AARON ALEXOVICH

A wee message from Sera:

HUGE THANK YOUS to everyone who contributed to, retweeted, facebooked, tumblorred, pinteresteringed or just plain talked about the Serenity Rose Kickstarter. With your help, we raised over ONE THOUSAND PERCENT of the original goal.

Serenity Rose fans are without a doubt the best fans in the history of all fandom. The support you’ve shown over the past month has been absolutely unreal and completely overwhelming. I’m still in shock, to be honest. Thank you so much.

It almost makes me feel bad that next month I’ll be firing all your money into the sun. Oh well. It will be VERY pretty if you have the right telescope.

Nah… LET’S MAKE THE COOLEST BOOK EVER.

Over a thousand backers. My wrist is already in agony, and I couldn’t be happier. You guys ROCK.

I’m off from my work at the cartoon factory this week, so I’m finally putting the finallest final touches on all the special features for the book. We should be good to go as soon as the last bits of guest art roll in and I collect all the “Thank You” page info (SLIPCASE. Gotta figure out the slipcase!). I’m still hoping to get the books shipped by the end of January, but honestly, with everything that’s happened this month, I might want to take an extra couple weeks and be extra-fussbudgetty with the details. With the support you’ve shown, this REALLY needs to be the coolest book ever… And I think that’s worth pushing the date into February and driving the printer into gibbering madness.

I’ll keep you informed!

Okay… We’re down to the wire now, and I’m gonna throw one final challenge at you. Might be a tough one, but I know you can do it. It’s a really simple one…

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“SERENITY’S PLOT”

You remember my student film, right? “Good Guys Wear Black?” The non-Chuck Norris version?

Well, that’s actually the SECOND Serenity Rose film I made at CalArts. The first one is called “Serenity’s Plot,” and it’s sitting on beautiful, archival VHS tape right behind me right now. Would you like to see it?

If you get this campaign to $55,000 by SATURDAY, NOV. 30 at 5 PM, I’ll show you “Serenity’s Plot.” I’ll send the link direct to Kickstarter backers ONLY as soon as I get the tapes digitized. The film is kind of embarrassing, honestly. But it’s a big part of Sera’s history, and here’s your chance to see it first.

Why $55,000? Well, I just think “1000% of the target” sounds neat. Can you do it?

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FROM THE VAULT

Today’s image from the Serenity Rose vault was hanging outside my cubicle wall at CalArts in the year 2000 (SO OLD). It was a very early attempt at “marketing.” I have not gotten any better at it over the years…

If I remember correctly, there were giant xeroxed images of Hayao Miyazaki, Noam Chomsky, and En Esch (from KMFDM) next to Sera. We… we had a very strange cubicle.

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CRESTFALLEN MEET YOURSELF

Since we’re talking short films this week, why not head over to SICKENING THUD PRODUCTIONS where Crestfallen’s own WEDGE WEGMAN is a producer/director/actor/pretty-much-everything-person. They’ve already built a monstrous heap of cool horror/sci-fi/humor/pretty-much-everything shorts, and are currently raising funds for a feature film (go team THUD!).

SICKENING THUD PRODUCTIONS: “Giving the Philadelphia film industry a punk rock style KICK IN THE BALLS!” FINALLY.

And… I’m only going to do this one or two more times this campaign, so let’s spotlight one more artist: JACE MATTHEWS.

It’s SERA! And she’s only $25 in Jace’s store RIGHT NOW. Lots of other cool sculptures in there, too (Ash! Cthulhu! ZOMBIES!), so check it out!

Thanks again, everyone!

4 DAYS LEFT. AAAAAAHHHH.

AWGAHD WHAT DAY IS IT?

Where am I? What… Oh… I’m in my new apartment here in Pasadena, surrounded by cardboard boxes full of old LIFE. It’s amazing the things you unearth when you make a move like this. Like doing some light tomb raiding through a big crypt of YOU.

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NEW CHALLENGE

THIS particular sarcophagus might be of particular interest to you:

That’s right: A VHS copy of Morrissey’s “Hulmerist” video collection! You spotted it! (Also: “Outlaw of Gor.”)

But no, what I’ve unearthed here is a box of old Serenity Rose treasures I thought I’d NEVER see again. All this stuff goes back to the original print run of Serenity Rose Vol. 1 in 2003-2004. We’ve got…

1) Lots of issues 3, 4, and 5 (1 and 2 are long gone, sadly)

2) A small batch of special posters SLG printed to advertise Issue #1

3) A stack of “SLG Stories” from Free Comic Day 2004 featuring an original 2-page SR story. Also some cool stuff by Evan Dorkin, Tommy Kovac, Jim Rugg and others (Oh wow, Little Gloomy!)

Why am I showing you all this? Well, because it is now YOURS.

If you’ve already pledged or plan to pledge, TWEET or FACEBOOK a link to the campaign (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1445954278/serenity-rose-10-awkward-years). Make sure to tag or “@essrose” me so I don’t miss your post, and I’ll send you something from the sarcophagus here, FREE. I only have about 50 objects to give away, so I’ll keep a list and do a random drawing at the end of the campaign to see who gets what.

The Serenity fans came out STRONG for this book, and you’ve made it into the most gorgeous thing there is. I owe you a lot already. But for the rest of our time here on Kickstarter, I could still use your help EVANGELIZING. Let’s get as many cool people as we can to come and check out our comfy little world. (I promise not to let in any of the super-loud ones.) Should be fun!

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MEDIA STUFF

Speaking of evangelizing: There’s a new interview with me this week at the brilliant comic blog ROBOT 6. Thanks, JK! Get ready for golden robots, everyone!

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FROM THE VAULT

In OTHER vault news, here’s my favorite old Serenity character design sheet from CalArts, ca. 1998:

So weird to see her with eyebrows… And I guess I was really into giant Megaman shoes back then? Dunno. Her rings and pendant were already there, but the heart-shaped skull was still years away. NEXT TIME: When Vicious was not Vicious.

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CRESTFALLEN MEET YOURSELF

Today’s Crestfallen resident in the spotlight is MAXWELL VEX (or “Jimmy Misanthrope,” as he used to be called back in the war). Vexxy has been a webcomic artist for a long time now, and recently completed his horror/sci-fi/humor/pure-lunacy series Agents of the Endtimes earlier this year. That deserves a celebration.

Thanks for submitting, sir! If you’d like to see your music, comic, paintings, writing, etc. featured in Crestfallen Meet Yourself, send me a message! At least 3 more spaces left.

Thanks again, everybody! 11 DAYS LEFT.