This guy David Murray makes t-shirts under the company name SEIBEI, and he’s got all kinds of great/weird/cool designs and they’re well-designed and he is totes a cutey. Then his van filled with all of his shirts got stolen on his way to a show. Now he is having a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to print new stock and get cool shit done.

The Kickstarter campaign includes exclusive t-shirts by Seibei, but also Bryan Lee O’Malley (SCOTT PILGRIM), Chad Manzo, and Ashley Davis. You can donate all sorts of amounts of money to get tees, totes, baby onesies, buttons, whatevs. The $250 and $650 pledge lines are crazy-sauce as well, where you get an insane amount of Ts and stuff for your donation.

I am hoping to come up with $250 in the next few days to get the one-of-everything pledge level, but I’ll be totally happy if I can do the $100 or $60 levels as well… See what you can find in your pockets or your Paypal account, and head over to Kickstarter before September 12th.

“Environmental guilt = a garbage bag filled with Japanese Kit Kat wrappers. If it weren’t for my kidnapping and blackmail side business, this would be the worst thing I’ve ever done.” – Corey Mintz, Porkosity

I went to Corey’s and I shared about 40 different kinds of Japanese Kit Kats with some people, and they wrote about it, and Corey wrote about it, and it’s gonna be in the paper and some other stuff. Click on the “Porkosity” link above for a few more advance photos.

- Chris

I went to Japan in May 2010 for 10 days, and in Japan they don’t have Diet Coke. The ‘diet’ is like the parliament, or congress, so the closest equivalent is “Coke Plus”, which isn’t widely available, and doesn’t taste exactly like Diet Coke. Actually, that’s the thing about being addicted to Diet Coke–you’re addicted to Diet Coke, and all of the other products and half-steps just don’t taste right, and don’t scratch that itch. Coke Zero was always a possibility, but I figured if I was gonna leave all that behind, I’d leave it allll behind.

I was pretty seriously addicted to Diet Coke too. Although I hesitate to mention my connection Scott Pilgrim on the blog here, this little bit of Wallace…

…is exaggerated very little. I was probably drinking a 2l of Diet Coke every 2 days while I was living with Mal, and I’d been drinking it since I was like 6 or 7? Whenever it came out I think. While I’d cut waaaay back in recent years, it became kind of obvious that I’d need to cut it out entirely. And I did. Just willpower, I think I’ve had 2 or 3 mouthfuls since last year and luckily it doesn’t taste nearly as good in real life as my taste memory of it.

I haven’t exactly replaced it with anything, I’ll usually have a couple of energy drinks every workday but before you rush to point out how shitty that is for me, check out the ingredients on the only energy drink I imbibe: http://guruenergy.com/new/us/drinks/guru/guru.php. No refined caffeine, no taurine, no refined sugar, no corn syrup, all of the ingredients are certified organic. If you’ve gotta drink sugar water with weird shit in it, this is about the best sugar water you can hope for.

I also drink a lot more _actual_ water, usually 2l a day.

I don’t know if I feel any healthier, but I sure do have a hell of a lot better peace of mind when I see articles like this crop up.

- Chris

dancedanceTO from dancedanceTO on Vimeo.

A bunch of my friends made this video and they are also in this video! So Cool! Congrats guys!

- Chris

The folks at Threadless, the indy-American-Idol style T-Shirt company are blowing out their entire stock at $9 a shirt, for one day only. That is an amazing deal, on some great T’s. See the selection at http://threadless.com.

I do hope that this sudden, intense sale isn’t indicative of any financial problems or soft holiday sales at the retailer, as they’re one of my favourites.

