In one of the loveliest paeans to modern technology ever penned on the web, The Oatmeal creator Matthew Inman posted a lengthy comic describing what it’s like to own a Tesla Model S, and it was nothing short of effusive. He did take issue with the car’s name, however, and offered up some helpful suggestions for alternate titles. The final product is easily one of the best and most clearly explained reviews of the Tesla S to date, in case you want to take a gander, but Inman also took the opportunity to ask Tesla’s founder, Elon Musk, to help fund the creation of his Tesla museum project, which previously raised nearly $1.5 million on Indiegogo.
Inman originally sought the funding necessary to help buy the property where inventor and car company namesake Nikola Tesla had a workshop in New York state. The campaign managed that successfully, Inman says, but there are still a lot more funds needed to actually build a museum on the spot, hence the new ask for an additional $8 million. Inman targets Musk for the additional funds in a second page to his Tesla comic, and explains his reasoning for doing so: Musk is a billionaire who buys submarine cars.
The combination of glowing praise and friendly wealth shaming seems to have paid off: Musk tweeted this morning that he’d be glad to chip in.
That bodes well for the future of the Tesla museum, even if the full details of how Musk intends to help aren’t yet known. Regardless, this tribute to one of the greatest inventors in human history is shaping up to be one of the most interesting sagas (and hopefully results) in crowdfunding.