Free SPACE Comic Anthology, Hit Books, Irata, Electric Bird Noise, MWVM, Mad Monster, Sketch, Dream

Posted on March 18, 2013 by Brian John Mitchell

So I got everything finished up on the SPACE Anthology 2013 comic & Bob Corby put it up for free download over here.

There’s this pretty enlightening article that went up on Friday about the amount of sales it takes & money involved in being an Amazon best seller.  Basically not a surprise at all to me, but I think it might be to many people.  A non-famous best selling author basically makes minimum wage on a book.

I posted up part of an Irata set from a while ago:

& here’s an Electric Bird Noise set from a little while ago:

In other Electric Bird Noise news, I got out the last of the physical promos now.  Do the follow up next week & see what happens.

Here’s a new song from MWVM.  Not sure what’s going on, but Michael seems pretty active lately.

So I’m going to be at this horror convention helping man a table for The Independents.  It ends up Kirk Hammett (Metallica), Bruce Campbell, & Peter Criss (Kiss) along with a bunch of other folks will be there.  Kinda crazy.  Maybe I’ll get some of my mini-comics in the hands of somebody famous & something magic will happen.  But that means I need to print & assemble a bunch of comics this week.

Here’s a sketch from my sketchbook from a while ago.

Last Night’s Dream:
I’m washing the dishes & I see what look like two kittens in the back yard.  I go out to pet them & they’re actually leopard cubs.  I bring them into the house to adopt them.  This couldn’t possibly end in disaster.

Posted in art, comics, daily news, dreams, music, video | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

One Response to Free SPACE Comic Anthology, Hit Books, Irata, Electric Bird Noise, MWVM, Mad Monster, Sketch, Dream

  1. michael says:
    March 18, 2013 at 3:58 pm

    i’m not sure either….*looks from side to side*

Rllrbll, MWVM, Electric Bird Noise, Dreams, Interviews, Comics, Etc.

Posted on March 15, 2013 by Brian John Mitchell

So I got out the international promos for the Electric Bird Noise disc.  I really trimmed down my promo list drastically on internationals because of the shipping price hike.  I went from 50 to 6.  Scrimping down on the domestic too.  I am following the model a lot of labels have gone to, which is only sending a physical unit on request which means only 1% of the people I contact get a physical unit.  Reviews have gotten a bit scant for Silber on the releases the last few years (both digital & physical), so no reason to spend too much money on shipping.

I made a bunch of new button designs.  You can check them out over here.

I was reading a Q&A interview based indie comic magazine today.  You’d think it would be exactly what I was interested in, but instead everything seemed to be people doing sales pitches.  It makes me think that maybe the interviews I do with QRD that essentially ask no questions about current work might be the way to go.

Here’s a new song from mwvm:

Here’s a new video from Rllrbll:

Here’s a sketch I drew of a hippie Cthulhu:Last Night’s Dreams:
Mike VanPortfleet (Lycia) releases a new four album all used recording one of those old Korg synths that’s made out of wood.

I’m at karaoke & Phil Fox (Wicked Gift) is doing “L.A. Woman” but in the middle of the guitar solo it morphs into the guitar solo for “Freebird.”

It’s after the apocalypse & they have a ton of us in education camps just to keep us occupied & docile since there isn’t enough work to go around for the number of survivors there are.  The teacher is the same woman I had for english in the tenth grade & I think I’d rather risk the outside world than listening to her talk another day.

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Website, Promos, Blogging, Dreams

Posted on March 13, 2013 by Brian John Mitchell

So I renewed the Silber site’s hosting for another three years.  I hadn’t been paying attention, so I needed to pay a little more because it ends up it would expire tomorrow, so I couldn’t clinch in on an extension sale.  But that’s how it goes for me lately.  I really don’t want to need to deal with trying to set up a blog & webshop & all that again, so I feel kinda locked in with my host even if I might be able to get a slightly better deal elsewhere.  I did run into the problem which is part of why I switched to paying a big chunk at once instead of going month to month in the first place where my credit card ran a hold on processing payment because it flags international activity as suspicious.

I got done doing the email promos to websites for the new releases.  It’s kinda tedious going through & clicking on a couple hundred sites to do that & I kinda dreaded doing it, but it’s good to have it completed.

There are a few reviews of some movies I’ve been thinking about doing for Finally Checking It Out; but then I thought maybe since those sites didn’t really take off, maybe I should just put it in the Silber blog?  Or maybe I should put it both places?  Looking for comments & suggestions on how to deal with that.  If they should be just on the Silber blog, should they be separate entries or just part of the daily blog?

Last Night’s Dream:
I have a gig at a local music festival, but the day of the show they tell me the venue has been changed to one a hundred miles away.

