Pancake & Booze art show, Philly

dfrnt Exhibiting at LA Pancakes & Booze from dfrnt Times on Vimeo.

I just got asked to be a featured artist in the May 31 Philly Pancake & Booze arts show. This'll be the 3rd Words of Traitors show in as many months. If you're in the area, please come out.
(Above is a video of one of the LA events.)

DEETS:
FaceBook Page with pictures and info:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-PANCAKES-BOOZE-ART-SHOW/239397989143

RAW arts show complete

Just finished what I think was a pretty successful show forwww.wordsoftraitors.com here in Philly. A lot of interest, some picked up their copies of that or other mythos media books. The venue was sold to capacity. (1200 I believe.)

I wanted to ask a favor of you that support this work by picking up at least one of our projects - the e- versions of many of our books and sounds are cheaper than a Starbucks latte, the print versions are less than a meal - or writing a review of one that you have already taken in.

I know some of you may be avoidant of "marketing on Facebook" or other social media sites, but we are a small indie transmedia brand, and it is only through the direct support of people like you that we can keep going. If every member of this Facebook group alone picked up one copy, we could easily produce one of the many next projects we have on the block. At the moment we are a bit stalled out on production as "consumer interest" on the internet has stalled, despite the fact that every show we do shows a reaction that demonstrates exactly how important some of this work is.

This message will likely slip by on many a timeline but my hope is that some of you will say "the little pieces I've seen of this project have been interesting, I wonder what it is really about?" and pick one up. You might just find yourself tumbling down a rabbithole where one piece of the puzzle connects to all the others, as that's what we have been building- a transmedia, nonlinear narrative.

Thanks again for your support, and I hope it leads to many more years of creative collaborations, new friendships, and experiences for us all.

Upcoming Art Show: Marvel

Philadelphia, April 25th, come to a MASSIVE art show and club event featuring many artists including yours truly. The Words of Traitors pieces will all be present, along with never before seen concept art and unique material.

ORDER YOUR TICKETS THROUGH THIS LINK for presale rate.

Clark: WINNING

That's right -- Clark won lead actor in... Clark.

There's a bit of irony to that somewhere, I think.

It is also up to be viewed in this year's Philly Film Fest.

A Conversation Between Two Writers

From An Interview over at The Dharma of Don talking about writing, comics and art, publishing, and everything in-between! (Check out his blog) 

Don: The Words of Traitors is published under Mythos Media which is your imprint, if I am not mistaken. What other houses have you published under, and have you succeeded with Mythos Media where you felt you struggled with branding under your own name?

.

The Olde Occult Daze

James: My first book was released through New Falcon Press, who published Timothy Leary, Robert Anton Wilson, Aliester Crowley, Israel Regardi -- it was because of them I think that I got branded an "occult author" although that isn't really entirely accurate. I've worked on several books since then that have been released by Weaponized, which is a UK based imprint.

You will see most of those books also on the Mythos Media website. We are a brand but it isn't restrictive in the way a traditional publisher might be. For instance, several of the books with the Mythos Media imprint have other publishers, and the film we worked with was through another production house. Mythos Media at the moment is about 90% projects that I've been heavily involved in, but that isn't a rule either.

So there's essentially two things that help me decide what I want to bring in, aside from sheer circumstance. The first is the basic definition:

Mythos: (n) A story or set of stories relevant to or having a significant truth or meaning for a particular culture, religion, society, or other group
Media: (n) Tools used to store and deliver information.

That's probably the one thing we take literally. Mythos also originally meant "by mouth," it is that which is conveyed culturally, as opposed to logos. Any form of media, any story could theoretically come on our radar.

So then there's the 2nd question, which is whether it fits in with the others as sort of counter-culture media. In other words, would they make more sense being listed with a major publisher, or is it a story that would likely show up on prime-time TV? If so, then it's probably not Mythos Media material. There's a bit more about the history of the project on the About page. ( http://www.mythosmedia.net/p/rather-than-avoiding-unsettling-unusual.html )

Band Photo for "EgoWhore"

Don: Can you tell us about your publishing process and how you made decisions on The Words of Traitors? I'm particularly interested in why you chose the size you did, the paper quality, and the type of cover.

