Dear Insane Children, 

Here’s a fun Crowd Design for you all to work on… What sort of dress would Alice wear at the end of Asylum? Here’s the scene setup from the Narrative Outline: 

AFTER CREDITS SCENE

LONDON – HOME FOR WAYWARD CHILDREN (DAY)

After the credits roll, a secret ending scene plays out.

The scene opens to a beautiful, English countryside home. Green, lush, gorgeous and bright.

Alice Liddell, is smartly tailored and elegantly styled. She is dressed in deep, rich blue attire. Alice walks through the gates of the beautiful estate. She passes by a gorgeous, brand new bronze plaque which reads;

“Liddell’s Home For Wayward Children”

As Alice approaches the grounds, she is swarmed by happy, well-fed, content, healthy children. The downtrodden children from Bumby’s former “support” home are all here too. They have never been happier, and they are ecstatic to see her again.

As the children run through the arches into the entrance of the building, Angela Liddell is waiting for Alice, and meets Alice at the stairs. The little girl is in her Sunday best, and is still clutching onto her plush rabbit.

Alice looks down at Angela, and they both smile warmly.

The little girl asks curiously;

ANGELA

Will we have time for a tea-party today Miss Liddell?

ALICE

Always.

Alice replies with a knowing grin.

Angela excitedly beams back, and then walks on alongside Alice into the building.

Angela drops her rabbit toy to the floor absent-mindedly in her excitement as she skips along.

As Alice and Angela walk away, the rabbit is left lying still and motionless on the floor.

The sound of children and laughter fades.

The rabbit blinks.

Gets to his feet, and runs after his best friends.

–

<SCENE ENDS>

Omri provided an initial illustration (main image above) for a dress inspired by one we see Alice’s mom wearing. And he decided to go with a shorter dress design. A fact that’s caused some controversy with our design team. 

Of this design Alex says: 

My initial reaction; I think it makes sense Alice would go for something that looked more like an adventurer, but to me it feels like we’re missing out on a unique opportunity visually, and we’re seeing “more of the same” with this dress.

?It doesn’t look too different from the other dresses already in the game.

?I suppose my reasoning in suggesting a longer, formal dress is that we NEVER see Alice in one. ?Ever in the series. So, it’s a chance to do that.

And I chimed in: 

First, it sorta makes sense that we’d see Alice in a dress that indicates the adventure is over (at least the sort of exploring, fighting, jumping stuff).

BUT we’re also suggesting in this story that her adventure continues – that she uses The Book to search for and destroy the monsters who bought/sold children from Bumby and Radcliffe. So… the adventure isn’t really over. She’s still out there kicking butt.

There’s another angle to consider her… Alice isn’t going to grow up and be an exact copy of her mother. It would make sense that she brings her own twist to the fashion that her mother wore. So the shorter dress would also make sense in that context. She’s a modern lady, etc.

As much as I’d like to see her in a long, formal dress… do we think her character would go in that direction at the end of the story? ?Or that she’d be more of a rebel, a free spirit?

I’m going to say… let her live like this (Omri’s short dress)… at least for now?

I’ll post this to the fans and we can get their feedback as well.

All that being said… the vision of her for the adventures beyond the end of Asylum… she’s going to be a sort of “hunter of bad guys” ?and she’ll need costumes for that job. With that in mind, it would not hurt to see the sort of attire she’d wear to sneak into a formal event. Her version of James Bond in a tux.

But let us know in the comments below what YOU think! What sort of dress design would make the most sense for this last scene of Asylum? 

From Shanghai (STILL in Lock Down!), 

-American 

Dear Insane Children, 

Here’s an update to yesterday’s post where I shared details about our Dorothy character from OZ: Adventures. Omri had a look at your comments and made changes – resulting in what I think (?) is a final design for this character. 

Let us know in the comments below what you think! For my part: I love her! 

Excellent work, Omri! 

Controversy 

And a point of interest generated by some of the comments over on my Instagram in relation to this Dorothy design. Some people suggest that the “race swapping” going on here isn’t called for. Some heated exchanges (as you’d expect) around those comments.  

