Skip to content

Indie comic Etsy haul #1

Indie comic Etsy haul #1 published on 2 Comments on Indie comic Etsy haul #1

The Filigree – Martin Øbakke and Celena Cavala create this fabulous fairy newspaper complete with advertisements, classifieds, and photographs.  And, as far as I can tell, all the photographs for the stories are of characters they have created in doll form.  Do I have to say this is a fabulous idea? and it is fabulously pulled off.

Stone Monkey and Red Planet Ride by Jim Round – These are plane old adorable, and polished and full of color.  The environments created within are amazing.

Ghosts of Pineville from CricketPress –  I never lived in a place with a haunted house or a ghost story, but I’ve read a lot of books and watched a lot of movies set in towns that did.  It’s kind of like the quintessential American mystery and that is probably why the Ghosts of Pineville felt so nostalgic.  This is good stuff.  Good stuff.

All of Them Witches by Patt Kelley –  Tiny short stories and vignettes with a surreal fluid and pointy style.

Grickle things The Hidden – wait…NOT an Etsy purchase, but I must include it in the haul because it’s fabulous and was part of the same shopping spree.  Sorry Etsy.  This is an adorable story by Graham Annable.

Flesh and Bone – Julia Gfrörer put together this beautiful, painful lump of bound paper and story.  Her details and the plethora of line and movement only emphasize a fantastical and tragic story.

The Librarians

The Librarians published on No Comments on The Librarians

When I first heard about it I was crazy frustrated that it was only airing in Australia.  Then I forgot about it until some fabulous blogger in my feeds (sorry I forgot who) mentioned that it was available on Hulu.  Well, I finally got around to watching it, and it’s just as dysfunctional as I’d hoped.  I think I might love Australian television.

Web comic love

Web comic love published on No Comments on Web comic love

When people find out you like to read comics they always ask you which ones you like, you know, to compare with their own list.  Webcomics are the same–and, oddly enough seem to have a different cast of fans than regular comics do…maybe it’s generational, dunno.  Anyway, I am really bad at having an answer to such simple questions on the spot, so I am making a list to permanently, at least in this moment right here before I find more, answer it.

Hark, a Vagrant! — is fabulous literary and historical comics by K. Beaton.  Yes, much more than a simple web comic now, I just bought the book and spend pleasant, multitudinous minutes paging through it.

Wondermark — by David Malki reminds me of the intermission animations in Monty Python’s Flying Circus…

Two Keys — “a noir-ish urban fantasy webcomic by Nuu and Schumie” took me a couple looks to get into only because I thought I wasn’t looking for anything with a complex and well constructed story.  I’m totally head over heels for it now and bought the first volume to fuel my covetousness.  Also via Manga Magazine.

Sailor Twain or The Mermaid in the Hudson — beautiful charcoal work and enthralling story.

Strange Investigations — arresting noir-pop bitonal illustrations and promising beginning.

Megan Brennan comics and illustration — isn’t actually one ongoing comic, it’s a collection of comics in various stages of ongoing-ness, or maybe only one is ongoing at a time.  Anyway, really fun and colorful–which pleases my eyeballs.

Spare Keys for Strange Doors — includes something like the paranormal investigators who help the police set up while still being completely fresh and fun.

Plume — is painfully gorgeous, with a nice intriguing beginning and not enough pages!

Scarey Go Round presents Bad Machinery…read Murder She Writes — is a fabulous comic that comes from a fabulous comic with more fabulous comics to come by John Allison.

Two Guys and Guy — is a strip style comic about a group of friends by Rickard Jonasson.  I like the style and I laugh, so it’s good, and even better than that I just found out it has a feed….A FEED!  Now I can really keep track of it!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand, that’s all she wrote for right now.  I’m the kind of girl to search and gather until I’m tired and then come back later to examine and sort…so, I’ve got a bunch of things bookmarked that I just haven’t gotten to yet.  I will add to the list later, after I’ve read more.

Finally Famous

Finally Famous published on No Comments on Finally Famous

I have a confession to make:  I went to college, I wrote poetry, I smoked clove cigarettes, worked in a music store, fancied myself a photographer, and took intro to psychology. All of the cliched college girl watchamacallit, I did it all, Losers!  I mean, sorry, I don’t think you’re losers…I just got carried away.  What was I saying?  Oh, yeah…and I found proof, so in the spirit of digital preservation, I scanned Finally Famous, in a way not befitting any real archive, so I could share it with you.

