Indie Squid Kid

Back at the beginning of November, Cephalopod Tea Party held a contest to celebrate reaching 100 followers. To enter the contest, you needed to tell them your favorite cephalopod and why, send them a drawing of a cephalopod, and let them know your favorite CTP post. There were three separate prizes awarded, two twisty tentacle pins and a “pirate and tentacles” mini-print, and, long story short, I WON!!! (Via random selection, I’m pretty sure, but I think my entries were pretty good…) They plan to post the winning entries eventually, so my submission will remain shrouded in mystery for now.

My prize was one of the pins, and I opted for the tie tack option. The pin is made of cold cast bronze and is cast from an original sculpture by CTP contributor Sarah Dungan. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because I featured Sarah’s Industrial Fairytale Etsy shop in last week’s Holiday Shopping Guide.

You can see more of Sarah’s work at sarahdungan.blogspot.com.

North 40 is a mini-series published by Wildstorm (an imprint of DC Comcis) and written by Aaron Williams with art by Fiona Staples. It debuted earlier this year, and the sixth and final issue hit the comic shop shelves last week. I’ll have to admit that I haven’t read this series yet, but I am in love with Fiona Staples’ covers. I definitely intend to pick up the trade paperback once it comes out. (Although at this time no publication date for this has been announced.)

Set in fictitious Conover County, somewhere in the American Midwest, North 40 brings Lovcraftian horror to the heartland. Given that I plan to read the series eventually, I have deliberately avoided reading very many details about the story, but what little I know intrigues me—mysterious characters, terrifying monsters, and, of course, tentacles.

Aaron Williams’ official website

Fiona Staples’ official website

I really should have included this in last week’s Holiday Shopping Guide, so consider this an addendum. This three-button polo features the by-now-familiar Gama-Go Giant Squid and is available in Black, Navy, and Khaki. It originally retailed for $32, but it is currently on sale for a mere $12 USD!!! My guess is that this sale will probably last until they are sold out…so what are you waiting for?? Buy from Gama-Go.com.

Last night’s new episode of The Venture Bros. featured a mystic brawl between The Order of the Triad and great Cthulhu himself.

The Venture Bros. is one of my favorite shows currently on TV. It is part of Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim Sunday night line up, and you can more watch clips and (for a limited time, I think) the entire episode, “The Better Man,” over at AdultSwim.com.

I hope that this week’s shopping guide has helped some of you find the perfect Christmas and/or Cephalopodmas gift for the squidophile in your life. To round things out, here are a few products that didn’t really fit in the other categories. And in case you missed them, those categories are:

Toys | Apparel | Books | Jewelry

Gama-Go

This sticker is roughly 3″ x 4″ and is printed on durable transparent vinyl.

Buy from Gama-Go!

This embossed vinyl wallet is a variation on the same theme we saw with their “Geisha Tentacles” shirt (which is still available!). It has two i.d. windows, three coin holders, and “surprises a-plenty.” Buy from Gama-Go!

Futuregirl Leah Riley

From Leah’s product description:

The best thing about Squiddish Pouches is their diverse capabilities -
- they can be closed using the convenient button and button hole method OR
- they can be hung on the wall using a nail or pushpin through the buttonhole OR
- they can even be attached to holiday trees or other shrubbery by running a string through the buttonhole

Each Squiddish Pouch is hand-cut from thick wool felt, which means each one is unique.
Each piece is securely sewn together, and features a lovely button eye.

Measurements:
Open: 11″h x 3.25″w
Closed: 7.75″h x 3.25″w

Other details:
Bright pink button
Rich Purple wool felt with darker purple thread design swirling through

Kamibashi Freak*O*Bags™

These fair trade, colorful creatures open up to reveal a sturdy 16″ x 16″ tote bag that can be used again and again. Bring them to the grocery store or anywhere you typically receive plastic bags. When you’re done, simply stuff it back into the attached pet and clip it on to anything so it’s always around when you need it.

Articulate Matter

Justina Kochansky’s Etsy shop is the companion site to her webcomic Articulate Matter (previously reviewed here). She sells prints, a brand new calendar, and some of the actual polymer clay sculptures from the comic!

Once again we turn our sights on Etsy.com, the nexus of all things creative and crafty on the Internet. A search for “squid jewelry” (for example) currently returns over 400 results, but I’ve isolated three sellers that epitomize the kind of awesome cephalopod jewelry that abounds on Etsy.

