Evolution

New Zealand T-Shirt Designer Glenn Jones has recently launched a blog.  In a world of copycats, Glenn stands out as a true original.  Seeing his work makes me very happy to NOT be a shirt designer.  Even if Glenn were simply illustrating other people’s ideas, his execution would be far better than almost anyone.  But when you consider that he’s the IDEA guy too, well, it’s almost too much.   He’s just so good at all aspects, concept, humor, execution.  If you’re remotely interested in T-Shirt design then it goes without saying you need to subscribe to his RSS Feed.

Deflating Defenses 

Endangered Species

Secret Habit

It’s a Bottle Jim

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 anything talking 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.

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!)

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.

Glenn has launched with 6 initial designs. 2 of these designs are completely new, never before seen shirts. The first design, shown above, Go For Launch, features a space shuttle powered by a liquid fuel mix of diet soda and mints. Perhaps you’ve heard that mixing the two produced crazy fountains of propulsed liquid? If not, you can see the results of these two staples of the American diet in this viral video that started it all.

In addition to new designs, Glenn has also produced and updated 4 shirts that he originally submitted to Threadless. These designs rated very well but didn’t win any contests and so they have been very popular and unavailable. Since Threadless allows any designer to keep the rights to designs they didn’t option within 90 days of submission, Glenn decided to produce them anyways.

Dangerous Games	Prankster
Prize Catch	Split Personality

Over the coming months we hope to share more indepth coverage of Glenn's story. But for now, feast your eyes on his amazing creativity and of course, order some shirts!

(In case you're wondering, Glenn is still a Threadless addict. They've been encouraging to him about his new venture and Glenn says he intends to still submit ideas to Threadless. It would seem that everyone wins!)

BONUS ITEMS

• NY Times article on Threadless which features Glenn (2007)
• Read Glenn's interview about launching GLENNZ TEES at Rob Walker's blog Murketing.
• Glennz page on Threadless
• Lastly, subscribe to Glennz Blog to be the first to know when his next design becomes available. It could be sooner than you think.

• Chris Onstad at Achewood features an irreverent, but ultimately affectionate, strip explaining the basics of D&D to those who are unfamiliar with it.

• Giant in the Playground imagines Gygax’s arrival in heaven.

• Full Frontal Nerdity thanks Gygax “for saving us all a place at the gaming table.”

• Dork Tower remembers Gygax with an incredibly sweet, earnest cartoon.

• The undie band Uncle Monsterface (which defies description, but in a wonderful, wonderful way) offers a free download of their new song “(thank you) Gary Gygax.” (Via Wired.)

• At the Rooster Teeth blog, Burnie Burns writes: “He was born with a space alien’s last name; he was destined for nerdom at birth. D&D didn’t exist so he had no choice but to invent it.”

• Penny Arcade features an unbelievably touching, and perfectly executed, tribute to Gygax.

It’s easy to understand the outpouring of emotion from the undependents — Gygax was an undie pioneer, creating not just an original work of art, but an original form of art as well. He created D&D out of whole cloth, and he did it himself, releasing the very first editions of the game himself, without help from major distributors. He was almost a godfather to generations of creative types, and the undependent scene wouldn’t be the same without him. Rest in peace, Gary.

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:

• XKCD bills itself as “a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math and language.” Which sounds a lot like my college career. Except for the romance. Also, I failed math. Twice. But even if you score a zero on your AP Calculus test (yes, it happens. Hi! I’m Mike!) you’ll be able to appreciate physicist/artist Randall Munroe’s skewed take on dating librarians, Snapple, and poisson distributions. The XKCD store, temporarily closed, will hopefully return soon, enabling us all to get our fix of “Science: It Works, Bitches!” shirts.

• I’ve written before about Dorothy Gambrell’s brilliant Cat and Girl, but it’s hard for me to say enough good things about this innovative comic strip by the Tucson-based musician and artist. It’s not just because she’s one of the only ones with the guts to say that pirates are “an overworked Internet meme,” but also because of her shout-outs to figures as random as The Captain and Tenille, Count Vronsky, and Jasper Johns. She’s also a leading proponent of geek unity (which, as Girl suggests, could have saved Veronica Mars). Visit her store while you’re waiting for the deus ex machina.

