Indie Squid Kid

Hey look! A new post!

I know, I am just as shocked as you are (if not slightly more). Work has been brutal since, well, my last post, and now I am on vacation at the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Corova, to be precise. Presently I am in an Internet cafe in Corolla, NC (where the highway and civilization ends) rediscovering what this Internet thing is all about, but for the last several days I have been doing nothing but sleeping, reading, drinking, playing board games, swimming in the ocean, and flying kites.

And speaking of kites, here are some pictures from last year’s beach trip. These were all taken at the annual kite festival held at the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kill Devil Hills, NC.

Birthday squid cartoon, originally uploaded by Cryptonaut.

Here is the reason why Natalie Metzger is the Official Artist of Indie Squid Kid. For my birthday last year, she sent me this amazing cartoon. This year, she continued the trend by sending me the physical version of this!

I have really awesome friends.

squiddy birthday card, originally uploaded by Cryptonaut.

Yesterday was my 34th birthday, and here is the card my awesome wife gave me.

We shall resume a more regular blogging schedule this coming week with more birthday fun.

For the final post of Art Week, here is the Most Awesome Thing Ever.

Sadly, I don’t own this, but DAMN I wish I did! Two different sizes of this print are for sale over at www.brandonbird.com.

And it just so happens my birthday is coming up this month.

I’m just saying…

Lovecraftian, originally uploaded by jawboneradio.

Monster by Mail is the brain child of podcaster and cartoonist Len Peralta. The concept is simple–you give him money, and he sends you an original piece of art. Give him a little bit more, and you get a YouTube video of him creating your monster. At the time of this writing, the rates are $25/$35…a pretty good deal for original art.

When Len first launched the site, the rules were you had to give him an adjective, any adjective, and he would make a monster for you based on that word. Mine was “Lovecraftian.” Here’s the video.

Through the early iterations of MbM there were various other themes: cryptozoology, zombies, Halloween, etc. However, all you have to do now is give your monster a name and click the PayPal link you Len will make it for you!

Here is one I commissioned last Halloween. It is titled, simply, “The Were-Squid.”

When Len isn’t drawing awesome monsters, he is producing and co-hosting Cleveland’s best podcast, Jawbone Radio.

It seemed only fitting that the next Art Week installment after “The Kraken Always Follows Its Heart” would be the picture that hangs next to it in my front hall (next to the coat rack, and the first thing you see when you come in through the front door)–”The Squid Tree” by Ursula Vernon.

Depicted here is a weird little guy in blue, happily eating his lunch, but little does he realize that the tree–if it is a tree–has its eye on his sandwich…

Ursula is another amazing artist that I have the good fortune of knowing personally. The various and sundry subjects of her fabulous illustration include ninja frogs, the wombat tarot, bird golems, and some very dangerous fruit. See more of her work on deviantART, her personal site, Metal & Magic, and her webcomic, Digger.

Of course, for the purposes of this blog, I feel obligated to direct you to some more specific examples of her cephalopod-themed art:

• Walking the Kraken
• Happy Cthulhu
• Cuttlefish Hat
• Cthulhu’s Day Out
• Klimt’s Octopus

Welcome back to Art Week! Today we have something that’s actually hanging on a wall in my house, “The Kraken Always Follows Its Heart” by my good friend Leah Riley. Leah is a graphic artist, creator of comics, and purveyor of robots. Once upon a time when we were still co-workers, we used to keep a running list of funny things people would say that sounded like the titles of non-existent songs by a band that didn’t have a name. Well, it made sense to us, and this is one of them.

At the time of this writing, there are still two baby doll tees of this very design (in black and red) for sale in her Esty store, but even if they’re gone, you are guaranteed to find something both awesome and ridiculously cute.

Leah is also the co-creator of the webcomics Willrad and Robohobo and the co-author of the manga review blog Hobotoku. See her art portfolio online at www.leahstuff.com.

Welcome to Art Week here at Indie Squid Kid! I know that the frequency of my posts have dropped off lately, but starting today, I’m going to ramp things up significantly with a new post everyday for the next six days. As the name suggests, Art Week will focus on cephalopod art, mostly from my personal collection. However, it seemed appropriate to kick the week off with this new selection from Natalie Metzger, the creator of the the Indie Squid Kid logo, and friend to cephalopds everywhere.

If this were just a picture of a squid, it would still be awesome, but to have the squid drinking bourbon, my hard liquor of choice…that makes it a stroke of genius in my book! I also wanted to point out the label on the bottle: “Maker’s Mark of Madness”…I came up with that!

If you don’t understand why a squid would be drinking bourbon, please check out Natalie’s original post at The Fuzzy Slug and read the story that accompanies it–all will be made clear.  Also, while you’re at it, download the first episode of her new podcast, Radio Isopod!

From the Santa Cruz Sentinel via BoingBoing

Remains of a rare giant squid turned up off the coast of Santa Cruz, California yesterday. According to researchers from the Pelagic Shark Research Foundation, this specimen was probably 25 feet long and weighed hundreds of pounds when alive. Only one giant squid has ever been caught on video alive.

From the Santa Cruz Sentinel:

A flock of gulls feeding on the carcass alerted the crew to the remains. Their first thought, said crew members, was that the animal was a seal but after motoring closer to it they recognized the chewed-up squid…

(Giant squid expert and Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History curator Eric) Hochberg said there’s likely several squid along the California coast, but because the animal swims at depths of thousands of feet, it’s almost never seen and difficult to study…

“The animal is just so big and so rare … it’s very easy for people to get a little nervous about what it is, and the stories go from there,” Hochberg said.

Subbies - Squiddy, originally uploaded by Cryptonaut.

It’s summertime, and, for many, that means regular trips to the pool. I have to admit, I don’t have much use for swimming pools these days unless they are the kind that have a swim-up bar. However, if I were a regular pool-goer, you can bet this little guy would be my constant companion.

Meet Squiddy, the marvelous motorized mock-mollusk!

This was a house warming gift, so I don’t know where it was originally purchased, but it is by Mind Walk, a maker of fine aquatic and magnetic toys. It is a member of the Subbies line, which, at some point during the last 6 years, must have been bitten by a radioactive pool toy or something because they are now called Super Subbies. (Incidentally, other Super Subbies include Orky the Orca and Manty the Ray.)

Squiddy is powered by two AA batteries (not included) and, as the marketing copy says…”He Scoots Through The Water With His Arms Trailing After!” And, just in case one catchy tagline wasn’t enough, the back of the package tells us that Squiddy is “Cool In The Pool…A Blast In The Bath! And…”Watch Him Spin, Flip, and Race…All Over The Place!”

You can tell by all the exclamation points that is is a very exciting toy!