James: The print size was a very conscious decision, based on the standard for art books -- though it's within several millimeters of standard magazine size as well. It's funny to me that the standard for our supposedly least and most disposable print media are almost the same, but most standards are historically arbitrary, anyway.

That decision was arrived at as a result of the nature of the art. A lot of it includes dioramas that quite frankly are only fully revealed in their detail at poster size -- I've been running an art show for Words of Traitors that includes canvas prints at 16" x 20" and 20" x 24" size, as well as some of the originals, some of which were larger than that.

A GONZOMENTARY?!

There's no way that it would work at standard paperback size. If it could've made any sense I would've liked it to be even larger than A4, but 11" x 17" is really only feasible if it's hardbound.

What else was intentional... Well, I wanted to make a book that was more about the book itself rather than just the text -- in other words, a book that wouldn't translate well into Kindle format. It's kind of a reaction against the trend, in that way. Not all of my books are like that, certainly, but it was what made sense to me for this one.

I was actually pretty happy with the interior print quality, and that was something of a surprise. I was afraid it was going to be too glossy. It was printed by Amazon directly, and that was the part of the process I had no say in if I wanted to get it out. Paper stock and print process isn't a choice, and full color is so incredibly expensive that at $29.99 our cut is a smaller % than any of our other books. That's how it had to be -- our Indiegogo campaign raised about 1/3 of the goal, so we had to cut back -- a lot of people might have just pocketed the money and said "We'll put it out later," but that's just not how I do things. It did mean that we had to consolidate as much as possible, and it did restrict the scope of what was initially planned.

The full process involved in the book, though. That would take a lot more time and space than the average reader would probably want to take. A single piece of art in the book might have gone back and forth between myself and the artist many times before it was finished. For other pieces, I took art that was sent to me, printed it out myself, and worked it into collages or dioramas that included art I'd made, lit and photographed that, brought it into Photoshop, did a lot of digital painting with the Wacom tablet, and then maybe I'd blend it with one of the textures I'd made.

But I will say that like several Mythos Media projects before, it began with an open call to the internet, as well as to those I've worked with before, in terms of you know, here's a new project we're working on, here is the concept, do you want to collaborate? So there's always an opportunity for new blood. And it starts there...

Looking for a new read?

Alexey Andreev(Krampus sketch for Words of Traitors / Nyssa) 

Interesting in reading one of my books, but kind of confused about which to start with?

Let me help.

Writing these off the top of my head, so it's not vetted ad copy or anything, just my best quick description of what I've been doing with my life the past 10 years.


1. Like a fast-paced, tightly scripted modern mythology with elements of magical realism as well as hints of sci fi and fantasy (depending on how you interpret the myth)? Fallen Nation: Party At The World's End. Written with Jason Stackhouse. 


2. Like a collection of somewhat surrealist stories that explore memory, dreams, and various "big" life questions in a narrative format -- fully illustrated in color? Words of Traitors. Written by myself alone, but illustrated along with a large team of talented artists. 

An art show has been making its way around Philadelphia from the "beautiful" and "haunting" originals and blown up prints.

3. Like a conspiracy fiction story that deals with themes such as "in the end there are no choices" (e.g. you can't run from who you are) as well as the political rammifications of an impending police state? 404 Documents. Written with Nate Sampsel, also AKA Bradley The Buyer in his musical project.    Like the other 3 suggested so far, this is based in the Fallen Nation world.

4. Like a script for a transmedia event that looks at a possible future in the Fallen Nation world, the turning point when an almost Orwellian social order begins to come apart at the seams in conflict with the uncontrollable in human nature-- namely, love? Citizen Y. Written with John Harrigan of the Foolish People. Published by Weaponized.

More of a non-fiction fan? Here are two of my favorite options:

5. The Immanence of Myth. A massive anthology providing an introductory curriculum that will help you completely unlearn and relearn the significance of myth and narrative in your (and our) lives. Particularly focused on creatives / artists who still maintain an attention span. Print edition recommended. Many contributors... published by Weaponized.

6. Apocalyptic Imaginary. A slimmer anthology that follows up where Immanence of Myth leaves off, though it can also stand on its own. Between philosophical and literary analysis, it looks at a variety of issues pertaining to immanent myth in our lives, rather than staying purely in the theoretical realm.

