Indie Squid Kid

design by Eshto

So far on T-shirt Tuesday, we’ve had Squid vs Whale, Squid vs Sailing Ship, Squid vs Hyena, and Squid vs Wienermobile. This recent offering by Shirt.Woot! adds Squid vs Noah’s Ark (and to a lesser extent, Squid vs Llama) to the list.

“And lo, it was awesome.”

The shirt is $15.00 and comes in Royal Blue in a full range of sizes.

Buy it now from Shirt.Woot!

I first saw mention of this shirt this morning over on Pharyngula. I was having trouble tracking down the actual product page, but, completely coincidentally, a reader provided the link in a recent comment. Thanks Skwid!

My friend Chris and his brother Martin sent me these photos from their recent visit to the Boston Museum of Science.

Here Martin poses in front of a case displaying a plethora of model cephalopods (part of the Making Models exhibit). Squirters and Grabbers indeed.

And here he stands before an exhibit on collecting…and look, there’s someone’s octopus collection! I have that plush Blue Ringed Octopus in my own collection (although I haven’t got around to posting it yet), and, in all likelyhood, I have a few of the other ones as well. I’d say they should have featured my collection instead, but they’d probably have needed to dedicate an entire wing of the museum to it. Now there’s an idea…the ISK Hall of Cephalopods!

©Marvel Comics

The original Marvel 1602 was a critically acclaimed eight issue mini-series from 2003 written by Neil Gaiman and penciled by Andy Kubert. It presents an alternate history (officially known as Earth-311) where characters recognizable from the modern Marvel Universe have appeared centuries earlier in the Elizabethan era. (Read a detailed synopsis here.) The success of 1602 spawned a number of sequel series: 1602: New World (2005), Marvel 1602: Fantastik Four (2006), and Spider-Man 1602 (2009-2010).

Peter Parquagh is the young apprentice of Sir Nicholas Fury, the royal spymaster of Queen Elizabeth I. He is sent to America to escort the young Virgina Dare to England, and he gets caught up in a series of intrigues involving the likes of Count Doom of Latveria and Carlos Javier and his school for “Whichbreed” (aka mutants). As you might have guessed, he eventually gets bitten by a strange arachnid, gains powers, and assumes a costumed identity as The Spider.

Spider-Man 1602 introduces Baron Victor Octavius, an Italian nobleman suffering from the plague. The Baron attempted to cure himself using octopus blood, and although this seemed to work, it also had the unforeseen side effect of changing him into a monstrous human/octopus hybrid.

Baron Octavius ©Marvel Comics

Attempting to reverse the transformation, Octavius has begun experimenting on both normal humans and Whichbreed, and he eventually sets his sights on The Spider. His plans are thwarted, however, by natrual philosopher Henri Le Pym, who was being blackmailed into helping the Baron research a cure for his mutated condition.

The fifith and final issue of Spider-Man 1602 came out this past February, and the collected story is due out in hardcover this June.

©Katie Deedy

Design: Captain Smith
Color: Promenade (additional colors available)
Price: $180/roll; $48/sheet

Visit Grow House Grow! to purchase this and other beautiful and unique hand printed wallpaper designs.

Sighted by Natalie

design by Sarah Rulon

This charming squid design (looks like an Architeuthis to me!) is available in a variety of colors and styles. Pricing starts at $24.94 for short-sleeve tees.

Buy it now from RedBubble

When I saw this particular squid, I thought it seemed strangely familiar. I realized that I had seen a variation of this same illustration in the squid anatomy diagram over at HowStuffWorks.com. I’m not trying to call anyone out or anything…I just thought it was worth noting.

Target has always been good for the occasional cephalopod-themed product, but lately I seem to spot a new one every time I go there (which, for some reason, seems to be a least once a day ever since I got laid off last month). Here is an assortment of recent finds:

Little Tikes® Party Machine bubble blower

Disney Club Penguin "Squidzoid"

I know that Club Penguin is a MMORPG for kids, but I have no idea why this penguin is wearing a squid costume. I approve, of course, I just don’t get it.

Circo® Sealife Collection waste can

This same one-eyed, seven-legged pirate (presumabely) octopus adorns a whole series of new items from Circo: shower curtain, beach towel, bath towl, kids’ apron, kids’ dishes, etc. The collection also features cute little whales, sharks and submarines.

3 Cephalopods in jars, originally uploaded by Curious Expeditions.

This trio of preserved cephalopods is from the Naturhistorisches Museum in Bern, Switzerland, and is brought to us courtesy of Curious Expeditions, a marvelous site maintained by two intrepid catalogers of wonderful and bizarre places from all around the world.

Join the expedition at www.curiousexpeditions.org.

All Top #16 (March, 1949)

All Top was an anthology series published by Fox Features Syndicate between 1946 and 1949. Some featured characters, such as Blue Beetle and Phantom Lady, would eventually be acquired by DC Comics and are still around today. Others, like Rulah, Jungle Goddess, seen here fighting an octopus and wearing her signature giraffe-skin bikini, have faded into comics obscurity.

Rulah was created by artist Matt Baker and an uncredited writer, and she debuted in Zoot Comics #7 (June, 1947). She was similar to Sheena, the orignal female Tarzan clone, but instead of being raised in the jungle, Jane Dodge (changed to “Joan Grayson” in a later retelling of her origin) was a thrill-seeking socialite aviatrix who crashed her plane into the uncivilized African interior. Tragically, her clothes were destroyed in the crash, as was a passing giraffe who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Clad in the giraffe’s hide, Jane saves a local tribe from an evil white jungle queen, and Rulah, Jungle Goddess was born.

I’m not sure if the cover of All Top 16 is supposed to depict some sort of African Jungle Octopus, or if Rulah’s exploits occassionally took her to the beach. (I suppose that wouldn’t be out of the question considering that she wore a bathing suit everywhere she went.) Either way, this is one handsy cephalopod!

Last night I went out to Chapel Hill to see MC Frontalot perform at Local 506. The opening act was singer/songwriter Brandon Patton, who also plays bass for MC Frontalot under the pseudonym BL4k Lotus. It turns out Brandon is a fellow aficionado of squid shirts, and he was sporting this awesome Gama-Go hoodie featuring their classic giant squid design. (Not available anymore, sadly.)

Unfortunately, I only cought the tail end of Brandon’s set, but I did get there in time to hear his rousing cover of The Pogues “Sally MacLennane.” Check out Brandon’s music at www.brandonpatton.com.

The MC Frontalot set was, as usual, nerdcore perfection. His brand new album Zero Day officially came out today, and you should buy it! With money! Go to Frontalot.com to find out how.

If you are not familiar with Front’s brand of intelligent, geeky hip hop, here is a video I took this February at his previous local show. The song is “Bizarro Genius Baby” from his second album Secrects From The Future.

The newest resident of the National Zoo in Washington D.C. is a juvenile Pacific Giant Octopus (Enteroctopus dofleini). Event though the charismatic cephalopod arrived at the zoo in February of this year, he (or she?) still needs a name. And you can help!

Polls are currently open until noon on Wednesday, April 7 to vote on one of four names: Vancouver, Olympus, Ceph, Octavius.

Personally, I can’t decide between “Ceph” and “Octavius” (too bad Mister Splashy Pants is already taken), but I will definitely put in my vote before the deadline.

Vote Now!

The winning name will be announced via the the octopus cam at 2 p.m. and on Facebook, and Twitter shortly thereafter.

UPDATE: The people have spoken, and the octopus’ name is “Octavius.”

photo by Natalie Metzger