A couple of points I find interesting: 

First, I murder Alice’s parents and wrap the narrative of Alice: Madness Returns around child abuse and the psychological manipulation/destruction of Alice… and no one bats an eye. Or I change “Red Riding Hood” into a native islander/Japanese person in Akaneiro… and again no one says anything about it. But people don’t like a black Dorothy? What’s going on here? 

Second, among the first characters presented for OZ: Adventures was a Spanish Conquistador. And he brings with him (across the Atlantic on his trip to explore the New World) a kidnapped Aztec woman (Necahual) who is pressed into service as a guide/interpreter. And we saw a few complaints – mainly from Spanish people – who dislike the constant negative attention given to their ancestors. (There’s an entire topic here to be explored – The Black Legend or Myth of Spanish Conquest). 

What can we take from this? 

Well, first, these are obviously sensitive topics. But so is child abuse… and not once did I get an email from an actual child abuser saying, “Hey, I don’t appreciate the characterization! Leave us child abusers alone!” Because child abusers don’t have a sense of righteous indignation. They know they aren’t being falsely portrayed… they know they are what we say they are: monsters. 

Around the equally sensitive topics of race and slavery – the situation has been made much more immediate and personal for everyone alive today (esp. in certain countries). 

But I want to make clear that my goal here isn’t to paint a simple picture of “Spanish bad” and “Americans racist” because I believe there’s more to these issues than the end results of slavery and/or racism. 

As I asked in my comments over on Instagram: Who benefits? (Cui bono)

Because I do not believe that we – human beings – are predisposed to racism. Nor do I think we’re all sitting around thinking, “Man, I’d really like to enslave some people today!” 

People make excuses for these behaviors. And more often than not those excuses are manufactured by others and fed into a population to attain particular goals. 

Look at the author of “The Wizard of Oz” – he infamously wrote anti-native-American screeds calling for war and genocide against native people. His motivation appears to be fear – fear of violence from “the other” and fear that if settlers don’t “strike first” they won’t live to regret it. Along the way, he “othered” or dehumanized the native population (literally called “savages” in those days). 

There’s a history to this business of “othering” and it points to powerful money interests who used American settlers on the frontier as the “tip of the spear” against native Americans. They pushed those native Americans further and further west (like my ancestors, Choctaw Indians, who ended up near Texas/Oklahoma via the Trail of Tears) – while simultaneously incentivizing settlers to push further west into those same territories. To no one’s surprise, conflict and violence followed.

The fear and hatred were manufactured. And it was enforced via laws that forbid association between blacks, natives, and settlers. Division, fear, and hatred were used to control those populations – who generally outnumbered the ruling elites back in the big cities. The greatest fear for the ruling class was that those populations might band together and rise up as one.

Well, I don’t know if you are aware… but those same tactics of “othering” and control by fear and division are still very much in use today. The difference is that the methods have been turned into a science – and huge amounts of money have been invested in perfecting the ways in which we are all convinced that other people (those, over there!) are less than human. 

We are made to feel righteous in our beliefs. Our morality is hijacked. Our sense of empathy is turned against us so that we think hating The Other is justified on the grounds that they deserve it for X, Y, Z reasons. What’s more, they need a good bombing! 

And that brings us back to the indignation that people feel when we bring up American racism or Spanish conquest. Because we – the people of today – want other people to know… we’re not like that. We’re good people!

So…

How far would we go in our desire to prove that we’re good people? 

That brings me to one of the core issues I’m exploring in Oz:

• How far would Dorothy go to protect Oz from the sorts of harm she’s endured? 
• How far would the Spanish Captain go to prove to his Aztec captive that he’s only trying to protect her? 
• How far would our WW2 pilot go to get back to his superiors with the information he thinks will win the war against the monstrous enemy? 
• How far would our scientist from the future go to prove his theories right and save Earth from destruction? 

And at what point do they cross a line – forfeiting their humanity for the sake of a distorted ideal? 

Curious to hear your thoughts on this theme. Let me know in the comments below!

