Indie Squid Kid

Cthulhu Twitter Avatar, originally uploaded by Ape Lad.

All month long Ape Lad (aka Adam Koford) has been remixing Twitter’s new default avatar, and today he has transformed the cute little birdie silhouette into R’yleh’s most famous resident.

See his Flickr set for more twisted Twitter avatars. You should also check out his ongoing webcomic The Laugh-Out-Loud Cats.

This weekend I was at Target looking for a card for my friend Nick’s birthday, and I came across this…

I had no idea what the Sushi Pack is, but I knew two things.

1) An octopus superhero with an eye patch is very definition of awesome, and

2) This is the card I was getting for my friend! (It even beat out the “7th Birthdays are Magical” unicorn card!)

The back of the card tells me the octopus’ name is Tako, which makes sense since “tako maki” is, of course, the Japanese term for octopus sushi rolls. But I was still left wondering what Tako and the Sushi Pack’s story was. Fortunately, the Internet came to my rescue!

The Sushi Pack was an animated series that ran for 26 episodes from November 2007 to February 2009. The show, which aired on CBS, was a production of DIC Entertainment and American Greetings. I’m used to cartoons that seem to exist only to sell toys, but I didn’t realize there were ones meant to sell greeting cards as well! (I guess it worked!)

The Sushi Pack is a team of anthropomorphic sushi rolls that live in a donut shop. In addition to Tako Maki the octopus, the team’s membership includes Ikura Maki the salmon, Maguro Maki the tuna, Kani Maki the crab, and Wasabi Pow the, um, wasabi. There is also a group of evil sushi called the Legion of Low Tide, but the Sushi Pack would rather solve conflicts with friendship and teamwork than with fighting.

Tako Maki is the team’s unofficial leader, and the official Sushi Pack site has this to say about him…

A complex, charming and artistic octopus. He’s a suffering frustrated, misunderstood sushi who uses his ink-squirting capabilities for the peaceful expression of art.

Special Power: Shoots multi-colored ink.

Tako is voiced by British radio personality DJ Rick Adams (no relation).

Finally, proof that super-intelligent cephalopods created the universe…

Found on Synthstuff

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.