Posted in daily news, dreams | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

3 Responses to Website, Promos, Blogging, Dreams

  1. GoddakkAttack says:
    March 14, 2013 at 7:51 am

    put it on this blog, separate entry. or compile them for your qrd’s. perhaps turn the zine to a blog and you don’t have to work so hard to make it like a release and can m ake thecontent a rolling feature.

    your dream would seem pretty accurate if they also moved your time slot to 4 hours early or 20 minutes til closing.

    • Nick says:
      March 14, 2013 at 8:19 am

      Putting “Finally Checking It Out” on this blog, separate entry + Turning the zine to a blog: I second that.

  2. Peter says:
    March 15, 2013 at 10:18 am

    Recently I had a dream that you and I were opening for a small Rolling Stones show in this open air bazaar. Of course there were dangerous elements around as well, like monsters or evil men.

Comics & Music

Posted on March 12, 2013 by Brian John Mitchell

I feel like I had a productive day for the first time in a while.  It’s nice.

I mostly finished the layout for the SPACE comic anthology.  In related news, Bob just launched a Kickstarter for it.

I worked up two Small Life Form pieces for comp appearances.  I did them more or less in the style of SLF in 1998, which means I used the program Sound Recorder & did some stuff with dramatically decreasing speed of recordings & layering them over top of each other.  I did run into an issue that the music is so low in pitch, it basically can’t be played by laptop speakers; but I think music isn’t really meant to be listened to on those types of speakers even if I know that’s probably 1/3 of music listening.

On & off for the past couple of years I’ve thought about doing a podcast.  I’m thinking about doing one that will be on the history of Silber.  Thirty minute episodes of me talking about a release or whatever.  Not sure if there would be interest in it or not, but it gets people interested something to passively listen to while they are at work.  What do you think? Any interest?

It looks like I’m supposed to record a new Remora release for a friend’s label.  We’ll see what happens & when I can make it happen.

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REH, Harry Whittier Frees, Ben Link Collins, Small Life Form, QRD, Dreams

Posted on March 10, 2013 by Brian John Mitchell

So I finished a first draft of a new script for REH, but I’m not sure whether or not I can really use the story.  I think it’s probably an accurate story depicting Robert E Howard, but it’s kinda boring & makes Bob look like a dick.

I just found out about the photographer Harry Whittier Frees who did pictures of cats in clothes 100 years ago.  Going to use some of his stuff to make some button sets, because cats in clothes always cheer me up.

Been trying to work up a Small Life Form track for a compilation.  Been slow work, I’m just not satisfied with my work lately.

I go in the tracks for Ben Links Collins 5 in 5 EP.  I’ve got a ton of 5 in 5 releases waiting for me to write up press releases for.  I’m sure I’m frustrating all the bands.  I just need to get off my ass & make it happen.

I got in another interview for the QRD label owner series.  Yet another one of the things I have to get off my ass & just get done.

Been in a weird mood lately & it makes it hard for me to work.  I need to get myself back on a standard work schedule so I can just get things done.

Last Night’s Dreams:
I’m on a road trip in the mountains with Karla & the passenger side brake light has gone out.  I tell her we have to find a Wal-Mart so I can get a bulb to fix it.  She’s telling me it’s no big deal & I tell her that as often as we drive drunk, it’s a fucking huge deal.

I’m on some reality competition show for making comics.  For some reason the host on one episode is Gordon Ramsey & the winner of the challenge gets to out ice skating with him while the rest of us erase blue line pencils from original artwork.  I’d definitely rather clean the artwork.

I’m on the second floor of a houseboat in a swamp.  I feel a wave of nausea & run outside to throw up.  When I look down at my pool of vomit on the water there are what I at first think are crayfish, but soon realize are some anthropomorphosized miniature crab men, eating it.

I’m holding my grandmother’s body.  I want to try to feed her, but she’s already dead.

Posted in art, buttons, comics, daily news, dreams, music | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

One Response to REH, Harry Whittier Frees, Ben Link Collins, Small Life Form, QRD, Dreams

  1. Peter says:
    March 11, 2013 at 12:56 pm

    Nice cat pics!

Buttons, Small Life Form, Rivulets, Sequential Underground, Comics, Dreams

Posted on March 8, 2013 by Brian John Mitchell

So the last couple of days I’ve been working towards some button designs.  There’s a bunch up on the site & a few more coming.  I just have to get to the point where I am actually going to places to sell them & putting them up on ebay & such.  But for now, you can see them on the Silber Button Factory page.

The Sequential Underground podcast I’m on is up.  Listen if you feel the need to hear cartoonists ramble & go off topic.

