And now that I've driven home (again) my vacation from my vacation is officially over. Sadly, I am in more of a need of a vacation now than when I got back from my first vacation. So validate your passport, my permanent vacation (and Bullet Sunday) starts... now.
• Thrice Four. When RW and I started THRICE Fiction magazine, I honestly thought that we'd be lucky if we got our friends and family to read it. Which is why once our first issue passed 100 downloads, I was walking on air. Eventually that number climbed to over 300, which exceeded my every expectation. Subsequent issues dropped a bit as the buzz died down, but we were still getting hundreds of downloads. I remain shocked to this day.
The newest issue just passed 2500 downloads only two days after release. It's kind of difficult to know how to react to that...
The cover for THRICE No. 4 is something I worked up while I was on vacation, though I had the idea months earlier. For some reason I always think of forks as being "evil" because they violently stab food, while spoons are "good" because they gently scoop food. After watching the amazing video for Rendezvous' The Murf where one culture rises to worship a squid and another a whale, I had an image of one culture rising to worship a fork and another a spoon. And now I finally had an outlet for it... composing them to be mirror-images of each other. For being a last-minute creation, I'm quite happy with the way it turned out. Though I still prefer the original idea. Let's face it... that video is nothing short of genius...
As always, you can download the latest issue of THRICE Fiction for free at our official website. Apparently we'll be sticking around a while. From the bottom of my heart, thanks to my partner in crime and everybody who has supported us these four issues.
• Trayvon Martin. As I've been on vacation, I haven't been keeping up with the news. Or blogs. Or much of anything. I tend to ignore everything and everyone when vacationing because that's what makes it a vacation. But it was impossible not to hear about the horrific death of Trayvon Martin...
Welcome to "Post-Racist America" where you can kill a black child just because you consider him "suspicious," and not even notorious "crusader for justice" and ratings whore Nancy Grace seems to give a shit. Now if somebody can just explain to me how a person can claim "self-defense" when they fucking profiled and stalked the victim... I'd appreciate it. That would go a long way towards explaining why no arrest was made and how a thorough investigation apparently wasn't worth the effort.
The word "disgusted" is so severely inadequate to describe my feelings here that I am disgusted with myself for even alluding that it could. Will there ever be justice for Trayvon Martin? I suppose that depends on whether people ultimately decide that gunning down a child because he was wearing a hoodie while being black is something worth getting upset about.
• Worship. While I do not consider myself to be a Buddhist, it is Buddhist teachings that form the basis of my belief structure. After decades of wandering when it came to matters of faith, it was Buddhism that "spoke true" to me, and integrating it into my life has done amazing things to contribute to my happiness and understanding of the world. I fully accept that it's not a "religion" for everybody, but that's perfectly fine. It doesn't mean we can't all get along. I respect the religions of others in the hopes that they will respect mine.
Unfortunately, this is increasingly not the case...
And he has ties to presidential hopeful Rick "Piece of Shit" Santorum. Shocking.
And, just like Santorum, this vile piece of crap has -zero- interest in respecting the beliefs of other persons. If you're not Christian like him, you can just get the fuck out of America, and that's all there is to it.
But it's not his intolerance that bothers me.
It's at the one-minute mark where he says "We don't worship Buddha! I say we don't worship Buddha! We don't worship Muhammad! We don't worship Allah! We worship God!" Well, whatever, asshole. Nobody is telling you that you have to worship anything. America was, in fact, founded on the idea of freedom of religion so you can worship whatever the hell you want. But you don't get to speak out of ignorance about an entire faith you stupid fuck.
BUDDHISTS DON'T WORSHIP BUDDHA! THEY DON'T "WORSHIP" ANYTHING.
Buddha was not a saint or a prophet or a god or somebody to be worshipped. He was a teacher. He discovered a way to find enlightenment and happiness, and chose to share it with people. And that's all. So when you see statues of Buddha and people bowing before them, it's not out of worship. It's merely a way of showing respect to a great teacher.
And now you know why I can never be a true Buddhist. Buddhists don't believe in "wrong-speaking." But I can't help but call an ignorant asshole an ignorant fucking asshole, so that's the way it's going to have to be. In any event, morons like this glory-seeking piece of shit are the ones that can get the hell out of America. You are betraying everything we are.
• Blueberry. One of my artistic inspirations, Jean Giraud (better known as Moebius), passed away on March 10th. His stories and artwork remain a triumph of the imagination, and I cherished everything he wrote and drew...
Goodbye Mr. Giraud. You've left us a beautiful legacy.
• Prometheus. Holy. Shit.
Looks like Ridley Scott hasn't lost his touch. To say I'm hyped to see this film come June 8th is a gross understatement.
• LEGO BATMAN!!! And as if Prometheus wasn't enough to get excited about. The sequel to one of my favorite video games of all time is coming later this year...
This looks incredible. If it's even half the game that the original LEGO Batman game was, I'll be very happy.
And now I suppose I should try and get some sleep since I didn't bother this weekend. Such is the peril of going on vacation.
30 DAYS DRAWING CHALLENGE: Draw Scenery...
Already done, man. Already done.
I love comments! However, all comments are moderated, and won't appear until approved. Are you an abusive troll with nothing to contribute? Don't bother. Selling something? Don't bother. Spam linking? Don't bother.
PLEASE NOTE: My comment-spam protection requires JavaScript... if you have it turned off or are using a mobile device without JavaScript, commenting won't work. Sorry.
Atom Entries Feed Comments Feed
I won’t even touch on the Trayvon Martin thing except to say that it breaks my heart. Oh and that a woman I have known since 7th grade wrote a long rant on Facebook about how we have teach our young men certain things — like how to not walk around in public wearing a hoodie. And how it pisses us off that we have to tell them these things. But yeah when I was teaching in certain neighborhoods, I did indeed school the kids about how important it was that they dress and speak a certain way so that they would not be a target. I look forward to the day in which I no longer have to say these kinds of things.
