Friday Comics: FreakAngels

This edition of Friday Comics is all about a comic that any of you may try for free. Every issue is currently available online, and each subsequent issue is published six pages at a time every Friday, mostly. It's called FreakAngels by Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield.

FreakAngels is the story of twelve people with certain special psychic abilities in a post-apocalyptic London. Essentially, it's steam-punk meets the kids from Village of the Damned if those kids were basically trying to help humanity instead of being demonspawn. Of course, they could be demonspawn, but also helpful; we don't really know yet. Unlike X-Men [and I do love me some X-men, don't get me wrong], instead of "this is the guy with laser eyes" or "this is the guy with claws", characters are really defined by personality than outward appearance. In fact, the characters are all superficially very similar to one another; each has pale skin and violet eyes.

I've really enjoyed it because it's a great survival tale as well as having bits of the supernatural to spice things up. At first the digital aspects of the coloring were a bit off-putting, but they've really grown on me. I'm certainly adding Paul Duffield to my favorites list.

So if you're looking for something engaging, entertaining, and inexpensive- check out FreakAngels. If you really like, consider purchasing the trade now available at your local comic shop. Free is great, but showing support for something you value is even better.

Other Mother Box

There are all kinds of strange and wonderful boxes showing up across the Internet to promote the new Coraline movie. I, unfortunately, did not rate high enough on the coolness scale to receive one. Rather than cry myself to sleep, bemoaning my lack of boxness; I decided to get creative and make a box of my own.

This box is based on some boxes that have been sent by the [your, mine, our] Other Mother. I'm not selling them on my Etsy site. I don't think it would be proper. I do think that everyone who wants one should be able to have one; so I've made this Instructable. I hope you like it. Also, if you need a PDF of the template, you may contact me and I'll email it to you.

Friday Comics: I Kill Giants

In an effort to more regularly update my journal, I've decided to do a little section on comics that I'm reading each Friday. I read a not insignificant amount of comics and/or graphic novels on a steady basis. Just last weekend, I was fed-up with the organizational situation of my single issues. Fortunately, I had some old index tabs lying around and made things a little easier on myself when I go to add new comics to my collection.

This week's installment is about I Kill Giants by Joe Kelly and illustrated byJ.M. Ken Nimmura. There's a preview of the full first issue up at Image. This was a recommendation by my local shopkeeper, Pat of Challenger Comics. Much like an old style grocer, I can go in to Challenger and ask, "What's good today?" and Pat or Dal will give me an honest and informative answer. A couple of months ago, the answer was I Kill Giants. It's about an outsider school girl, convinced that she has the power to slay giants which she is also convinced are ready to lay waste to her life at any moment. It's also about kids, mental illness, social work, imagination and wonder. After finishing the first issue, I felt the same way I felt the first time I read The Maxx. It's continued to affect me deeply. I may even consider having the single issues bound, I like it so much. There you have it- I Kill Giants- highly recommended!

January Freebies

Since opening up the new Vintage Postal Goodies section of the Letter Writers Alliance, I found myself with some empty stamp booklets. Since I am unable to throw away anything that I think I might be able to use, they fluttered around in the studio for a while before finding a new purpose. Saturday morning, they found their purpose. Some scrap paper and a staple transforms the trash into cute little notebooks- clandestine notebooks even. That's not a notebook, the secrets can't be in there! It's just a book of stamps! Haha!

I can really consider selling them, but I am offering them as a freebie with purchase from my Etsy shop. I only have 9 and don't see any other stamp booklets in my future. These are definitely a limited edition.

Coraline is coming

Recently, my friend Millie posted a fuzzy photograph of a key she found in Miami. Her photo caption only mentioned that it was a piece of marketing for an upcoming animated movie. I knew EXACTLY what movie it was from- a black metal key + button = Coraline. Coraline is based on Neil Gaiman's book of the same name and is completely handmade by the man that brought us the glorious Nightmare Before Christmas and his amazing team. Coraline is one of my favorite books and Nightmare Before Christmas is one of my favorite movies; so I am ridiculously excited. And I wanted that key of Millie's very, very badly.

A couple of days later, I was catching up on things over at Mr. Gaiman's highly informative [and very frequently updated] online journal, {I dislike the word "blog"}and sure enough, he posted about the keys. His information came from one bibliogrrl in Chicago. Now, I sorta/kinda know a bibliogrrl through Etsy. I went out on a limb and sent her a message offering to trade or buy a key from her. She was kind enough to just give me one. I cannot be more grateful. I'm so happy to have this key! I cannot wait for this movie to come out. Please go to the website and watch the behind the scenes featurettes. You'll be mesmerized and amazed and stunned by wonderment. It's a fun time.