Friends, Countrymen;

In a few days I will be retracing the path of thousands of ancient conastogas, puttering up Shasta and down Grant’s, charring and grimacing under the Oregon blaze, just to get to my homeland of Seattle, Washington.

It’s very rare that I show my art publicly. After last time, when an angry mob showed up early with torches and pitchforks and ate all the cubical cheese, I had really lost hope in the Seattle art scene. I tried showing down here in the Bay Area, where I now reside, but had to take down early due to hippies protesting a yeti that had climbed one of the campus trees.

It is for this reason that I would be terribly obliged if only you’d find some way to drop in at either one of the art shows I’m launching this weekend.

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Wendy and Richard Pini, creators of long-running indy comic series Elfquest, are making the whole caboodle available free of charge at their website. New issues will be posted weekly until 30 years’ worth is online.

Comment from BoingBoing and Metafilter remind us why this is one of the best comics you’ve never heard of, but here’s a quick primer on why it rules.

• With Dave Sim’s Cerebus, it was among the first self-published comics to make it big, booting down the door for new talent the nation over. Its success as a graphic novel in mainstream bookstores helped infect the American mainstream with a European-esque appreciation for comics. Women actually read this. Women.

• Wendy Pini’s art is a melting pot of comics, manga and classical illustration. And she’s been at it since before most people had even heard of manga…

• The feral, omnisexual, hallucinogen-guzzling protagonists aren’t Tolkien-derived clichés, but a freakish medley of european lore, native american myth and hippy free love.

• No superheroes, magic wands or other arbitrary magics. It’s consistently plotted to tight rules of engagement and expertly crafted by the same wife-and-husband team thats been doing little else since 1977.

• It’s a neat blend of high fantasy and science fiction: the “elves” are aliens who wanted to impress us by appearing as angels, but got stuck in a genetic disguise by their slaves’ violent rebellion.

• All the fashions in it are either from the 1970s or the 1930s: everyone is either a pimp in furs and leather or something sculpted by Erté. They just don’t make ‘em like this any more.

• Winnowill is the best arch-villainess since Maleficent Cthulhu.

• It’s not over: the story’s final showdown, the creators write, has been written but not yet published.

• 6,000 pages of full-color classic indy brilliance free of charge. Precedent set.

• Issue #17’s Elf Orgy. If nothing else, a great name for a punk band. (Brownlee has already demanded scans, but I don’t have a copy to hand — any fans out there who can do the honors?)

A set of fantastically rendered images of android, amputee bondage which reek of the aforementioned Herr Bellmer. The only problem here is that no one seems to know who the artist is. If anyone knows please feel free to leave the answer in the comments section.

Link is NSFW (thar be breasts).

Update: Trevor Brown has finally finally dropped the artist’s name: Itsuki Takashi. Thanks, mkb!

amputee robot doll bondage [baby art]

The end is extremely fucking nigh, intrepid Ectonauts. Nearly a month ago we enlisted your assistance in the indoctrination of your peers and the opportunity to show off your glistening right brain with the announcement of Ectomo’s Broadside distribution and Octobee coloring contest. Everyone promptly forgot about the contest and I began construction on a papier-mache rocket ship to get us off this stinking mudball and start a tentacle based sex cult on Mars. Imagine our disappointment at the discovery that papier-mache doesn’t stand up to space flight quite as well as we’d all hoped; it turns out we’re Earth bound for the time being.

Yet our crushing disappointment at another missed opportunity to wear a spacesuit 24/7 means glittering prizes for you and yours! Monday January 28th we will announce the winner of Ectomo’s Octobee coloring and Broadside distribution contest. You still have a week to color an Octobee and cover your city with Broadsides via crop duster so set your hands to scribblin’. Send us all your completed Octobees and proof of B-side distribution and we’ll announce a winner next week. Check out the glorious works of your punctual comrades at the EctoFlickr. Good luck!

Octobee [Thanks, Shin Rhys!]

