Bring the vibrant B-Sides World to life with QR codes, featuring pop-up animation voiced by Dex Carvey, and Third Wheel Comedy’s Mike Masilotti and Nolan Culver!
NOV. 7, 2023, (PITTSBURGH, PA) — Put a fresh new spin on tales from the other side of town, featuring a whole new world vibrant with music, film, and street culture…
Announcing B-SIDES Volume 1, the FRESHEST new slice-of-life series created and edited by Greg Bourne, now live on Kickstarter! Born from the minds of alt culture enthusiasts from London to L.A., featuring the lead story by Mike London with vibrant and dreamlike artwork by Rich Ivens, Hayley Dwan, and David Arguno, and animation by Theo Duberry. B-Sides melds the everyday and the fantastical—putting a new spin on the essence of L.A.’s Dogtown counterculture.
“B-Sides is something genuinely new in the comic-book space: a glorious lo-fi kaleidoscope of music, film, street culture & skate culture, fueled by a subtly hypnotic feel-good charm all of its own.” —Andrew Sumner, Executive Vice President, Forbidden Planet.
At the center of it all is the B-Sides bar, the beating heart and soul of Sidetown, run by Gus, the barman, who lives in an old airstream in the parking lot. In front of the bar, on their bench, you’ll usually find Slippery Kev and his mate, Sketch – a Riff Rat. With their own speakeasy under the floorboards, The Riff Rats live among the other residents in their own, rat-sized world.
There’s a regular open mic night at the bar hosted by the slightly irregular Open Mike, who gets his name from being, well, open, too open… Next door is the vinyl record exchange, Sounds Good, run by the couple Sheena and Debs, who also run Sounds Good Radio from the back of the store. On the other side of the bar is Bodhi’s Taco truck where you can get the best tacos in town, that is unless ‘surf’s up’, then Bodhi and his sous chef Nacho are nowhere to be seen.
Greg Bourne, Creative Director, spoke of the project:
“B-Sides was born out of a love of counterculture in all its forms so our stories lean heavily into the worlds of skating, music, surfing, street culture and, most importantly just hanging out. The characters of Sidetown have kind of written their own stories. They staggered to life fully-formed and we’ve just felt like we’ve been watching them interact. The Riff Rats we discovered along the way. They started out in the background but everyone fell for them and we just kept going deeper and deeper into their story, uncovering a whole hidden world. Getting a team together to bring B-Sides to life was actually the easy part. Friends just understood the vibe from the start and wanted to play their part, however big or small.”
The vibrant world of B-Sides comes to life by scanning QR codes within the pages, featuring voiceover animation by Dex Carvey (Joe Dirt 2: Beautiful Loser), as well as Third Wheel Comedy’s Mike Masilotti and Nolan Culver. Be on the lookout for more cameos in future stories and drop-ins to Open Mike’s Open Mic night, a pop-up animation introducing guest star comedians and artists. Notably, B-Sides teamed up Blind Pig Studios, London, to create a pre-launch animated teaser which was shortlisted as a finalist for the 2023 AEAF Awards!
Backers can get their hands on five limited edition comic covers and exclusive collectibles including two intricately designed skateboard decks, art prints and posters by B-Sides lead artist Rich Ivens, and a unique B-Sides pendant, crafted by cult classic jewelry designer Kelly OnlyChild.
For fans of Giant Days with the flavor of Gorillaz, the B-Sides Volume 1 campaign ends Dec. 7. To learn more, drop by https://bsidescomic.com/ or join the following on Instagram.
