Kickstarter: The Nitch by Satyrus Jeering

The Nitch by Satyrus Jeering

Self-publication can bring to mind countless books that were written by and published for an author's ego. With the internet, these books no longer exist in an echo chamber of self-congratulatory me-space. These things do not find a home. Sometimes though, when book collectors are lucky enough, self-publication means the author's vision for the finished book is not something that can be published any other way than by hand.

The Nitch is a children's story design to ostensibly resemble the "original journal" of the obviously very real Satyrus Jeering. It's a hand stitched leather journal style book with about a third of it being the full page illustrations that look like something that the love-child of Dr Suess and Tim Burton would draw:

The book also apparently has hidden riddles in it that unlock a website and lead to a game call the Rook and Biddles that promises real buried treasure. They are promoting the idea of getting kids involved through something they are calling "Mentortainment."

Personally if a man in a strange animal mask had come into my school, handed me one of these books, and told me he'd left a riddle in it for me that would lead to real life buried treasure, I'm pretty sure it would have been a life changing event for me and I'd probably be off Indiana Jonesing it up all over the world right now. At the very least I would have thought this was amazing. I hope these books are purchased and handed out to little kids by the thousands.

To Shave or Not to Shave? That is the question.

Full disclosure, I may be biased: 

This is my beard. There are many others like it, but this one is mine. 

Beards; one of the many depression era styles and habits making a return to the collective US cultural hegemony. Beards in particular reflect this rejection of modernity. A whole generation is coming of age in a world with fewer opportunities than the generation before it.

Consumer culture has taken total control of the modern social discourse. New developments are only as good as their market value. It gets out of control with unnecessary changes increasing the price without an associated increase in end customer value.

Look at the ways men's razors have changed over the past two decades. Few people who actually know what they are talking about, and aren't trying to sell you something, will tell you that 5 or 6 or 12 blades on your razor will give you a better shave than 1 blade can.

It could be argued that these changes were made out of a genuine concern for the consumer, but like organic foods and earth-friendly products the manufacturers are selling you the idea that you're getting something better for the extra money rather than actually giving you something better. If these product were genuinely designed to help the world, then they would be priced out as alternatives to what's already on the market. The problem is as long as people are believe that idea that they are getting a better product when they pay extra money for 5 organic earth friendly blades on their razors, there will continue to be more uselessly marked up products that aren't actually better products than what was previously available.

So how does my beard fit into all this? For me at least, there was partial motivation to reject the needless men's shaving products arms race. Now I know, one less razor sold won't change the world. It won't make any company stop their ridiculous quest to one up the other razor companies and create new ways to jam more amounts of nonsense onto their own line of razors, but I will at least save some money on all those expensive razors and creams.

I can't help thinking this comes off as me trying to make more out of my lack of shaving than there really is to it. I can't remember thinking any of this when I decided to stop shaving, but I always loathed buying new razors and new shaving creams; so although it may not have been a conscious thought, I'm sure it was there someplace though.

My beard has been with me for the better part of the past year, albeit always smaller than it is now. Truth be told when people have asked me why I grow a beard, they don't get an earful about ridiculous razor blade arms races. When I need to explain it to people I fall back to the wise words of  Nick Offerman:

That and it keeps my face warm while I ride my bike.

Kickstarter: Metalbeard Saga by Matthew Hoddy

Metalbeard Saga on Kickstarter

"A young viking prince is exiled to the moon mines after losing his beard in a tragic hot soup accident. This is his saga."

Vikings? Moon Mines? Beards being lost in tragic hot soup accidents? There is no part of the tag line to this campaign that doesn't make me want to hear more of this Metalbeard and his saga. To be fair, if I were to list the things I'm into, Viking moon mines probably would be left off, but only due to me never really knowing it was an option.

The creators of Metalbeard Saga are a small Canadian graphic novel publisher named Space Pyrates; which takes it's name from it's first run of graphic novels: Space Pyrates. Normally I'd try to tell you about their earlier graphic novels, but full disclosure: I haven't read it...yet. Plus I couldn't possibly hope to describe it better than they do, so here's a description of Space Pyrates straight from the horse's mouth aka their web store:

"You want a description? FINE, OK. Two kids living in a shanty in the middle of a dump are forced to pay rent. Rather than move out they try find jobs, even start a band, but ultimately turn to intergalactic piracy. Along the way they discover clones, robots, aliens, the secret of Christmas, a nickel, some string, a king, a captain, and a crazy cat lady."

The creators are being as transparent as possible with where the money will go and they even drew a handy little graphic to display it. Their style is simple forms with elaborate compositions that works well to fill scenes with smaller details you'll notice on your second reading. I feel like giving these people my money will make the world a more awesome place for people that deserve it to be awesome, bonus to that already awesome outcome: I get a rad as hell comic out of the deal.