Space Goat Publishing is an alternative comic publisher that began with a lot of potential. Along with licenses in popular franchises like Evil Dead and Terminator, a few originals get attention. One of which is by a familiar face. Tragically, things weren’t great behind-the-scenes. When a few crowdfunding ventures turn sour, the company gets stuck in a bad place. It still exists, but it’s effectively impotent; worst of all, it’s hoarding all the original IPs.
We’re here to go over the rise, fall, and flatline of this entertainment company.
The Foundations
According to its LinkedIn Page, Space Goat was founded in 2006 by Shon C. Bury. He appears to have started in DC’s Showcase ’95 with the character Firehawk. Never heard of her? That’s pretty much Bury’s catalogue of projects. Throughout the 90s, Bury would jump between publishers including DC, Image, Wildstorm, Acclaim, and Marvel. Most of these are one-shots or mini-series that he either writes or draws for. The only series I found familiar was a Power Pack mini in my underrated Marvel list. So yeah, this guy never really had a big break; but he did get a lot of comic industry experience. From human resources, editor-in-chief, to professional columnist to get people interested in comic books.
So it’s no surprise that Bury would try to make an opportunity for himself with Space Goat Publishing. He would do a few series like Nox and Mage Inc. but none of them would be breakout successes. In fact, most of Space Goat’s money came from publishing consulting. So Bury and his staff would have to take a different approach.
Space Goat Productions
At some point Space Goat gains the rights to the Evil Dead 2 license in 2015. Wait what?
It’s like this; the Evil Dead and Army of Darkness IPs are already licensed to Dynamite Entertainment. But a loophole was exploited for the Space Goats to build off material from just the one movie. In this case, instead of the chosen one whisked off to medieval times, readers follow a clone of Ash Williams borne from his severed hand.
This familiar brand proves to be a success with Space Goat releasing multiple mini-series and one-shots. Eventually, they try their hand at tabletop game with a working prototype; but we’ll come back to this.
This wouldn’t be the only success as the publisher would grow its catalogue with horror titles. But it seems werewolves stand out with The Howling and Moonlighters. Oh wait… Moonlighters is actually an all-ages paranormal comedy about a temp agency of college werewolves.
But the comic that gets Space Goat the most attention is Ted Naifeh’s Heroines. This series was a pretty big risk in several areas. For example Oni Press rejected the superhero comic because of competition with Marvel and DC. Plus, it seemed out of place at Space Goat with its direction. But it worked out with Heroines getting acclaim on review websites like AV Club.
The Fall of Space Goat Publishing
Tragedy strikes near the end of Space Goat Publishing’s golden year of 2017. Things were still looking up with an Evil Dead 2 board game successfully funded on Kickstarter a year earlier. But then updates stopped coming and in its place is a new Kickstarter campaign for a Terminator board game. Along with this was an omnibus and art book for Evil Dead 2’s 30th Anniversary. All of which were successfully funded but their backers were never fulfilled.
Things were so bad, this might’ve played into why Heroines Kickstarter never got its funding. This project was supposed part of the backpack editions, trades meant to be carried on to go. You know like manga tankoban trades, but with colored paper. In the meantime, the funding would be for the next arc in Heroines’ saga.
By Mismanagement
The reason why these projects got put on hold? One part was debt to creditors, the other was because of mismanaging money. Or at least that’s the most likely scenario since Shon Bury and his other employees keep a lid on things. Bury even took down his and Space Goat’s social media to avoid talking about the state of things. All anyone gets are glimpses like when one (supposed) fraud investigator gets a refund for their backing. Not helping Bury’s case is when ex-employees paint him in a negative light from verbal abuse to sexism.
For about two years, the company goes silent, canceling all print editions of comics they were working on. By then all titles ceased productions with one of the last things to come out being a digital Heroines trade. That is until those cease to exist around the time Comixology fully merges with Amazon.
Eventually, Space Goat opened an equity crowdfunding campaign. That’s basically a Kickstarter people can make money on when the company’s products go on the open market. But all this really does is reveal another debt along with the nearly million dollars they owed their backers. Needless to say, the campaign didn’t pan out and they cancelled all of their products.
The Are You Still Riding The Space Goat?
As of now, Space Goat exists in name only; no website or socials save for that LinkedIn. Even the address for its primary location turns up as a house that’s for sale. I don’t know the story of those licenses, but they’ve more than likely went back to their owners. Because the licensing group got other companies to make Evil Dead 2: The Board Game. …Which they also didn’t completely fulfill; they gave their backers an illustrated novel but the game was made in limited numbers. And no, not all of the backers got game copies because no more have been made. Plus the licensors aborted the Terminator game before it even began.
As for the original IPs, they’re in a funny place with Space Goat Publishing. I asked Ted Naifeh about Heroines and he confirmed:
[Heroines is] still connected to Space Goat, even though there’s technically no such thing, and even if there were, they’d be in breach for not finishing it. But I’m still on reasonably good terms with the former publisher, despite everything, and I haven’t decided what the future of the project will be.
So yeah, this is technically still Space Goat’s property until legal action’s taken. Yet Naifeh’s on the fence about Heroines with real world events happening. Relax, he just feels better if a woman tells the story of women making it in a male-dominated profession.
So we come to the end of this sad reality where an entertainment company flew too close to the sun. They had good ideas and people backing them up, but the money to support themselves slipped from their fingers.
At this point people are still waiting for some kind of fulfillment; whether it’s the products they backed or the money they sent. But at the end of the day, the most they can hope for is the creators finding something new. Thanks for coming to the end and as always remember to look between the panels.