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Gutterthon 2015

Help keep the Cultural Gutter online & help us keep our commitment to paying writers for their work.

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Gutterthon 2015

Gutterthon 2015

Gutterthon 2015

Gutterthon 2015

Gutterthon 2015

Help keep the Cultural Gutter online & help us keep our commitment to paying writers for their work.

Help keep the Cultural Gutter online & help us keep our commitment to paying writers for their work.

Help keep the Cultural Gutter online & help us keep our commitment to paying writers for their work.

Help keep the Cultural Gutter online & help us keep our commitment to paying writers for their work.

Carol Borden
Carol Borden
Carol Borden
Carol Borden
13 Campaigns |
Ypsilanti, United States
$2,120 USD 57 backers
106% of $2,000 Flexible Goal Flexible Goal
Choose your Perk

Undying Thanks

$1 USD
0 claimed

Eternal Thanks

$5 USD
1 claimed

CG Membership

$15 USD
2 claimed

Apocalypse Girl

$20 USD
3 out of 10 of claimed

Drag Noir

$20 USD
2 out of 10 of claimed

Irregularity

$20 USD
1 out of 5 of claimed

The Book Of The Dead

$20 USD
3 claimed

The 2nd Cultural Gutter Book

$20 USD
4 out of 10 of claimed

Naked Gutterthon Poster

$20 USD
Only 1 left

My Pretty Zombie Makeover

$20 USD
2 out of 5 of claimed

Medieval Charm

$20 USD
2 out of 5 of claimed

Mantis Fist Diagrams

$20 USD
1 out of 10 of claimed

Sassy Diabolik Mug

$20 USD
0 out of 5 of claimed

Cinema Detroit T-Shirt

$20 USD
0 out of 1 of claimed

Super Phone Kit

$25 USD
0 out of 3 of claimed

Star Stones

$35 USD
0 out of 5 of claimed

Space Cat Super Pack!

$35 USD
1 out of 2 of claimed

Super Mummy Book Set

$40 USD
0 out of 5 of claimed

Homunculus

$50 USD
3 out of 5 of claimed

The Good Shabti

$50 USD
0 out of 1 of claimed
sold out

Spooky Mini-Altar

$50 USD
1 out of 1 of claimed
Highlights
Mountain Filled 13 Projects Mountain Filled 13 Projects

The Story So Far...

Based in Ypsilanti, Toronto, and Brooklyn, The Cultural Gutter was founded in May, 2003 by writer, filmmaker and game designer Jim Munroe and comics critic and artist Guy Leshinski to provide thoughtful and provocative writing on disreputable art. Since then, we've had ten editors in two countries and five cities write on comics, romance, genre movies, tv, science fiction, fantasy, video games, and porn. And in all that time we paid our writers, both editors and Guest Stars. Then we lost our operations funding grant in 2013, but a small, rag-tag band of donors joined forces with the Gutter to keep us online and help us keep our commitment to paying writers for their work.

The Gutter offers something unusual. Thoughtful, well-written articles on topics like:  Duran Duran & William S. Burroughs; True Detective, Mad Men and self-control; Adventure Time and Alzheimer's; Frozen & Jane Austen; Eiji Tsuburaya's special effects & The Mysterians; the salvific power of Star Trek and friendship; Punisher: War Zone and what it means to be "good" or "bad"; and Filipina superhero Darna. Our survival depends on the Gutterthon. So please click Contribute Now and keep the Gutter flowing with the writing you love. Even if you can only throw in a buck, we will thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

What We Need & What You Get


UPDATE: WE HAVE REACHED OUR GOAL! Thanks to everyone who has contributed to and shared our campaign! We really appreciate it! For now, we're leaving the campaign up with a new stretch goal of $2250, so if you had planned on getting a particular perk. Any new funds we receive will go towards paying an artist to design the cover of the upcoming second collection of Cultural Gutter essays, Return To The Cultural Gutter.

Our $2000 goal breaks down to: $250/year/writer or about $20/article; $250/year for the Evil Overlord for publishing, promoting, finding new writers, day-to-day site management and making sure all the perks are shipped out;  $382/year for our fine webhost at No Media Kings. The remaining $368 will go towards printing and shipping perks, promotional materials, paying guest writers and paying Indiegogo and Paypal fees. This year we also plan to launch a new Cultural Gutter book, redesign the site and add an index to our twelve-year archive of articles.

In return, along with thoughtful and provocative articles on subjects also get our undying and eternal thanks and your choice of some sweet perks.

Perks Include:

A Cultural Gutter Membership package including a numbered and dated CG Membership Card and a decryption key for decoding the CG Secret Messages posted at the top of the Sponsor's Page.

Two-time British Fantasy Award nominee for Best Small Press Fox Spirit Books has donated digital copies of their anthology, The Girl At The End Of The World, Vol. 1. "Across two volumes, The Girl at the End of the World offers forty-one striking visions of the apocalypse and the women and girls dealing with it. From gods to zombies, from epic to deeply personal, from the moment of impact to a future where life is long forgotten; bestselling authors and exciting new writers deliver tales you’ll still remember when holed up in a fallout shelter with one remaining bullet and a best friend with a suspicious bite mark on their neck." And they've donated digital copies of Drag Noir. "This is where glamour meets grit, where everyone’s wearing a disguise (whether they know it or not) and knowing the players takes a lot more than simply reading the score cards. Maybe everyone’s got something to hide, but they’ve got something to reveal, too. Scratch the surface and explore what secrets lie beneath — it’s bound to cost someone…a lot." The Gutter's own Carol has a story in each collection.

