Indie Squid Kid

Eight Arms Cellars is winemaker Iain Bolton, who specializes in wine handcrafted from organically/sustainably grown grapes. One of his current offerings is The Tentacle:

This one really wraps it’s arms around you! It’s big and juicy with bright fruit flavors, a spicy palate and a dollop of vanilla on the end. This Syrah is best enjoyed with a hearty meal. Beware! Once you are caught in the tentacles of this wonderfully delicious Syrah, you may have trouble pulling yourself away.

The Tentacle is $12 a bottle, and to purchase it, or find out more about it and Eight Arms, visit www.eightarmscellars.com.

I have to admit that I don’t have a very sophisticated palate when it comes to wine. However, I know two things: 1) I enjoy a good Syrah, and 2) THERE IS AN OCTOPUS ON THE BOTTLE.

If any ISK readers live in the Bay Area, you should totally pick up a bottle of this and report back! Good idea, right?

©Marvel Comics

Patsy Walker: Hellcat was a five-issue mini-series from the Fall of 2008. Here’s the official description from Marvel (which, you’ll notice, doesn’t mention anything about fighting a Colossal Squid…you’d think that would be their main selling point!):

Iron Man’s one-woman Initiative team for Alaska finds herself in WAY over her head. Patsy Walker, Hellcat, is thrust into a world of magic, witches, rally-cars and demons of all shapes and sizes, and all she thought she was going to do was rough up a few lumber-thieves.

Written by Kathryn Immonen, Penciled by David Lafuente, Cover by Stuart Immonen

Patsy Walker was created by Ruth Atkinson, and she debuted in Miss America Magazine #2 (November 1944), a teen romance comic. Up until the late 60s, the character appeared in similar genre titles like Girl’s Life and Teen Comics, as well as staring in Patsy Walker, Patsy and Hedy, and Patsy and Her Pals. A cameo in Fantastic Four #3 (1965) established Patsy’s place in the Marvel superhero universe, and by 1976 (The Avengers #144), she had been given the costumed identity of Hellcat. She would later join the superhero team the Defenders, where she would meet future husband Daimon Hellstrom, the Son of Satan. Long story short, Patsy was driven mad, commited suicide, went to Hell, developed psychic powers, and was eventually resurrected. She sided with Iron Man in Marvel’s big Civil War crossover event (2006-2007), which leads us into the events of the Patsy Walker: Hellcat series.

This T-shirt design is by the same artist that did “Diver’s Haul” (featured last week), and it is up for voting on Threadless for ONE MORE DAY. So, if you want this to be a real shirt that you can buy with real money, GO VOTE NOW!

To see more works by Julie Dillon (both with and without tentacles), visit www.jdillon.net and her gallery at deviantART.

Tip o’ the tentacle to Jason of the Cephalopodcast for bringing this to my attention!

©Skot Olsen

The artist’s own words pretty much say it best…

Saint Architeuthis is the patron saint of doomed sailors. While the origins of the saint remain unclear, it’s recent history and worship are well documented. Whalers who turned their attention to catching giant squid and sea serpents in the 19th century, began asking Saint Architeuthis for mercy whenever a hunt would go awry, which was fairly frequent. When hunting for such animals, one would sometimes be thrown over board or a boat would sink exposing the men to whatever was in the water at the time. A sailor would ask Saint Architeuthis for the quick and relatively painless death of drowning, rather than the hideous demise of being ripped apart by the beak of the squid or chewed up in the sea serpent’s hideous maw. Often, men would have visions of Saint Architeuthis who would appear before them in the form of a gigantic, yet benevolent squid wearing a bishop’s mitre and carrying tools of the squid hunter’s trade.

Still available: Limited Edition (signed and numbered run of 50) Gliclee on heavy watercolor stock; 14.5″ x 27″. $200

This was recently submitted by my friend Will, and it seems particularly timely because I just finished reading Kraken by China Miéville. Although not specifically mentioned in the book, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this painting adorns the secret sanctuary of the Church of God Kraken.

I didn’t want to speak too soon, but we finally got our Internet fixed this week!

Your Friendly Neighborhood Squid Blog will now resume its regular schedule.

©jdillon82

“Diver’s Haul” by Julie Dillon. Check out her work on deviantART.

(Via Hello Zombie!)

©Marvel Comics

This is the cover art for a new one-shot ongoing series (it came out last week) called, I think, X-Men: Curse of the Mutants: Namor: The First Mutant…which, I’m sure you’ll agree, is an awful lot of colons for a single comic book title. This story was written by Stuart Moore with interior art by Ariel Olivetti, and it deals with the Sub-Mariner’s quest for Dracula’s (yes, that Dracula) severed head, which, in turn, appears to be crucial to the plot of the ongoing main X-Men series.

Full disclosure here, I rarely follow Marvel titles, and I haven’t read this issue (or any of the current X-titles). I did page through it yesterday at the comic shop, and it didn’t seem to contain any actual cephalopods. Prince Namor’s Throne O’ Tentacles™ also seemed to be absent from the story, existing only here in Jae Lee’s wonderfully creepy cover.

See this previous post for more information on Namor the Sub-Mariner.

The following squidtastic fabric patterns are part of the Sepia and Sky collection by Holli Zollinger. They are available from Spoonflower.com, a marketplace for print-on-demand textiles by independent creators. You can purchase any of these “Candy Squid” designs in a variety of fabric types and in sizes ranging from an 8″ x 8″ test swatch ($5) to multiple yards of cloth ($18-$32 per yard, depending on fabric).

Click on any of the images below to buy from Spoonflower or to find out more info.

I apologize for the lack of posts these past weeks. We’ve been having major issues with our home WiFi network, and it is taking much longer to diagnose and fix than should be permissible in polite society.

Also, I’ve been busy fighting an uppity squid, Nemo-style.

Yeah, that’s it…

Another gem from rhamphotheca (which is a fabulous Tumblr blog that features fascinating animals of all kinds), this video is of the deep-sea cirrate octopus Grimpoteuthis bathynectes. It is known as the “Dumbo Octopus” because of its superficially ear-like fins, but, in my opinion, that name doesn’t come close to doing justice to this beautiful and ghostly animal.

This amazing animation showing how Physeter macrocephalus uses echolocation to hunt, is from the Whales Tahora exhibit now at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. The Sperm Whale starts out hunting boring old fish, but don’t worry, he meets an delicious Architeuthis by the end of the clip!

(Via rhamphotheca)