The Magpie #020: Secure Your Penguins
Welcome to this week’s edition of The Magpie, a wire service for the weird compiled from the open tabs of writer Alex de Campi. Here’s what’s going on:
Welcome back. Shit’s been tough and I’ve been in the garden of my feelings about it—both metaphorically and actually.
Aside from my country’s accelerating descent into fascism, I’ve been dealing with Dark Horse’s complete lack of marketing for REVERSAL, the YA graphic novel that I spent about five years of my life on. Seriously, if you want a fun urban fantasy read and/or you need a gift for a queer teen, please consider buying it. And if you read it and liked it, please leave a nice review or post about it on social media.
REVERSAL is about what happens in a small city when the ley lines reverse and magic (and monsters) suddenly become a thing again. One 12 year old girl and her family are pretty much all that stands between an escalating cycle of violence between humans and the monsters of the mysterious forest just beyond the city limits…
I also have a Judge Anderson story in the upcoming 2000AD Free Comic Book Day book next month, and Image’s reissue of TRUE WAR STORIES out this month (finally on digital! and only $15 in print for 250+ pages!). TRUE WAR STORIES makes an amazing gift for dads and non comics readers.
Other than being sad about having to do all the work to market my book myself and the inevitable low sales it will result in, I’ve been gardening.
Watching plants struggle up through the late-winter earth has been pretty much all that’s been keeping me sane, wandering around like Kris Jenner telling the peonies they’re doing so great, keep at it sweetie.
Life carries on. I’ve made good progress on the heist book, although it’s slightly more full of emotions than planned, because I am more full of emotions. More on that soon.
Anyway, here’s what’s new in tabs:
Absolutely at the edge of my seat for this documentary. This is why real ones stick with Bob Ross. Trust me, click play:
They made a free Conclave old man yaoi game / visual novel and snif it’s so adorable:
Nothing is likely to get me to click faster than a title like Inside the Ghost Ships of the Mothball Fleet.
What, 32 issues of a 1901-1902 Japanese fabric design book for free on the internet? Yes please.
“Warren was driving, and honestly, I shouldn’t have had the drinks. There was a belly dancer there too. It was that kind of night, meaning it ended at about 7:30 p.m. and Warren got in his car and left to do whatever he did at night — fight crime or who knows. He passed away so you don’t have to worry about this, but don’t ever get in the car with that fucker. The worst driver I’ve ever been with sober. I can’t imagine what it was like when he was drunk. I’m pretty sure I’m immortal because I lived through a 20-minute drive with Warren Zevon.” More Peter Buck on Zevon here.
If you’re not really sure what’s going on in financial markets right now, this podcast is a good explainer.
Speaking of podcasts, new one with Alan Moore on magic.
Famous French painter Toulouse-Lautrec doodled all over his schoolbooks as a kid. He just like us fr!
The two wildest headlines of recent note:
Unsecured penguin caused helicopter crash in South Africa (dw everyone was okay, including the penguin. also kiddo reminds us that this is the plot of the first act of Penguins of Madagascar)
For SF fans: Premee Mohamed’s Hugo-nominated short story and a preview excerpt from Charlie Jane Anders’ newest novel.
This just reminds me what a GOAT Michael Mann is tbh:
Department of old pop culture drama: I was there for Tokyopop’s whole Princess Ai thing and it was just as dumb and cynical as this history indicates. Nice art tho.
Fansplaining goes deep on OG Blake’s 7 drama from the late 1980s.
I don’t really have any desire to read this book, but I can’t get the ballsiness of its opening sentence (“There is a question you are avoiding”) out of my head.
I DO really want to read this book (Vivian Blaxell’s book of essays), especially after this incredibly vibrant excerpt: “Miss Sybil Fontaine, whom we called Old Sybil only when there was one hundred percent no possibility of Miss Sybil Fontaine hearing us call her Old Sybil, was in her late-forties then and famous among us for truculence with fists, if required, even if not required, dedication to the fashion principles of a society matron in the eastern suburbs of Sydney in 1972, high-end blowjobs, and to premonitions.”
Star Wars is racist and Boyega’s right to say it.
I dunno, man, GPS is great but over-reliance on it for everything is going to bite us in the ass one day—especially if it’s under someone else’s control.
The Andromeda Galaxy is super lopsided.
Interesting Supreme Court opinion on the limits of fair use. Basically if the fair use-derived work is for the same intended purpose as the original work, it can then replace it/take income from it and is prohibited. This will be quoted as precedent in AI cases (as well as the Monkey Selfie Case.
Shocking nobody, yet another element of our great unspoilt Western wilderness has been discovered to be a reslt of careful indigenous peoples cultivation efforts.
SWORD!!! ANCIENT BRONZE SWORD!! SHINY!!!
WIKIPEDIA PAGE OF INTEREST: List of unusual deaths in the 20th century.
RECIPE: One of my goals for this year was to learn to cook more Desi food from scratch, because we are big fans of the Maya Kaimal curry sauces. It’s been a delight! I have a mortar and pestle so the act of grinding coriander and cumin seeds is something I’ve found very meditative—much like the process of washing rice. Also, kashmiri chilli powder is the best spice in existence?! Just the right amount of smoke flavor and heat.
Also, a lot of desi sauces use finely-chopped onion as a thickener, but because I hate dicing and don’t have a food processor, I’ve been grating those babies. I’ve also incorporated a grated onion into my classic French beef stew recipe, with delicious results.
I won’t bore you with every recipe I’ve tried far, but this jalfrezi recipe or this korma one are the simplest for busy cooks. USAians, there’s a company called Rani that does mail order for all the spices you need, they also sell through Amazon.
MUSIC:
New Wet Leg!!!
New Turnstile!!!
That’s all, folks. Until next time, be well, and be kind to each other.
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