Noadi’s Art (www.etsy.com/shop/noadi)

Sheryl Westleigh creates amazing polymer clay and mixed media jewelry and sculptures, and I think she loves cephalopods almost as much as do. (OK, probably more!) Her shop has tons of great items in multiple styles and color variations, so if any of these pieces have sold, I’m sure you will be able to find something every bit as good. Not every thing in Noadi’s shop is cephalopod-related—look for trilobites, horseshoe crabs, and even a festive holiday platypus!

www.noadi.net

Industrial Fairytale (www.etsy.com/shop/industrialfairytale)

Sarah Dungan is an illustrator, animator, and creator of some fabulous steampunk jewelery.

http://industrialfairytale.com

http://sarahdungan.blogspot.com

http://industrialfairytale.blogspot.com

She is also one of the contributors to Cephalopod Tea Party!

Octopus Me (www.etsy.com/shop/OctopusMe)

If you are looking for something a little more high-end, how about sterling sliver (and sometimes gold) jewelry made from real octopus tentacles? Here are a couple of examples, but there are many, many more in the shop!

Free shipping on all items until Sunday, December 7th.

Sorry for the slap-dash nature of this post. I’ll fix up the formatting and add more description to each book when I have a little more time.

Anyway, because Wednesday is normally devoted to comics, let’s start our book list with a few graphic novels.

Comics/Graphic Novels

Jules Verne’s Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (2008, Flesk Publications)

adapted and Illustrated by Gary Gianni

In addition to the fully illustrated adaptation of Verne’s sci-fi classic, this beautiful folio-sized hardcover includes H.G. Wells’ short story “The Sea Raiders” (which features an encounter with a Giant Squid) and an introduction by Ray Bradbury.

List Price: $24.95 — Buy on Amazon.com

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Cthulhu Tales (2008-2009, BOOM! Studios)

written and illustrated by various authors/artists

List Price: $15.99 per volume

Volume 1

Volume 2

Volume 3

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Fiction

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters (2009, Quirk Books)

by Jane Austin and Ben H. Winters

List Price: $12.99 — Buy on Amazon.com

(Covered previously on ISK)

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Mall of Cthulhu (2009, Night Shade Books)

by Seamus Cooper

List Price: $13.95 — Buy on Amazon.com

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Non-Fiction

Cephalopods: A World Guide (2000, Conch Books)

by Mark Norman

This is the oldest book in this list, and the only one that doesn’t appear to be currently in print. However, this is pretty much the definitive source book for cephalopod identification, and a must have for any serious cephalopod enthusiast.

List Price: $69.95 — Buy on DiveSeekers.com

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The Deep: The Extraordinary Creatures of the Abyss (2007, University of Chicago Press)

by Claire Nouvian

List Price $60.00 — Buy on Amazon.com

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For Kids

The Octonauts & The Only Lonely Monster (2006, Immedium)

by Meomi

List Price: $15.95 — Buy on Amazon.com

Other titles in the series:

The Octonauts & The Sea of Shade

The Octonauts & The Frown Fish

The Octonauts & The Great Ghost Reef

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20,000Leagues Under the Sea: A Pop-Up Book (2008, Sterling)

by Sam Ita

List Price: $26.95 — Buy on Amazon.com

Today’s edition of the Shopping Guide focuses on cephalopod-themed clothing, but first, here’s our regularly scheduled installment of T-shirt Tuesday…

Brand new from Sir Critter (who previously brought us Sir Squid), is this dapper fellow. He’s all dressed up and ready for your office Christmas party!

Shirts start at $15.99, are available in a rainbow of color combinations, and did I mention the octopus with a moustache wearing a bow tie and flourishing a top hat? Also, there’s just two days left of their big Cyber Monday sale! All orders over $40 are 25% off.

Buy it now from SirCritter.com

Threadless®

Art Is My Weapon and Loch Ness Imposter are back in stock!

Both are currently on sale for $12 each (all sizes and styles).

As we know, Threadless designs sell out fast, particularly when they’re on sale, so act fast!

Squidfire.com

I’ve already featured several different Squidfire designs, but I’ve barely scratched the surface of their vast selection of cephalopod shirts. They are all currently on sale (and all in stock, as far as I can tell), so any of them would be appropriate for this list. For example, here’s the SquidFire Emblem polo. It normally costs $32, but it’s temporarily reduced in price to $27. Buy it now from Squidfire.com.

The Squidfire emblem is also available on regular T-shirts (both men’s and women’s), long-sleeved thermal shirts (men’s and women’s), and hoodies.

Diesel Sweeties Pixel Socks

Diesel Sweeties is a webcomic by R. Stevens about robots, music, and geek love. Looking for clever, ironic, and/or pixilated gift ideas? Then check out the Diesel Sweeties Store! These women’s knee socks—produced in cahoots with Sock It To Me of Portland, OR—feature an entire school of adorable cyclopian squid and are only $6.99 a pair!

Etsy.com

The Etsy community seems to be a nigh-unlimited source of hand-made cephalopod products, but for the purposes of rounding out tonight’s list, I’m going to narrow things down to neck ties only. Let’s begin with a rather familiar looking design…

(Click the images to visit the each seller’s Etsy shop.)