Hello!

This is issue 147 of my Newsletter! Three away from publishing 150 of these. I kind of feel like I should do something special, like a giveaway for issue 150. If you have any ideas, I'd love to hear 'em.

Last Friday was the wrap up of the Kickstarter for my spaceships book. It blew away my expectations with the amount of people who backed it. Thanks again for checking it out, and backing the project.

The Parker family went out of town for vacation the last two weeks and I've stayed behind to get a bunch work done on the book. I've been extremely productive, but man, it's lonely. Just me, my dog Walter, and my computer. I feel like Tom Hanks in that movie Finch. While watching it, I turned to Walter and said, "hey look, it's us."

Alright, read on, there's 5 things I thought you'd find interesting this weekend.

Enjoy!

1) Making more comics!

From the Making Comics Division

My sales pitch for Kepler's Intergalactic Guide to Spaceships was that it's "Part Comic, Part Art book, ALL spaceships."

In order to deliver on the comic part of that promise, this week I've been focusing on getting the comic pages done for the book. I've also added a section all about the technology that makes spaceships work in the JP universe. Having so much fun watching this book come together!

If you want to see more of these comic pages as I post them, as well as the rest of the making of the book, I'm posting regular updates on my patreon.

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2) Concept Art from Finch

From the Concept Art Division

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I mentioned Finch earlier and I want to add that it's a good, quiet, small movie, that's not based on any existing IP. It's the kind of film I want more of. It's a pos-apocalytic survival film with a cast of three: Robot scientist Finch, and his robot creation, and his dog.

Concept artist David Levy did the design for the robot, and I really love it. There's a TON of images here: LINK​

David's Website: LINK​

Instagram: LINK​

3) Ultralazer

From the Comics Division

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This looks like a cool comic. French artist Yvan Duque does the illustrations and they are magnificent. Like a mix of Eric Carle and Adventure Time.

I love the maps, the colors, the shapes. Putting this in my books-to-buy after my book buying freeze is over in 2023. Available on Amazon: LINK​

More art here: LINK​

Duque's Instagram: LINK​

4) ZvP

From the Short Film Division

This fan-made samurai short film, titled ZVP (abbreviated from Zatoichi vs Predator, which I assume wasn't used for copyright reasons) clashes together the samurai and sci-fi genre.

In feudal Japan, blind Swordsman Zatoichi comes to the aid of a noblewoman carrying a secret treasure, and must fight cyborg ninjas and a powerful and mysterious Samurai.

From Junya Okabe the creator: "This is a fictitious sci-fi film trailer produced as a nonprofit fan movie, based on a Japanese historical film, or jidaigeki, which does not actually exist. Please enjoy watching it."

According to the date on the youtube video this was posted five years ago. FIVE. YEARS. How come I'm only NOW seeing this sublime masterwork of camp meets cool? I feel like some friend somewhere let me down, by seeing this and not telling me about it.

Watch the short film here: LINK​

Some behind the scenes stuff here: LINK and LINK​

5) On Fitting In

From the Inspirational Thought Unit

I've been pondering the age old question: How does the artist/writer/performer/teacher/musician make an impact with their work?

Do they bend their work to fit with what sells? Or do they make something for that narrow niche of audience that aligns with their unique interests?

Or do you balance the two?

Comedian Janeane Garofalo had this to say on it (taken from this NYTimes article)

This resonates with me...but the key ingredient to be successful doing this, ingredient that she doesn't mention is: You have to be really REALLY good at what you are doing.

(Via Chip Zedarsky's Newsletter. Thanks Kohl for sharing it with me)

That's all for this week. Thank you for reading this newsletter and hope you have a great weekend!

-Jake

My sponsor for this newsletter is…me. It's me, because I'm not accepting sponsors for my email list, and don't plan to any time soon. Really, I'd just like people to buy stuff from my shop. If you like this newsletter, you can support it a few ways:

​Order something from the shop (Best)

​Back a kickstarter when I launch one (Also Best)

​Support me on Patreon (Second Best)

​Share the newsletter with a friend (Third best)

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Mention it on social media (Fifth best)

I'd appreciate any of these when you can. Thanks!

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*Any amazon link I post is an affiliate link

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