- Christopher

Just a quick note that I have an utterly not-comics-related blog at http://christopherbutcher.com and I’ve been talking about Christmas Music, which I love, over the past 5 days if you are interested. If you are not, do not worry. I will continue posting here too. :D

- Chris

Now, I know the above doesn’t mean much to my American friends, and even if you’ve got highschool french it basically means “Milk of Hens”, which doesn’t mean much to anyone. But it means the world to me. Because you see, Lait de Poule is…

Yes that’s right, it’s Egg Nog! That holiday beverage of choice for folks that like to hide the rum on their breath, Egg Nog! It’s a drink that’s usually made of raw eggs, cream, cinnamon, nutmeg, and pure joy! It’s only less strange to us than the Morinaga Pancake Drink because it’s ‘traditional’! And it is only available a few months a year–the Christmas season. And if it’s available now…

…and it even expires before December, then it MUST be CHRISTMAS. So raise a mug of egg nog and toast to the beginning of the greatest season of the year.

Preferably an awesome Barbapapa mug!

- Chris

I’m happy to say I’ll be participating in Gamercamp this weekend, November 13-14. Gamercamp is “a celebration of the art, creativity and fun of video games,” hosted annually in Toronto. I have some friends in the gaming/indy gaming community, and if you’ll notice this year at TCAF we included a small–but to my mind important–indy gaming component. I think there’s some real interesting crossover between indy gaming and indy comics, particularly the development of narrative and working outside of the studio/corporate model, and that’s actually the subject of the panel I’m on! Here are the details:

Gamercamp: Developing Narrative in Comics & Gaming
Sunday, November 14th, 12:30pm-1:30pm
Comic books and video games—these two relatively young media have grown out of their infancy and are taking on complex issues, emotions, and ideas. Join us as we discuss the intersection of these media and what they can learn from each other. We’ll also be showcasing a range of interesting mutations that cross the barrier between media.
With Miguel Sternberd, Benjamin Rivers, and Christopher Butcher

Exciting! I’m definitely going to try to spend as much time as I can there this weekend as well, as the other panels, talks, and exhibitions seem quite cool indeed. Plus there’s two nights of cool events including a concert by Anamanaguchi, and a double-feature screening of The Wizard and The Last Starfighter! Neeeeeat.

Head over to http://gamercamp.ca for all the deets, and hopefully I’ll see you there this weekend.

- Chris
Image is a screenshot of the game “The Depth To Which We Sink” by Bigpants

I’m pretty stoked about the line-up for this year’s Waterloo Festival for Animated Cinema, going down in Waterloo, Ontario November 18th-21st. Previously they’d had Canadian premieres of anime films like Evangelion 1.0, though sadly I haven’t had a chance to attend the Festival yet. Their line-up continues to impress though, and for 2010 they’re doing screenings of the much-anticipated REDLINE (image above) and SUMMER WARS (image below).

I’m seriously hoping I get a chance to head down to Waterloo next weekend… For more information and to pick up tickets, you can visit http://www.wfac.ca/.

- Christopher

That said, my daily PR count isn’t a patch on my friend’s, Journalist Nathalie Atkinson. Over at “On The Fourth Floor” she lays down the law on how to be a good PR agent, and how to interact with journalists, and it’s both amazing and essential reading for someone with a product, service, or idea to promote.

http://www.onthefourthfloor.com/2010/10/media-darling-nathalie-atkinson.html

Go check it out.

- Christopher

…But I did want to take a minute out to congratulate my friend Jeremy Tankard on winning The Blue Spruce Award, as part of the 2010 Forest Of Reading Awards, for his children’s book BOO HOO BIRD! It’s the sequel to his award-winning debut Grumpy Bird, and it’s great! I’ve already bought copies for both of my nieces (and a few more besides!) and they’re a real hit. Winning the award puts thousands of extra copies of work into the hands of K-2 kids all over Ontario!

I know I’m kinda off in my own little world a lot of the time (and I’ve missed sooooo many other opportunities to congratulate friends) but yeah, congrats Jeremy! It’s a well-deserved award!

- Christopher
(via)

Torontonian artist and illustrator Gary Taxali has unveiled a near-complete preview of his art show at Narwhal Gallery this Thursday January 28th, entitled “The Taxali 300″. A collection of prints on found objects and ephemera, it’s a wonderful example of his style, influenced by pre-war cartoons and illustrations. A lovely way to spend an hour.