I actually did some work on comics.  I think I finished drawing my semi-secret UVDS:Bunny! comic & I started writing a new issue of REH.  Good to be semi-productive.

I did a little brewing.  In four weeks I should have some beer & three new meads ready.  Kinda exciting.

I got a letter from Dave Sim where I’d told him about the problems I’d had with Kickstarters for music compared to comics & he speculated that part of the problem is that the music industry is kinda built around a mystique of how much money things cost & how much money people have, where with comics pretty much everyone knows there’s not much money & almost any creator can be approached if you go to the right convention.  Which is an interesting thing to think about.  I think music is still a bit about the mystique of glamour more-so than pretty much any other artistic career.  You never really hear about america’s ten wealthieast sculptors.  So maybe if I want music backers I need to sell my rock & roll party lifestyle instead of my sad-sack cartoonist lifestyle.

Here’s a video from the Small Life Form show a couple weeks ago:

& here’s a legit official video from Rivulets:

Last Night’s Dream:
I’m at a historic battleground in Texas with rolling hills littered with tombstones.   Walking along the hills I see the ocean in the distance.  It’s a darker blue than I’ve ever seen it & it’s moving slowly, like it’s made of honey.

Posted in beer, buttons, comics, daily news, dreams, music, video | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

2 Responses to Buttons, Small Life Form, Rivulets, Sequential Underground, Comics, Dreams

  1. GoddakkAttack says:
    March 12, 2013 at 2:30 pm

    do they have hills in texas?

Sun, Sequential Underground, Goddakk, Cyberpunk Apocalypse, Dream

Posted on March 6, 2013 by Brian John Mitchell

Here’s a gif I made from taking a bunch of photos through pieces of broken glass.

So I’m trying to be upbeat.  Hence the photo above.  A couple rough days trying to work with distros.  Going to be re-working things in my brain a bit over the next couple of weeks.

I was a guest on the Sequential Underground Podcast & we recorded that tonight.  It was mainly a bunch of unfocused rambling.  The topic was, what to do to positively impact your career as a cartoonist for just $500.  I’ll put up the link when it goes up in a day or two.

Here’s a fan made video for a Goddakk song:

& here’s a video from my reading at Cyberpunk Apocalypse back in November (unfortunately the blood portion didn’t come out):

Last Night’s Dream:
I’m on tour with The Independents in Iraq.  I’m driving & whoever it is in the passenger seat goes to sleep & falls over on to my lap & I freak out & almost wreck the van & miss my turn.

Posted in comics, daily news, music, video | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

2 Responses to Sun, Sequential Underground, Goddakk, Cyberpunk Apocalypse, Dream

  1. the girl says:
    March 8, 2013 at 12:03 pm

    whooooa! why didnt you tell me the video was up?? bummer about the lack of blood – i will never get to see it!!! *PROUD*

    • Brian John Mitchell says:
      March 8, 2013 at 1:20 pm

      Without the blood, the video doesn’t really make a lot of sense for me. I mean, I essentially wrote that comic for the exclusive purpose of spitting blood at a reading. It reads to seriously as it is for me.

Distribution, Fan Funding, Dreams

Posted on March 4, 2013 by Brian John Mitchell

So yesterday I sent out the invoices to my distros.  Today I got a couple of mean spirited emails about that they didn’t know anything about it & could I send more evidence of it.  WTF?  Stuff like this is a big part of why drifting completely away from selling physical products seems so appealing to me.  Asking people who owe me & the artists on the label money to pay it is already my least favorite thing to do, I don’t need people attacking me for it.  I don’t want to be a bill collector, I just want to help people on the label to make enough to pay for the music addictions/careers.

I listened to a podcast between Ariel Hyatt & Bryan Meece (owner of Rockethub) about how to make the right narrative for a fan funding program, to have something feel like they are part of your personal cool & hip community.  It makes me feel like part of the reason my music projects haven’t been successful is because I am not super-excited about making music right now.  If I want to make music that other people find fun & exciting, first I need to have fun & be excited.  The other thing I think is interesting is that they really encourage the idea of asking your family & friends to support a project instead of just relying on your fanbase; which I find really disconcerting, but I also know that every music Kickstarter that I personally know the people had a big chunk of funding come from a family member or their own credit card.

Last Night’s Dream:
I’m in Pittsburgh staying at the Cyberpunk Apocalypse House.  We get up at 6:45 because Nate & Dan want to be at Giant Eagle (local grocery store) when it opens to buy copies of a book about Buck Rogers & Dick Calkins.  I can’t justify spending $20 on the book & later that day I end up checking out a copy from the library.

