Jake

Important If True 48: Mystery of the Crows

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Important If True 48:

Important If True 48


Mystery of the Crows
There are Great Mysteries out there. Conundrums so staggering and profound they can only be resolved by the world's greatest minds. What do you do when your barista knows your name, but you've never managed to learn theirs? How can Mario crush his enemies when he knows the pathetic, lonely lives they lead? And, is that crow trying to sell you cigarettes? We think if these are the sorts of questions you're looking to have answered, we will do a very servicable job. Join us!

Discussed: Inaccurate rules of the universe regarding monthly transitions, video of cat on bowl on Roomba, paying it forward at a local coffe shop, not paying it forward, instant dread and shame, getting to know your local barista, completely failing to know your local barista after dozens of visits and the silent-but-deadly social death spiral that transpires as a result, Tim Horton's, Timmy's, Dunkie's, Georgie, the time Georgie burned the Dunkie's, Unkie Dunkie the Baloney Slicer, crow cleanup crews, Crowded Cities, the crowbar, The Official Crow Box, craving a smoke thanks to crows, Joe Camel, ravens, Her Majesty's Ravenmaster, raven seeking attention, shitty teens, Larry the Crow, childhood misconceptions, Koopa Troopas, Blanche DuBois, A Streetcar Named Desire, Proust's "madeleine" moment from Remembrance of Things Past, headcanon, the impossibility of communicating your deepest most tragic interiority across language and age barriers, being waxed house baby, being wax house babied, even longer hypothetical Wikipedia cons, hit film "Wax House, Baby," fictional film "Wax House, Baby" within the hit film "Wax House, Baby", hit song "Wax House, Baby"

Send us your questions at questions@importantiftrue.com. If you enjoyed this and would like to subscribe to an ad-free feed, please consider supporting Idle Thumbs by backing our Patreon.

Chris' Endorsement: iOS and Android telemarketer-identifying and -blocking app Hiya

Jake's Endorsement: Alternative 1980s comic book compendium Sam & Max: Surfin' the Highway (digitally on Comixology or in the beautiful Eisner-nominated Anniversary edition designed by our very own Jake!)

Nick's Endorsement: SyncSketch, for collaborative online sketching

Sponsored By: Steam virtual inventory buyer and reseller Captain Invictus, aka A Vacuum Full of Bees (also listen to the Hat Baron saga as recounted on the Idle Thumbs Podcast), Quip electric toothbrushes with your first brush head refill free

 

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Wonderful work on Surfin' the Highway, Jake, and nice to hear you to talk about putting it together. I have the softcover (couldn't quite stretch to the hardcover with bookplate when Telltale first released them) and more recently the Comixology version which I dip into on my phone from time to time. A real shame they weren't able to keep it in print for longer, but the digital release is very welcome, as I often find myself recommending the comics to people.

 

I believe it was Jake who recommended this to me elsewhere on these Forums, but to spread the word a bit, the Facebook page Sam & Max Funhouse is a steady stream of interesting bits from Steve Purcell's archive - well worth following.

 

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(Emailer Chris specifically mentioned that he was in a drive-thru coffee shop, where people order well in advance of paying for their items. This is where, historically, these pay-it-forward lines start up, because it's easy to pay for the person behind you as their order is already in the system.)

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1 hour ago, RubixsQube said:

(Emailer Chris specifically mentioned that he was in a drive-thru coffee shop, where people order well in advance of paying for their items. This is where, historically, these pay-it-forward lines start up, because it's easy to pay for the person behind you as their order is already in the system.)

Ah there we go this makes perfect sense and is exactly where I've encountered it before but my brain was reeling to put the memory together.

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3 hours ago, RubixsQube said:

(Emailer Chris specifically mentioned that he was in a drive-thru coffee shop, where people order well in advance of paying for their items. This is where, historically, these pay-it-forward lines start up, because it's easy to pay for the person behind you as their order is already in the system.)

 

Whoops. Yeah that makes sense. I haven't owned a car for years, and for whatever reason when I did I don't think I've ever been to a drive-through coffee shop (although I've certainly been to drive-through fast food plenty of times, where this obviously doesn't happen). On top of that I HAVE seen this kind of thing at local pizzerias and so on, in non-drive-through contexts, where it's just buying a slice for a friend who they know is coming in later, or something like that, and the friend's name is put on a blackboard. So the drive-through coffee shop thing never even occurred to me.

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I need to see this koopa troopa/Woman side by side because I’m not seeing it :-P

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7 hours ago, Simon said:

Wonderful work on Surfin' the Highway, Jake, and nice to hear you to talk about putting it together. I have the softcover (couldn't quite stretch to the hardcover with bookplate when Telltale first released them) and more recently the Comixology version which I dip into on my phone from time to time. A real shame they weren't able to keep it in print for longer, but the digital release is very welcome, as I often find myself recommending the comics to people.

 

I believe it was Jake who recommended this to me elsewhere on these Forums, but to spread the word a bit, the Facebook page Sam & Max Funhouse is a steady stream of interesting bits from Steve Purcell's archive - well worth following.

