans will surely celebrate the funding of the sequel, but this campaign could also be part of larger-scale change in the animation world.

Audiences want beautiful, innovative animation

Animation, like comics, is an art form that can be as stunning as any painting, sculpture, or illustration. Unfortunately, animation is often reduced to its most utilitarian form, with studios churning out one generic-looking film or series after another.

Iron Circus makes it clear that retaining creative control is vital to the project.

Traditionally, the only studios that can afford to produce entire animated series have been tied in some way to large corporations; large corporations that finance productions in return for control and copyright. And those large corporations don’t always have a series’ best interests at heart.

We don’t want that for Lackadaisy. We want to retain ownership, direction, and oversight, and that’s usually a dealbreaker for corporate financing.

With the success of the Spider-verse series, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, and smaller-scale (but equally gorgeous) projects like Wolfwalkers, we can hope that studios will get the message that animation isn’t just a means of churning out huge quantities of mediocre content. It’s a unique and versatile art form, and in the hands of skilled artists and storytellers, it can do wonders.

Or, even better, maybe more indie studios will be able to let their imaginations run wild without the interference of corporate execs who value cost-cutting above all else.

In the meantime, all you Lackadaisy fans have a new installment to look forward to!

(featured image: Iron Circus Animation)