Taxali is notable for having given Google the finger, literally and figuratively, when they approached him and other illustrators to produce illustrations for their various pieces of software, with no intent on paying them. In this instance, it probably would have been a very good ‘portfolio piece’, but Taxali decided that his work was worth being paid for, particularly when a (very) large company making lots (and lots) of money was the one who came calling, asking for freebies. Good on him.

- Christopher

According to the just-discovered MustLoveJapan website (thanks @DebAoki!), Himeji Castle will be closing for repairs and upgrades beginning April 2010, until sometime in 2015.

If you’ve been reading the site for a while, you might remember that in the midst of my Otaku-fueled first Japan travelogue in 2007, I took a short break to post 20 Photos of Himeji, a town I really liked. Himeji is a medium-sized town, and very pedestrian-friendly, it’s on a grid and the whole thing seems designed to give you the best-possible view of the castle.

If any of my photos inspired you to visit Japan (or visit places within Japan) you may want to move quickly to see this attraction, before it’s off limits for the next half-decade…!

- Chris

Thanks for reading, see you soon!

- Christopher

My friend Corey Mintz settled on Shirahama as his almost-tropical destination of choice, for his trip to Japan. It was before my first trip and he got the idea from the Lonely Planet guide who raved about it. Shirahama roughly translates to “white sand”, and that’s what you get: 2km of white beaches on the Pacific Ocean. If you go off-season, which is essentially the 11 months of the year that aren’t August, no one’s there. “It’s like Muskoka after Labour Day” as I would explain to my Canadian friends after returning. I don’t have a clever colloquialism for you if you’re American, apologies.

Before the 2009 trip I saw Corey down and implored him to describe his trip to Japan, from start to finish, so I could steal all of the best parts. Shirahama was one of the best parts. I also learned not to only leave myself an hour to explore Sapporo, but that’s for another post.

So yeah: Shirahama is a resort town, sister-citied with Honalulu in Hawaii. It is 3/4 empty in the off-season. It is beautiful, a truly strange mix of post-war Japanese architecture and Beach Boys / Jan & Dean surf-culture. Oh, and naked outdoor onsens where you sit in a pool of scalding water as the waves crash down right next to you; the Pacific Ocean goes on forever.

I could live in Shirahama.

They greet you at the train station in Hawaiian shirts.

There are empty hotels everywhere.

This is a second-floor onsen, just off the beach looking out to the ocean.

This is the beach.

This was Tuesday night I believe. No one on the beach but us and the locals.

Because we were outside with two brand-new cameras, the setting on all of these photos are a little dark. It was an overcast day, but bright, and really warm. 75-80 degrees or so. You’ll also notice a significant different between Andrew’s photos (above) and mine (the next little batch).

Here’s another view of the onsen-on-the-beach.

In Japan there really are vending machines everywhere, including on the beach.

Kiddie Shower.

A meat little restaurant/ice cream stand, that you had to cross a bridge to get to. And check out that roof…!

You can see it better here, one edge of the beach has a large rocky outcropping that’s rather lovely to walk out onto. Looking at these pictures now, the scale is really weird… it’s actually a huge area and outcropping. Maybe I need a camera with a better depth of field? Next trip.

There were actually three onsen on the beach, this is a little foot-bath with a lovely tranquil garden and not-too-hot water. Customary with all Japanese baths, you had to wash your feet before you could put them in the bath. I mean, you didn’t Have To, there was no one around. But that’s when our morality is tested. Japan operates on the honour system, fella.

Pretty eh?

So this is just a little bit past the foot bath, and this is when our initial stroll on the beach got a bit creepy. It’s about 3 in the afternoon here, and this shop is closed. In fact, the restaurant and ice cream stand was closed too. Everything was closed. Heh.

The next batch of photos will be behind the cut, for folks reading at comics212.net. For folks on feed-readers, this is gonna be a huge post. Sorry!

For those not in the know, these are big concrete things that keep the shore from eroding. They’re called ‘tetrapods’. Popular opinion is that they don’t work, and may have started out as political graft because someone owned a construction company a favour. Heh. They are neat though. They come in triangle and explodey-shapes.

The yellow rubber on the sidewalk is for the blind. It’s everywhere.

