My friend Kel is raising money to self-publish a volume of her webcomic, Sorcery 101. $15 will get you a digital and hard copy of the book, and for $25, the hard copy comes signed, with an original sketch.

So, what're you waiting for?

I may soon have a really kickass cabinet-mounted sewing machine and a drafting table!

Functional work surfaces FTW!

1. New Moon: The Bad, the Worse, and the WTF (h/t to nihilistic_kid). This is, as you'd suspect, not the most complimentary review. That said, even if you don't want to read yet another sporking of the Sparkle Vamps, and even if you're a Twilight fan, it's worth clicking the link and scrolling down to the last section (for content, not humor; it's really not funny).

2. Coming in 2011.

...Okay, look, I did see the first movie, albeit with Rifftrax. I haven't read the books, just summaries. And while I think the whole romanticization of abuse / child grooming subplots are no end of fucked up, my main gripe with the movie was that it was incredibly, painfully, unrelentingly dull. Is this what kids find romantic these days? At least when I was tweeny, we had Anne Rice,* who, while overwrought beyond belief, had the "blood, love, and rhetoric" trifecta down to a science.**

*The books, not the movie, whose main redeeming factor is creepy li'l Kirsten Dunst: "Vampires pretending to be people pretending to be vampires! How Avant-garde!"

**Actually, tween-Rae's favorite Anne Rice novel didn't involve vampires at all, but that's beside the point, except that I ended up reading it after the vampire books went all to fuckery after Queen of the Damned (which, honestly, had already sunk pretty far into Lestat-Sue territory, but if you take it out, you don't get that nice round trilogy effect).***

Occasionally, in the morass of internet humor amalgamation sites, you stumble across something really, really wonderful:

(636): we were spooning and you were the big spoon but you insisted that I call you "the ladle"

Yes.

*GrumbleDamnitGrumble*

I love Badger lip balm a lot. It's effective, it's petroleum-free, and, most importantly for me, it doesn't contain anything that I'm allergic to or that irritates my stupidly sensitive skin. And I e-mailed them today 'cause I can't find their chai rose lip balm sticks anywhere, and it's my favorite lip balm ever.

Apparently, they're discontinuing the flavor because, while it has a fair number of fanatical adherents (like me), it doesn't sell too well in general. They still have tins available, but when those are gone, that's it.

And while I'm sure the other flavors are good, I really, really love the rose chai. So I'm (hopefully) stocking up on tins, and maybe I'll buy a sampler of the others to try to find a suitable replacement, 'cause the sticks really are both more convenient and more sanitary.

But if anyone else feels like sending Badger a polite letter urging them to bring it back (or voting with their dollars--it'd make a great stocking stuffer, and if you don't know what to do with it, you can always give it to meeeee), I sure wouldn't object...

Poll #1485255 The Big Questions
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 6

Dr. McNinja is fuckin' awesome.

While I doubt any will ever kick quite so much ass as the first time I saw 'em at the Orange Peel in '05, TMBG continue to put on really damn good shows.

In other news, sleep tonight is kinda a bust. But it was so very worth it--and at least this time it's work I'll be a zombie at, not my best friends' wedding...

Writers, Artists, Bandits, and Revolutionaries--

Have you ever lived in a tourist town? Worked in the industry? Traveled in unfamiliar territory?

SuperGrrrl Adventure Comix is a multimedia second-gen riot grrrl-themed zine currently accepting submissions for its third (and first themed) issue! We are looking for previously unpublished original fiction, nonfiction, poetry, black-and-white art, comic strips, interviews, articles, and reviews; regarding and related to tourism; from writers and artists of all ages, genders, and backgrounds.

We cannot pay contributors at this time, but we will happily give you contributor copies, random comic books, and our undying gratitude.

Please see below for guidelines, and feel free to forward this around or post it anywhere you'd consider appropriate.

For consideration for this issue, submissions must be received no later than DECEMBER 5.

Sincerely,
Rachel Edidin and Jen Vaughn, Two-Fisted Editrices
SuperGrrrl Adventure Comix


( Guidelines Below the Cut )

Lately, I've been recognizing bits of  The Jumblies in the random text in spam e-mails. It's a little disconcerting, like catching a glimpse of a pornographic picture and realizing someone has taped a photo of your great aunt over each model's face.

The only way this photo would be awesomer would be if the comic involved Renee Montoya reading comics.

...also, this will probably be the last of my Halloween costume picspam, since I don't really have any costume-related plans for Halloween proper.

If you are an old-school superhero nerd, and you haven't taken a look at today's Something Positive, you probably should go do that.

My god! There's a new Sequential Tart up!

And what's that back there in columns? Could it be yours truly, interviewing the hell outta the always-excellent Chris Wisnia? WHY, YES! YES, IT IS! 

OF COURSE YOU DO!

Matt Bayne, creator of one of my all-time favorite webcomics and generally excellent fantasy artist is taking commissions.

In addition to being a hella good artist and all-around excellent fellow, Matt's currently charging really accessible rates--commissions for black-and-white character art start at $20, which is an incredible deal, especially for someone who knows what he's doing--so if you've been racking your brains for what to get your D&D buddies, SCAdian pals, or anyone else with a modicum of taste, please consider doing your holiday shopping early and commissioning an original piece from Matt.

Alternately (or, better yet, concurrently!), buy paper-and-ink editions of the first five issues of Knights of the Shroud, and see what I've been raving about for the last several years.

In general, guys, if you've got a couple bucks to spare or are compiling your holiday shopping lists, please consider looking at options that support independent arists, who, as a group, have been hit disproportionately hard by the current economic clusterfuck. Webcomic and indie artists, in particular, do a hell of a lot to keep the comics medium and scene vibrant and growing, for precious little (if any) compensation, and a lot of them are really struggling right now. If you read and enjoy webcomics, zines, or other self-published or freely available media, now's a very, very good time to look at giving something back to the people whose work you enjoy.

Likewise, although I know Amazon & co. are hella convenient, if you're buying books or comics as gifts, please take the time--and spend the additional few bucks where applicable--to support independent and local retailers, or better yet, buy directly from creators. This isn't just about being hippie liberal corporation-haters--it's about helping to preserve and sustain the folks who sustain us and our community.

You can't really see it in the photo, but I found the perfect Renee Montoya jacket, too. Eventually, there will be photos not taken by my laptop, at which point it will presumably be visible.

My biggest editorial project--one I've fought tooth and nail to get support for and which has the potential to make a really significant splash--is being announced sometime today.

No guesses, please. I'll post a link when it goes live.

And in the meantime, I'll sit and bite my nails and hit "reload" a lot.

The British Veterinary Voodoo Society

Brilliant.