blog: things you should check out

Perhaps you know Nicholas Gurewitch from his seminal comic strip The Perry Bible Fellowship, or perhaps you know him from the interview I conducted with him in The Perry Bible Fellowship Almanack which you got without knowing about him because you are a me completist. Regardless, he is a singular talent and, in addition to his work in comics, has long nurtured a filmmaking impulse as well.

Trails of Tarnation is his surrealist Western. Shot on film and using handmade sets, Nick’s work has an incredible, tactile aesthetic that’s becoming uncommon in cinema, and it’s remarkable to behold. Here is Trails of Tarnation Episode 3, “Ants!”

More of Nick’s video work can be found on his Vimeo page, New Picture Agencies.

With reference to my “True Stuff from Old Books” entries on humanity’s pervasive fear of the new and unfamiliar, Nealie from Michigan brought this video to my attention. It’s a clip from the Norwegian show “Øystein og jeg” in which a monk has to deal with the most newfangled invention of all: a book!

It is called Teenage Mutant Ninja Noses.

September at Wondermark was kindly sponsored by Slacktory.com, a new humor site in the blog/magazine style. So far it seems pretty good! The image above is one of many from their article Famous Movie Quotes as if Spoken by a Proper Englishman.

Some other Slacktory articles I enjoyed, and recommend:

Craigslist for Five-Year-Olds

Justin Bieber Causes Tonsilitis: Best Searches on Google Correlate

Searches I Made Up to Amuse Bloggers (Mildly NSFW)

I rate Slacktory: EMINENTLY DIVERSIONARY

Are you familiar with the work of the inestimable Kate Beaton? If not, the above is but the merest sample of her whimsical linework and delightfully daffy humor. (She was also one of the many cartoonist contributors to Machine of Death.) And today marks the release of a new collection of her “Hark! A Vagrant” comics in hardcover!

Advance copies of Kate’s book were made available both at Comic-Con in July and at SPX earlier this month, and in both cases they vanished very quickly. Kate’s posted some reviews and tour info on her site (below the Wuthering Heights comic) if you want to know more — or just take it from me. It’s super, duper-great, and doubly so if you have an interest in history or literature. But if you do, I bet you’re already reading Kate’s work — and if you’re somehow not, you better get with it!

TopatoCo is also offering a special double-pack with Kate’s earlier book, Never Learn Anything From History, a collection of specifically history-themed comics. The new hardcover is available pretty much anywhere — like Amazon if you want — but Never Learn is exclusive to TopatoCo and/or selected comic shops such as Toronto’s The Beguiling. Grab em both! You’ll like the smiles they put on your face, I guarantee it.