Dear Insane Children, 

First off – an apology for not sharing the news here first on Patreon. When the story came out, it was already nearly midnight here in Shanghai and we were snuggled on the bed with Lucky. But better late and all that… 

The Big News!

As the image above proclaims – David Hayter has signed on to bring “Alice” to TV!!!! Wooo! 

You can read the full announcement over on The Hollywood Reporter. 

As Wikipedia says, “David is a Canadian actor, screenwriter, director, and producer. He is well known as the English-language voice actor for Solid Snake and Naked Snake in the Metal Gear video game series. He wrote the film X-Men, co-wrote X2, and Watchmen, and was awarded the Saturn Award for Best Writing in 2000 for his work on X-Men.

In short – a video game character is adapting a video game into a TV series 😉 

But seriously… this puts “Alice” in great hands. David has a ton of experience in television and film as a writer, director, and showrunner. And it’s his name, experience, and creative vision that will help bring this project to life on the small screen. 

I am very honored to have him on board and very excited to see where he takes Alice on her next adventure. 

How’d We Get Here?

I first want to point out that this development is a direct result of the support and work we’ve done here on Patreon. This would NOT have happened if it were not for YOU – our Insane Children – and the support and trust you’ve provided to our team of artists, designers, and writers.

The Alice: Asylum pre-production effort is what attracted the attention of Radar Pictures. And it’s Radar who has hired David to work on the TV project. 

A Giant THANK YOU and WELL DONE to our Insane Children!!!

You are amazing!

What’s Next? 

This means we can expect a lot more attention on the Alice franchise in general. There will be more eyeballs on the “Asylum” work – and more interest in the development of new game content (plus the re-master/something) of the older games. 

For our pre-production team – We’re going to continue pushing to get the Design Bible done for “Alice: Asylum” and Alex just sent over some beautiful new layouts that he’s working on to define the style for the overall presentation: 

And I’ve already had creative chats with David to discuss ideas for the show – which means there’s a good chance we’ll be involved in and have visibility into the development of the TV show. I will do my best to keep the fans involved with the project via Patreon. 

What About A Game? 

It’s my sense that a successful TV development will result in a new game. If “Alice” gets picked up by, say, Netflix or HBO, there’s a good chance those companies will want to see game content developed alongside the TV show. Or it may be that EA finally decides to make a move – they do have a record of letting others move first before they make big decisions. 

Whatever comes next… the great news is that we have a TON of material prepared to clearly show our vision for the 3rd game in the series. And, again, that is entirely a result of YOU and your support. With that material in hand, the job of explaining what comes next in the series is made much, much easier.

Live Stream and More Questions

We are now smack in the middle of the Chinese New Year holiday here in China. Fortuitous timing for the announcement of this project – and a great way to start the Year of The Tiger – but kinda crappy for trying to host a normal live stream. 

I think we’ll try to do a Zoom Stream of some sort – where Martin and I connect over the internet (as opposed to him being in the same room with me). That way, we can discuss this news in more detail and we can answer some of your questions. I’ll post the timing for that soon… 

Got Questions? Leave them in the comments below. We’ll address them during that stream. 

More More!

There’s so much buzzing around inside my head at the moment. This is a big event and I feel it’s going to lead to even bigger things in the coming years… 

Let us know in the comments below what you think! 

And, one more time: Thank You!

And, finally, let’s all welcome David to our Wonderland! 

From Shanghai with Joy, 

-American

Dear Insane Children, 

Usually, it’s the VPN that gives our Live Streams trouble… but this week it’s Covid! 

You can see in the local Shanghai news that there are several cases in the city – and that one case is directly north of where I live in Fengxian District. Looking at that map… Where you see the red circle for Bailian Nanqiao Shopping Mall… I live about 15 minutes south of there. 

China – unlike almost everywhere else in the world (? maybe aside from New Zealand and parts of Australia ?) still maintains a strict Zero Covid Policy.

What this means is that it’s not a good time for my family to go outside of our xiaoqu (housing compound) – and it is really not a good idea for Martin to travel over here. 

In other news… I got word that the Big Announcement we’ve been waiting on… has been pushed to next week. But it sounds like it’s really going to happen next week so… fingers are crossed for that. And if it does… then we’ll do some sort of mini Live Stream via Zoom. 

That’s it for now… I’ll be back soon with some new art and other fun stuff!

From Shanghai with Zero Tolerance, 

-American

Dear Insane Children, 

The schedule suggested we might have a Live Stream this morning but that (obviously) did not happen. Lots going on in Shanghai at the moment – visits to the maternity hospital for regular checks of Baby #2, preparation for Chinese New Year, and lots of behind-the-scenes work at Mysterious. So we’ll try to have our next Live Stream on the 27th. Try not to go mad in the meantime!

These two new images come from Joey and depict Alice in her Asylum room in close proximity to her reflected Shadow Self. The original brief for this image suggested it contain action related to the moment of separation between Alice and her Shadow. 

Leaving aside the fact that these images might not properly convey that idea… there’s another set of problems that I made note of in my response to Joey: 

I love the image. But I ?am unsure about the details. This is supposed to be in her asylum room? ?Very unlikely that she’d have such a big window – too much glass she could use to harm herself or others. Also unlikely she’d have any sort of “nice” ?furniture (or any at all) ?in that room. The same goes for the lantern, snow globe, sheets, etc. All of those would pose a risk – she could use them to harm herself or others. Maybe it doesn’t matter.

If we really want this to be set in her asylum room (cell)… then the reflection could be in a smaller window. It could be reflected in a puddle of water. Or in her drinking mug (water). I ?dunno… kinda difficult to find a reflective surface in this sort of location.