Our sister site Pornokitsch donated books from their Jurassic London imprint, including a signed copy of limited edition hard copy of Robert Sharp's Shirley Jackson Award-nominated The Good Shabti. They've donated digital copies of their anthology, Irregularity. "Irregularity depicts the tension between order and chaos in the 17th and 18th centuries....From John Harrison to Ada Lovelace, Isaac Newton to Émilie du Châtelet, these stories showcase the Age of Reason in a very different light." They've also provided digital copies of  The Book of the Dead. "The Book of the Dead addresses the most fascinating of all the undead: the mummy. The mummy can be a figure of imperial dignity or one of shambling terror, at home in pulp adventure, contemporary drama, or apocalyptic horror," featuring stories by Gail Carriger and Paul Cornell. The Book Of The Dead is also available in a hardcopy form paired with Unearthed, which "resurrects eleven classic tales of the mummy, selected by John J. Johnston (Egypt Exploration Society) and Jared Shurin. These stories date back to the middle of the 19th century, and several have not been republished for almost two hundred years."

A pre-order of our second Cultural Gutter book, Return To The Cultural Gutter, collecting essays by Gutter Editors Carol Borden, Chris Szego, alex MacFadyen and Keith Allison.

A copy of the Naked Gutterthon poster designed by by Brian Kirby of Shelf Life Clothing Company (and Drive-In Mob)

A grab bag of My Pretty Zombie's best selling cosmetics for a sweet zombie makeover. Three eyeshadows: Anthrax Brisket; Everything Looks Better On A Meat Hook are paired with Benzodiazepine blush.

Our friends at Cinema Detroit, Detroit's premier movie house, have donated a swank Cinema Detroit t-shirt.

Private citizen Julie Lowry has donated three sets of cellphone accessories. Pack contents vary, but include a minimum of 2 usb cords, a wall charger, a car charger and a stylus. Choose from iPhone 4, 5/6 and choose your own color: white, black, pink, red, blue, yellow, green, orange, or purple.

The Gutter's own Carol Borden has donated handmade homunculi as well as starstones to prevent the Elder Gods from invading your dreams. She's also donated handprinted Cthulhu notebooks! UPDATE: Cthulhu Moleskines SOLD OUT!

NEW PERK: Spooky Mini-Altar:
A shadowbox created by Michelle Marrero of Nacreous Alchemy. It depicts a bird-headed Victorian woman looking into the secrets of the future. A tarot card decorates the sides of the box.

NEW PERK: Sassy Diabolik Mug:
Enjoy a hot beverage with this sassy mug decorated with an image of naked Diabolik and a puppy  created by Brian Kirby. The mug is 3.75" / 9.5 cm high and 3" / 7.6 cm in diameter. (It's also microwave and dishwasher safe, but I wouldn't try covering it in molten gold). See the image in our Gallery!

NEW PERK: Mantis Fist Diagrams:
We have discovered a small cache of Mantis Fist diagrams bound in a small booklet and we are prepared to offer them as a perk. There is a rumor that there might be some Eastern Kaiju Mantis Fist diagrams mixed, we cannot confirm that at this time. (Thanks to Evan Munday and Carol Borden).

NEW PERK: Space Cat Super Pack:
You will receive one 8 x 10" of "Space Cat on the Subway" and one 11 x 14" photo of Space Cat above graffiti declaring "F*ck Love" as well as several Space Cat pins and a coupon for the 2016 Space Cat Calendar. (Check out pictures in our gallery)

NEW PERK: Medieval Charm: Get a genuine medieval charm handwritten on parchment paper by the History Witch, Professor K. A. Laity. Choice of healing or agricultural, comes with translation and advice on use (for entertainment purposes only).

ETC Press has donated print copies of The Cultural Gutter (2011), a collection of pieces published on the Gutter from Jim Munroe, James Schellenberg, Carol Borden, Chris Szego and Ian Driscoll. This print version also has fantastic infographic illustrations by artist EJ Lee. UPDATE: SOLD OUT

And three lucky contributors can have a song written and performed on the disreputable art topic of their choice by Julie Beman of the Dress-Ups and Chica Non Grata, aka, the people who behind that sweet Dune song, "Gom Jabbar." Love Star Wars, Black Widow or robots? She will sing about them. UPDATE: SOLD OUT!

But even $1 gets our Undying Thanks.

If we don't reach our goal, we'll use the funds to print and ship your perks, pay our webhost and see how much we can pay each editor. If we exceed our goal, we would use the extra funds to print promotional materials, hire additional guest writers, or even hire an artist to illustrate Return To The Cultural Gutter.

The Impact

We like to think that the Gutter offers something that is unusual online: Clear-eyed, thoughtful and thought-provoking writing on disreputable art and media. If you donate or support the campaign by sharing, you will help keep the Gutter online and running; support our particular take on disreputable art; and help support paying writers for their work.

We ran a successful fundraiser last summer, we sent out all our perks, and, thanks to everyone's help, we kept going.  With your help, we can do it again. The Cultural Gutter's survival does depend on Gutterthon.

Risks & Challenges

We recognize that it's a difficult time for creators of all kinds, that platforms are valued more than content. But we believe with your help, we can do our little part to keep the Gutter flowing with quality writing.  

Other Ways You Can Help

We know that times are hard for a lot of people and any little bit helps, even a retweet or sharing our campaign on Facebook. Indiegogo has tools that make it easy.

Thanks!

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