A Short List of Reasons to be Proud I Grew Up in Central Massachusetts

(and never moved very far away):

1. My hometown is featured in several H.P. Lovecraft stories. Is yours?

2. The next town over (more or less) has extra-terrestrial creatures running all over the place.

3. Several neighboring towns are eerily located underwater.

4. Boltonite! A mineral found only in Egypt, Russia, Antarctica, and Bolton, MA.

Ask Lovecraft why this is (see #1). Very mysterious.

5. The MBTA is loaded with zombie-friendly abandoned subway stations, most likely leading to more Lovecraftian subterranean horrors (see Reason #1.)

...

(OK, so the MBTA is not in central Mass.... but the photo above shows an airplane from a mysteriously abandoned airport in Bolton. Which is not spooky at all, but ... but it was abandoned. Mysteriously.)

This is not really a forum for restaurant reviews, but there are some bars that transcend the miserable hum-drum so... so... dustily, that one must take note. Anyone who has not tossed back a couple of dark beers (for that is the only name they are given here, and a pox on all name brands) at Manhattan's McSorley's is in for a treat.

You will think you have climbed into your great-grandfather's mildewy old steam trunk, and come out in the Spouter-Inn from Moby-Dick, or Gangs of New York.


Scary? Absolutely. Ready to catch fire at a moments' notice? Without a doubt. All the more reason to turn the laptop off, get ye to New York, and start quaffing.

I feel dirty, taking things from drawn.

...

Anyways, I found this on drawn. Isn't it magnificent? It has the fighting robots and the jumping little things that I look for, all in one place. Why complain?








Plus, Mark from Finland directs our attention to the inspired chattering skull that is, uh, this. I dare you to not to enjoy it. I will send you $5 if you don't think it is pretty rad. If you have the pent-up energy, why not use it to amuse your global neighbors??

Where do words come from, Dad?

They come from neurotic French robots, son.

See?

Thanks to the people at cartoonbrew.

I like the tiny showcase because there is a lot of stuff to look at there. Like Jacob Goble (at right). And a bazillion fertile links.

Man-e-thanks to veer blog!

When I need to get caught up on the transition from Alan Greenspan to Ben Bernanke, I turn to the Economist. When I am curious about independent Thai directors, like Wisit Sasanatieng, I flip open my copy of Film Comment.

For coverage of Bombu's invasion of New York, however, these magazines' coverage is pretty skimpy. That's when I turn to Where Monsters Dwell, one of several Monster titles (by the usually-godawful Marvel Comics) which actually does try to live up the standards of Jack Kirby.

Click on the illustration at left to enlarge. The dialogue is scrumtrilescent.









It's got funny words, authentic Kirby reprints, and new art from the scintillating Mike Allred (at left). This man, with Mike Mignola, keeps the Kirby torch burning bright in our dark and un-Kirby-like world.

I don't have time for contemporary comics, as a rule, but I can't complain about the Two Mikes. They are kirbtastic!

Q: That's one fine-looking doll! Where can I get one?
A: You can get it at from puffy smalls, which is one tentacle of the paper rad art mafia.

You know the world's largest living creature? That mushroom in Oregon? Paper rad is just like that mushroom. Watch it grow! Wash your hands afterwards!

Kneel before ZEMOG!

plus Jayuya, Aib's earlier band.

Hey look! A Dalek video by Terry Gilliam! No, wait, it's actually by the 47th floor, but it is very nicely done in TerryVision, and you will be glad you saw it.

If you have Terry's email, then forward it to him, would you?

Mad props, again, to hydrocephalicbunny. Wot up HCB?!? Peace out.

I mentioned Studio AKA in my entry the other day about La Chute De L'Ange. I keep a link to AKA handy at all times, in the lefthand margin of this cornucopia-cum-blog. However, it lately occurs to me that I might suggest my favorite way to navigate thru the AKA site, because it's a Flash site that won't bookmark very well, and because not everything at the site is equal in off-the-proverbial-hook-ness.


Ergo, my suggestion is to:
(a.) Avoid operating heavy machinery, or becoming pregnant, while navigating the site.
(b.) Click on the aforementioned link.
(c.) Click on PEOPLE
(d.) Click on MARC CRASTE.
(e.) Gnash your teeth in astonishment.
(f.) Check out the rest of the site, after a period of rest.
(g.) Make your own beautiful and eerie masterpiece of lived-in-looking animation.