James A. Owen

Principal Caretaker of the Imaginarium Geographica; primary advocate of the Romantic Underground; a Merchant Prince, in training to become a Philosopher King.

[James A. Owen @CaveoPrincipia]

@lukmeyer30 Great piece!

[James A. Owen @CaveoPrincipia]

Given how popular the Romantasy genre is in publishing, this feels more and more like the formula for what could be one of the best-selling books EVER. 😄

[James A. Owen @CaveoPrincipia]

@jpalmiotti We had known each other, and been on panels together, but it was at San Diego, hanging out at that old classic BBQ joint, when you and I became friends. :) Can’t wait to see you both next week.

[James A. Owen @CaveoPrincipia]

Guardian of the Portal

[James A. Owen @CaveoPrincipia]

@jpalmiotti They’re great members of the community as well - I emailed them to ask a question about the pdf version, and they walked me through how to make some changes I needed to make on the pdf of my own art book.

[MERICA MEMED @Mericamemed]

I’ve never been this jealous in my life.

[James A. Owen @CaveoPrincipia]

My blind and deaf guard doggie wasn’t sure if I was upstairs or outside - so she posted herself in the stairwell so she could find me no matter where I was coming from. 🥹❤️

[James A. Owen @CaveoPrincipia]

A four-dog tiny chihuahua mountain range stretched through the middle of my sanctuary.

[James A. Owen @CaveoPrincipia]

In honor of the recent Superman/Spider-Man team-up comics, Krypto is decked out in his best Spidey belly band. 😄

[Javier Rodríguez @javiercaster]

Collecting comic books is great. But reading them is even better. And sharing them. Talking about them with the people you care about. Lending them to your friends in person. We mustn't lose that.

[James A. Owen @CaveoPrincipia]

@the_culturist_ https://t.co/xaGXWUTq8M

[James A. Owen @CaveoPrincipia]

@AJemaineClement Should you and Bret ever choose to add a rhyme to Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros, I humbly suggest the name of my cartoonist pal, Mister Macropoulos, whose birthday it is today, as a worthy contender. (In my head, it’s already there.) 😃

[Aakash Gupta @aakashgupta]

McConaughey just stumbled into the most studied result in game theory and presented it as a hunch about being a good neighbor.

In 1980, a Michigan political scientist named Robert Axelrod ran a tournament. He invited mathematicians and economists to submit strategies for a game where you repeatedly choose to cooperate with someone or screw them over. Fourteen entries, some hundreds of lines of code. The one that won was four lines: cooperate on the first move, then copy whatever the other person just did.

He ran it again with 62 entries, everyone knowing it had already won. Nobody could beat it.

The traits that made it win: never defect first, punish defection, forgive fast, stay predictable. "Slowed down, let her in" is line one of that program.

Here is the part Matthew got right without knowing the math. The reason cooperating first wins, and doesn't just feel nice, comes down to what theorists call the shadow of the future. Be generous to a stranger you'll never see again and you eat the cost for nothing. Be generous to someone you'll keep running into and the move pays itself back across every interaction left to come.

He thought he was playing a one-shot game with an anonymous driver on a highway. He was playing a repeated game with a neighbor. Same road every day, same faces, decades in front of both of them.

That is why the favor returned in 15 minutes, and why it keeps returning. A highway full of strangers looks like the one place generosity gets wasted. In a small enough world there are no strangers, only people who haven't repaid you yet.

[Casper @CasperOnChain]

Matthew McConaughey reveals how letting one car merge in traffic gave him a neighbor watching his house for life

"Two-lane highway, traffic jam, moving 5 mph. A lady was waiting to get in. Everyone wants to get forward as quick as possible. I slowed down, let her in"

"15 minutes later, I'm right behind her. As I approach my house, she pulls in the driveway right before me. I get out - it's my neighbor"

"I didn't know it was my neighbor. But I got somebody watching over my house from now on because I let her in. Did I do it hoping to get a neighbor on my side? No. Did I get an army on my side? Yeah"

[Vashi Nedomansky, ACE @vashikoo]

I demand a remake of this Disney classic!
The only film in cinema history with:
• a giant blimp in the Arctic
• a hidden volcanic valley
• a lost colony of Vikings
• film score by Maurice Jarre
• a battle with killer whales
• pre-Temple of Doom tunnel/water stunt

[James A. Owen @CaveoPrincipia]

@urbanbarbarian Hey Dan - it was great to finally meet you in person! Keep up the great work. You inspire us all, brother.

[James A. Owen @CaveoPrincipia]

It was a trading card from Hero Illustrated magazine, and a cover for the anthology series Negative Burn. The image is printed in light blue to give me a guide to keep the art consistent, but each bookplate is hand-inked, so every one will vary slightly from the rest. (2/2)

[James A. Owen @CaveoPrincipia]

These inked bookplates were one of the Kickstarter exclusives for the big art book. I wanted to get something else fun from the StarChild days in the mix, and I always liked this image of Martin Humble. (1/2)

[James A. Owen @CaveoPrincipia]

@jpalmiotti Can’t wait to see you guys in Phoenix! I have a present for you. :)

[James A. Owen @CaveoPrincipia]

I forgot about the holiday, so a bunch of people got emails that their copies of the big art book were being mailed today - but it’ll be tomorrow. Mea culpa.😬 I DO, however, like that when you open the cover, the shopkeeper on the front endpaper art looks properly startled. 😂