I am working with Pablo G. Callejo on a new graphic novel project we’re calling “The Stringer.” It’s about a washed-up war correspondent who goes rogue — a dark satire about the death of print journalism and how easily social networking can be manipulated.
Here’s three sample pages. What do you think? We’re probably going to try Kickstarter.
13 Comments.
Well, the poll results are less than encouraging. Should Pablo and I bag this idea? It takes a solid year to produce a book like this; without minimal support from readers, it ain’t gonna work.
I don’t know quite what to make of it. Goes rogue? Social media manipulation? It sounds like he plans on inventing a fake war, which is a neat conceit.
Yes, Miep, that is the conceit. I’ll post more pages on the Kickstarter if/when I do it.
Ted: Thanks for letting us know. I hope you can do it. I would think the whole story would have to move fast and furious, before Snopes got ahold of it.
“We have always been at war with Eastasia.” False.
I’ll bet you any amount of money that a bunch of those Daily Kos scumbags came over and voted “no”. It seems a little bizarre that the vote would skew so far to “no. I mean, why would people who come to tedrall.com be here unless they liked your work, only to vote no? I smell some Kos shit, some smelly foul Kos shit here.
As for me, I’d support it if there’s some tits and ass in there, a la Heavy Metal or some of Robert Crumb’s work.
ex: R Crumb is a very talented cartoonist (I’m not familiar with Heavy Metal) but it would be kind of hard to work T&A heavily into a war correspondent piece without it being all rapey, what with war being so much about rape.
The whore in the bar in the sample pages doesn’t come off as rapey, more as backdrop and tie-in for the dialogue. I wondered what she was doing there, and then it was explained. Nicely managed.
But this is just an intro panel. After that, if you keep drawing whores or otherwise scantily clad women into the story, they have to have some kind of plausible role. Unless that’s not how you roll, but I don’t see Ted including arbitrary stuff in his toons, it’s all part of a direct message.
I was kidding about the T&A thing. I bet if it did have a lot of T&A though, more people would kick in.
Oh, and regarding the poll, good call. The people at That Blog know all about “freeping” polls, as they call it, because people from Republican blogs do it all the time.
I didn’t vote because my business model for now is to buy Ted’s current books used and send him the difference. There are a bunch I want to read, this will take me awhile. Also I qualify technically as poor. Though I have some privilege.
@ex: I agree about the “nos.” I’m more concerned about the paucity of “yesses.”
I voted yes. If it’s something you really wanted to do, I’d kick in.
Ted,
Clearly, the poll has been manipulated. My earlier comment comes to mind: violence isn’t just physical blows or assaults. The DK Kult, I suspect, is now deliberately and intentionally fucking with your livelihood. That has a long traditional in fascistic thinking. Since you don’t have a shop window to smash, the word goes out to fuck with your output.
Next time, run the poll without a “No” option. That will prevent the gutterdwellers from tampering with the results. If the true “No” respondents are that strongly against the idea, they can post a comment explaining why.
I’d read the story, but I’m heavily angled toward journalism stuff. Have you considered sending the script to three or four people and asking for their opinions?
Alex: yes, I have in fact showed it to quite a few people, including some good editors and cartoonists, and everyone says it’s great.
So put it on kickstarter. Don’t fall in to the terrible crotchknot that is indecision.