posted on July 1st, 2008 in Best Practices, Commerce, News
Something Completely Different: Eyes on the Price
This is going somewhere, I promise.
And that means he’s talking to you, Undependents.
Reviewing the Kindle, Mr. Godin drops this nugget:
I think the power is going to continue to accrue to authors with direct connections to readers… that’s the real asset.
We agree completely.
Sorry for the Despair overload lately but we didn’t want to miss this story. ABC’s Nightline recently profiled Despair and in turn showcased many aspects of Amplifier. Some of our systems and services can be spotted throughout the clip (Screenprinting, Print-on-Demand, Fulfillment and more). Video segment after the break.
A: Polymers.
Peep this:
Not on the Wailing List yet? Give up already.
UPDATE: Folks are digging it — courtesy of digitalmediaanalyst.com:
Despair Inc.: The Perfect Marketing Video Series?
June 8, 2008To start, if you work anywhere in the corporate world and have not yet gone shopping at Despair Inc., please do so now. They just expanded their video series and anyone interested in seeing how video can drive a brand should both shop at Despair.com to understand the business, then http://despair.com/spin.html to see how they reinforce the brand. Normally we would do a little analysis and outline the strengths of their campaign, but why ruin the fun. Enjoy.
posted on May 27th, 2008 in Ask a Ninja, Content, Despair, Inc., News, Penny Arcade, Rooster Teeth, Tiki Bar TV, Undies
upTweets: Undies doin’ it for themselves.
I am going to go on an extended non-blogging break.
If you’re following along on Twitter, you haven’t missed this good stuff:
- Despair’s latest vividly demonstrates awesome longer-form storytelling via video (here you go, Mr. Eisner), parts 1 and 2;
- Ask A Ninja isn’t shy about
anythingtalking web video; - Rooster Teeth has launched Red Vs Blue: Reconstruction;
- Laughing Squid captured the world’s largest lolcat;
- SoHo has a 20′ Lala;
- Diesel Sweeties celebrated a six-year undiversary. Congrats, yo!
- AppleGeeks honored Memorial Day;
- Kris Straub has opened his sketchbooks. So cool.
- Go inside PAA Episode 1.
More soon. Promise.
posted on April 23rd, 2008 in Community, Conventions, Dumbrella, Flash, Homestar Runner, JibJab, Live Action, Machinima, News, Penny Arcade, Rooster Teeth, Series, Web Comics
ROFLCon kicks off Tomorrow
The guest list really is a who’s who of Internet fame and/or ignominy. Amplifier’s own Joel Bush will be there to hopefully document the event. We gave him a great video camera so honestly, he’s without excuse!
posted on April 3rd, 2008 in Content, Machinima, Merchandise, Monetizing, Rooster Teeth, Series
Rooster Teeth’s New “Red vs. Blue” Boxed Set
You can say many things about the gang at Rooster Teeth. They own their medium. They’re funny. They’re continuously experimenting with new forms and permutations (Grifball!) And many more.
But they’re also just overkillers in the best way. They invest their DVDs not only with the classic Red vs Blue content, but with so much of the unrelenting absurdity that is their signature. So when they release the DVD BOXED SET of ALL 5 Seasons of RVB on 5 DVDs at $69, you’re already getting an enormous value. (The DVDs individually retail for $20) And each of those DVDs were packed with all the outtakes, missing scenes, bonus foo and so on.
But with this new boxed set they’ve now created 2 MORE hours of behind the scenes material, “making of” documentaries and all sorts of other stuff. So six DVDs for seventy bucks, it’s like $50 off. Plus you get the awesome black/blue and red all over double-box to carry them in.
We hope to have a more extensive writeup soon. (we still have to watch through all this stuff!)
posted on March 13th, 2008 in Best Practices, Content, Glennz Tees, Merch
A T-Shirt Rock Star declares his Undependence
Arguably one of the most influential working t-shirt designers today, Glenn Jones, has launched his own t-shirt company, Glennz Tees. If you’ve spent much time in the t-shirt world, you already know his work. He’s won more Threadless contests than anyone. He combines a richly-colored, insanely detailed illustrative style with a laugh-out loud funny visual gag.
posted on March 6th, 2008 in Achewood, Content, Music, News, Penny Arcade, Rooster Teeth, Undies, Web Comics, undependence
Undies Remember Gary Gygax (1938-2008)
The death of Dungeons & Dragons creator Gary Gygax earlier this week wasn’t just a loss for gamers and fantasy fans, but for creative types and undependents all over the world. Some of the web’s best and brightest undependents have been remembering the role-playing game titan as only they can.
posted on February 19th, 2008 in Content, Merch, Music, Web Comics, undependence
Webcomics: Nerd Day Rising!
According to some highly-regarded scholars of the intersection of music and popular culture (by which I mean, whoever wrote the first entry that came up after my hasty Google search), David Lee Roth once said that the reason most music critics love Elvis Costello is because most music critics look like Elvis Costello. (For those who have never really gotten over the nerd vs. jock tensions in high school — Hi! I’m Mike! — it should be pointed out that Costello later got nominated for an Oscar and commissioned by the Danish Royal Opera, while Roth is now doing this.)
The point is — or should be — the relative acceptability of nerdiness is a somewhat recent phenomenon, and the Internet is helping the bespectacled and pallid among us finally convince the world that knowledge is actually pretty cool. There’s a whole slew of webcomics out there celebrating, and not apologizing for, their creators’ love of periodic tables, quadratic equations, obscure art history, and all other kinds of fancy-pants book-learnin’. Here’s two of them:
Undependent™ tracks the emerging class of self-sustaining Internet-based artists. By artist we don’t mean artiste. We mean those content creators whose self-expression originates in and emanates from the Internet itself. The compelling ones attract audiences and in so doing are capable of creating completely self-sustaining businesses with total artistic control. (Read more here)
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Plug in to the Undies!...
Micropersuasion.com’s Steve Rubel recently described the revolution underway as (i.) content production and distribution ...more
