PADUCAH, Ky. - In its 3 years, Kickstarter.com has raised more than $200 million and helped fund nearly 22,000 projects. Some of them are from right here in the Local 6 region.

A true renaissance man, J.D. Wilkes has traveled the world, and made a life out of music. He squeaks by with the help of side projects like a comic book he created called "Grim Hymns." But on a starving artist's salary, finding the money to print the comic was unrealistic.

"Just the print job alone and the amount of copies that I would need it's high quality paper and all that I wouldn't have been able to afford it myself," says Wilkes.

He jumped on kickstarter.com and started asking his fans.  "Then all the sudden I saw all this money coming in. I was like, oh it's working. Like Dr. Frankenstein "it's a live," laughes Wilkes.

In less than a month fans, friends and even total strangers doubled his goal of $1,000. Project creators reward their backers with prizes or incentives.  Sometimes it's a private concert or a free screening. In J.D.'s case it was a personalized signed copy of the comic with their name printed inside.

Kickstarter.com allows for many types of projects including technology, fashion, food and dance.