The religion thing? I have met so many supposed Christians who have been taught to not look beyond what is said in their church. My favorite was a Catholic coworker who referred to Protestant religions as Christians while she was Catholic. Ummm….
Indeed, I noticed the “worship” Budda thing too, though it is hard for anything to stand out from all that wrongness. What a piece of shit. That kind of whiny-soaring preacher-speak has turned my stomach since I was a little kid — I thought it was a universal indicator of dishonesty. Not in some places, I guess. A Monty Python line springs to mind: “I fart in your general direction.” Wouldn’t it be nice if we had a few “faithless” Americans besides Bill Maher who spoke out? They would be smothered. SO depressing. I am glad you had a good trip. Steve
I still haven’t read Thrice (this issue, I mean) because my POS computer was acting up after I downloaded it, but I can’t wait! The artwork is always thought provoking as well as beautiful, so well done as usual, Dave!
I can’t even get started on Trayvon Martin. Can’t. It fills me with such anger…
Rick Santorum – POS. Period.
That Jean Giraud artwork is stunning.
Congrats on the success of Thrice! I know I’ve come to look forward to it. Can’t wait to see what this issue holds.
I kind of desperately want to frame the spoon scene and hang it on my wall, i love it so.
The new Thrice Fiction is a wonderful piece of published wonder.
It’s amazing to me that there is division on the Trayvon murder. Personally, I think some of it is related to the use of weapon that he was killed with. If it had been a knife or a bat or another object, we would have more unity on the disgust that this case is about.
A new LEOG Batman is highly anticipated.
I am excited to read the new issue of Thrice! I haven’t had time to download it but now that I’m on spring break I have oodles of time! 🙂
It’s crazy how the theme music from Superman can still give me chills. So excited for another Lego Batman! Have been finishing off Lego Harry Potter of late after rewatching some of the movies. I know HP’s not your thing (I prefer the movies to the 2 books I read), but it’s pretty amazing how well the Lego world they created reflects the movies’ settings.
I had to click over from the reader to make sure you knew how much I’d like to punch that preacher in the balls. Unfortunately, I don’t do violence. Also, I doubt he has balls.
What a freaking pig. It’s people like that that make people act the way he’s bitching about.
About that boy, this whole thing reminds me of feeling of the villagers descending on the square with their torches and pitchforks that we had around here when the Prince girl killed herself.
I have a multi-faceted opinion based solely on 911 calls and police reports.
Zimmerman needs to be held accountable but I think manslaughter is all he could ever reasonably be charged with based on the laws at the time. I personally would like to see him go up on 1st degree murder because I do believe premeditation was involved and because I have a virulent disgust for the man.
I wish it was as simple as a civil case. Like Judge Judy, I would be all, “But for” on his ass and fry the fucker. But for the fact he followed though he was told not to. But for the fact he got out of his nice, safe truck. But for accosting a kid even though cops were on the way…
The police reports show that Zimmerman was assaulted. That the boy was bigger than Zimmerman. Witnesses say they saw Trayvon on top of Zimmerman.
I say that if I was minding my own business and was accosted by some yahoo I might be moved to smack the crap out of him too.
That boy would be alive today if that pitiful excuse for a man had just called the cops and stayed in his friggin’ car. But no. He had to be the hero. People make me sick.
All of the stuff coming out about Trayvon and his involvement in drugs, being suspended etc., is useless information that has not a thing to do with some random hypervigilant redneck out looking for trouble shooting you dead…because in my opinion, if you are not on a formal neighbourhood watch performing your formal watch duties but are just bored and feel the need to leave your comfy house to go searching for trouble, you will find the trouble you seek…
I do not believe stand your ground means engaging. I have no idea how that law is written but for real, doesn’t a person have a duty to remove themselves from a potentially volatile situation before they just come out guns blazing? You don’t bring a gun to a fist fight.
I am totally convinced that this was a racially motivated crime but I really don’t think they have much they can charge him on. And that sucks.
I have no idea what the heck happened, as the only thing I really know is than an unarmed kid is dead after having been profiled and stalked. And despite how much “evidence” comes up to the contrary, there’s nothing that can convince me that Zimmerman made any attempt to wave him off with the gun… he just shot him with it. I try to put myself in the same position as Trayvon, and there’s just too many things that don’t make sense. If some crazy person was stalking me, I would probably want to beat his ass too… but the minute he waved a gun at me, I’d be all “Okay… okay… I’m leaving.”
And shouldn’t THIS have been the logic that the police applied to the situation? An unarmed kid is DEAD after having been STALKED. And wouldn’t that situation be just suspicious enough that you’d want to jail Zimmerman and mount even a cursory investigation to see where the facts lead?
But no. It was “just a black kid” and the shooter was somehow hurt and “standing his ground” so the police let Zimmerman go. aAnd though I have no idea if Zimmerman’s motives were 100% racially motivated… it certainly feels like the POLICE DEPARTMENT’S motives were. If this had been a black man gunning down a white kid, I can’t help but feel the situation would have been handled entirely different. THIS is what has me beyond disgusted.
And the fact that a black kid can’t walk down the street wearing a hoodie and eating Skittles without being seen as a threat. What the FUCK?!?
I’m convinced it’s racially motivated based on Zimmerman’s use of “THOSE PEOPLE” in the 911 call.
Who are “those people?” Boys with skittles? Boys who wear hoodies? BLACK boys?
No matter what exactly happened, that kid is dead because because Zimmerman got out of his friggin’ truck when any reasonably prudent person would not.