About the comics

About the comics published on No Comments on About the comics

Hey, hello, hi.  I just wanted to take this opportunity to remember that I have comics and that three four of them are actually ongoing at the moment.  You can catch them all at the comic launch–including the one or two that are in conception stages.  Levi Levi is my forever going to be ongoing comic until I stop comic, and I have some some big plans for Flip Side and No Evil.  They all have feeds over in the right hand menu, too, if you’re into feeds and stuff.  I know I am.  I’ve got a truck load of comic feeds going to my reader, and sometime soon I’ll talk about all the webcomic goodness I have found out there that other talented, better comickers are doing.  Right now it’s about me.  ALL ABOUT ME!  Comics:

Toby Atticus Fraley, Public Art Installation

Toby Atticus Fraley, Public Art Installation published on No Comments on Toby Atticus Fraley, Public Art Installation

Toby Atticus Fraley, Public Art InstallationThere’s something that tickles me about bringing some fiction into reality, I want more of it.  I want to live in the town where Fraley’s Robot Repair shop warms the window of a vacant store shop:  Toby Atticus Fraley, Public Art Installation.  And, of course, when I saw this I immediately thought of the  Echo Park Time Travel Mart by 826LA — an equally fascinating idea by a non-profit writing and tutoring center.

Movies of 1979

Movies of 1979 published on No Comments on Movies of 1979

Richard of DoomedMoviethon has inspired me to look up, research, and obsess over movies from my birth year.  That there link up there will take you to his posts on his own birth-year adventure.  I’m not quite as intrepid as Richard;  I don’t plan on seeking out and watching too many that I haven’t already seen.  But I have made a couple of best of lists (in no real order):

List #1:  the Hey that’s awesome!  I didn’t know that came out in my birth year, list.

  1. Life of Brian
  2. Mad Max
  3. Zombie – this is awesome because I’ve seen this, and I’ve seen it again and again, thanks to Richard.
  4. All That Jazz
  5. Lupin the Third:  The Castle of Cagliostro
  6. Love at First Bite
  7. Amar Akbar Anthony  – kind of like…wow, I’ve actually seen this…

List #2:  this actually looks like of interesting.

  1. Wise Blood – I read this, I did not know it had a movie–I bet it’s painful.
  2. The Return of Superman – check this tag line:  “Born out of a Christmas ornaments-filled heaven, Turkish Superman fights the mob in order to save the day!”

And finally, the best of the worst movie posters.

 

I know it looks horribly paltry and all, but I scrolled through lists and lists of French, German, and Japanese pictures, lists and lists of sisters sexually discovering everything, lists and lists and lists and lists.  And no, Aliens and Apocalypse Now don’t make my lists, because I’ve never really enjoyed them.  There you have it:  the 1979 of cinema according to the infant LeEtta.

In case the Krampus was new to you

In case the Krampus was new to you published on No Comments on In case the Krampus was new to you

This is a parade in Austria (as far as I could figure out), I love the minor-key feel.  Wait, does this still not explain the Krampus?  Well, then go look it up!

New LeEMSmachine home page

New LeEMSmachine home page published on No Comments on New LeEMSmachine home page

Right, so I had a long think and I thought that the in-explanatory, gallery set up as my home page just didn’t cut it.  There’s a place for being obtuse and my website is just not it, so I shot for an illustrated table of contents look.  I think, perhaps, this might, maybe, be the final big website change…not including additions of other projects, or project updates, or comic pages, or whatnot.

Comic pages, by the by, are things I am working crazy hard at, they have not quite lapsed for you yet, but I’m running out of my stock and I need to get back into those stories.  I hope my holiday vacation actually gives me some time I can use.

Cheers,

–LeE

In the Holiday Spirit

In the Holiday Spirit published on No Comments on In the Holiday Spirit

Here is my Christmas card this year, inspired by Krampus cards from Victorian times.  I’m still reeling from having a started and completed novel project for November.  But now there are comic pages to draw, and old projects to get back to.  I intend to make good use of my holiday vacation week.

But before that, I’ve got a commissioned painting to finish…oh and those comic pages I talked about.  I’ve got plenty of penciled Levi Levi that need ink and scanning.  Not so many of No Evil and Flip Side, but I’ve got plans man! Their stories will not falter!

 

National Novel Writing Month Done!

National Novel Writing Month Done! published on 1 Comment on National Novel Writing Month Done!