From Shanghai in Semi-Lockdown,

-American 

PS: Yesterday, they lifted the lockdown for our local area. But it’s a sort of bittersweet event – since if we do leave our micro-community, we’re only allowed to do so on foot. And there’s nothing to do outside… the shops are all closed, etc. So… we’ll basically remain inside anyway! 

Dear Insane Children, 

The story I’m writing for Oz: Adventures features an ensemble cast. Sorta like the TV show “Game of Thrones” – there’s not (at least initially) a “main” character. There are many characters each with their own unique backstories. And over time, we’ll explore each of them against the backdrop of challenges provided by the Land of Oz. 

So… Dorothy Hale is in Oz: Adventures and she’s one of the main characters but not THE Main Character. Omri sent over an updated sketch for her (main image, above). And she’s obviously not exactly the Dorothy you know from the books. 

And here are my character notes for her (a little discombobulated but you’ll get a general idea): 

Dorothy – The witch seen sprinkling Powder of Life on dead Munchkins. We eventually discover this is Dorothy. She returned to Oz after becoming disenchanted with the reality of life on Earth. Her experiences left her bitter about the notion of “progress” so that she wanted to return to the wilderness of Oz. She wants to escape from progress and exploration and change. She wants stasis – especially the part about never growing old and never dying. 

Back on Earth, she discovers that time has passed more quickly than in Oz. Her aunt and uncle have died of old age and everyone assumed she was killed in that tornado. The farm is now owned by a different family but Dorothy is welcome to stay if she’s got nowhere to go… Weeks pass then months but Dorothy finds she can’t get over the complete loss of her family. So she packs up a few of her most valuable things, wedges Toto lightly under her arm, and runs directly into the biggest tornado Kansas has ever seen.

When she comes out the other side… she’s in Oz. But she’s also in pieces. The twisted tore her and Toto into chunks of barely recognizable meat. But the Flying Monkeys collect the pieces and, with help from The Powder of Life, put them together again. Once she’s settled into her new role as Witch of the West… she opens up her bag of valuables and pulls out the shrunken, decayed heads of her aunt and uncle. Reanimates them with the Power of Life and never feels lonely again.

Is she wicked or is she good? She lets us know she can be a bit of both. 

who is it about – dorothy from the Oz books. she’s returned to Oz to escape progress and death. 

what do they want – she wants to maintain Oz in relative stasis, avoiding progress and fighting to return travelers to their homes as quickly as possible so they are unable to cause too much damage in Oz. she fights to protect Oz from their influence and predations. in most cases, she allows the people of Oz to deal with visitors on their own – as this is the natural way, the way it has always been. But when visitors threaten to upset the balance, she gets involved. and whenever there are injuries – she repairs them. over time, she even starts reanimating the dead. 

why can’t they get it – because a type of enemy she’s never confronted arrives, she is unable to defeat him on her own. They (first Richard Umbra, then Necahual) threaten to upset the balance with promises of progress abd modernization. and he’s extracting all the Powder of Life from Oz. 

what do they do about that? dorothy fights him – physically, with magic, and via politics. 

why doesn’t that work – the dark wizard is too powerful and defeats her. 

how does it end – she trains necahual to fight on her side; trains her in magic and the power politics of Oz. but necahual betrays her (kills her?) and steals dorothy’s power for herself. 

What is the thing she’s never done? The thing she does not want to do? Accepted the inevitability of aging, death, and change. 

Further notes: She is an immigrant to a strange land. And she’s decided to abandon her old ways (politics, philosophies, religion) to defend the Oz way of life. The Oz way of life is traditional, it’s communal, it’s based on ritual, natural law, conservation, equal portions and divisions, … ignorance is bliss vs. the wonders of science and progress 

Would you rather be poor and dumb and alive? Or rich and smart and dead? Oz is the place where they did not eat from the tree of knowledge. It’s Eden before the fall. 

So what does Dorothy NOT want to do? That she’ll be forced to do in order to save Oz (and/or Earth)?

Is she forced to decide between saving Oz OR Earth? If only one can survive – which should it be? Her original home? Or the place she now calls home? She doesn’t want to return to Earth. But she also doesn’t want to see it destroyed. 

