Short Summary
The Cultural Gutter was created in the early years of the new millennium to fulfill a dream--provide quality, clear-eyed writing about disreputable art. Since 2004, we have written about videogames, comics, science fiction, fantasy, genre film, romance and television. And throughout that time, we have maintained a commitment to paying writers for their work.
In summer 2012, like many other arts organizations, we lost our Canada Arts Council operations grant. The legions of mazer tanks surrounded the vulnerable Cultural Gutter. But that fall, friends of the Cultural Gutter rallied to our Gutter-A-Go-Go campaign to help us keep our commitment to paying writers for their work. While we fell short of our goal, we raised enough money to make and send out all our contributor perks and keep The Gutter going until this June.
Now we hope to rise from the ashes as Gutter-A-Go-Go Raids Again!
What We Need
If you contribute to Gutter-A-Go-Go Raids Again, not only will you get the sweet perks that Gutter collaborators have donated, you will also support paying writers for their work and help loose upon the world thought-provoking essays on gutter culture.
We're asking for $5,000, which is what we need to pay writers and publisher for one year at $80/article + banking and electronic transfer fees. If we don't make our goal, we will use your donations to keep The Gutter rampaging across the internet as long as possible.
Gutter-A-Go-Go Raids Again Perks
If you decide to get down with Gutter-A-Go-Go Raids again, you can choose from some sweet perks. (See video and pictures of the perks in our gallery):
A lovely Cultural Gutter membership card, your ticket into the exclusive party pictures in our banner, and decryption key, for decoding secret messages on our Sponsor's Page.
Your name immortalized on our Sponsor's Page.
A print copy of The Cultural Gutter book, published by Carnegie Mellon University's ETC Press and featuring articles by Carol Borden, Ian Driscoll, Jim Munroe, James Schellenberg and Chris Szego and featuring very cool infographics by illustrator EJ Lee.
A autographed copy of Evan Munday's young adult novel, The Dead Kid Detective Agency. "the adventures of a sort-of goth Nancy Drew whose friends are all dead, and all died at a different point in Canadian history."
A set of 5 monster ringtones designed by scientician of sound and Last In Space collaborator, Adam Axbey
A copy of Nightmare House, an anthology of short horror films by the Fewdio film collective. It's been praised by Wes Craven himself.
A set of 5 sexy supervillain postcards drawn by Evan Munday. As featured in The Smoking Jacket!
A poster version of our campaign banner, designed by Shelf Life Clothing Company's evil genius Brian Kirby.
The amazing Lea Hernandez has generously donated a 8.5 x 11" print of her painting, "Fishbat & Pandora" from book one of her graphic novel, The Garlicks, about Pandora, a vampire girl, and her famil. Check out TheGarlicks.net for more on The Garlicks and Lea Hernandez!
A small homunculus handmade by Comics Editor Carol (and possibly Screen Editor alex). It is not guaranteed to do your bidding, but it is guaranteed to try. It is, after all, small and clay. It will be chanted over during the dark of the moon in wrongful rites and sent to you wrapped in packaging material to reduce breakage in shipping. It is suitable for service as a shabti after the contributor's death.
A dark blue Moleskine 3.5 x 5.5" cahier notebook with a light blue Cthulhu handprinted on it by The Gutter's own Carol Borden. Perfect for recording the geographies of impossible cities or making lists of materials needed in your unspeakable rituals.
A digital copy of Fox Spirit Books' Weird Noir, an anthology of genrebending fiction including Godzilla detective fiction by The Gutter's own Carol Borden, as well as stories by K.A. Laity, Andrez Bergen, Paul D. Brazill and Christopher Irvin among many more.
A bagged and boarded copy of the Eisner-nominated comic, Shi: Kaidan, autographed by writer Peter Gutiérrez. This collection of weird tales feature the deadly assassin Ana Ishikawa (or, Shi) and includes art by Mike Kaluta, Stan Sakai, David Mack, Galen Showman, Val Mayerik, Jason Orfalas, Jamal Igle, and Jean-Claude St. Aubin. Atomic Avenue calls it a collection of "beautiful, entertaining stories."
The Super Gutter Package: A poster version of the campaign banner; a copy of The Cultural Gutter book; a pocket Cthulhu Moleskine cahier handprinted by Carol Borden; and a papier mache skull featuring facial hair, most likely a mustache, painted on by Carol. Plus, the decryption key, membership card and immortalization on the CG Sponsor's Page
A 5 x 8. 25" journal-sized Moleskine with a print of Cthulhu on the cover handprinted by Comics Editor and Evil Overlord, Carol Borden (SOLD OUT)
More perks will be unlocked as Gutter-A-Go-Go Raids Again!
All perks will be shipped to you after the campaign is completed.
The Impact
There are a lot of sites promoting geeky culture right now, but we think The Cultural Gutter has a special place as a site that publishes thoughtful writing about pop culture.
We have been around for almost 10 years now and have published work from writers in three countries and multiple cities. We're currently based in Toronto, ON, Canada and Ypsilanti, MI, USA. We have a five year history of successfully receiving and responsibly using grants to encourage thought-provoking writing on disreputable culture.
We have collaborated with and supported: The Buffalo Small Press Fair; the Horrible Imaginings Film Festival in San Diego; The 48 Hour LoFi SciFi Challenge in Toronto; and The Drive-In Mob, a weekly movie tweetalong we co-host with Shelf Life Clothing Company and The Grindhouse Movie Database. The Gutter was also a founding contributor of the sadly defunct Phantascope, The Secret Sinema Society of Toronto. We've recently joined forces with The Mysterious Order of The Skeleton Suit, a "loose confederation of pop culture writers."
It's an exciting time for us and we'd like to do more!
