Sixteen stories of mid-apocalyptic science fabulism, body horror fairy tales, queer Catholic cyberpunk, and blue-collar resistance.
Jarboe’s outstanding debut collection demonstrates a flair for queer surrealism and an ear for lyrical prose. In the powerful “Self Care,” a nihilistic youth, who identifies as a “gay transsexual witch,” is displaced by apocalyptic flooding and takes refuge in Our Lady of Good Voyage, a Catholic church. “I Am a Beautiful Bug!” turns Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” on its head with a tale of a person undergoing surgery to look like the giant bug they’ve always wanted to be (“Gimme the works, doctor! Just like Gregor Samsa!”). The pieces range from brief vignettes that read like prose poetry to much longer works like the title story, which tells of a young man deciding to join the masses of ”defunct service cyborgs, addicts, migrants, drop-outs, single parents, [and] estranged children” on the holy colony of the Moon. Throughout, Jarboe melds tenderness, humor, and righteous anger into insightful tales of characters navigating the margins of society. Readers are sure to be blown away. [Publisher's Weekly starred review]
Video games are not born fully-formed from a dark abyss. They are created by designers, writers, artists, sound engineers, and composers, only to be released by publishers into world for critics and the general public to embrace or reject them.
In Simply the Best: Interviews with Video Game Designers, Composers and Scofflaws, author Mat Bradley-Tschirgi interviews dozens of indie and professional designers who have worked on such classics as E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Fallout and Leisure Suit Larry in this delightful tome.
Way With Worlds is back for round two!
We love making fictional worlds - but making ones that are memorable and powerful takes work. How can we build better fictional settings when there's so many challenges?
To help you out, Steve Savage explores specific issues and subjects that are important to worldbuilders. It's time for a deep dive on subjects near and dear to our hearts - and that occasionally frustrate us!
Hardcoregaming101.net Presents: The Guide to Classic Graphic Adventures is an ode to one of the oldest genres in electronic gaming. It is 772 pages in length, covers over 300 games and includes a number of interviews with classic game developers. It is an expansive tome, jam packed to the brim with history, criticism, and trivia. If you've ever asked the question "If I like LucasArts and Sierra games, what other games should I play?", then this book should be your bible.
The others believe in blood and bone. Ree believes in books.
She manages the libraries and draws maps for the denizens of her hometown, a secret society of necromancers hiding in a sprawling underground crypt. Though they look down on her for not practicing their craft, Ree has bigger ambitions than raising the dead. She’s going to resurrect therianthropy, the ancient magic of shapeshifting. Or at least -- she’ll do it if it really exists. And if she can find the books that prove it.
But Smythe, a chatty historian from the world above, stumbles into the crypt and takes a curse meant for Ree. Now she has to find a way to save him, keep the townsfolk off her back, and convince her necromancer parents that shapeshifting is a viable career path.
Ree is certain that if she and Smythe combine their scholarly skill sets, they’ll find the right books to solve their problems. But Ree’s search for power might put the entire town in danger, and her father and the other townsfolk want Smythe dead lest he reveal their home to a world that hates them.
Becoming a witch takes a lot of hard work, and not everyone has the resources to devote themselves to such a grueling process. But thankfully, magic isn’t completely unattainable! Witches need familiars in order to thrive, and sometimes the best candidate for the job is in the neighborhood instead of through a portal to the otherworld.
But what happens when you try on a new life and realize it fits you better than your old one? What do you do when it comes with an expiration date?
Feel like watching a 23 year-old get drunk, go to the dentist, and struggle to graduate from art school, all for your entertainment? You're in luck, because I have compiled all of my diary comics from my last semester of college. Enjoy.
Gods aren’t exactly common, but there are a lot of them, it turns out. If a person sees a god, it usually means the latter is in trouble—the modern world has many mysteries the gods haven’t completely figured out. But some charitable person is inevitably around to help out these flustered deities, who then invariably grant these kind souls a wish.
And if a lot of wishes are being granted at once, well, it's easy to lose track of what you want.
Deep in the desert, underneath sand and sun, a secret military project seeks to disrupt a brewing Second Civil War in the United States by creating the most efficient, combat capable group of soldiers the world has ever seen. A departure from autonomous drones, these warriors are grown and bred in a laboratory, carefully designed from the genes up-- but results so far have been very unexpected: what happens when these genetically engineered chimeras can't understand a single word?
Contains the first chapter of Follower, along with 6-page bonus story, "The Setup."
The Corrupted Kingdom is a collection of nine connected, dark fantasy short stories.
Tony and the Beetles tells the story of a young boy's last day on the planet he calls home. Originally published in 1953, this classic public-domain story by science fiction author Philip K. Dick (Ubik, Man in the High Castle) has been adapted in to a graphic novel by cartoonist Jason Payne (Princezz, Pizza Fright.)
Chapter 1 of Weirdogs, a goofy slice-of-life and occasional adventure webcomic about a lazy pup who suddenly finds himself having to grow up.
SOULS & STRIPES is a 123-page collection of 17 Undertale and Deltarune fan comics by Feral Phoenix, starring your favorite stripe-shirted kids and troubled Hometown teens.
Cally's older brother Ciaran is the ideal prince: intelligent, charismatic, attractive, and with a powerful Dragongift that can move the seas. In other words, everything Cally isn't. No one is surprised when Ciaran is named the next High King, and Cally is ready to settle for a life in Ciaran's shadow. But a dark web of lies surrounds the throne, and when assassins strike, Cally is the only one left who can save the Kingdom.
49.7k words, 5 B&W illustrations
Griphotikon is a 52-page digital zine.
It tells of a people of tiny animals, whose quotidian life takes place in the town of Griphotikon, built into the mail slot of a higher being's apartment.
The Stellar Beacon is a zine that supports the sci-fi RPG
Return to the Stars with new adventures and which also explores the
gamer and geek culture more broadly.
Violent. Funny. Weird. Sexy. Political. Historical. Gothic. Incomprehensible. Brilliant. Awful. Original. Lazy. The very best of games. The very worst of games. Metal Gear Solid is all of these things and more. For twenty years, it has incited as much as it has entertained—thrilled and inflamed in equal measure. It begs analysis while at the same time defying simple definitions. To make any sense of Metal Gear Solid would surely take an entire book.
A first-person exploration of anxiety, Feline Therapy is my biggest departure yet; lighter on the gender feels, heavier on the ways we face our problems and the ways we escape them. It’s my first full-color book, as well as my first collaboration with a professional illustrator. I hope you like it!
