Dear Insane Children,
Every morning this week, I sit down meaning to write a Patreon post and end up getting sucked into a billion tasks … the next thing you know, it’s dinner time and the day is finished. But I always figure it’s a good sign when the days fly by like that – means you’re staying busy in a healthy way. And, boy are we staying busy these days!
Ok, where to start?
Double Prints
Font Lord tells me to remind you that this is the final week to adjust your pledge to take advantage of the current Double Print Offer. Need more info on the Double Print Offer? He says, “Click THIS LINK to find out more.” Basically, this month’s print is “Escher Alice” and you’ll get another (random) print thrown in the tube for free but you’ve got to be at the $75 Tier.
Live Stream
We’ll have a live stream over on Twitch this week. Usual time…
That’s 7PM on Wednesday for those of you on the West Coast of the USA (and not on fire, under a car, breathing tear gas, without electricity, etc).
We have a ton of stuff to cover. Make sure you get your questions and feedback into the comments below. We’ll do our best to go through that stuff.
I know I still owe feedback on that Plot Twist idea and on our Oz Story stuff. I know! Working on it!
Dorothy Not Dorothy
Look, I am going to call her “Dorothy” because it’s a convenient shorthand. But she’s not “the” Dorothy from the books.
I say this partly because I received more than a few (private) comments from people who said they aren’t fans of changing the skin color of original characters (be it from black to white or white to black or whatever). Which… I don’t really care one way or another except when it looks like pandering for Political Correctness Points. Recent example: I saw the new trailer for The Batman, and I couldn’t be happier they selected Jeffrey Wright to play Commissioner Gordon. The guy is an absolutely brilliant actor – and I doubt the selection was made as a trojan horse to inject racial messaging into the narrative.
This “Dorothy” is a character who inhabits a story taking place hundreds of years in the future from the world in which we met Dorothy Gale (of the books).
As for “why” this new Dorothy looks the way she does… that’s something Omri will have to explain. He says of this revised Dorothy:
the earlier Dorothy was of MIXED RACE. i thought about it
and if i was Emerald corp i’d might want to create a beautiful black woman dorothy just because it’s more “American girl” type. with no relation of racism what so ever. more of a marketable concept.
i did 2 outfits. If dorothy is a performer she actually might wear something like the green dress, very pretty, a bit too much then something that’s like on the right, more modern and with some resemblance of farmer clothes in the depression of 1900. both can work but if we are going towards something more Corporate we need to think what THEY want to market in their own world. she’s not a person, she’s a product.
whatever direction we will decide on dorothy i feel making her a dark skinned beauty is correct to the character.
So there you have it.
Now… I have been thinking of themes and maybe there’s a way skin color plays into the narrative. Maybe not. I’m thinking more about “magic and technology” than social issues right now… I’m guessing that by the time of our story (or in the universe in which its set) the questions will be less about skin color and more about the implications of allowing technology to become like magic… and who/what is in control of that magic. Dunno… still brainstorming.
Meanwhile In Wonderland
We’re working through The Chess Realm (Depression), continuing our efforts on an Animated Alice (2D sketches), and we’re putting finishing touches on an updated Live-Action Series Pitch Document.
Omri says he wanted to finalize these character designs. So there you have some nice (finished) Chess Piece characters. Lovely.
Lots of new action sketches from Norm – featuring Alice jumping, swinging, hopping, climbing, and otherwise action-ing her way around Wonderland.
Note that there is an ATTACHMENT to this Patreon Post. Contained there you’ll find the latest variation on our TV Pitch Document for “Alice: Asylum.” We’re putting this together ahead of the September film/tv pitch season in Hollywood. And it will be handed over to the group that own/control the Alice Film/TV Rights (Priority Pictures). The hope is that they will secure a deal with someone like Netflix, HBO, Hulu, Amazon, etc.
Let’s please not get into “Oh, god I hate Netflix, please don’t work with them!” right now… As they say, “Beggars can’t be choosers.” If we even manage to get this project set up with one of these companies… we’ll worry about whether we like that company or not… later.
One of the main reasons for pushing this pitch is that if it does get picked up, that will inspire the money/publishing people to get a Game Deal done that much faster. So maybe the TV stuff isn’t 100% what we want… but if it means we get our game deal in place – and we control the game production – then we maybe can live with that?
So… feel free to provide feedback on the content of the pitch. If you were a TV Exec reading this for the first time – and hearing of Alice for the first time – would it capture your imagination?
Things are progressing on the production of our new Plushie Dreadfuls. And many of you asked for a Patreon Special Offer on the Angry Rabbit… so we’ll figure that out next month.
An Art Print Calendar is also still being made. More news on that soon.
Oh, and Lucky got a gig as a diaper model for a Japanese diaper brand. So Kawaii!
Only one week until Lucky’s 1st Birthday. Wee!
For those keeping track, he’s up and walking (and running) around on his own now. And he’s got a solid vocabulary of ma, ba, da, thtptpptptpt, and other noises. Plus, he’s got more than a few signs he’s using pretty effectively (more, milk, eat, and ‘get bent’). Smart kid.
That’s it for now. We’ll catch up more on the Live Stream tomorrow. Hope to see you there!
From Shanghai in Another Typhoon,
-American