 

 

Very well said, Simon, and completely agreed! I have the softcover version of the reprint designed by Jake and it's one of the most well designed books I own. (Check out the hardcover and some early design sketches here.) Seriously, it's my favorite book, along with "Perfect Nonsense: The Chaotic Comics and Goofy Games of George Carlson" (which is the most well-designed and beautiful book I've ever seen), the massive-sized "Peanuts Color Sundays" volumes, Dame Darcy's "Meat Cake Bible," the Floyd Gottfredson Mickey Mouse volumes, some of the John Canemaker art books, and some of the prose Penguin Classics deluxe edition books. 

 

Jake is up there with Tony Ong and Jacob Covey from Fantagraphics as one of the best book designers of all-time, though sadly it seems like it was just a one-time passion project for him. If y'all publish an "Art of Campo Santo" book in the future, you've already got the perfect person to design it!

 

It's a shame the 2008 reprint Jake designed is now out of print as well. Prices on Amazon and eBay for the softcover seem pretty high for one in like new or new condition. But it might be possible to get a new copy for a more reasonable price if there's anyone that is just now learning about it and would like a physical copy over the digital tablet/smartphone version. I sent an email to the Cartoon Art Museum a few years ago inquiring about getting a copy since they had a Purcell "Sam & Max" exhibit at the time and a bookstore attached to the museum (since they relocated it looks like the physical bookstore isn't open at their new location yet, though they do have a limited amount of items in their online store). They kindly forwarded me to someone named Joel who said he worked with Steve Purcell periodically. He was able/kind enough to send me a brand new copy of the softcover halfway across the U.S. for $30 (new book + shipping) via Paypal. This was in July of 2014. I don't want to give out precise info since I don't know if he has any more copies or would be able to do the same for anyone else, but it seems possible. If anyone in the U.S. is sure they'd want a copy, feel free to PM me and I'll email him, ask if he has any more he'd be willing to send out, and if so give you his email address to make the transaction (you're just giving him your address to ship it to you and he'll give you the email address to pay via Paypal). 

 

Would be really cool if someday Purcell is able to publish a new book of the work he's done since being at Pixar, along with any new "Sam & Max" or personal artwork. Several Pixar employees have been allowed to publish work while at the company: Sanjay Patel has published personal work via Chronicle Books, and Enrico Casarosa and Ronnie Del Carmen have both published personal work, too. All three of them have had some of their Pixar work published via Chronicle and Disney Press, as well. Lorelay Bove, Brittney Lee, Claire Keane, Lisa Keene, Victoria Ying, and Helen Chen were all able to publish their personal work via Design Studio Press a few years ago, too, so it seems like Disney Feature Animation is fine with employees publishing personal work, as well. (Speaking of Pixar, let's fucking hope it's confirmed that Lasseter is out for good sometime soon.)

 

Could you imagine if Purcell was able to direct a "Sam & Max" short or feature-length movie at Pixar? That'd be pretty damn cool. Sanjay Patel's "Sanjay's Super Team" is the best short Pixar has made so far, in my opinion. Would love if they started letting employees spearhead projects with their own ideas instead of only letting the same five or six people be in charge (this would have the side benefit of getting them out of this god awful sequel malaise they've been in this entire decade), and good lord after all the shit that's come out about what Lasseter put women employees through for *decades* let's hope they let more women be directors/in charge and not unceremoniously boot them off the project 3/4th of the way through like they did to Brenda Chapman.

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I'm almost certain the crow bar is just another step towards the drone/hawk war that was posited in episode 2

 

I'm also thinking about what other animals you could possibly give jobs to. Cephalopods are extremely intelligent, maybe you could somehow train them to pick up trash off beaches?

 

On that topic this week I'm going to endorse listening to this recording of an orca imitating human speech

 

EDIT: Oh man, I work as an animator, and syncsketch looks crazy useful

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While I don't have anything as wild ir long lasting as the Koopa Troopa story, I do remember watching the movie The Double, starring Jesse Eisenberg, and for no apparent reason assuming that the entire film was set in an underground complex.

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When looking to see if I could find Unkie Dunkie on Youtube, I came across "Booty Training Indian Meatballs Curried Rice Almond Baked Potato Three Ways Honey BBQ" and wish I could know what it was.


Edit: I was very upset that you just passed over Unkie Dunkie, but listening to it now, I understand how as much as it's worth listening to, there is no conceivable way to discuss it.

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I just listened to this episode now and looked up crowded cities, learned that it had concluded. that's about it.

 

 

Conclusion

We took one year to see how we could proceed with the concept. We talked with experts, companies and public institutions, but we had to conclude we have too few resources to continue the project.
Furthermore, we couldn’t get a clear picture of what the effects would be on crows and the environment.

It made us decide to end the project.

We hope this project helped you realise it’s seriously time we fight cigarette filters and other litter on the streets and in nature.

All the best,
Crowded Cities

 

Updated: December 2018

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