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!
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.
Micropersuasion.com’s Steve Rubel recently described the revolution underway as (i.) content production and distribution explodes and (ii.) creators bypass intermediaries to go direct. Providing an apt metaphor, he called for Digital Curators to help audiences discover, experience, and understand the best “finds” within this ever-increasing flow of content.
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:
The Undependent Universe’s Collection continues to grow. It currently includes the following, in no particular order (visit the site for links):
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.” (more…)
Meet the new Undependent.com. Underneath the hood, it’s still Wordpress, but in the world of new blogs (as in life) we all know it’s really what’s outside that truly counts. We owe a great debt of gratitude to Nicolò Volpato and GNV Partners for their great work.
We chose the minimalist color scheme to emphasize that it’s not about us.
Perry Bible Fellowship is easily one of the best comics around. It’s so rare to find such a truly original and consistently funny strip with such a unique and complex illustrative technique. In fact, Nicholas Gurewitch has crafted a series of completely different styles and he’s only 25. (”Keats, big poet Keats, was DEAD by twenty four!*“) So he’s going to be around a longgggggg time. He’ll probably have an empire on the order of The Far Side in 10 years so long as he can resist the temptation to do bad and dilutive licensing deals*.
NICHOLAS GUREWITCH ON THE PERRY BIBLE FELLOWSHIP - NEWSARAMA
The Perry Bible Fellowship, named for a random church in Perry, Maine, has very little to do with the Bible. In fact, laughing at the strip’s outrageous dark comedy might make you worry that you’re going to Hell.
The brainchild of 25-year-old Nicholas Gurewitch, the comic has become a runaway hit since he began it in college in 2001. It’s grown to appear in more than 20 newspapers, Maxim magazine and of course on its own web site. Now, it’s poised to conquer the publishing world with The Trial of Colonel Sweeto, a hardcover collection from Dark Horse Comics. Already a bestseller, it’s the perfect introduction to Gurewitch’s world of doughy humans, sarcastic aliens, and really, really horrible things happening. We chatted with Gurewitch about his strip’s success, his inspirations, and just how he creates his horrifying hilarious strip.
Awards Announced For Europe’s First Machinima Festival // GamesIndustry.biz
The first machinima festival to be held in Europe took place at DMU in Leicester and in Second Life this weekend (12-14 October) and included a packed awards ceremony which recognised some of the best talent in this quickly-growing genre.Machinima is a fusion of film-making and computer gaming, which is increasingly used as a quick and cost-effective way to create animated films and has a rapidly growing following. See www.machinimaeurope.co.uk for more info…
Burnie Burns and Jason Saldana of Rooster Teeth Productions, makers of the popular online sitcom Red vs Blue, performed during the festival and took part in panel discussions.
Click through to read the full article. Get to know these creators and their work. Buy their stuff.
Winners included:
Related readings:
Last week:
The recent Madonna news, while intriguing as a tale of industry tumult, has next to nothing to do with undependence. She has signed up to receive $120 million from one of the largest (and oft reviled) music companies on the planet. In addition, she may yet see traditional distribution via a music label. See this Forbes article for great context and analysis.
It turns out that Madonona wants maximum money and doesn’t care about Undies, which is of course quite fine. She’s just, err, expressing herself.
Live Nation, formerly of Clear Channel, is about as far away from undependent friendly as you can get. They are co-Dependent central.
For more info on Live Nation / Clear Channel, please see:
Undies can now thrive in all kinds of exciting ways. As always, new opportunities present new challenges. We will continue to discuss trends, developments, industry structure and economics, and related topics of interest to Undependents. The seismic shifts in music reveal lots of cool stuff; Madonna, though, lives in another world.
Radiohead started something. Diverse folks are following. Where do we go from here?
The music industry has its own unique characteristics and severe issues. However, many lessons can be learned by following it.
Lefsetz Letter on Madonna/Live Nation
Bottom line, the majors have lost their clout. Their monopoly was always distribution, and they used this to get talent to sign. Eventually they owned EXHIBITION also. So, if you wanted to play, you had to sign with them. The fact that they weren’t hip enough to know this wasn’t going to last forever is astounding, especially since trends come and go so quickly in the music business.
You can’t make a TV show by yourself. Certainly not a movie. Not that anyone can see. But you can make a record all by your lonesome, it doesn’t cost that much. And you can say exactly what you want, you don’t need to clean it up for Wal-Mart. And, you can distribute it yourself online. That’s what Radiohead is doing.
Will they make a deal with a major for physical distribution? Will they do it themselves? Or will they leave ALL that money on the table?
Undies are already very familiar with saying what they want to say. And they already distribute themselves online.
If you can attract a growing audience for what you create, you hold a massive amount of power in this emerging space. Use it wisely. Learn how to make the most of these new opportunities.
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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