The rayguns have come out as I near the end of this batch of illustrations in Doctor Rognvald’s lab – and when these are done I think I’ll have nearly reached the "light at the end of the tunnel" stage. Almost.

When I guesstimated that Trapped in the Tower of the Brain Thieves would need about eighty illustrations… I was pretty much exactly dead on. Amazing, seeing as how that involved arithmetic and everything. Next time I’ll track the exact number as I refine the script. It was hard this time because some of the story nodes shared the same illustrations and I didn’t keep a tally of those as I went. Anyway, like I said, eighty pictures was about right. Sixty seven down as of this morning.

I got to thinking last night about Kickstarter. That’s a fundraising web site where a lot of musicians and artists are raising funds for their projects. I’m toying with the idea of trying that when I start Part Two of the story.

The whole thing ends up being a bit like a Public Radio fundraiser in which ever-neater premiums go with the ever-higher contributions. You can see that there’s some math involved there (egad!) to make sure that the total raised, minus the cost of those premiums, still gives you the funds you need. And if the cost of the premiums is high then the project’s funding has to be higher… which makes it harder for the project to reach its goal.

There are some Kickstarter anecdotes here at the Whitechapel forums. Fora. You know what I mean.

And you need an invitation to start a project, so when the time comes I’d have to scramble around on the web looking for one. But it seems like there’ s some potential there. Still thinking.

Technorati Tags: thrilling tales of the downright unusual, retropolis, retro science fiction, sci fi, interactive fiction, kickstarter, fundraising

Paypal is now accepted as a payment option at several of my online stores. So for those who are allergic to credit cards and debit cards, or those of you who’ve burned those cards in a wholly understandable protest against the rampant consumerism that is eroding the foundations of our culture while, oddly enough, paying my bills… now’s the time.

Paypal payments are now accepted at these sites of mine:

	Celtic Art & Retro-Futuristic Design
	at Retropolis: all products except for the ‘Retropolis Transit Authority’ T-Shirts and water bottles
	the Non-Conformists’ Union
	the Retrovert

So from here in my all-seeing Internet cockpit it looks to me as though the only places you can’t buy my swag with Paypal are my T-Shirt shops.

Technorati Tags: retropolis, celtic art & retro-futuristic design, paypal

Golden Age Comic Book Stories has posted a collection of Wally Wood’s science fiction magazine illustrations from 1957 through 1969.

Wood’s one of my favorites among the EC comics artists although I got to know his work later, through his work for the Warren magazines and for Marvel comics. It’s great to see these illustrations for Galaxy. They’re a real departure from his distinctive inking style: "Make everything black that should be black; then make some more stuff black that shouldn’t be black." (That’s my paraphrase, but I think it’s pretty close.)

While you’re there, don’t miss the recent Frank R. Paul and Big Little Books posts. Mister Doortree never disappoints.

Technorati Tags: golden age science fiction magazines, galaxy, wally wood, ec comics, illustration, art, frank r. paul, big little books, sf, sci fi

"Fun for everyone, but especially artists and non-artists."

Way to narrow it down!

Inkling is another iPhone app by my old friend Eric Daniels (his first was the Quantum Universe Splitter). This time Eric’s left the fabric of spacetime alone so we can concentrate on doodling with iPhones.

Inkling uses the touch sensitive screens of the iPhone/iPod Touch to give you natural brushstrokes whose width is controlled by the speed of your finger. Neat!

Technorati Tags: iphone, ipod touch, inkling, drawing, sketching, brush stroke, sumi-e, touch sensitive, aerfish, eric daniels

E-Readers (Neat!) and E-Books (Not!)

I love the idea of a reading slate, an e-reader, a tablet. I love books, after all, and no computer can match their portability or ease of use. And there’s that retro-futuristic quality about them – though honestly, even modern futurism likes the gadgets – that makes me feel right at home with an imaginary one in my hand.

The problem is that we should not want the ones that are here and coming to market. They’re loaded with problems for those of us who would like to use them. Their functions and their limitations are heavily skewed toward benefits to their manufacturers’ limited and incompatible retail schemes. So much so, in fact, that as sexy as you may think that iPad demo was, or as pleased as you are to see Neil Gaiman exulting over the Kindle, these gadgets are going to lead their buyers down a dark and twisty path that leads to that place where media go to die.

A book is a simple object, which is not to say it’s a limited one. It’s portable knowledge. It – importantly – is an object that can outlive both its author and its reader. All its contents are present at once, and one can skim it or hone in on a particular page as quickly as one’s eyes and fingers can move. It can be given to a friend; it can be loaned for a short time; it can be sold or traded. It can be borrowed from a library. It can be left on a dusty shelf for a couple of decades and then picked up and read again. Someday, long after its author wrote it, it will pass into the public domain and can then be reprinted for next to nothing.

E-books, like books, are portable knowledge. But they’re very bad at everything else in that list.

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