Missive to all Bibliophibians: posted from the litter box

Looking for a GREAT gift idea?

Pictured at right:

hand-cast resin slugs (big ones!)

So handsome, so absolutely grand.

Are you trying to decide on wedding or anniversary or birthday gift for loved ones?

If so, look no further.

Almost certainly, massive resin slugs are missing from their lives...

and the recipients will always remember YOU presented them with this:

each slug is approximately 5"x3"x2.5" and weighs about a 1/3 of a pound.

One of many fine products available from Chris Yates Studios Toy Store.


Nope, no typo in the title up above.

Did not mean letter box.

No postcards to far away places sent from here (in the middle of, well, you know).

A friend recently returned from the west coast. She said the air in San Diego was quite remarkable -- that when she walked along the oceanfront and breathed in deeply, she felt extremely healthy and wonderfully clear-headed. I have been envious and longing to visit the beaches of San Diego ever since hearing her glowing praise.

Here is a picture of Coronado Municipal Beach at sundown... just one of San Diego's many acclaimed beaches. Never been to any of them, myself. Hell, I don't even particularly want to see them, just desperately long to breathe their air. Good air is one thing you can not share via the internet.

Some kind of wickedly-resistant asthma is upon me, no doubt payback for all of the whining I have done about my summer staycation spent cleaning out basements. Now huffing newly-prescribed corticosteroids and hoping for some better breathing soon.

It still astounds me that my smallish, midwestern city has poor air quality alerts. Thank goodness I don't live in Knoxville (the worst air quality city in the US) and I am truly sorry for those who do! How is the Air Quality Index where you are?

Two days after I got additional asthma meds, a boy at my daughter's school collapsed in the cafeteria, whisked off to the hospital in critical condition due to an asthma attack. Scary.

My daughter hisses at me whenever we go anywhere: do I have my inhaler? Her gym teachers won't let any of the asthmatic kids participate unless they are wearing gym shorts with a pocket containing their inhaler.

This is weird, to me anyhow. So is the "peanut free" cafeteria tables that now exist at every school, since food allergies have also become ubiquitous. These mysterious ailments did NOT exist when I was a kid -- or at least they were far less frequently diagnosed and never discussed. I've always assumed that asthma is some sort of psychosomatic illness (well, at least in MY case) and not to be taken too seriously. Penance for the sins of being an ex-smoker. Um, except when you can't breathe, it is damn hard to do anything else except seriously ponder the fact that you can not breathe.

Anyhow, my best technique for dealing with oxygen deprivation is web-surfing.

I have a mighty fine web comics addiction going on which has provided hours and hours and hours (primarily wee hours) of entertainment. I have posted before -- and probably more eloquently -- on the joys of web comics.

My numero uno is Achewood ("A momentary diversion on the road to the grave").

Read by your laundress and also most of the rest of the web comix-seeking world. Hey, even The New Yorker is wise to the Achewood wit. Of course, The New Yorker sussed it out after learning that...

Achewood was voted the "#1 graphic novel" (never you mind that it is neither one nor the other, let alone both or all three -- maybe it won top spot simply because it is none of the above?) by Time Magazine -- er, well anyhow at least by Time's designated pitcher for gns, the very cute (but obviously not fact-checked) Lev Goldstein -- back in 2007.

The Achewood comic. Do you know of it? Do you read it?

If you haven't, go on and check it out. Even though if you wander off to visit, you won't be coming back here anytime soon... (heh heh, fooled ya, Nebraskan and Albanian and Guatemalan pornseekers! If you try to pester Chris Onstad, he will baffle and befuddle you far more than my posts on hot sox and soapy housewives. Pretty sure you won't be leaving him perplexed by your disappointed, hostile comments.)

If you are coming into Achewood cold, things might take some time to warm up -- but stay with it and keep reading. After a while, you won't be able to stop. I know this.

My favorite characters are Ray and Philippe. Who are yours?

The fact that the Achewood character blogs are so casually witty and distinctly voiced is yet another reason to envy the creator, Chris Onstad. Good lord, man: how many talents can a single person possess? Mr. Onstad has clearly gathered up and is utilizing more than his fair share! That, or he truly and deeply is suffering from multiple personality disorder.

Anyhow, Achewood and Onstad have recently launched into mainstream print. Yep. They have a book -- one I hope readers and librarians everywhere will be buying. It is a bit of an odd duck -- no collection of "best hits" from the web comic, instead it is a full-length graphic novel, an actual, illustrated storybook. The Great Outdoor Fight. Strangely and engagingly charming... a muscular and energetic narrative, but I think it catches an audience only if they kinda know the characters. Such a manly volume, not written for the Jodi Picoult readership and with no chance of becoming an Oprah selection. A bloody fisticuffs kind of reading endeavor. I loved it but sheepishly and worrisomely. Perhaps an acquired taste?

Anyhow, not sure you will love it (whoever readers of this blog may be, besides good ol' Awesome Mom! and PK from Pearls and Dreams -- and ladies, I am kinda thinking this book is not your cuppa...), but heartily endorsed nevertheless.

At first, I was frankly appalled by the lack of a holds list for Mr. Onstad's title at my local public library. Then, I thought some more... readers of web comics are not your standard bookish readers and perhaps they don't normally read print materials from the library?

I (personally, for home use) purchased the entire print Achewood library a year or two back. A show of support for this fine young creator. Nicely and sturdily square-bound, self-published paperbacks which I have loaned to various friends and family and gotten back with mumbly thanks. Nobody swiped a single one, much to my chagrin.

The Achewood Cookbook is the single funniest title in existence. Do you need to live with my husband to understand the humor of this book? G'wan and give it a whirl, a small investment for (actually tasty) recipes and wicked, wicked good commentary.

Another print volume from a web comic strip that is wonderfully remarkable is Beards of Our Forefathers, the print excursion by David Malki!, creator of Wondermark! an illustrated jocularity.

"Beards of our Forefathers" is perhaps a more accessible book for the mainstream, non-web comics reader. It will definitely lead you off in search of the Wondermark site.

My favorite strip is Wondermark #119, which I tried and failed to share here (other than the link). It has to do with a kitty-blogger and her litter box. Go read it yourself.

And then read this one, all of you librarians and bibliophiles and bibliophibians (that would be the odd offspring of librarians and bibliophiles?)

Thanks for visiting!