You Bring Your Tulpas When You Go — Peter Ferguson

You Bring Your Tulpas When You Go (The Tenement Fire), 2021 by Peter Ferguson (b. 1968)

Illustration for Sad Book — Quentin Blake

Illustration to Michael Rosen’s Sad Book, 2004 by Quentin Blake (b. 1932)

They’re a bunch of bloodsucking bastards | Check out this longassed profile of Alan Moore

“Why’d you fall out with DC comics?”

“Because they’re a bunch of bloodsucking bastards, quite frankly,” is the kinda thing he tends to say. He’ll clarify that the comic book medium is “perfect,” it is “sublime,” whereas the comics industry is “a dysfunctional hellhole” that “hasn’t had any new ideas in 20 or 30 years,” that it’s run by “sub-human” thieves who employ the same “gangster ethics” by which DC “bought” the rights for Superman off its teen creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster, for $130.

“I pretty much detest the comics industry” is the gist, most recently for what they’ve done to popular culture and democracy with the Marvel Cinematic Universe and . . . whatever it is that DC’s up to. Moore’s been saying for years that he sees a harbinger of fascism in how young adults flock to see these “franchised übermenschen” zipping across the screen, and yes, he’s also mindful of the fact that he’s basically the cause of all this.

There were a lot of quotes I could’ve pulled from Alexander Sorondo’s new profile of Alan Moore at The Metropolitan Review — getting expelled for selling acid, falling in love with David Foster Wallace, accidentally conjuring the Persian math demon Asmodeus, etc. — but this is the one I chose. Check it out.

Portrait of Alan Moore, 2011, by Frank Quitely (b. 1968)

December Moonrise — Charles Burchfield

December Moonrise, 1959 by Charles Burchfield (1893-1967)

Sunday Comix

From “I Was a Captive of the Insect Fiends!” by Tim “Grisly” Boxell. Published in Fantagor #4, 1972, Last Gasp.

The Skull — Claudio Bravo

The Skull, 1973 by Claudio Bravo (1936-2011)

 

Samuel Beckett’s Assassination Custard

When Samuel Beckett went to Paris in 1930 he discovered his true home, a place of liberation in both the personal and professional sense. He became a member of James Joyce’s inner circle, and was one of the many accoucheurs at the prolonged delivery of Finnegans Wake.

In the early hours of 7 January 1939, Beckett was returning home with friends from a café when he was accosted by a pimp called Prudent. When Beckett repelled the pimp’s advances he stuck a flick knife straight into Beckett’s chest, missing the heart by a mere whisker. His companions roared for help and were assisted by a passing piano student, Suzanne Deschevaux-Dumesnil, and Beckett was rushed to hospital. Joyce insisted on paying for a private room for him, and lent him his favourite reading lamp. Nora made one of her special custard puddings to nourish the invalid. The cool and efficient piano student eventually became Mrs Beckett.

5 egg yolks loz (30g) castor sugar
1 pt (600ml) single cream
2 tbsp brandy
Preheat oven to 160°C (325°F, Gas mark 3).

Grease a shallow ovenproof dish (about 900ml or 1½ pt capacity). Beat the egg yolks and castor sugar together. Heat the cream gently, do not boil, and stir in the brandy. Very gradually add the warmed cream to the egg mixture, beating constantly. Pour into the dish. Place the dish in a baking tin and pour sufficient hot water into the tin to come half-way up the dish. Bake for 45 minutes or until set.
Serves four.

From A Trifle, a Coddle, a Fry: An Irish Literary Cookbook by Veronica Jane O’Mara and Fionnuala O’Reilly.

Sunday Comix

Peanuts daily strip for 8 May 1979 by Charles M. Schulz. Reprinted in The Complete Peanuts: 1979-1980 (Volume Fifteen), Fantagraphics Books, 2011.

Skeleton Key — Taylor Schultek 

Skeleton Key, 2025 by Taylor Schultek (b. 1990)

The Pond — Aron Wiesenfeld 

The Pond, 2023 by Aron Wiesenfeld (b. 1972)

Spontaneous pig rescue | A self-contained episode from Thomas Pynchon’s Shadow Ticket

What seems to’ve begun happening out here on the route with some regularity is that impulses disallowed in normal society are surfacing unexpectedly and being acted upon. Some more benevolent than others, spontaneous pig rescue, for example.

Unaccustomed bustle one day in the repair shop, where the ill-tempered Sándor Zsupka, across whose path few who have ever ventured care to do so again, currently on the run from a number of felony charges, including actual bodily harm, is putting together a pig-customized helmet and goggles combination revealing along with his criminal activities a gift for millinery.

“This is your…”

“Spirit guide, and even a spirit guide can do with some extra windproofing now and then. Further questions?”

“Never seen a pig quite like this…”

She’s a Mangalica, a popular breed in Hungary at the moment, curly-coated as a sheep, black upper half, blonde lower. And that face! One of the more lovable pig faces, surrounded by ringlets and curls. Squeezita Thickly should only look half this adorable.

No more than idly cruising the countryside, Sándor happened to get off on one of those fateful back roads, and there in a steep farmyard were a family and their livestock, a cute meet, you’d say, though not half as cute as the pig herself. “Oh and this is Erzsébet, we’re eating her for Christmas.”

Hell they are. Sándor and some barroom accomplices perform a snatch-and-grab in the middle of the night, the pig pretending to be asleep, as she is picked up, installed in the sidecar of Sándor’s rig, and spirited away, just like that. Next thing anybody knows she’s riding in the sidecar, done up in helmet and goggles, beaming, posing like a princess in a limousine. Anybody feels like commenting, they don’t.

A self-contained episode from Thomas Pynchon’s 2025 novel Shadow Ticket.

Non Compus Mentis — Benjamin Cañas

Non Compus Mentis, 1976 by Benjamin Cañas (1933-1987)

November First — Andrew Wyeth

 

andrew-wyeth-november-first

November First, 1950 by Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009)

Posted in Art

Séance — Taylor Schultek

Séance, 2025 by Taylor Schultek (b. 1990)

Bats — I.B.S. Hopfer and J.J. Bylaert

 

 

Bat illustrations from Dierkundig mengelwerk (Zoological Miscellany), 1793 by I.B.S. Hopfer and J.J. Bylaert. 

Posted in Art

Sunday Comix

“Vampire!” by Johnny Craig. From The Haunt of Fear #16, July 1950, EC Comics.

Pluto and a Harlequin in Hell — Giuseppe Bernardino Bison

Pluto and a Harlequin in Hell, 18th c. by Giuseppe Bernardino Bison (1762-1844)