Here are three delightful t-shirt designs by Hannah Moore via Kickstarter.com. They are named, respectively, “Secret Snail,” “Forbidden Love,” and “Inky Hearts.”

I would love to give you a link so you could buy them all right now, but there’s a catch—in order for these shirts to become a purchasable reality, a target funding goal needs to be met…and you can help make this happen!

The goal is to get at least $600 pledged by 2:59 am EDT on Monday, August 16. This amount covers the expense of getting a minimum order of each design printed and shipped. If that goal is met, all those that pledged will be rewarded for their generosity. Want a shirt? Pledge at least $20. Want all three shirts? Pledge $50. Basically, the more you give, the more cool stuff you get in return!

To back this project, click here.

To learn more about Kickstarter and how this all works, click here.

For more of Hannah’s art, visit Curious Zoology.

The Safari Ichthyosaurus is 8 inces long and painted with a color pattern similar to the modern Common Dolphin (Delphinus). The coolest feature of this sculpt is, of course, the Mesozoic ammonite gripped tightly in its jaws.

Ichthyosaurs (”fish lizards”) were a group of highly-specialized marine reptiles that dominated the world’s oceans for much of the Mesozoic era. They were most definitely not dinosaurs…but you knew that already, right? Appearing in the fossil record in the first part of the Triassic period (~245 million years ago), ichthyosaurs thrived during the Jurassic, but they went extinct before the end of the Cretaceous period, about 90 million years ago. Their fish-like body shape is often compared to that of modern dolphins as a classic example of convergent evolution. Fossil stomach contents show that some species definitely preyed on ammonites and belemnites, and it’s likely that cephalopods were an imporant part of a balanced breakfast for most ichthyosaurs.

The genus Ichthyosuarus itself, which lived in the Early Jurassic seas that covered what is now southern England and continental Europe 199-189 million years ago, was first discovered in early 1800s. These finds, including many complete skeletons, played an important role in how we came to understand the age of the earth and helped define the then brand-new science of paleontology.

I picked this up from the gift shop of the NC Museum of Life + Science (along with Cryolophosaurus, this year’s other new Carnegie dinosaur) as a birthday present for myself. Suggested retail is $8.99, and if you don’t have access to a museum gift shop or speciality toy store, you can order it online from Amazon.com or directly from Safari.

Neonomicon #1 ©Avatar Press

“In his house at R’lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.”
-H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu

This is Jacen Burrows’ wrap cover for Neonomicon #1. Written by Alan Moore and published by Avatar Press, this tale of modern Lovecraftian horror is the sequel to Moore’s earlier series The Courtyard. I think this book came out today, but I haven’t been getting out the comic shop as regularly as usual these days, so I could be wrong. Despite the amazing Cthulhu-licious cover, I didn’t pick it up today because I had a crap load of back issues waiting for me in my subscription folder. I’ll keep my eye out for the trade paperback compilation of the series, however.

Avatar Press is an independent American comics company that was, for many years, best known for publishing so-called “Bad Girl” comics. However, they’ve currently expanded their scope to include creator-owned titles by some of the biggest names in the field: Warren Ellis, Garth Ennis, Frank Miller, and, of course, Alan Moore. Find out more at AvatarPress.com.

Seriously, Alan Moore and Cthulhu..what else could you ask for in a comic?

Now for something completely different…

Also sighted today at Chapel Hill Comics, this giant plush octopus! I didn’t see a price or manufacturer on it, but it was at least two feet across and ridiculously soft. I’d like to imagine that Alan Moore snuggles up to one just like it when he’s writing his squelchy tales of cosmic horror.

UPDATE: reader CrisA identified the plush octopus! It is the Big Squishable Octopus, $44 from Squishable.com.

Yesterday was my birthday, and my brother-in-law Jeff got me this awesome shirt. I wore it to watch Inception, which is neither here nor there, but damn that was a cool movie.

Now, I know what you’re probably thinking…didn’t I already do a post about “Subway Squid?” Yes, yes I did.

However, this particular shirt was purchased from ThinkGeek, the online emporium of artifacts recovered from the cultural intersection of Hip and Nerdy. “Subway Squid” is their first piece of Gama-Go merch, and it comes in Black for $27.99 ($28.99 for XXL). Incidentally, it appears that this shirt is no longer available directly from Gama-Go.

Buy it now from ThinkGeek!

Mimic Octopus at Aer_Parang, originally uploaded by Stephen Childs.

The fascinating Thaumoctopus mimicus, filmed at Aer Parang (Indonesia?).

Here’s another cool piece of cephalopod-y merch from the folks at ModCloth.

A flask! Covered in squid!

The site describes it thusly…

The stainless steel construction of this drink container along with a screw-on lid will keep your spirits safe, while a cephalopod print wrapped around the exterior will keep your spirits high!

The flask costs $29.99, but it is sold out at the moment. However, you can submit your email address if you want to be notified when it is back in stock.

If I had one, I know what kind of booze I would fill it with!

Sighted by my friend Stacie (the one who make the Sock Squid!)

And here I didn’t think it would be possible to top Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus…

(via Deep-Sea News)

The Legion of Executive Familiars ©DC Comics

This is Octus, an alien cephalopod from the oceans of Neptune that exists in eight dimensions. He (it?) is a member of the Legion of Executive Familiars, a team of super-powered, sentient animals operating in the 853rd century. (Also pictured are Phaethon, Savitar, Wormhole, and Krypto-9.) Octus’ abilities are impossible for three-dimensional beings such as ourselves to fully comprehend, but it is known that this purple space octopus can produce “limpet grenades” seemingly out of thin air. Octus first and only appearance was DC One Million 80-Page Giant (August, 1999), an anthology of eight pieces each by different creative teams. “Tales of the Legion of Executive Familiars in the Age of Solaris’ Heroic Rebirth!” was written by Mark Schultz with art by Georges Jeanty, and the story focuses on the Legion as it interviews prospective members.

DC One Million was a DC Comics crossover event from 1998-99. Basically, it presented a possible future of the DC Universe set in the 853rd century—which is when the first DC title would hit issue #1,000,000 (assuming a regular and continuous publication schedule). The core of the event was a four issue mini-series written by Grant Morrison, but just about every DC title at the time had tie-in issues. Characters from this far-flung future timeline still show up from time to time, usually in other books written by Morrison.

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!