I did it, after two years of enough obstacles and sabotage to ruin my chances of winning–I have triumphed ONCE AGAIN!  That is, finally again after the first time in 2008.  I have completed a brand new novel of over 50,000 words in the month of November.  And what’s better–it’s not even another un-finished project.  It’s over, it’s done!  So, it’s really like a novella, but that’s ok because those cheesy 80s teen romances didn’t pack in a lot of verbiage anyway, and that’s what I was writing for.

It needs editing, granted, but man, I am so relieved that I could actually get to the end of something I put my nose to just for me.  I will rest well.  I will feel better and I will go on a date tomorrow.  And it’s good that this here particular challenge is done because I’m running out of the pages I drew up in my comics to stock this month.  Time to get back to the old stories.

From before:  Nanowrimo update

The Family Album project

The Family Album project published on No Comments on The Family Album project

If you went to check out the projects page after I mentioned it last you may have seen the Family Album.  This was an insanely large and involved project that I am still extremely proud of, even though when I look back at projects I see all the room for improvement.

 

The Family Album comprised six generations of two main families and their relations in the small town they occupied.  They are all pencil sketches, laminated and then mounted like photographs.  I even included a family tree in the back.  All the characters are named from people I found in my own family tree–yes, I’ve done the genealogy project too.  I have to admit, the album project isn’t completely  complete.  I intended to write letters to and from at least a couple of the people included therein, but I have not done this yet.  Maybe next NaNoWriMo.

TomGauld.com « Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog

TomGauld.com « Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog published on No Comments on TomGauld.com « Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog

 

Very apropos comic for this month.  I have a poltergeist–what’s keeping you from writing?  Drawn!, by the by, is a fantastic blog.  And Tom Gauld is awesome.  I have to talk about the blogs I like on my blog now that Google reader doesn’t offer a shared posts thingy anymore.  Oh, Google plus will replace it or something but I’m not ready to go that social yet.

TomGauld.com « Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog.

NaNoWriMo update

NaNoWriMo update published on No Comments on NaNoWriMo update

You know, it’s not too late to sign up and start your novel this month.  I mean, don’t let it get you down that 5 days have already passed.  I’ve only written a measly amount on just one of those five days, so you could totally start now.

I really hate to say this, but I am a little disappointed in NaNoWriMo’s new site if only because it no longer has a place to put a book cover.  I’ve never been successful in thinking up or creating a book cover within the same month I am desperately trying to write a book, so I have never been able to take advantage.  This year was going to be different, and maybe the reason why I’ve only written a paltry amount so far, but I had a book cover in mind–and here it is.  I’ll show it to you instead of the NaNoWriMo site.  You will be the select few who will ever know about my great cover idea.  Take that NaNoWriMo!  I love you!

The Witches project

The Witches project published on No Comments on The Witches project

After my new website redesign I realized that I’ve never really talked about some of the projects I show-cased, and, it being October and Halloweeny and all, I thought this was a perfect time to talk about my witches project.

Now bear with me ’cause I’m not going to check my sources here when I tell you what I know of these women.

First and foremost is Lilith.  Ya’ll know the story.  She was Adam’s first wife, made out of earth just like him and because of this, completely equal.  Well, not being beholden meant she had no reason to stick around when he pissed her off.  She left the garden and went out into the surrounding darkness to give birth to all the monsters in the world.  She is associated with many things:  owls, roses, lions.  She is said to have bird feet.

She is also the first child-stealer.  You see, when infant mortality was high and unexplained, sudden baby death was blamed on evil witches.  I always found it funny that these same witches were often called on to inspire fertility as well.

Anyway, there’s an old saying to ward her off:  “she that flies in rooms of darkness, pass quickly quickly Lilith.”

Another powerful child-stealer is Lamashtu with the head of a lion and the feet of a bird of prey.  She especially is known for fertility even though she is also blamed for infant mortality.  She is thought to be filthy, and as an illustration of both this filth and her fertility, she is sometimes shown nursing both a dog and a pig.

Another powerful and well known witch is Baba Yaga.  Her house stands on chicken legs in the middle of a Russian forest.  It is surrounded by a fence of skulls and bones.  Because of it’s high and mobile position, her house is nearly impossible to get into–not that you’d want to–and whenever Baba Yaga herself wants to enter she must say:  “Izbushka, Izbushka, stand with your back to the forest and your front to me.”  Izbushka is the house’s name; yup, house has a name.

Her house isn’t the only thing that extraordinary about Baba Yaga.  She has nails and tusks of steel and flies about the sky in a mortar and pestle instead of a broom.

More witches can be found on the Projects page.  Happy October time.

Primary Sidebar