Indie Squid Kid

From Octophant.us:

In 1933 a bathysphere expedition intended to break the world record for ocean descent was lost under mysterious circumstances. The cause of the disaster was never determined and no three-toed sloth was ever put in command of a bathysphere again.

Hand-printed edition of 70. Signed and numbered.

This print was 11″ x 23″ and only cost $20, but, tragically, it is sold out (at least at the time of this writing).

Phineas’ site has many more pieces of cephalopod-themed art, and some are still available! Visit Octophant.us to find out more.

"H.P. Lovecraft" ©MirrorCradle

Yesterday marked the 120th anniversary of the birth of H.P. Lovecraft, creator of the Cthulhu Mythos. I’ve been working my way through the collected stories of Lovecraft all summer, and you can hear some of my thoughts about them on the Random Signal Droidcast, Episode 004: Lovin’ Lovecraft. Also, in case you missed it, be sure to check out last year’s Cthulhu Week.

(via Cephalolove, via Pretend Parades)

I had surgery on my right thumb last week, and, since it’s my dominant hand, I’ve been unable to do much of anything but watch movies and take naps. It looks like I’ll be living life as a lefty for at least another week, so updates to this blog will probably be a little sporadic for a while.

In the mean time, if you are jonesing for a cephalopod fix, check out any of the fine Internet-based publications in the Ika Maki list, page right.

(”Ika Maki” is, by the way, Japanese for “squid roll.” As in sushi. Sooo…it’s like a blog roll, but for squid! Get it?! Um, yeah..anyway…talk to you soon. I hope!)

John says:

So, I have a friend who loves squid. She also loves her del Sol which recently needed some bodywork. When talking about how much she loves her car she mentioned it would only be better if it had a giant squid on it. Her husband and her brother-in-law latched on to this and decided to make it happen.

Thanks John!

Update: The del Squid has its own website. Check it out!

"Best Friends Forever" © Lucy Knisley

I didn’t plan to go silent for an entire week, but I was on vacation and just didn’t have time to prepare any posts in advance.

I’ve got a handful of cool sightings and submissions that came in while I was offline, and I’ll be focusing on those throughout the week. Stay tuned!

Octopus and Parasol, originally uploaded by nsjmetzger.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it is again. Natalie is awesome!
See more of her art and photography at The Fuzzy Slug.

Southern Rail is a restaurant smack dab in the middle of Carrboro, North Carolina. It is built in and between three converted train cars, and it is located right next to an active rail line. As you might expect, much of the decor is railroad-themed, which is why it’s so surprising to come face-to-face with a mural depicting a diver locked in mortal combat with a giant squid! The mural adorns a wall of the narrow corridor in one of the converted cars (you’ll see it on the way to the restroom)…so narrow that it was pretty much impossible to get a good shot of the entire thing.

While Giant Squid is not on the menu, they do serve the most delicious tater tots known to Man and Mollusc alike.

Southern Rail Restaurant and Bar
201-C East Main Street
Carrboro, North Carolina

Where does he get those wonderful toys?

I bet you didn’t think I’d be able to figure out a way to tie Plush Week to Wednesday Comics, but with the Internet all things are possible!

Kristin Hogan is the co-creator, writer and artist of a comic book called Dead Squirrel Girl. Squids play heavily into the story, so she came up with an idea to make squid dolls. Her squids are approximately 19″ long and made of a variety of materials in a variety of colors and patterns. “Batsquid” is made from a bed sheet featuring characters from the 1992 movie, Batman Returns. He costs $38 and there is currently only 1 in stock, so if you want it ACT FAST!

Kristin’s Etsy store has several other cool squid dolls, as well some plush nautiluses. You can even get a copy of the Dead Squirrel Girl comic!

Volume 1 ($17)

Find out more about the comic and Kristin’s art at www.deadsquirrelgirl.com!

Welcome to Plush Week! Everyday this week we’ll look at a variety of stuffed toy cephalopods, mostly from my own collection. I’ve already mentioned a few in past posts, such as Toy Vault’s Cthulhu and friends and the mysterious Tuffed Cuddlestache, and I figured it was finally time to highlight a few more.

Please note that the is is not PLUSHIE week. If you know what I’m talking about, I’m sure you are relived. If you don’t know what I mean by “plushie,” consider yourself lucky. Seriously, you are better off not knowing.

Annnyway…let’s kick off the week with a unique item that might be familiar to you if you’ve ever clicked over to the About Indie Squid Kid page.

This is a one-of-a-kind hand-made stuffed squid in the style of the classic Sock Monkey toy. My friend Stacie made if for me in 2005, and the photo above was taken then. (I look so young!)

The squid is about 24″ long and had green buttons for eyes. In the picture below (with a ball point pen for scale), you can just make out the red heel of the sock where’s the squids mouth would be. Like most of my plush cephalopods, it now lives on a shelf in Kid Indie Squid Kid’s room, but it will probably be a few years before I let him play with this one!

In 2007, my friend Stuart (aka, Flickr user TheKingInYellow) toured the Japanese island of Kyūshū. While there, he visited the town of Kabejima  (pronounced “Kabeshima”) in Saga prefecture, which is apparently renowned for its squid.

Here are a few squiddy pictures from the trip:

"Welcome to Kabejima"

squid tank

Ika sashimi!

I don’t know what species of squid this is, but it’s pretty big…a good 1-1.5 feet long. At this particular restaurant, live squid are kept in tanks (shown above) and served, erm…just about as fresh as possible. Kind of gruesome, but I’m told it was quite delicious.