QR Code T-shirt platform to feature physical hyperlink to Besher’s new novel published direct to mobile “Manga Man,” original music soundtrack, book trailer, short film, .mp4 anthology of Japanese avant-garde Butoh dance performances, plus audio book and graphic novel excerpts.
New York, NY, October 18, 2008 — Winksite, a leading mobile content management and social networking software company whose solutions connect publishers to their audiences and audience members to each other, announced plans to team up with novelist Alexander Besher, Philip K. Dick Award nominated author, to launch direct to mobile “The Manga Man,” the San Francisco-based journalist, author, and futurist’s first novel since his celebrated “Rim Trilogy” (“Rim,” “Mir,” and “Chi;” HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster). Debut date is October 31st at http://www.mangaman.mobi.
Besher’s tome is a 600-page alternative fantasy noir epic that’s set in the mid-21st century when the speed of media has overtaken the speed of light. The story features a half-digital, half-human “post-Zen” Butoh dancer-assassin whose mission is “to stop the warlords who plan to clone the universe.”
Dave Harper, Founder & CEO of Winksite, says “Working with Besher and his creative team is a natural fit for us. In the past, we’ve collaborated with a wide group of writers and progressive thinkers including Stanford law professor and political activist Lawrence Lessig who inspired us to launch the Creative Commons Library, sci-fi author Cory Doctorow, horror meister David Wellington, and Internet ‘Smart Mobs’ guru Howard Rheingold. Besher’s futuristic vision strikes us as being not only timely but timeless.”
Besher’s multimedia ‘Manga Man’ is the first work of literature in history to appear on a QR/2D-coded T-shirt designed by the prize-winning Italian graphic novel artist Daniele Serra.
For his part, Besher is equally thrilled to be working with Winksite. “I’m convinced that the media platform of the future lies in mobile phone technology. It’s a market that’s growing by leaps and bounds. Just witness the advances represented by Apple’s iPhone and companies like Nokia which is bringing out its multimedia monster, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic phone. Not to mention the first handheld projectors that are due out this year, and the advent of A4-size screens. I can only say that we’ve truly entered the post-Gutenberg, post-McLuhan age. Our credo is ‘You are the Media.’”
“Dave Harper is that rare breed of visionary and entrepreneur,” Besher declares. “We chose to go with Winksite over other proprietary QR-code gatekeepers and mobile platform sites because Dave is open source and his hands-on passion for pushing the envelope on mobile content knocked me out. He’s been an invaluable partner in helping us bring our vision to life.”
“I also deeply relate to Winksite’s motto: ‘One World. No Borders. 3 Billion Connected People,’” Besher says. “That’s what all my novels have been about—erasing the interface between the human body and the outside world. I hope that everyone will wear my book. We can all meet on the dust jacket on the other side of the Milky Way.”
Advance praise for “The Manga Man”:
“A hidden SF master.”
Rudy Rucker, Philip K. Dick Award winning author of Postsingular, Spaceland, and The Ware Tetralogy (great-grandson of Hegel)
“Pure Superfuture cooked down in sf’s last mad scientist’s lab. Enough ideas for thirty other books blistered down into a sharp little drug that’ll reengineer the front of your head. You want a hit of this. Trust me.”
Warren Ellis, author of the Transmetropolitan and Global Frequency series of graphic novels
“Fascinating! Great!”
China Miéville, author of Iron Council and Perdido Street Station, winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award and the British Fantasy Award
“This book would make Philip K. Dick delirious with joy. Nobody else in science fiction has ever pushed the envelope this hard—or with better success.”
Spider Robinson, best selling novelist and Robert A. Heinlein Estate-appointed completer of sequels to Heinlein’s novels.
THE MANGA MAN PREMIERE (INVITE TO AN EVENT)
Butoh Without Borders Multimedia party and launch for Alexander Besher’s QR Code sentient T-shirt novel THE MANGA MAN this Halloween. All proceeds to benefit Doctors Without Borders.
Date: October 31, 2008
Time: 6 – 9pm
Location: UPDATED: Arte Movimiento SUB Mission, 2183 Mission at 18th Street, San Francisco
About Alexander Besher
Born in China, raised and educated in Japan, Alexander Besher is a San Francisco-based author, journalist and novelist. He is the author of “The Pacific Rim Almanac” (HarperCollins, ’91), and the “Rim” trilogy of futuristic thrillers including the Philip K. Dick Award-nominated “Rim” (HarperCollins ’94; HarperPrism, ’95); “Mir,” and “Chi” (Simon & Schuster, ’98 and ’99). He served as editor of the Chicago Review literary quarterly at the University of Chicago , was contributing editor to InfoWorld magazine, and wrote “Pacific Rim” (Chronicle Features), an internationally syndicated weekly column covering business, technological and social trends in the Asia-Pacific region. His forthcoming novel “The Manga Man” is the first title in his new “Dance of Darkness” trilogy of alternative noir fantasy novels. His novels have been translated into over a dozen languages and film-optioned. Recently, he has been writing screenplays and television scripts.
About Winksite
Winksite is a leading mobile content management and social networking software company whose solutions connect publishers to their audiences and audience members to each other. For more information visit winksite.com
On April 28th in New York, I’ve organized a free MobileMonday NY event that includes panelists from several companies active in mobile analytics and social search – Amethon, Bango, Mobilytics, Resolution Media, Quattro, TigTag, and taptu.
harper.wirelessink.com 