This was in response to the 2nd image on the page. Her reply was the main image (top image above). So the technical issues have been largely solved – like why would there be a giant mirror in a cell at an asylum. This illustration still doesn’t do the work I think was originally requested of it… but that’s OK. It’s a beautiful concept and Alex says there’s enough text/imagery in this section of the Design Bible to cover for it not being 100% accurate to the scene. 

Omri decided that we needed a new London Dress for the scenes in which we see (adult) Alice adventuring around the streets of London. Not only did she get a new dress here but she’s also got some new CRAZY EYES. 

Of this new image, Omri says: 

we need our own London dress, we can’t show off art from Madness as our own so i’m making our own version of that dress and general look- this is WIP.

?i think when she goes to kill Radcliff she’s really off her nut and lost EVERYTHING. so i want to make sure that she does look insane and that the outfit is even more tattered than before with longer hair- as time passed??, but same hairdo/texture

?she IS holding a knife to his throat right? not an envelope opener? i want to incoporate that weapon in the design. this london Alice should be similar but not the same as the one in AMR.??

Not sure what he’s talking about with “art from Madness” but I’m never going to complain about new dresses. And I also like the idea that The Shadow is taking over completely as Alice heads to murder-stab Radcliffe. 

If I saw her stalking down a London street with that knife in hand, I would get the eff out of the way! 

And we have a new render of the pocket watch in which The Dollmaker has trapped Lizzie. 

Of this design, Adam says: 

Here is a rendered update of the “Lizzie Pocket Watch”!

?I imagined the clasp would cover her during the battle and the dirty, boney fangs would emerge from the holes around it, turning the watch into a weapon.

?After the battle the fangs can hide back into the clasp which would open and show Lizzie again so that Alice can talk to her.

?Please do share your feedback and ideas regarding this design, I personally really like how it turned out:

So let him know in the comments what you think! 

From Shanghai with Love,

-American 

Dear Insane Children,

Just a quick update to share some new art and wish you a happy weekend. 

First up, we have a sketch from Adam depicting Lizzie trapped inside a pocket watch designed by The Dollmaker. Alice will encounter this during her boss fight sequence with Bumby/Dollmaker… 

And it allows her to complete Lizzie’s narrative arc as established in Madness Returns. 

Up next… Omri sent over the final scenes from the 2nd Queen boss fight sequence…

These images were a collab between Norm (lines) and Omri (colors). And they turned out great! 

Let Adam, Omri, and Norm know what you think in the comments below!

Lastly, I don’t know if it’s been mentioned here on Patreon much (I’ve been trying to avoid too much Plushie Dreadful creep)… but we did release a plush bunny relevant to Alice’s journey. And, no, it’s not her Distressed White Rabbit. 

It’s a PTSD Bunny… 

PTSD Bunny is now available in the Mysterious Shop: 

https://bitly.com/ptsdbunny 

Head over to learn more about this bunny’s theme and story. It’s my favorite design we’ve ever done!

If all goes to plan… there will be a live stream next week. 

And (FINGERS CROSSED) hopefully we’re announcing that big news soon as well. (Hurry up already!!!) 

From Shanghai with Love, 

-American

Dear Insane Children,

Font Lord here with the results of the poll to what the next 6 art prints should be.
As is normal, these choices are so hard due to all the amazing art getting made, but such is the nature of a poll.
There are winners and losers.

There’s also some extra into at the end of this list, so be sure to read to the end.

HERE WE GO!!

Above, you see the header image for this post is Alice and the Snail.
This will be the next print for January Patrons charged in February.

And here are the 5 months after that.

February Patrons, charged in March
Burning Birthday

March Patrons, charged in April
Jabberwock Battle

April Patrons, charged in May
Chess Confrontation

May Patrons, charged in June  
Shadow Reflection

June Patrons, charged in July  
The Chaosma 

Now the keen eyed among you will notice that “G” was actually one of the winners but is not on this list.
This is because it actually goes together with “C”, bookending part of the story, and we are going to use this duo as our usual “October Double Print Month”, so do not fret. G IS COMING!!

——

Finally…

We did this about 18 months ago, but we wanted to put the call out for people to give us Trust Pilot reviews.

Trust Pilot is a site where people can go and check up on the trustworthiness of websites before they decide to spend their hard-earned cash there.

Recently we have started seeing a bunch of 1-star reviews coming from people who (in fairness) have been waiting a while for their items to arrive, but also don’t seem to have the ability to read the warning/guarantees/FAQ we have on our site or reach out to us at our incredibly easy to find support channel. So we’re looking to offset those negative reviews a little.

TO BE CLEAR, we are not asking you to go and bump us up with fake 5-star reviews.
We would just like it if people went over and were honest about the experience they’ve had when purchasing from Mysterious and the contact they had with us/support and also the items you received.

If you think we’re 5 star, then great, if you think we’re less, then that’s fine too!
https://www.trustpilot.com/review/mysterious.americanmcgee.com
Thanks in advance   🙂

– Big hugs from a chilly ole Shanghai.

Dear Insane Children,  

Font Lord here wishing you all a Happy New Year.
Hope it’s all going swimmingly so far.

You know how this goes by now   🙂
We would like you to Choose 5 of your favorite pieces of art from the images below.  

Then when the votes are tallied, the winners will become the next 6 prints for Patrons in 2022. Although we do have the right to change things up if we need to, but we’ll give you plenty of notice about that if it happens.

So, please only choose your favorite 5 and then next week when most people have voted, we can make another art print post, detailing which 6 prints are coming in the first half of 2022

(Yes, I know there is no “E” and “I” selection, just roll with it)

– Cheers