When she went back home, she found her entire family had been wiped out by the tornado. She’d already seen her mother and father die as a result of (?) so the death of her aunt and uncle (and remaining family) hits her particularly hard. Now it’s just her and Toto. So she longs to return to Oz – at least she has friends there. And in Oz, no one dies. 

Dorothy becomes addicted to The Powder of Life. At first, she only uses it to heal people. But over time, she begins using it for more and more questionable purposes… reviving the dead. Eventually, we discover she even reanimated Toto. And she went back and recovered her aunt and uncle and reanimated them. She’s making zombies. 

Now… what I’ve not included in there and am still working on… is mention of Dorothy’s life prior to Oz on a plantation as a slave. And how when she returns to earth from Oz, she discovers that slavery is no longer legal but that the legacy of that dark era still looms heavily. 

That goes to a general theme I’m working to weave into the Oz narrative… and that is that I’m taking dark elements of the past from various nations around the world and using them as the backdrop for the characters we see pulled into this adventure. 

Since Oz is a distinctly American fairytale, a great resource for the darker side of American history is the Howard Zinn tome, “A People’s History of the United States”

I also plan to delve into geopolitical issues related to WW2. And to include a character from the future who can help illustrate some issues unique to our modern world. 

Let me know in the comments below what you think of Dorothy – her story, her art. 

PS: In about 15 minutes we’re driving out into the wastelands of Shanghai. The city is still under a full lockdown. But we have a special pass that will allow me to drive Yan to a hospital appointment 50km south of our home (in the center of the city). She’s got a baby check to do – and we’re only 4~3 weeks away from delivery! Woo. Wish us luck! And, yeah, I’ll try to record some pictures/video of the adventure. 

From Shanghai, 

-American 

Dear Insane Children, 

Omri delivered the final render of “The Black Book” illustration. And it’s beautiful! In this scene, we see Alice confronted with the written record of Bumby and Radcliffe’s nefarious business. All those children – kidnapped, brainwashed, and sold like cattle. Someone needs a good revenge killing! 

Adam also delivered a final render of a scene from Londerland. This is a place where London and Wonderland meld together – a result of Alice’s mastery of her mental and physical being. 

Meanwhile In Oz

Gareth sent over some early sketches for our “Dark Wizard” character from OZ: Adventures. I sent him the following feedback: 

He can have both the roboeye and the robohand. ?We’ll need to come up with a cool backstory for those – maybe his lab blew up in the middle of an experiment? ?Or he was attacked by scavengers – and they killed some of his family? So he’s left with this physical scars/robo-appendages.

And as for Umbra’s wizard look… wow. Those are all excellent. While I like the beard… I worry it’s a bit too Lord of the Rings… also kinda reminds me of Luke Skywalker in the recent SW movies. And it might be difficult for people to accept the transition back and forth between shaved and bearded… So… let’s go with the one on the far right?

For this guy’s character sketch (narrative), I’ve been working on this: 

Dark Wizard (Richard Umbra) – Enters Oz on another of many visits using advanced portal technology. Is working to steal the Powder of Life from Oz in order to save earth from a (virus pandemic?). Arrives with some ethics still entact and is trying to accomplish his goals without causing too much pain or destruction in Oz. By the end of his story, he will have grappled with the evils of pure survival but decided that destroying Oz is not a price he’s willing to pay in order to save Earth. But his noble desires are squashed by Necahual’s plans to destroy Earth using his technology coupled with dark Aztec magic. 

His myopic focus on his mission to save earth means he ignores the increasing threat coming from Necahual’s growing powers. When she eventually destroys him, his technology falls into her hands, making it possible for her to complete her plans to kill everyone on Earth. 

What difficult choice does he make? What has he previously been unwilling to do? Perhaps he’s unwilling to let go – to see his family and friends perish. To accept fate. He believes there’s a solution (a fix) to every problem. If only you can work on it long enough and smart enough, science will always provide a way. But he’ll have to learn to give in, to give up. 

