Indie Squid Kid

A salty salute!|Atlanta Aquarium cuttlefish|photo by Natalie Metzger

Last night I discovered that PZ Myers recently linked to last week’s Dr. Aquaman post, a simple act that sent a surge of traffic to this humble cephalo-blog. So, if you are one of the 3,000+ new visitors, I say WELCOME PHARYNGULITES! (Or is it Pharyngulists? Pharyngularians?) I salute you in the manner of our people, and I invite you take a look around the place. Here at Indie Squid Kid, it’s Friday Cephalopod every day! (Well, more or less. I haven’t been my typical prolific self lately, what with my busted thumb and all.)

Like it says up at the top of the page, I’m a collector of all things tentacled—squids, octopuses, cuttlefish, Cthulhu…I love them all! Within this blog you’ll find many examples from my own collection of ceph-stuff, as well as items trawled from the deep reaches of the Internet. Don’t know where to start? My Eight Awesome Octopuses article was pretty popular, and if you like that, why not take a swim with Ten Sensational Squids? Additionally, I’ve got a few (semi)regular features you might want to check out: T-shirt Tuesday, Wednesday Comics, and Flickr Friday. You may also be interested in some of my past theme weeks, such as: Art Week, Movie Week, Music Week, Action Figure Week, and Cthulhu Week. Sometimes, people even send me Sightings.

So, welcome again to any and all new readers. Feel free to leave some comments if you like, and, if you think you might want to stay while, please consider subscribing.

Thanks, and stay tuned for more tentacular content!

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.

Sighted by Natalie (via Illustrativo)

Remember, only 5 days left until ICAD!

Here is the contents of yesterday’s mystery package—a specimen of the seldom seen terrestrial cephalopod commonly known as the Tufted Cuddlestache. Natalie Metzger is the world’s leading expert on Cuddlestache biology and natural history, and the following account is from her website, The Fuzzy Slug (where you can also see one of the only known photographs of a Tufted Cuddlestache in the wild):

Extremely rare and elusive, the Tufted Cuddlestache is native to the dense temperate rain forests of the Pacific Northwest.  It was believed that they were hunted to extinction for their luxurious mustaches, which were used in the making of novelty stick-on mustaches and eyebrow replacements. However, while searching for Sasquatch in the remote backwoods of Washington state, field scientist, Dr. Crumpen Von Ludwig,  stumbled upon a small surviving population of the Tufted Cuddlestaches. Little was known about them as the last known living specimen died in 1910. He discovered that they were quite friendly and unafraid of man. Whether that was from isolation, or natural behavioral traits, studies so far have been inconclusive.  Since this great discovery, a  breeding program has been established by Washington State University in order to help restore wild population numbers and to gain valuable knowledge about the behavior and biology of these wonderful creatures. Currently, wild numbers are still very low (estimates are somewhere around 20 breeding pairs) and the Tufted Cuddlestache is listed as critical on the endangered species list.

In addition to being a reknowed cuddlestache-ologist, Natalie is also an artist, cartoonist, and photographer. She designed the Indie Squid Kid logo, and the famous “Bourbon Drinking Squid.”

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.

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!