Gareth – Page 123 – The Designer Monologues

July 18, 2011July 30, 2011

What’s Up, Gareth?

Seriously need to kick myself into regular updates of this thing. Easier, I think, once I finish the redesign.

So what’s been going on in my world recently? First of all, The Far West Kickstarter proceeds apace. We’re about 30 minutes shy of our first full week, and we’re over 200% funded. $10.3K, with another 5 weeks to go. We’ve passed our second goal (10K), which means that all backers are now getting the LEGENDS OF THE FAR WEST supplement (which will be exclusive to the Kickstarter — never to appear for sale in any other venue).

We’ve also set the next goal ($13.5K), and if we hit that, all backers will receive the first in the FAR WEST fiction line as an ebook, Kindle edition, or PDF. The line will launch in December with TALES OF THE FAR WEST, an anthology featuring folks like Tessa Gratton, Aaron Rosenberg, Chuck Wendig, Will Hindmarch, Dave Gross, and more. If you’re a writer, and I know you or your work, feel free to drop me a line — we’re always looking for a good penslinger.

Made the big announcement over at the Adamant site just now: We’re doing the Buckaroo Banzai Adventure Game, coming in Spring of 2012. Another one of my dream projects, crossed off the list. 15-year-old me is ecstatic. If I can eventually work on JAMES BOND or STAR WARS, I’ll have no worlds left to conquer.

We’ve got a gorgeous cover by the massively brilliant sci-fi/fantasy illustrator Dave Dorman, which you can see in its mock-up form over there at the right.

Semi-related (at least in the sense of late-period pulp), I stumbled across a gem during a visit to Half Price books this weekend. Dovetails with last year’s post that I did on ePulp — my idea that the adventure “trash paperback” could make a comeback in ebooks — something I plan to move towards once Adamant gets its Kindle legs under it a bit more firmly. Sure enough, I found one of the books whose image appeared as an example in that story (reproduced at left): BLACK SAMURAI #6: THE WARLOCK!

Seriously, folks — this thing is like a Greatest Hits package of early-to-mid-70s pop cultural crazes: Blaxploitaton, Martial Arts and Satanic Horror. Listen to the back-cover copy:

EXORCISM: SAMURAI STYLE
The Warlock ruled an occult empire that stretched around the world. This evil genius giant of a man with his slavelike army of hideous killer dwarfs, gorgeous women, sadistic perverts, and all the other devotees of his devil-worshipping religion now reached out to grasp ultimate power over all the nations of the earth. Satan was in the saddle and was riding mankind to doom — and only Robert Sand, Black Samurai, could hope to exorcise this monstrous threat, or else himself be thrown screaming into the bottomless put of soul-destroying pain and body-mangling death….

The Black Samurai tangles with a human Satan in a hellish den of torrid sex and deadly violence!

HOLY CRAP. How could I not get it?

Plus, it’s got that disintegrating-pulp-paper smell, which is like crack to me. Sweet, sweet crack.

So that’s what’s going on my world. I live an interesting life.

July 12, 2011July 22, 2014

Fastest Gun In the FAR WEST

Wow, do I feel sheepish.

The Kickstarter for FAR WEST went live yesterday, and I completely forgot to mention it here… and reached it’s minimum funding goal in only fifteen hours!

As with usual for Kickstarters, of course, it stays open and accepts further bids above that total — so the push now is to try to see how much we can raise. The more we raise, the more we can do…. I would love if we come anywhere near the 25K-ish figure that Daniel Solis and Co. managed with Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple. I try to be a curmudgeonly cynic — but a small part of my brain is now whispering to me that it might be possible.

Check out the promotional video (and feel free to spread it around — I’m really quite proud of it):

You can visit the Kickstarter by clicking on the link below the video, or by following this link.

In the meantime, I’ll be over here — hitting “refresh” on my browser and trying desperately to wrap my brain around just how drastically business models have now changed for creatives. I was intellectually aware of it before, but I’ve gotta tell ya: Actually doing it, and seeing the result? Mind-blowing.

June 27, 2011June 27, 2011

Origins 2011, via Context-Free Quotes

Sitting here in the Milwaukee airport, waiting for the second leg of my flight home from Origins 2011 (on a related note: Seriously, Milwaukee Airport? Charging for wireless? I guess that old sign “Milwaukee Welcomes Visitors” sign from the opening credits of Laverne and Shirley was a LIE. A big, fat, bratwurst-munching, beer-swilling LIE. But I digress).

As is my tradition, I now present my impressions of the convention just ended, via the form of context-free quotes. Feel free to add your own in comments.

“When life gives you lemons, say ‘Fuck you — I want LIMES!”

“Hasn’t everybody bought it at this point? Every time ICONS pops back into the Top 10, we know that another African village was just connected to the Internet.”

“I dunno — you’ve gotta drill pretty deep to get past the GMS shale.”

“I’m being paid in Chocolate Tits and Temporary Tattoos?”

“Ah, me awful greedy.”

“Makin’ a bad t’ing good.”

“I deny your attempt to silver my back, sir.”

“How about a little ginny to help the chippies go down….”

“Posh people don’t say “yes”, they say “Ears.”…”

“Hi, I’m jailbait: Rocky penis?”

“Oh, Gareth’s always in a good mood about *something*….”

“UnderWorld is totally on my Hipster List.”

“That’s an Origins Award-winning shirt? — is there nothing you cannot turn into GOLD?”

“Rastathulu an’ de Elder Crew….”

“Damn that cheap Chinese labor!”

I may add more later via comments — I’m drawing a blank beyond the ones listed above, but I’m pretty sure there were more.