Posted in daily news, dreams, music | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

2 Responses to Distribution, Fan Funding, Dreams

  1. GoddakkAttack says:
    March 5, 2013 at 8:32 am

    i thought your biggest issue was not being super-excited to make friends in this regard.

  2. peter says:
    March 5, 2013 at 10:15 am

    Here’s a thing from a guy who pioneered digital distribution for video games (Steam) talking to a business school about how he does it. I found it interesting and entertaining.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8QEOBgLBQU

Buttons, Distro, 5 in 5, Webstats, slicnaton, From Oceans to Autumn, Dreams

Posted on March 4, 2013 by Brian John Mitchell

I laid out a bunch of stuff for some new button sets today.  I’m going to need to get on the ball with making them available to order on the Silber site & putting them up on Ebay & Etsy as discovery engines.

I finally sent out the outstanding invoices to all my distros.  I kinda hate doing it because I always fear them just saying they aren’t going to pick up anything else from the catalog because my sales are too low.  But it’s at a point where the outstanding to distributors is nearing a year’s income here at Silber, so I guess I need to get a little bit tougher about it.  I also solicited to the distros for picking up the Electric Bird Noise album, which meant telling the internationals that my price has gone up by $5 a disc because that’s how much shipping has increased & pretty much just saying no to international consignments from here on out because of the increase in shipping prices.

I’m going to try to get a bunch of stuff done this week for writing press releases for the 5 in 5 series.  I have 9 EPs here & over the weekend I got five more promised to be delivered soon (Peter Aldrich, Sarah June, Ben Link Collins, & Azalia Snail’s new project LoveyDove).

You may have noticed that over the weekend I posted the charts for February.  One thing that is pretty crazy that the charts I posted didn’t show is that February had less visitors than any of the past three months despite sending out a newsletter & having the new releases & having two new issues of QRD.  I know that I did have some weird things happen with mailing out some of the newsletters & it makes me wonder if they didn’t go out since there wasn’t a spike in traffic.  So I’m going to try to get some enough content together in the next couple of weeks to justify mailing out another newsletter in a couple weeks.

I talked to Nic Slaton (slicnaton) today & the album he’s been working on for almost a year is getting pretty close to being finished.  It looks like it will be coming out on Silber, so I’m pretty stoked about it.

From Oceans to Autumn‘s new EP that’s a sequel to their 5 in 5 EP is about to come out.  You can check out the first track through Bandcamp.

Last Night’s Dreams:
I’m walking along the strip at Myrtle Beach & a dude who may or may not be homeless is asking people in the parking lot of a beachwear store if the know where he can get a totally flat skateboard, one without kick flips on either end.

I’m driving somewhere with Karla & my fuel gage is on empty.  The car gets so low on gas it starts making a bunch of crazy warning beeps (I didn’t even know cars did that) & I shift into neutral to coast into a gas station.  Karla says, “You’re such a wuss, we totally had enough gas to get there.”

I’m driving with my grandmother in her hometown, trying to give her a last chance to visit her friends.  But her mind is gone enough that not only can she not remember where anyone lives, she can’t even remember having had friends at all.  I tell her that she has to remember, that I won’t have a chance to take her up here again & her only response is that she starts crying.

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Silber Monthly Charts for February

Posted on March 2, 2013 by Brian John Mitchell

Here’s the monthly charts for what people were checking out on the website in February. Look into anything you don’t know about.

Top Five Most Read Silber Digital Comics in February
1. Cyberpunk Apocalypse: Artistic Evidence
2. REH #1
3. XLK #1
4. Just A Man #1
5. Ultimate Lost Kisses #11

Top Five Most Read About Silber Releases in February
1. Electric Bird Noise – Desert Jelly
2. Goddakk – III
3. Irata – Vultures
4. Electric Bird Noise – Music from the Short Film Icarus City
5. Northern Valentine – Juno

Top Ten Silber Album Downloads in February
1. Electric Bird Noise – Desert Jelly
2. From Oceans To Autumn – Pareto Analysis Vol I
3. Goddakk – III
4. Plumerai – Marco Polo
5. Drekka Soundsystem – Spartan Dub
6. Northern Valentine – Juno
7. Remora – I Came To Party
8. Mister Science – Five Educational Minutes
9. Clang Quartet – Ava
10. Panthan – Five Pointed Swords

Top Five Most Read QRD Interviews in February
1. Erin O’Brien (issue 29 (2005))
2. Willy B (issue 57 – Guitarist Interview VII (2013))
3. John Porcellino (issue 57 – Guitarist Interview VII (2013))
4. John Porcellino (issue 56 – Indie Comic Special III (2012))
5. Alan Sparhawk (issue 46 – Guitarist Interviews IV (2010))

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