Dear Insane Children, 

Thanks to YOUR support  we were recently able to add a new  artist to our team. Norm Felchle was one of the key artists on the original Alice game and his work defined the look of most of the major characters in the Alice franchise. 

These days he’s working on exploring The Hatter as he would appear in the time of Asylum. I’ve suggested that Hatter during this period might not be so mechanically augmented. But I do think we would see him experimenting with the elements which will eventually see him transformed into the character we’re familiar with in the first two games. 

During the events of Asylum we’ll see Hatter’s actions lead to a situation – perhaps an accident or a punishment – which strips him of his flesh and replaces large portions of his body with gears and levers. In either case this is going to be a painful (and meaningful) transformation. One that leaves Hatter changed within and without. 

In Norm’s first illustrations we see Hatter’s hat has a sort-of Inspector Gadget thing going on. This might be an element in the transformation process… imagine an experiment gone wrong which leads to that hat latching onto and “integrating” itself into Hatter’s body. 

What do you think of “normal” Hatter? Any thoughts on the transformation process – how it happens and the underlying meaning contained within it? 

Get the discussion going in the comments below! 

—

Arg, Matey! 

Just a quick reminder that I am in Thailand until April 10th. I’ve spent the last couple of days prepping my boat to sail for Phuket. I leave this afternoon and will spend a night (alone!) at anchor on Kao Yao Yai before completing my journey west. 

Pirate Jam 2019 kicks off on the Friday, 29th. We have nearly 20 guests from around the world coming to sail aboard 6 boats over 10 days from Phuket, across Phang Nga Bay, and finally winding up in Krabi. 

You can follow along via my usual social media channels and with the hashtag #piratejam2019

Always a bit nervous at the start of these things… huge amount of planning and thinking goes into each year’s event. Fingers crossed for fair winds and happy pirates. 

From Thailand with Arg, 

-American