I discovered this book on X from someone who was reposting a pre-purchase alert for a book whose title totally hooked me in: The Effects of Pickled Herring. For those of you who don't know, pickled herring is one of those beloved side dishes enjoyed by the Jewish diaspora of a bygone generation. That is, even back in the 80s I didn't know anyone over my dad's age who enjoyed it. With the title and the general description of the book being a coming of age story about a kid and his bar mitzvah, with the addition of a bubbe suffering from Alzheimer's, I was all in, as I too was raised Jewish (now a Baha'i) and my mom died...
So I haven't sent a single message out since Chapters 6 & 7 dropped a few months back, and other than pestering you to buy the latest issue, I haven't had too much to say other than "stay tuned, more is coming," and then decide what art to drop to keep things interesting. But now it's 2024, which means that Don't Tell My Wife I'm a Cult Leader is entering its 18th year. My life's work is now an adult, 100% legal, and pretty mature for a teenager at least compared to me when I was its age.I celebrate two birthdays on September 13th, my own and Don't Tell My Wife I'm a Cult Leader's, because on September 13th, 2006,...
The other day I watched a South African movie called Skin (2008). It's based on a true story about a white family giving birth Sandra, a child that has darker complexion and curlier hair than her Afrikaner parents. She already has an older brother who lighter skin and less curly hair. At first, everyone minds their own business, but when the girl goes to boarding school she is beaten by the schoolmasters and kicked out because she makes the other students feel uncomfortable. Then the authorities want to reclassify Sandra as "coloured," a non-offensive term used to categorize South African people of mixed descent (European, African, Indian, Indonesian, etc), but that would mean her parents would have to get reclassified...
Intrusive Thoughtsby Anthony D. Stokes A Modern Indie Psychological Horror Comic I recently backed a crowdfunding campaign for a 28-page comic called Intrusive Thoughts. I was sold on the 12-Page preview the creator teased to his audience via Twitter. If I had to put it into a genre, I'd say it's psychological horror, and what makes it different is that it features a young man, presumably in high school, who is beleaguered by--you guessed it--intrusive thoughts. We see vignettes of his life in foster homes, and then we see the protagonist at a psychologist's office laid out on the couch with sketchpad clutched to his chest. it becomes clear that the hero is all alone in his little world and no...
So I played around with ChatGPT last weekend, with the intention of workshopping the back cover description of Don't Tell My Wife I'm a Cult Leader and the results were mindboggling.