As I am working to define characters in Oz, I’m working through a series of questions that help define them. What do they want? Why can’t they get it? What skills do they use to overcome these obstacles? Where do they come from? Where do they end up?  What difficult choice do they have to make? 

When you can fully answer these sorts of questions about the characters you’re writing, the story you build around them almost writes itself. Fun stuff. 

Life in Shanghai

We are STILL in lockdown. And it’s not that bad. We have food and water and our family is all together. But two things about it have me worried… 

One – our warehouse is shut down which means that our business is essentially on hold. We’ve tried to drive sales related to things in our Shenzhen warehouse (that is still open) – but the inability to ship things from Shanghai sucks. 

Two – and an even bigger worry – my wife is SUPER PREGNANT and we think this second child is going to pop out ahead of schedule. We’re as prepared as we can be – but the added layer of nonsense created by the lockdown means extra worry and stress. 

But we’ll get through it. Maybe we have a baby in the middle of lockdown. I guess that’s an accomplishment and something to tell the kid about when he/she’s older? 

I hope that wherever you are, things are happy and healthy. 

From Shanghai in Lockdown, 

-American 

Dear Insane Children, 

While Alex has provided you with some excellent updates on the progress he and the team are making on the Alice: Asylum Design Bible, I wanted to give you an update on Oz and Life in Lockdown. 

(Alice views the Little Black Book of Radcliffe – WIP from Omri) 

Lockdown 

Shanghai these days is strange. For the sake of pandemic control, the city of 26 million people has been split in two – East (Pudong) and West (Puxi). And each area is being locked down independently for 5 days. We live on the Pudong side and we’re almost finished with our lockdown. Tomorrow (Friday) at 5 AM, we’re set free and the other half of the city goes into lockdown. 

Life in lockdown is pretty boring. We still get food deliveries so we’re not going to starve. But we’re not supposed to leave our homes. And certainly not able to leave our ?? (xiaoqu). Depending on where you live, you may be able to actually go outside and walk around inside your ??. We’re fortunate to have an actual yard – and to live in a place with relatively low population density so that walking around inside the ?? is allowed. 

The notion of a ?? is something core to why China has been able (so far) to control the pandemic so well. And I think more people outside of China should be made aware of this idea so here goes: 

A ?? ?xiaoqu) – pronounced “shaow chu“) translates to “community” in English. But that hardly captures the reality of the word in Chinese. It would be better to say “housing community” or “micro-district” or even better, “gated community.”

Almost everyone in the major cities of China lives inside a gated community. Basically, a bunch of villas or apartment buildings contained within a single development and surrounded by an exterior wall (that wall often being an integrated line of shops, cafes, and other businesses that service the interior community).  

Every ?? has guarded gates that provide the only way in/out of the community. 

And that’s where the “magic” of China’s pandemic control comes from. Those gates (and guards) that you normally view as keeping non-residents OUT… are quickly and easily made to keep residents IN. So during these waves of pandemic control, we are all effectively locked into our micro-communities. 

Now, I bet a lot of you westerners (especially Americans?) are freaking out at that idea! 

And fair enough. This sort of thing certainly does not jive with the “give me liberty or give me death” individualist mentality so cherished by the world’s most freedom-y people.

I am not here to tell you “this is the way” or to convince you that this is even better. It’s just how things are done here – and people living here *like* this and are happy with it. So you let them have their ?? life and you keep on breathing your Freedom Air(TM) and loving it.

Thought you all might like to know more details related to how China is handling pandemic control. 

Meanwhile, 99% of the cases being reported here are “asymptomatic” so it’s not even clear what it is that they are controlling. A virus they can detect only when they test for it? In a population that’s 99% vaccinated? Personally, I am unsure why they continue to fight it… but here we are. 

Meanwhile in Oz

End of the day, lockdown (in whatever form) doesn’t really bother me or my family. We work from home anyway. And we have a yard for Lucky to play in. And, as I said, food and supplies are still delivered. So we just keep our heads down and work. 