So this here is one of the oldest onsen in town. It didn’t seem to be open while we were walking by, else I’d have stopped in for a dip. It also seemed a touch unfriendly, but maybe we were imagining things…? Anyway, just off camera to the right, in front of this building, is a statue. It’s no ordinary statue though.

It’s a dripping conch shell. I don’t want to be… well I don’t want to be untoward but my is that evocative. Of something. I took a video.

Heh.

I took this picture like 12 times trying to make it work. Enh. The colour on that market (closed of course) was amazing.

As I mentioned, most of these hotels were almost completely empty. Not a one of them had an English language website, none of them were affiliated with a major chain, none of them were on Expedia. We ended up staying at a guest-house off the beach solely because their website was basically-constructed enough that google translate didn’t completely choke on it when I tried to figure out the amenities. They all looked amazing and next time I go to Shirahama I’m going to show up even if I can’t book the hotel ahead of time, because who doesn’t want to stay at some of these places…? They’re awesome.

This is a picture of a tank of sulfur-smelling hot water. It is gross as all hell. It’s also just inside the entrance to Shirahama Saikinoyu Onsen, mentioned in 8th century Japanese texts as a place where Emperors came to take their baths. As mentioned, it is a scalding 42 degrees or so, and sits outcropped into the ocean, so that the waves literally crash down on you. It is a quiet, meditative, beautiful spot. I highly recommend it. I didn’t take pictures though, that seemed a little bit… awkward? Luckily, other people had no such compunctions.

It’s definitely worth seeing for yourself though.

On the walk up the road we passed by a couple of larger resorts, including this Onsen Theme Park, which looked… awesome. Sadly, that wasn’t the exact experience we were up for this time around, but we did get to take a picture of a fat little man in a washtub, and isn’t that what it’s all about?

Then we got lunch at a lovely little restaurant that served this Nagisa beer, which was also pretty good! I got a past dish that was actually pretty solid, and Andrew got:

Pizza! But not ordinary pizza…

Pizza with chopped (actually, riced) hardboiled egg, cheese, and tomatoes. On a cracker crust. Because… Japan! Also, the restaurant was entirely filled with middle-aged ladies and us, which (particularly in the south of Japan, in a tourist town that doesn’t get many gaijin at all) caused a bit of a stir. Anyway, we liked the beer so much we brought some bottle back for our friend Paul and his beer-rating pals.

What’s that, just outside of the restaurant?

Why it’s a totally kick-ass house.

So we had walked back around and towards the water, to one of Shirahama’s main attractions, Senjojiki. It roughly translates to “thousand tatami mats”, as the ocean has eroded the soft stone over thousands of years to create a series of impressive cliffs. It reminded me of Peggy’s Cove in Nova Scotia, actually. To get there you walked through a magical forest.

Actually, it was just a lovely little park with trees that look slanted because the grade of the ground is so steep.

There were maybe 20-30 people here all told, which made it the most people we saw at one time for our entire trip to Shirahama.

Andrew’s away on the rock in the upper right corner there. He’s the yellow dot.

You can sort of tell that Andrew was a little braver than I was. Only a little tho. :)

On the way back to town from our walk, we took photos of more weird buildings, more weird hotels, and some lovely flowers. But really, I want to leave a little something to the imagination.

Shirahama is not a terribly easy place to ‘do’ if you’re not at least a little fluent in Japanese, or unless you happen to be very determined. But it really was a wonderful trip and it added an entirely new dimension to traveling to and across Japan. If you can, do it! Just maybe do it in early July, unless you wanna spend your vacation on the beach with 10,000 other people instead of 5.

- Christopher

Hey Canada! Sick of going through your feed reader, having one of your favourite sites include a clip from The Daily Show or Adult Swim, only to see “THIS VIDEO NOT AVAILABLE IN YOUR COUNTRY” when you try to watch? Me too!

That’s why when I surf, I surf with the AnchorFree Hotspot Shield VPN. It’s a program that… well, you don’t care. All it does is pretend that you’re not from Canada, where the Teletoon won’t get around to showing S4 of The Venture Bros. until sometime in 2010. So you can watch The Venture Bros. along with the rest of the world, and not some cultural cripple without access to real TV.

