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Tag: Comics

Load-Bearing Books

Drew Dernavich for the New Yorker. My to-read pile probably isn’t structurally important, but I wouldn’t pull a book out of the bottom of the stack that’s for sure.

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AI vs Death

Tom Gauld for the New Scientist.

By weird coincidence this tribute to Ingmar Bergman from the 1981 TV special “The Muppets Go to the Movies” with Beaker as Death also popped up in my timeline this week.

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The End of Summer

Oof. This is a little too on the nose from Roz Chast (for The New Yorker).

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‘To Be Read’ by Tom Gauld

Tom Gauld for The Guardian.

My ‘to be read’ wall feels particularly bad at the moment. I did, however, read an ARC of She’s a Killer by Kirsten McDougall on vacation, which is fun if you like an unreliable narrator who is not quite a genius, but very possibly a sociopath (and has an imaginary friend).

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Sergio García Sánchez’s “On the Same Page”

Sergio García Sánchez‘s cover illustration, coloured by his partner Lola Moral, for the recent fiction issue of The New Yorker is lovely.

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Corrupting Souls

Tom Gauld‘s Midsummer’s Eve cartoon for The Guardian is from last month (obviously!), but I’m borrowing it to make a bit of boring and overdue social media housekeeping more interesting!

While I haven’t yet asked Wizard Toby to deactivate the Casual Optimist account like a some kind of despairing Baphomet, I have pretty much abandoned Twitter. It’s disappointing because I’ve met some great people through the app and it has always been a tremendous resource, but I can’t support it any more.

I’ve always hated Facebook and I haven’t posted to the Casual Optimist page there in at least a couple of years. I did, however, start an Instagram account which I’m trying to update at least once a month if you want to follow along there. I think it’s pretty unlikely that I will do anything with Threads.

I’m not on Bluesky, but I am trying out Mastodon. It promises a lot, I’m just not quite convinced by it yet (and I gather from more prolific posters than me that there is something of a sea lion problem there). I’ll post a link if/when there is a proper Casual Optimist account. In the meantime, you can find me here.

There is an RSS feed that you can subscribe to if you still use a reader (I use the Old Reader FWIW; I’m not sure what the cool kids are using), or you can get it as an email (it’s not perfect but it works).

Updates are also sent automatically to Tumblr if you’re still rattling around that haunted abandoned mansion.

Anyway, sorry for being very online and tedious. I’ll try to post some more interesting stuff soon (if I don’t quietly pack it in completely and put myself out to pasture…)

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Ghost Writer

Cartoon by Graham Annabelle.

And just a reminder, Graham AKA Grickle has a new graphic novel for kids called Eerie Tales from the School of Screams coming out this summer.

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Nighthawks at the Library by Tom Gauld

Tom Gauld for The Guardian.

(Is this a Semisonic joke as well as an Edward Hopper one? Or am I just showing my age?)

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R. Kikuo Johnson’s “Perennial”

It feels like we are right on the cusp of spring turning into summer here in Toronto (rain all day Saturday, beautiful sunshine Sunday) so I enjoyed R. Kikuo Johnson’s latest cover illustration for The New Yorker. There are so many lovely touches.

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Free Library

Cartoon by Graham Annabelle.

Graham has a new graphic novel for kids called Eerie Tales from the School of Screams available in July.

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