Ok let's go thru this bullshit Funko statement because it's 11:30pm, I'm mad and extremely sober but full of double stuf oreos.
First and foremost the "taste makers" you were "obsessed" with who were "always on the pulse"? bad news, you just fired them.
The Brand Logo you tossed on top of this tonedeaf memo is not a living entity, it's not a magic rock that art directs, finds cool new artists, cultivates relationships with ongoing artists and studios, nor thinks wildly outside of the box for unique matchups of property/artist...
You fired those people. Maybe it's only a small amount of the total funko layoffs, but half of Mondo is gone including the three guys that the entire roster of "amazing artists" are loyal to because they've been going to bat for us for 15 years. Many of us owe our careers to them
Addressing/skirting the firing of Rob Mitch and Eric as a nameless "change in leadership", ignoring the specific reason people are upset, is an insult to the 15 years of work they put into growing that company. Is your clear strategy "destroy all goodwill and artist roster"?
Is this your favorite era of KISS? Just curious. Anyways...
"Most were 150 pieces or under" is a lie, or maybe you think that, once again proving you don't know shit about the company you bought. And the flipping someone at Mondo once told me was like 5-8% in reality. Either way, you're Funko: You do not have a problem with flippers...
Don't white knight yourself about flippers now when half of SDCC is marked up Funkos purchased thirty minutes earlier from your booth by the bagload.
As mentioned in my other thread, scaling up screenprinting production at "Mondo Quality" would take YEARS to be meaningful enough to double or triple production numbers. The possible output of flatstock screenprint shops in the US hit a wall 5 years ago...
Screenprinting at this level is HARD. it is a craft that takes YEARS to master. It's chemistry, it's pre-press software, it's color theory, it's fabrication, it's single pixel attention to detail, it's machine maintainence, it's weather, it's wrangling an imperfect medium...
There are printers who can tell you which certain colors require more drying time on the rack. You cannot throw money into thin air and create trade experience. All you COULD do is steal existing printers from established shops oh wait shit they all love Rob Mitch and Eric. Dang.
2X'ing the edition size 2.5X's production time, and it scales upward in a bad way. If you want runs in the thousands of every release, I hope youre prepared to buy out and manage every major screenprint shop in this country, otherwise sorry brah ain't happening.
I simply don't believe this one. Like not a lick of it. Funko stock dropped 60% in the last year, you really think shareholders are gonna watch you build a massive complex in San diego for a brand youre already burying in the desert? Come the fuck on.
Another statement I simply do not understand. WHAT are these magical mystery properties that everyone of Mondo Past was so denied? Have you met Rob? He got to do sad Peanuts merch and Judy Garland prints, HES GOOD. I checked every last lifechanging box myself. Sup @RealGDT.
You're 100% committed to providing support for everyone you didn't fire. Cool. Good for you. I'm sure they feel VERY safe and secure in their careers right now following the bloodbath you still haven't cleaned up.
This is a train wreck of a statement. Embarrassing. Every former Mondo artist read it, mourned, and clocked out for good. they're gone buddy. Good thing you still got those tastemakers you're obsessed with to find new artists to work with aww fuck wait you fired them! Darn darn!
Mondo forever.
but not your Mondo, the real one.
Good luck, Brian.
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For the hundred millionth time. It is currently impossible to screenprint timed editions, or editions in the thousands, of every poster Mondo does. The infrastructure has been maxed out for years, and it would take multiple years to build out and train meaningful expansion.
Was it inaccurate that Rob Mitch and Eric were fired? Was that misinformation? Because that's what we're all angry about. That's why nearly every artist that helped build that company is walking.
I'm going to clarify this by noting that I MYSELF have spent the last year trying to get a screenprint shop open here in MA. Hired and funded a dude who has been screenprinting for over a decade leading the charge, and we're still not 100% up to the quality needed...
ok, heres a quick story thread that falls within the "history of rock" that you probably haven't heard because frankly its super esoteric and isnt as engaging as Hendrix lighting a guitar on fire or whatever. pictured is a 1962 Maestro Fuzz-Tone, the first production fuzz pedal
...designed by Glenn Snoddy & a tv studio engineer named Revis Hobbs. it builds on a 1961 mistake made by a recording engineer named Grady Martin, who via broken console preamp, produced the distorted tic-tac bass tone at 1:28 of Marty Robbins 'Dont Worry'
(til this point, theres history of people pushing tube amplifiers, slashing their speakers with knives/nails to get different pushed guitar tones: Willie Lee Johnson, Link Wray, Paul Burlison, Ventures, etc... but outside of single one-off incidents, this was "mass production".)
hey artists: quick thread on doing an affordable "pipe and drape" style convention booth setup for illustrators/printmakers/etc that looks professional and can fit in a checked bag... info and links and such as i go...
this is assuming youre doing a convention where the pipe&drape walls are provided. theyre always ugly, so we want to cover them up. i've used @banner_buzz and these fullly printed fabric banners a few times now and theyre great and often have great sales. bannerbuzz.com/polyester-fabr…
big vinyl banners are too heavy, too hard to wrangle. the polyester fabric banners are super lightweight, dont get too creasy wrinkly, and have a nice matte finish that takes to photos well.
my post-art plan is opening a grilled cheese cart. it will serve $1 grilled cheese made with white bread, bulk cheese, bulk butter, and thats it. greasy as hell. no options, no artisan, nothing. there will be no change. you give me $5 youre getting 5, you figure your own life out
the business and cart will be called "$1 GRILLED CHEESE", with not a lick of irony or cleverness. it will be in IMPACT font, black on cheese yellow. i will decimate every other food truck or food cart out there.
its 1am, youre stumbling out of the bar or show. what do you want? do you want to wait outside some asinine truck for a $12 deconstructed grilled cheese with avacado relish that takes 20 goddamned minutes? or do you want 5 no bullshit grilled cheeses stacked in wax paper for $5?
PARENTS OF THE YEAR 2019 award goes to the fucking jackasses who brought a year old inconsolable infant into a 7pm movie screening and then loudly argued for 2 hours over who should leave, and who should stay with the equally awful other kids, and then deciding to do nothing.
im sure MARY POPPINS RETURNS is a perfectly fine film, but it paled to a grown man in a celtics jersey screaming at his wife and baby to shutup because hes so invested in MARY POPPINS RETURNS that he REFUSES to deal with his own infant, WHICH IS IN A MOVIE THEATER FOR SOME REASON
i really liked the part in the third act of MARY POPPINS RETURNS where a child was crawling on the floor of an obviously disgusting theater around my feet while the mother slowly trailed behind her having a full volume conversation with shitbag husband literally across the room.