The epic legend of the dog-headed Saint Christopher
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Tue Dec 21 '21 Announcement
about 3 years ago
– Tue, Dec 21, 2021 at 06:35:34 AM
I have posted the newly written introduction my multi-part article on the symbolism of the dog-headed St Christopher. This introduction, the articles, as well as sketches, designs and Matthieu's new article, will all be available in the God's'Dog Secrets book. 542 people have already ordered it through the Indiegogo campaign. There is still time to do so.
Understanding the Dog Headed St Christopher - Introduction
In 2013, I wrote two articles on the Dog-Headed St-Christopher for the Orthodox Arts Journal, the first part of which is still by far the most popular post of that publication. In the first part of the article, I explore the symbolism of the icon, of the Saint, but also of what they mean for us today. In the second part I try to help people understand how the experience of dog-headed men is possible without having to posit a race of men who are genetically related to dogs, rathere these old descriptions and experiences can be seen as a token for our experience of the strange in general. At the end of the second article I promised a third instalment, one that would be “the strangest post I will ever have to write for the OAJ”, but I never wrote it. I did not write it because I felt people would not be ready for the concepts it would describe. But now, having discused symbolism publicly for 4 years, I feel like many will finally be ready, and so we will plunge into the world of Extra-Terrestrials, “interdimensional beings”, modern legends and Psychedelic trips to see that the ancient way of seeing the world is still present and available to us today.
Mon Dec 20 '21 Announcement
about 3 years ago
– Mon, Dec 20, 2021 at 07:04:42 AM
We ar coming very close to 3000 backers and will certainly make it to 180k by the end of the month. 200k at this point seems like a bit of a stretch, but maybe this next news will help, or not...
Godsdogecoin is Coming to you
One of the strangest things that happened in the God's'Dog community in the last few weeks is that a mysterious fellow has minted a completely worthless crypto coin called Godsdogecoin (GDG). At first he was offering a certain amount of the coin to anybody willing to write a 30 page essay on why they deserved it. (This was called proof of work.) BTW, a few people actually wrote the essays.
The strangest thing that happened though, is that this person and his team have offered to send a certain amount of GDG for every physical copy of God's'Dog purchased through Indiegogo. It means that each book received by the mail will have an inserted sheet with a unique QR code to receive your GDG. (with explainations on how to do that for us crypto neophytes).
This is of course completely worthless and silly. But to be honest, both Matthieu and I kind of like this coin. We think it's funny, and so you will possibly want to hold on to those coins, because we might find ways to get that coing back from you somehow. Who knows what kind of God's'Dog stuff we might be willing to trade it for?
New Pin-ups
This version of Christopher was made by Manuel Guzman, the author and illustrator of Sacha's tale. https://lolosart.com/isos/ Both my daughter and I enjoyed Sacha's Tale together, the illustrations are especially rich and evocative.
Last Day for the NFT
Today is the last full day for offers on the NFT. The bidding ends tomorrow at 13:31 EST with a few caveats. Still time to hop on to the Discord server to see what's up.
Wed Dec 15 '21 Announcement
about 3 years ago
– Wed, Dec 15, 2021 at 01:49:02 PM
We just reached 170K! 10k until the next stretch goal of the original poster designed by Cord Nielson for the series. Afer that, it will be the home stretch to make it to 200k where we will send the God's'Dog Secrets book as a PDF to ALL BACKERS.
Also THE BOOK IS FINISHED. Everything is there, all the colors, all the pin-ups, proofread for the small mistakes. We are ready to go.
New Pin-UP
We received a wonderful pin-up by Christopher Mihaly, who did a beautiful illustration for his namesake, quoting Psalm 72. This will be in the God's'Dog book with the other pin-ups.
God's'Dog Secrets Preview
...speaking of the Secrets book. The first layouts are coming in and they are looking wonderful. For now I have seen mostly the section of my early designs and Cord's development drawings, but Matthieu is working hard on finalising his article, and I still need to polish my part. Check out a quick mashup of the layouts in progress. Still time to GET IT. It will be worth it.
NFT Project Starts Today!
The NFT project launched today and a lot of crazy stuff has been happening very fast. First off, because auctions were not possible on the Polygon network, I listed all the prices at a ridicously high level and told people I would just accept the highest offers in a week. Very quickly, this happened. Very hilarious.