Comics like these have a natural, ever-growing audience: folks who like to laugh and learn at the same time, and who appreciate the work of creators who are hopefully too witty to write a tooth-achingly earnest phrase like “laugh and learn at the same time.” Webcomics are a natural medium for this kind of humor, but you can also see it (very occasionally) on television (The Daily Show, No Reservations), in music (Sufjan Stevens’ history-laden state-themed albums), and — if my financiers come through — even off-Broadway musicals (the hopefully forthcoming Ewing!: The Crazy, Funky Odyssey of America’s First Secretary of the Interior, As Told by Mike). The nerdcore artists and writers of today are refusing to buy into the theory that the world is being dumbed down, and their audiences are rewarding them with not just attention, but ardent fandom.

The nerd revolution won’t be televised, but thanks to the nerdcore webcomic movement (such as it is), it might just be showing up in your RSS feed.

• College Humor offers holiday cards.
• Diesel Sweeties, too, has cards aplenty.
• Despair has BitterSweets Candies and a heart-shaped card that you can personalize with one or three hearts.
• JibJab has tons of themed Sendables waiting for you to make them your own.
• Perhaps sensing all of the above, Indexed commented on the (possibly rampant, at least among the Undies) anti-Valentine’s sentiment.

Enjoy.

Nice call, Steve. Thank you.

We help audiences (all of us) find, follow, and enjoy the best work from the emerging class of self-sustaining Internet-based artists, aka the Undependents or Undies, who are telling amazing stories within podcasts, video, webcomics, machinima, animation, etc.

As curators, we feature these programs:

• Undependent.com, which focuses on success stories, trends, insights, and practical advice.
• The Undependent Del.icio.us feed, compiling excellent reference material and news;
• The Undependent Twitter feed, a quick spotlight on great new content, merch, and news;
• The Undependent Universe, our living museum showcasing the best Undies. (Thanks, Netvibes).

The Undependent Universe’s Collection continues to grow. It currently includes the following, in no particular order (visit the site for links):

• Webcomics: The Perry Bible Fellowship; Girl Genius; PvP; Starslip Crisis; Sheldon; Evil, Inc.; Piled Higher and Deeper; Wondermark; Unshelved; Dinosaur Comics; xkcd; A Softer World; Cat and Girl; Dresden Codak; AppleGeeks; Ctrl+Alt+Del; User Friendly; White Ninja Comics; and Octopus Pie.
• The Drumbrella Exhibit: Boy on a Stick and Slither; explodingdog; The Creatures in My Head; Diesel Sweeties; Overcompensating; Scary Go Round; Goats; Wigu; as well as RSS feeds from the creators;
• The Achewood Exhibit: featuring all character blogs;
• Videos/shows: Funny or Die; College Humor; The Onion; Heavy.com.
• Others: Penny Arcade; Rooster Teeth Productions; Angry Alien Productions; JibJab; Despair, Inc.; Ask A Ninja; Smosh; Homestar Runner; Those Lil’ Rabbits; Tiki Bar TV; Engrish.com.
• How To’s and News: Fleen; Webcomics Weekly; Comixtalk; Cold Hard Flash; NewTeeVee; Halfpixel; Web TV Wire; Thinking Machinima; Digital Strips.
• Rotating special exhibits highlighting great stuff, and much more!

We hope our programs help you enjoy the Undies more easily and regularly. We live in such an exciting time, eh? Creative expression flourishes, and newly empowered creators keep inventing more ways to delight their fans.

Thanks again, Steve, for your great post and ongoing work. And thanks, too, to all the Undies and especially all the fans who support them. Without you, this revolution doesn’t happen.

Time Magazine’s Lev Grossman calls webcomic Achewood (which is, perhaps, the best comic strip in American history) the best graphic novel of the year, noting “(i)t’s not a graphic novel in every, or maybe any, traditional sense, since its primary venue is the Web, but Achewood is so profoundly genius it would be a crime to put it anywhere but on this list, and at the top of it.”

