{"id":8891,"date":"2015-07-14T06:42:32","date_gmt":"2015-07-14T10:42:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=8891"},"modified":"2018-04-05T06:56:35","modified_gmt":"2018-04-05T10:56:35","slug":"episode-125-signal-boost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-125-signal-boost","title":{"rendered":"Episode 125 – Signal Boost"},"content":{"rendered":"

Virtual Memories Show #125:
\nDan Perkins (Tom Tomorrow) – Signal Boost<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/virtualmemories\/Episode_125_-_Signal_Boost.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div>

Podcast: Play in new window<\/a> | Download<\/a><\/p>

Subscribe: Spotify<\/a> | TuneIn<\/a> | RSS<\/a> | More<\/a><\/p>\n

“This Kickstarter, this is me, having seen my incredibly negative narrative and hopeless sense of the future just blasted out of the water. I feel like this week has changed my life.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"25yearsbluesmall-630\"<\/a>Dan Perkins (better known as Tom Tomorrow<\/a>) is celebrating 25 years of his weekly political cartoon, This Modern World<\/em>, with a kick-ass Kickstarter project<\/a> to collect all of his strips in a two-volume, slipcased edition! Shockingly (to him, but not the rest of us), his fans hit his funding target in less than 24 hours, and more than doubled<\/em> it by press time. (It’s open through August 4, 2015, so there’s time to make a contribution<\/a>!) I caught up with a flabbergasted Perkins to talk about the resounding level of fan support for the project, the detective\/archeologist work of compiling 25 years’ worth of his strips, the trepidation he had about looking at his early work, how This Modern World<\/em> changed after the advent of the internet, the ways in which his\u00a0cartoons work as a coded diary of his life, how the validation of this Kickstarter experience has changed his view of the future, and more! Give it a listen!<\/a>\u00a0(If you want to skip my rambling intro, you should\u00a0jump to the 8:45 mark.)<\/em><\/p>\n

“Charles Schulz said if he were a better writer, he’d be a novelist, and if he were a better artist, he’d be a painter, but he’s kinda good at both, so he’s a cartoonist. I’ve always held onto that.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We also talk about his cartooning influences, his early attempt at doing a mainstream daily comic strip, his favorite contemporary political cartoonists (and his apologies for any influence he had on them), what he wants to do next, how he fights against burnout on a weekly basis, why having to make a comic about a terrible event is like sewer-work, why a Trump presidential candidacy is no fun for his comics, the way This Modern World<\/a>\u00a0served as a pirate radio signal, and why Pearl Jam<\/a> lent him a hand on his Kickstarter (which, as I mentioned, is open through August 4, if you want to take part<\/a>)!<\/p>\n

“The internet has given mankind low-grade telepathy. We are now in this low-grade hive-mind where we have access to the darkest and most disturbing thoughts of many of our fellow humans. I think it used to be easier to maintain illusions about humanity.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

http:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/virtualmemories\/Episode_125_-_Signal_Boost.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div>

Podcast: Play in new window<\/a> | Download<\/a><\/p>

Subscribe: Spotify<\/a> | TuneIn<\/a> | RSS<\/a> | More<\/a><\/p>\n

Enjoy the conversation!<\/a>\u00a0Then check out\u00a0the archives<\/a>\u00a0for more great episodes! You might like:<\/p>\n