And I’m working on Oz! Trying to tease out the heart of the narrative. That’s slow work but I am making progress. Watching all these characters come to life. This is a much more complicated writing process than what’s done with “Alice” – a story where most of the characters are in fact only one of the characters (Alice and her psychological representations). With Oz, every time I sit down to write, I end up with MORE characters and MORE characters and… whew. 

Gareth continues to crank out amazing art – like the image (above) of the Conquistadors riding into a Munchkin village. 

And there’s work being done on 3D models… Like the Spanish Captain: 

And do you want to see something in interactive 3D? How about this monkey… 

Well, download the Marmoset viewer! It will allow you to rotate and zoom in on the model. Link to download marmoset viewer is here:

https://marmoset.co/toolbag/viewer/

Link to marmoset monkey file at the bottom of this post.

Check it out! He’s really beautiful to look at in 3D. 

This is Necahual. I’m still trying to figure out what to do with her… Here are some notes:

She enters Oz with the Spanish as a powerless slave. Kidnapped from the Aztec empire. With her child (a 5-year-old boy) in tow. The Spanish leverage this connection to control her. But she will escape her captors. She’ll use her skills to survive the wilds of Oz. She will befriend a race of beings (monkeys? winkies? munchkins?). She will receive training in magic. She will be given a unique weapon or vehicle (wand, hat, broom)? She will directly confront her captors – Spanish Conquistadors – and defeat them. She will then go on to battle the Dark Wizard. And at the end of her story, she will have ascended to being the most powerful witch in Oz.

But She’s lost everything – family, home. She saw it all destroyed. What does she want? Initially, her only concern is to protect her child. But she sees the child murdered before her eyes by (? probably the Dark Wizard). Now she’s lost everything. And now she wants total revenge. But how can she have that when she’s powerless against magic and technology?

As an Aztec, she decides it’s in her fate to destroy the world and bring about the 6th turning. 

Once she gains power in Oz, she resolves to use it to bring forth the end of the 5th sun. This pits her against the Dark Wizard and Spanish Captain and many of the inhabitants of Oz.

She is a “Dorothy” without a home and because she refuses to transform (to accept Oz as her new home), she is ultimately overcome by evil. What do you do when you have nowhere left to call home? 

— 

There’s a theme emerging from the characters as I sketch them out… related to “progress” or the spread of “civilization” and which side these characters stand on. Tradition vs. Progress. 

I’m not sure yet if Necahual should be allowed to go on to destroy the world. 

In some of the notes I’m working on… the Spanish Captain ultimately redeems himself by transforming himself into someone capable of the empathy and sacrifice necessary to stop Necahual and save Oz (and Earth). 

But by tomorrow evening… maybe he’ll be back to a standard bag guy? Maybe Necahual won’t destroy the world? 

Anyway, I don’t expect you to find any easily identified heroes in this story! Ha. 

In Other News

Excellent progress is being made on all the TV/game developments we’re doing with Radar: Alice (TV series); Akaneiro (TV series); and Oz (game/TV series). 

David continues to refine his TV pitch for presentation to the streamers (Netflix, etc)

A writer has been brought on to develop Akaneiro for TV – he’s great; really clear vision for that project. I assume Radar will make some sort of announcement about him soon. 

And Radar just introduced a really strong animation partner for Oz – a team with an amazing track record and existing ties to Netflix.

I kinda feel like 2022 is going to bring a lot of excellent news on all of these projects. 

YAY!

And, as always, we could not have done any of this without YOU. 

As we announce more progress on these projects… I will do everything I can to involve our Insane Children. Can’t promise so much on the Alice TV stuff (I have a lot less control/leverage there). But for Oz and Akaneiro – I’ll be sure to bring you all into the inner circle as much as possible. 

Whew! That’s a lot going on. 

Let us know in the comments below what you think. 

From Shanghai in Lockdown, 

-American

Dear Insane Children, 

Font Lord here with the usual quick monthly reminder of what print is next.

As you can see above, it is the rather dynamic “Jabberwock Battle”.
This is for March Patrons charged in April.

So you have 2 days left to change your tier if you like the look of this print, and yes, as usual, it will also become a choice for the 3x$35 tier patrons too.

That is all   🙂 

– Cheers