Saturday, April 7th, 2012
Here are a couple of drawings commissioned by one music-loving reader, Tom Spendlove — of Jeff Tweedy (of Wilco, top) and Wayne Coyne (of the Flaming Lips, bottom). I liked how they turned out, so I thought I’d share them with you.
These sketches are in line with the kind of detail you’ll get with the Draw Something Pack in the Book 2 Kickstarter Project, incidentally. Just sayin’. :)
Friday, April 6th, 2012
Multiplex: There and Back Again Lightning Round has met (and surpassed) its funding goal! Thank you to everybody who has pledged so far! Every one of your pledges has been vital to the project’s success, and I am incredibly grateful for your support. Multiplex has never been a runaway success in terms of readership, so your enthusiasm of my little cult comic is tremendously humbling.
The fact that we’ve passed the funding goal means, of course, what next?
I’ve said before anything over $15,000 will go toward paying off my lingering debts from Book 1, the promotion of Book 2, and, of course, supporting the continued production of the regular comic strip. As with the Book 1 Kickstarter project, I will share how I spend the funds with you in backer-only updates.
But allow me to sweeten the deal slightly with new Funding Goals:
$17,500 — Bookmarks will be added to the Basic Sponsor Pack (a.k.a. the $40 Reward Level, the $75 Reward Level, and up — but not the $50 “Just the Book” Reward Level, because it’s just the books).
$20,000 — eBooks will be produced in both PDF and ePub format. All backers [with eBooks included in their reward packs] will be get both formats (or just one, if you want). Also, backers at the $100 Reward Level and up will get their Chapter 1–10 eBooks delivered on a USB key along with their other pledge rewards.
$22,500 — ALL backers at the $8 level and up will get the Chapter 11 eBook free when it is completed.
$25,000 — ALL backers at the $8 level and up will get the Chapter 12 eBook free when it is completed.
$27,500 — ALL backers at the $8 level and up will get the Chapter 13 eBook free when it is completed.
$30,000 — ALL backers at the $8 level and up will get the Chapter 14 eBook free when it is completed.
$32,500 — ALL backers at the $8 level and up will get the Chapter 15 eBook free when it is completed.
Beyond that? Let’s worry about that later. :)
Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012
From Zeitgeist Films and director Jennifer Baichwal (Manufactured Landscapes) comes a documentary “adaptation” of Margaret Atwood’s non-fiction book, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth — abbreviated to, simply, Payback for the film — a rumination on the various ideas and forms of debt in the world.
As both a pinko and an enormous fan of Margaret Atwood (she is the namesake for Jason Atwood, after all), I’m definitely in, and I hope the film turns out to be more than a superficial glance at so many very deep and troubling subjects. The film will hit a handful of theaters on April 25, 2012, but most of us will have to wait for video, I expect.
The official synopsis follows:
(more…)
Monday, April 2nd, 2012
I’m a little late to the party with this trailer because of ECCC, which hit yesterday, but ho-leee crap. Colin Farrell makes me forget all about the 1990 Arnold Schwarzenegger/Paul Verhoeven cheese-fest of the same name with the trailer for their version of Total Recall. The new film, directed by Len Wiseman, supposedly sticks a bit closer to the Philip K. Dick short story, “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale.”
I realize Len Wiseman also did the first two Underworld flicks, which should temper my unquenchable thirst for intelligent sci-fi action flicks, but this looks great. For what it’s worth, Wiseman didn’t write the script for this, unlike with Underworld. He also did Live Free or Die Hard, though I never saw that one. This new version is from a screenplay by Kurt Wimmer (Street Kings, Equilibrium, Salt) and Mark Bomback (Live Free or Die Hard, Unstoppable, The Wolverine)… so… uh… hm. I guess we’ll find out when the whole film comes on August 3.
The official synopsis follows after the break…