Alexey Andreev(Sketch for Words of Traitors / Nyssa.) 

All of these books (except Words of Traitors) are also available as eBooks on Amazon as well as Smashwords, generally for a mere $2.99 -- so cost shouldn't be restrictive if you can't afford them in paper. (Though personally I like to read a book in my hands.)

So pick up one if you haven't. This is part of my living, yes, but more importantly, it is my life. And if I die tomorrow, it is this work that I will be leaving behind, with the intent of ultimately hinting at ways that we can all be a bit more ourselves, and a bit less restrained by other people. 

You can also find a bunch of independently produced music projects (and a film project or two) that all tie into these projects, directly or conceptually. All Mythos Media projects seek to deal with similar issues from different angles, and all remain able to stand on their own as well as building upon one another. http://www.mythosmedia.net

I promise you that you won't find cookie-cutter material here. But these are definitely works that you have to meet halfway. I'll see you there ... 

Words of Traitors (trailer 1)

I may do some fine tuning over the next week but I couldn't help but leak the rough cut of the first trailer for Words of Traitors. This may serve as inspiration for the 2nd trailer, or we may do one that is more narrative in nature. Nevertheless, in here you will see a TON of concept art that went into making the actual final book: 

ORDER THE BOOK NOW

A full color illustrated book available now from http://www.mythosmedia.net -
Hope and faith, sex and death, excess and deprivation, loss. An illustrated collection of treacherous memories. These dark modern fairy tales will stick with you long after you've put the book down.

"Beautiful!" -David Mack, (Kabuki, Daredevil, Dexter.) Full color art by an international collection of artists.

Trailer 1:

Editorial: James Curcio.
Art: James Curcio. Alexey Andreev.
Music: Scott Landes.

Trailer 2 production TBA, most likely with Daniel of Gonzomentary.com

RapidEye Magazine Will Feature Words of Traitors Heart

The mag that the piece will appear in is http://www.rapideyemag.com/  #dreaming buy it ... but after buying http://www.wordsoftraitors.com trust us its worth it

Words of Traitors trailer, concept demo in progress

I’m re-acquainting myself with Premiere, and putting together a little video featuring some of the concept art that you won’t see in the finished book (though you’re definitely going to want to check that out too!)

This concept demo will be a bit more rough around the edges than what’s coming next, and may include some behind the scenes talking from me as well.

The music in this demo trailer is by Scott Landes. Art is mostly mine though there are a few pieces in the background by Alexey Andreev, and some collage pieces by a variety of photographers. I’ll provide the link and so on when it’s actually ready.

This will likely be lead-up to putting together a new diorama series that will be shot in HD with more planning, in collaboration with Daniel Warwick fromGonzomentary.com.

Eccentric Promotional Assistant(s) Wanted!

THE A.D.D. VERSION: We are looking for a promotional assistant (or several, if there are several incredible prospects) for our network of indie / counterculture art sites. This is an opportunity to learn about web and media promotions and get personally involved in the process on a daily basis. 

INTERESTED? Read on.

Gonzomentary: Clark gets a new TRAILER

HOLY SHIT A NEW TRAILER. WOOO!

Pretty awesome, right? Filmthreat thought so too. (For reasons passing understanding.) So take their advice, get as high as you can manage without dying or puking on yourself -- this will also help you overcome the attention span issue that seems to plague everyone under the age of 40 (over 40, the issue is dementia) -- and watch the movie. Here. FREE.

That's right:

Fucking FREE Gonzomentary movie.

After that, go and buy all of my books on Amazon, which have absolutely nothing to do with with Clark and aren't even comedies. Thanks. Bye.

RAW featured artist

I was selected to be a part of the April RAW show in Philadelphia. I will be featured alongside a number of very talented artists in a variety of mediums, nevertheless, would very much appreciate if you purchase your tickets through this link so they're associated with my part of the show. It makes a difference.

The event is April 25th at 8pm at Lit in Philadelphia -- details at this facebook event page. Please come and enjoy the show! 

I'll post about it again when the show is nigh, to be sure.