I can’t disagree, and judging by the amount of “What We Need More of is Science” shirts I see in the office, I’m not alone. Not only is the content genius, but creator Chris Onstad also offers some of the most innovative merchandise to ever be inspired by a comic strip about cats and teddy bears living in Southern California — shirts are a no-brainer, but you can also buy hot sauce, umbrellas, and pint glasses with the Achewood seal of approval. (Or, in the case of Roast Beef, the Achewood seal of apathy and dysthimia.)

Also, check out the reference to Achewood in a recent Cat and Girl strip. Dorothy Gambrill, the creator of Cat and Girl, is another undependent hero — we’ll talk about her innovative Donation Derby idea in a later post, but for now, take a look at her own original merch, including a t-shirt written in Icelandic, an Ozymandias trophy (score!), and a sticker with perhaps the best observation about the World Wide Web ever: “If television’s a babysitter, the Internet’s a drunk librarian who won’t shut up.” My birthday’s December 27. I’m just sayin’.

While there is no shortage of interest in the album cover medium, there’s no obvious web page out dedicated to the world’s first record cover. I’m apparently I’m not the only one looking for it (See: “Anyone have a scan?“) I’ve seen scattered images from articles about Steinweiss but I’ve not found anything resembling a Shrine.

Such a noteworthy artifact in the history of mass media screams for its own page. Google returns 300+ results for the phrase “Sgt Pepper’s Album Cover” but nothing definitive for the phrase “First Album Cover.” Here’s my humble stab at such a page.

For the complete history of the album cover and its creator, just hit Wikipedia or pick up a copy of “For the Record.” Alex Steinwess, a then 23 years old designer, convinced Columbia’s suits to create the first true album cover. Until then, 78s were sold in generic sleeves.Recently, I came across an apparently original edition of this album and was able to pick it up for almost nothing. Someone unwittingly dumped it onto eBay for chump change. I mean, if they’d known what they had, I would’ve at least expected the auction to include “World’s First Album Cover!” and a reserve price of $100, $500, who knows? Instead, I picked it up for less than $30.

I have been eager to get it posted for all the graphic designers, media theorists and vinyl enthusiasts out there googling “steinweiss +first album cover.” I wanted to get these images out into the world for broader circulation.

Front Cover Closeup

Marquee should read “By Rodgers, Hart and Steinweiss”

Album Spine

It looks exactly like a hardcover book when closed. Like they say, with any truly new medium the first thing people usually do is crank out simulacra of old, familiar media.

The 78

Before the LP (Long Playing) record, 78 records were usually 10 inch platters that held around 3 minutes of music!

In other words, this Rodgers and Hart collection of Smash Song Hits includes 4 separate platters! More bulk than a modern CD box set!

Inside Front Cover and Platter 1 Sleeve

Generic Inside-Back Cover

I’m guessing the above back-inside-cover was the original. Let’s call it the

“Let’s not spend any more money than we already have on this @#$% thing by adding even more images and hifalutin’ design this 23 year old punk is probably going to cost us all our jobs with his crazy idea anyways“

Shelf-Aware™ Version

I’m guessing the ABOVE version, spotted inside an otherwise seemingly identical version of Smash Song Hits is the “I can’t believe this whole album cover thing worked and we’re selling four times more of these than the regular covers, the punk was right, hey, why not give EVERY album a cover and hey, whaddya know, we’ve got ourselves a built-in billboard here, we may as well USE it!“

Shelf-Awareness, incidentally, is a term we coined at Amplifier. It describes the publisher/label/studio-centric pattern of encoding a particular work of art(?) with advertisements for other like-minded comparables available from the same entity. In other words, it’s the endless tendency to make content into an advertisement for other content. Whether it’s trailers in front of movies, endorsements by same-publisher authors on backs of books, or in this case, ads for other albums by the same label, it’s a recurring phenomena and it’s one that often signifies a wasted artistic opportunity.

So what does a medium from 1938 have to do with Internet-based content?
Everything.
78s shipped in brown kraft paper sleeves for years before someone thought to change this. Today, most orders still ship in brown corrugate boxes. It’s only a matter of time before this generic wrapper is completely transformed into a new medium altogether.