Download it. Run it. Use the internet like the internet was intended.

- Christopher

“I love Karl Lagerfeld, and [PETA] hate him because he showed fur in his collection, and they protested his fashion show. People were chanting outside, “KARL LAGERFELD IS A MURDERER! KARL LAGERFELD IS A MURDERER!” And I thought, “Wouldn’t it be fabulous if Karl Lagerfeld actually was a murderer?” Like, what if he just fuckin’ lost it one day…backstage at a show in Milan…and bludgeoned Elsa Klensch to death with a platform shoe. “I HATE THAT BLOUSE!” “

“The best part of any fashion show is Karl Lagerfeld with his white hair, and the big glasses, and a fuckin’ fan. Like he’s some kind of Spanish lady or something. And I look at the fan and I’m like, “Bitch, it’s not that hot, what’choo doin’?”"

- Margaret Cho, I’m The One That I Want

More on the ridiculous fan-less Karl Lagerfeld figure at WWD.com. Edit: Apparently Karl stopped carrying a fan after he lost all the weight. Why does no one tell me these things?

- Christopher

On the Runway: An Illustrated Fashion Editorial
Weekend Post, Saturday September 12
Illustration by Maurice Vellekoop, Text by Nathalie Atkinson

“I hope there’s a red carpet at check-in,” says Marla, feeling the Sixties retro-futurism vibe of her Narciso Rodriguez ensemble (made all the more over-the-top with a Jimmy Choo bag).

Model of the moment Katya is starry-eyed, fresh off the plane from Eastern Europe and worries she doesn’t have a thing to wear: luckily John Galliano went to town in the Balkans with folkloric embroidery and traditional costume headdresses. “Dahling, anybody who tells you that less is more is simply old, like me,” purrs her booker Joan, in Jil Sander.

It’s always happy hour in the First Class Lounge. Sheila and Karen aren’t frequent fliers but their Marc Jacobs (L) and Christian Dior outfits (R) were all the points they needed to breeze past those adorable security men. (That, and the promise of mile high club benefits.) “If anybody gets suspicious,” whispers Sandrine, “just repeat after me: ‘Oh, how I miss the Concorde.”

The same charm doesn’t work on Customs, alas, as this ill-fated trio soon found out. Search and seizure agents were immune to the persuasive sartorial powers of Alexander McQueen (L), Miu Miu (M) and Comme des Garçons (R) and immediately confiscated the spoils of several fashion weeks’ worth of front row swag. Isn’t air travel glamorous?

—
END

Sadly, it doesn’t look this the article has made it online yet (it’s too bad because I was REALLY hoping to see the images online, a little larger than they were in the paper), but if you are able to still grab a copy of the paper it’s pretty neat, I recommend it.

(There’s also a new TIFF comic strip by Steve Murray in there too…)

If The National Post puts the article online I’ll update this post with a link! If not maybe I’ll just scan some of it?

- Christopher

]]> http://comics212.net/2009/09/13/almost-missed-it-maurice-vellekoop-in-the-national-post-today/feed/ 2 http://comics212.net/2009/08/25/random-japan-beer-at-the-kfc/ http://comics212.net/2009/08/25/random-japan-beer-at-the-kfc/#comments Wed, 26 Aug 2009 03:17:49 +0000 Chris http://comics212.net/?p=3244

One of the things that really took me back in Japan? The alcohol culture in general is a hell of a lot more enlightened than it is in North America. We’ve all heard the stories about drunken salarymen making a mess of the streets of Tokyo, but I’ll take that over the wierd puritan love/hate relationship we have with alcohol here any day…

To that end, if you happen to wanna drop in to the local KFC for dinner, why not pick yourself up a nice big not-quite-a-pint of Kirin Beer? Beer: It really does go great with Fried Chicken.

(I couldn’t find any hint of this at the KFC site, which leads me to believe this is a more ground-level production… Or they want to keep it under the radar for some reason!)

- Christopher
Not everything I wanna say about Japan will be in 30-photo chunks… enjoy!