Four Red Bulls, twenty hours, and a bag of squid chips later, it is done. The very first Ectoplamosis print broadside is ready for distribution.

But soft, ye say, what in blazes am I talking about? I’ll let Warren Ellis, Big Daddy to Ectomo’s Little Sister, explain:

The broadside has a centuries-long history as a device for disseminating news and ideas. I mean, flyers go up on the web to be printed off, sure. But it’s not quite the same thing. Getting an idea, or a piece of writing, on a single sheet and saying, yes, print this off, copy it and distribute it wherever you like — that’d be interesting.

In short, a single-page guerilla publication, distributed by xerox and zealous reader in coffee shops, cubicle farms, club bathrooms, 24-hour greasy spoon diners, on telephone poles, shoved under windshield wipers, wiped under windshield shovers, safety-pinned on unsuspecting hobos, and fluttering in a comet tail behind us, wherever we may roam.

The first episode of ECTOPLASMOSIS! is offered in three editions:

• US Letter 8.5 x 11″ one-side printed sheet: broadside1_standard_final.pdf
• 8.5 x 11″ borderless, all the way to the EDGE, man! For people with printers who can handle “borderless” printing: broadside1_borderless_final.pdf
• Eurotrash A4 8.3 x 11.7″, for our international clientele: broadside1_a4_final.pdf

This broadside is formatted specifically for easy printing and xeroxing, and features original artwork, an updated version of my famous Toxoplasmosis article, vintage illustrations, and an octobee coloring contest! Those of you who wish to curry our excellent favor, print and distribute with zest and enthusiasm! You will be rewarded in this life, and the next.

Stay tuned for more information about the coloring contest, a distribution contest, and other blunt mutterings from Brownlee.

Mike DiPetrillo has been a good buddy of mine since I noticed his AIM name, listed on Threadless (where he was responsible for one of their most popular designs) was a line from an extremely obscure song by an extremely obscure band. We bonded instantly over our superior taste in music, then discovered we lived in the same city. One bubble tea and horror movie later, we were budskis.

But I only did it because I knew, one day, I’d be physically close enough to one of Mike’s exquisite paintings that I’d be able to grab it and run. He’d invite me over for a few rounds of Bomberman and hummus (this is what people do in Seattle for fun), and I’d burgle the shit out of him.

Those Ectomites in Seatown tonight will have their chance to make good on my threats. Mike is having some sort of psychedelic art show at a cafe in the University District. He is claiming that his paintings will actually glow in the haughty dimness of the venue. Observe:

Event Info
Name: STAR SHOW
Tagline: Sit around and look at glow in the dark paintings while being a fucking snob

Host: Mike DiPetrillo
Type: Music/Arts - Exhibit

Time and Place
Date: Friday, December 7, 2007
Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm
Location: Solstice Cafe
Street: 4116 University Way NE
City/Town: Seattle, WA

Contact Info
Phone: 425.941.3455
Email: mikeatron@gmail.com

Shelley Batts is the sultry scientific minx over at Retrospectacle, a neuroscience blog. And she needs Ectomo’s help to win a scholarship.

Full disclosure: I have a bit of a crush on Shelley. Not only does she possess a luscious pair of ripe, jiggling brain melons (like the ones you might see if you peeled back the scalp of a virgin angel), but she has the most entertaining neuroscience blog on the Internet and an African Grey.

Now, neuroscience isn’t usually my thing: I’m a trepanation kind of guy myself. But Retrospectacle is a must-read for any Ectomite. Here’s an example of the kind of posts Shelley does over there:

• Science Vault: Monkey to Human Testicle Transplant

• Science Vault: How Much LSD Does It Take to Kill an Elephant

• Science Vault: Coffee As Treatment For the Plague

In short, Shelley deserves your adoration. Which brings me to my point: Shelley is now competing for a $10,000 scholarship to be given to the best academic blogger on the web. She’s got 1006 votes so far, which is pretty good.

Unfortunately, she’s still being soundly beaten by the loathsome and evil Jess Kim.

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