Every bus heads full-speed toward the edge of the cliff. All but one falter, and tumble to their doom. The last one flies across the chasm, landing heavily, the passengers screaming but alive. Then we do it all again next year
Just a reminder that Monday night is the deadline to enter the Wondermark Classy Photo Contest and the partner Machine of Death Evidence Photo contest! There have only been a very small number of entrants so far. ARE YOU JUST GOING TO LET THEM WIN THE $100 PRIZE???
If you’re attending the World Fantasy Con in San Diego this weekend, keep an eye out in your gift bag for our Machine of Death Volume 2 Sampler booklet! It contains two stories from the upcoming sequel. (We’ll be announcing the full lineup for MOD2 next week.) You can also pick up sampler booklets next weekend at the Minneapolis Indie Expo — I won’t be there, but my co-editor Matt will be, along with MOD contributor Katie Sekelsky. More info about these fine events at the Machine of Death blog.
I’ll be at World Fantasy this weekend, but I won’t have a table. I will, however, be signing books on Friday night, and I have a panel on Sunday:
10AM: Intellectual Property Rights vs. the Free Web
Does information really want to be free? Do the people who say that still think so once they’ve been published? Generational differences in attitudes toward information and its effects.
Justin Ackroyd, David Chanoch, Jeff Conner, Ashley Grayson (M), David Malki !
Come hear us discuss all the attitudes toward information and its effects.
Here’s a rundown of some other upcoming appearances as well, all in the Los Angeles area:
NOVEMBER 7 (8 PM). My new improv team, “Battlesocks,” will be performing at M.i.’s Westside Comedy Theater in Santa Monica! It’ll be our first salvo in a month-long improv tournament, so depending on how we do there’ll likely be other performances throughout the month as well. Free admission! Cheap drinks! Probably some laffs! Come cheer us on!
NOVEMBER 17 (8 PM). I’m throwing a magic and variety show in Hollywood to celebrate a year of Machine of Death, and I’m putting all my hilarious friends on stage! Free admission! MOD2 news and giveaways! Here’s more about the Super-Stupendous Machine of Death Magic & Variety Show. Save that date!
DECEMBER 10-11. At the Renegade Craft Fair Holiday Market at the L.A. State Park, I’ll have a full complement of holiday cards and pleasant goods.
BONUS VIDEO: Here is rapper MC Mr. Napkins. I first learned about him when he performed an amazing set at M.i.’s Westside Comedy Theater. This song is called “The Aggressive Bee.”
The time I saw him, he did a song about vegetables that blew my mind.
Perhaps you know Nicholas Gurewitch from his seminal comic strip The Perry Bible Fellowship, or perhaps you know him from the interview I conducted with him in The Perry Bible Fellowship Almanack which you got without knowing about him because you are a me completist. Regardless, he is a singular talent and, in addition to his work in comics, has long nurtured a filmmaking impulse as well.
Trails of Tarnation is his surrealist Western. Shot on film and using handmade sets, Nick’s work has an incredible, tactile aesthetic that’s becoming uncommon in cinema, and it’s remarkable to behold. Here is Trails of Tarnation Episode 3, “Ants!”
More of Nick’s video work can be found on his Vimeo page, New Picture Agencies.
With reference to my “True Stuff from Old Books” entries on humanity’s pervasive fear of the new and unfamiliar, Nealie from Michigan brought this video to my attention. It’s a clip from the Norwegian show “Øystein og jeg” in which a monk has to deal with the most newfangled invention of all: a book!
Marksman Evan W. with an early entry – featuring the Steam Powered shirt. (Click photo for bigger)
Break out your cameras! I’m pleased to announce the first-ever Wondermark Classy Photo Contest!
The rules are simple:
1. Take a classy photo featuring yourself (or other humans or animals) along with any item from the Wondermark Goodsery: a book, T-shirt, poster, etc. Multiple items in the same photo are OK. Be creative! Pretend you’re doing a catalog shoot for the item. You can define “classy” however you want — it doesn’t necessarily have to mean “wearing a top hat” although that is probably fine.
2. Upload your picture! Join the new Wondermark Flickr Group, upload your entry, and tag it “wondermarkclass”.
3. Write something in the description — about you, about the photo, how you thought of the idea, where you took it, etc. I want this set to be fun for folks to browse and read!
4. REPEAT UNTIL EXHAUSTED OR DEAD
Photos will be JUDGED and PRIZES AWARDED. Scoring will be based on:
20% Classiness
30% Quality of photography
50% Creativity
+10% Extra credit for description
I will award at least one BEST IN SHOW award of $100 cash, and (depending on number of entries) I also expect to award other prizes as well, including a Best-in-Category Prize for the best photo of each particular Wondermark item. So your odds will be better if you choose one of the less common items!
If you do not have any Wondermark items to take pictures of, I will also accept entries that recreate, in a photograph, any single panel in Wondermark history. Your choice! (In the description on Flickr, please cite the comic you’re recreating.) There will be a special prize category for these entries.
If you don’t have a Flickr account, you can still enter the contest by emailing me your entry; I’ll upload it for you. Send it to dave at wondermark dot com, with the subject line “Classy Photo: [Some brief description].”
Put in an actual description, not the actual words “Some brief description”, even though it would be a hilarious joke.
More Rules
1. You may enter as many times as you like. Collaborative entries are OK too.
2. Remember that part of the judging will be on photo quality, so webcam and cellphone shots will likely suffer on that score. Take as nice a picture as you can!
3. There must be someone in the picture — I can take my own pictures of my stuff sitting there alone. Animals are OK; people are better.
4. The use of photomanipulation is OK, so long as the subject of the picture is clear. I may award both a “best manipulated” and a “best naturalistic” award, depending on the number of entries.
5. You agree that by submitting a photo, I’m allowed to repost it here on Wondermark, or on TopatoCo. (You of course retain the copyright to it, unless you choose otherwise.)
6. The deadline to submit or upload photos will be the end of the day (midnight Pacific time) on Monday, November 7th. So you’ve got three weeks!
SIMULTANEOUS CONTEST ALERT
We are also holding a nearly identical photo contest over at Machine of Death! You can also enter that one if you want to win another $100 cash prize.
The rules are all the same, except instead of a classy Wondermark photo, you must submit a Machine of Death Evidence Photo. This should be a single photo that tells the story of a Machine of Death prediction — most likely come true in an ironic fashion. (More info on what that means.)
Our favorite MOD photos will win prizes as well, and will be shown at the upcoming Super-Stupendous Machine of Death Magic & Variety Show! Oh did I mention that I am putting on a magic and variety show? I am. It’ll be in Hollywood, CA on November 17th. Details here, with more to come!
Upload your MOD photos (tagged “modevidence”) to the just-as-new MOD Flickr Group, or email them to submit at machineofdeath dot net, subject “Evidence Photo: [Some description].”
The deadline and other guidelines are the same! This is what we call SYNERGY. Any questions? Leave a comment. Can’t wait to see your photos!
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