Someone who will remain unnamed for now, minted a coin called Godsdogecoin (GDG) which has 77,777,777 coins, but is of course worth absolutely nothing... for now. More news on that later.
Tue Dec 14 '21 Announcement
about 3 years ago
– Tue, Dec 14, 2021 at 07:22:47 AM
I am so excited to show this new pin-up by the artist Reagan Lodge. Reagan is working on a truly epic graphic novel called WYIT. https://reaganlodge.com/ He captures the marshal Roman nature of our protagonist in a dramatic fashion. This image will be in the book with many other wonderful pin-ups from other artists.
NFT PROJECT
Well, the NFT project finally starts tomorrow. Here are all the details for those who are interested.
What:
The NFT project is based on secrets, sharing, and the question of what it means to own something. While being an exploration of the margin, it will also be an exploration of the problems of NFT themselves. The NFT comes in five levels of rarity and will be 77 in all. Each NFT has an unlockable content of the full graphic novel as a PDF. The top four levels of rarity will also contain an extra page with a secret. This secret can be a symbolic hint, a key, and on the very top level, will actually be an extra page of the comic. This secret content will only be seen by the owners of the NFTs and those they decide to share it with. Here are the levels and their rarity.
The full book as a password protected PDF (40 copies)
Full book + extra page based on a natural pattern (20 copies)
Full book + extra page based on a ritual pattern (10 copies)
Full book + extra page with a cryptographic key. (5 copies)
Full book + extra page is an actual comic book page revealing a secret in the story. (2 copies)
The sale is 7 days, starts Dec. 15th at 13:31 EST and ends at 13:31 on the 21st
It will be on the Polygon network, so make sure your wallets are compatible with Polygon
The Polygon network does not allow automatic auctions, which means I will be doing it manually.
The NFTs will be listed at a ridiculously high price and people will make offers.
Starting at 10 minutes before the end of the auction, each new offer will extend the sale for another 10 minutes.
Offers will be accepted once a full 10 minutes without offers have passed.
For each level of rarity, the top offers according to the number of available copies will be accepted (So 40 for level 1, 20 for level 2...).
10% royalties will go to the God's'Dog project at every resale.
The Quandry
Each level of secret is rarer and a more powerful tool to see underlying patterns. Just because someone has access to the hint, does not mean they will understand it. There are three posibilities for owner of the NFT: Keeping, sharing, selling.
If you sell the NFT, you maintain access to the PDF and so are diluting the rarity, but are increasing the glory. What will happen?
If you keep the secret, you might not understand the fullness of its implications, but you will maintain the mystery and exclusivity. If you share it, then you might become a hero to other fans, while exteriorizing and quantifying the experience.
WHAT WILL YOU DO?
Warning
Do not see this as a stable investment.
Do not spend your savings on something like this.
Remember, you do not own the copyright of anything
Files can be shared
Fri Dec 10 '21 Announcement
about 3 years ago
– Fri, Dec 10, 2021 at 07:02:27 AM
We are a few dollars away from 160k. At 180K, all physical backer will get an extra poster. At 200k,The Secrets of God's'Dog will be sent out as a PDF to all backers! Pretty sure we can do this!
Some might think that our idea of St George and St Christopher teaming up is a strange one. In fact, several years after coming up with that idea, I discovered the oldest image we have of both saints are of them together, a 6th or 7th century tile from Macedonia showing them killing two human headed snake monsters. This is of course proof of the historicity of our story (...cough) and the proof that our protagonists were monster killers.
Ari Fisher, one of the fans of God's'Dog made a very nice version of this image which will be in the at the end of the book as a pin-up.
Appearance on Jason Brubaker's channel
Jason Brubaker is an amazing comic artist. His series Sithra is one of my own kids' favorites in terms of illustration and story. He was very graceful and generous to invite Cord and I to his channel to talk about the project.
NFTs and Original Art
A lot of people are excited about the NFT project we are putting together. The Discord server now has over 130 members anxiously waiting for the auction. I gave a zoom presentation to the Discord crew, and it is available as an unlisted video on youtube.
If you are interested in the basics, here is the link to the discord,
The funny thing is that everyone is excited about the collectible NFT idea, but all seem to forget that the original pencil and inked pages are available in the campaign at a steal between 150$ and 200$. You could own an actual hand drawn page by Cord Nielson from the book to be framed and put up!
