So I have this deal with Becky Dreistadt and Frank Gibson: when I back their Kickstarters and qualify for a Becky painting, I tell her Do mine last. I know you’ll get to it when you can, clear out everybody else’s before mine. I know that she’ll always have literally a couple hundred paintings to complete, and I have long suspected that not having the pressure to get all! those! paintings! done as quickly as possible means that I’ll get something worth the wait.

Case in point — tiki greyhounds, which I received yesterday and caused me and my wife to squeal with such delight that our own greyhound was startled. It is honestly the most happy-making art I’ve ever seen in my life and I wanted to share it with you all.

• Speaking of Kickstarters, one started a few hours ago and is (as of this writing) approaching the 82% funding level with most of 21 days still to go. I speak, naturally of Johnny Wander Book 3² by Yuko Ota and Ananth Panagariya, and I applaud them for a couple of things:
  • The book is basically done; we’ve seen things like Yuko’s design work for the cover over the past month, and Ananth has put together many, many books; the campaign is basically to manage pre-orders, not to support the creators while they make the book.
  • And also to put an earlier book back in print; while there are still copies of JW volume 1 to be had, one of the things you need to do as an independent publisher is make sure you keep enough inventory on hand for the next _____ months of selling.
  • Panagariya and Ota are doing something I’ve been wanting to see for a while — they’re compressing the time for the campaign down to just three weeks. I’ve often wondered if longer campaign times allow interest to wane, and if a shorter one would create a sense of urgency because you need to do it now or miss out. I don’t think anybody would actually be crazy enough to put up a Kickstarter for the 72 hours I once suggested as an experiment, but I’m betting that the right project with the right audience could make a killing on a one- or two-week campaign. After all, in the time it’s taken me to write the last three paragraphs, the campaign has cleared 87.6%, and will likely be at goal by the time I’m done writing.

  Anyway, JW volume 3, it’s wonderful stuff (almost as wonderful as tiki greyhounds), go get in on that while the getting’s good.

• I followed a link over the weekend (sorry, can’t recall who posted it, but I suspect it was probably Colleen Doran) to a law blog with a focus on marketing and technology, where I discovered something that does not yet appear to be entirely settled case law: can an offhand comment in an email suffice to create/change contracts? Even to the extent of giving up copyrights? The particular case cited by the author, Eric Goldman, seems to indicate not, but there appear to have been other cases that decide in the other direction. Goldman says he hasn’t yet decided to implement a standard disclaimer on his emails, but thinks that it might be a good idea. For those of you who like boilerplate:
  

  Nothing in this email is intended as an offer and the author disclaims any intention to make an offer or create an enforceable agreement through any email messages. Any agreement with the author of this email must be in a signed paper document!

  As always, please consult with a trained legal professional if questions of rights or contracts are something you have to deal with, and make sure you don’t give anything away by accident. Giving things away by accident makes tiki greyhounds sad. =(

• Know what makes tiki greyhounds happy? 97% and rising.

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¹ Because nobody will appreciate a good gander at this like The Tiki Queen of the East Bay. Please note that I do not seek to challenge her for tiki collection supremacy, as she has devoted her home to tiki in a way I could never match, and that’s before you consider the contributions by both Sergio Aragones and Stan Sakai.

² Disclaimer: I provided a blurb for JW volume 2, and I happened to see Ota and Panagariya just yesterday. Feel free to read into those whatever you’d like.