Transmetropolitan and Politics in Comic Books
In honor of Election Day (in the U.S.), I thought I’d take a fond look back at my favorite “political comic.”
No, it’s not Mallard Fillmore, smart guy. It’s not Doonesbury, either.
No, my favorite political comic is Warren Ellis’ Transmetropolitan. Set in a post-cyberpunk, hyper-consumerist, singulartarian dystopia (called “The City”), Transmet follows the doings of Spider Jerusalem, a hard-drinking, grumpily cynical journalist whose long-standing book deal pulls him out of a state of semi-retirement and thrusts him back into the muck and mire of the so-called civilized world. Through Spider’s funkily bespectacled (but keenly incisive) gaze, Ellis explores issues of sex, drugs, religion, multiculturalism, big media, and so on, blowing his topics up to ridiculous proportions to match the ridiculousness of his setting. In this way, Ellis leverages Spider to comment on the real-life absurdities of the present, while keeping him rooted firmly in the fictive world.
Wardenclyffe Spotlight: The Tunguska Event
For the last week or two, I’ve been discussing the characters that make The Wardenclyffe Horror in interesting story, but as interesting as our heroes are they can’t carry the day alone. What Tesla and Twain need, what any characters need, is a really need is an interesting plot.
Which, unfortunately, we will not be talking about.
Spoilers and all, you know? Instead I thought we would talk about epic and far-reaching devastation with damage that can still be seen years later. No, I’m not talking about anything to do with hurricanes, past or present. I talking about the actual event that inspired us to connect all the other dots and create the plot: the Tunguska event.
Cross Post Alert!
You may have noticed I didn’t write today’s post. That comes to us courtesy of David from The Newest Rant. Likewise, if you we’re to run over to his fine blog about all things comic book, you would see my post for today on the mortality and comic books (or the lack there off).
I encourage you to go take a look.
My Turn Offs – or – Kickstarter Pet Peeves.
My name is David Bitterbaum, and other than having mentioned Kickstarter projects I find interesting on my website, www.thenewestrant.com I approach Kickstarter from a purely consumer perspective. It makes sense I would like Kickstarter, after all, I write mostly about comics on my blog, and Kickstarter has a pretty thriving comic-division. I also write about video-games, music, and movies—all the things Kickstarter can provide as long as you back a project for one of those items. Therefore, I thought I would share what a normal consumer such as me finds annoying in a Kickstarter to help those of you who have Kickstarter-projects yourself and read Caffieneforge’s website, so you know what not to do.
Unintended Consequences
According to Kickstarter, they are a funding platform – nothing more, nothing less. While this is true in the broadest sense, if you spend a few minutes looking through the projects you will see a slight variation in most of the pitches of the site’s users. Kickstarter, according to the majority of it’s project creators isn’t just a funding platform, it’s become the funding platform for everything from the expected to the niche.
As with anything in life though, where there is money – especially free money – there will be unintended (but perhaps not entirely unsurprising) consequences. As Kickstarter leaves the door open for just about any kind of project, knowing that the only criteria is providing a concrete ‘thing’ as a result, the project rosters have become filled with a variety of people ranging from unknowns to internet celebrities, and garage start ups to companies that are already established in their field. Lately I can’t help but notice that the big fish are starting to crowd out some of the smaller ones in this particular pond.
Wardenclyffe Spotlight: Nikola Tesla
Last week, in an effort to better inform my readers about the characters present in The Wardenclyffe Horror, I discussed the varied and intriguing facts that made Samuel Clemens such a perfect character for our book. Today we look at the other half of that equation, and shine our spot light on Nikola Tesla. Everyone knows Tesla was an electrical genius, and that with his contributions to electrical theory and AC power he basically invented the future. Most of you even know that he was a very eccentric man, but there is more to our hero than this.
He was chosen as a character for this story because of both his genius, and the eldritch aura that he has taken on since his passing. He was selected because his will was absolutely indomitable; he gained and lost more fortunes than a man had any right to. He arrived in New York from distant lands with only four cents in his pocket, and from such humble beginnings he cast his shadow across all of history.
Want to hear about how Edison cheated him out of $1,200,000 in todays money? Read on.
Taking the Plunge, Part 2
“Well, I’m back,” said a certain Hobbit, and the sentiment is equally applicable to me. I just got back from a hard-earned and well-deserved vacation with the missus, and I need to get back into the swing of things—my work, the blog, and of course, promoting the Wardenclyffe Horror Kickstarter (which you should totally pledge to by clicking here. Tell your friends). Some of our regular readers may recall that my last post was something of a cliffhanger. Unlike David, I remain something of a crowdfunding skeptic. Where he has funded over forty projects, at the time of my last post, I had not yet funded even one.
That has changed. Read on to learn about the project that made me a funder.
I’m a Backer: Hero-U, Rogue to Redemption
Welcome to another installment of everyone’s favorite Wednesday column, “I’m a Backer.” This week we return to a familiar topic, both for this blog and this column: video games. Just when you thought the turn based trend on Kickstarter was starting to run it’s course, another great looking game enters in on the scene. This week discuss Hero U: Rogue to Redemption. The minute I saw this game I had to back it. I love isometric party games and grim wasteland adventures as much as the next guy, but this game touched a part of me far older than my love for Fallout or Baldur’s Gate; this game hit me right in the Amiga.
Whats an Amiga? I guess you’ll have to keep reading to find out.
Funders got Funded!
Kickstarter may have the market cornered when it comes to coverage on this blog, but while you sit around distracted by all the interesting projects arriving on the scene, how can you possibly stay abreast of all the latest developments in crowd funding news? Well – we’re here to help; when not sitting around drooling over the latest comic books and board games to land on the front page of Kicktraq, we scour the internet for all things crowdfunding. While you sit shopping, who funds the funders?
Turns out, it’s venture capital, and this week its made big news.
The Politics of Caffeineforge
This is the time of year when everyone gets the chance to exercise their franchise, and make their mark on the trajectory of larger things. Though this blog isn’t much for politics, instead preferring to focus on the important things in life, I though that today we would talk about Caffeineforge’s political views, and why sometimes voting for the lesser evil just isn’t good enough.
With only a week left until the polls open, lets take a moment for another point of view: ours.
Caffeineforge 