V is for Virginia Opossum

Between that crazy earthquake & Hurricane Irene, Virginians have endured more than their share of our planet's little tantrums lately. I hope there are no more unpleasant surprises in store any time soon for our neighbor state (or its eponymous 'possums).

For Ben Towle's Animal Alphabet.

Ball-point, marker & white gouache on brown paper, recolored, raindropped & otherwise fooled with in Photoshop.

p.s. Speak not of opossums at the table. -Lynda Barry

Mystery Massbuch

I have been collecting ephemera for a very long time, & usually can work out what things are, but today I had a Fleam Find that puzzles & intrigues me. Does anyone have a clue what these notes might be about? They all seem to involve color & historical events. At first I thought it might be stamp descriptions, but then what are all the grain measurements about? (Or is there perhaps a currency abbreviated gr? I couldn't find one.)

If anyone has a clue I would be deeply grateful-- my curiosity is tormenting me!

Oh, by the way, the notebook is a small Massbuch, a Catholic calendar, though if there is a connection I can't make it out.

Edit: The mystery is solved! A Twitter friend, @norlik, figured out that this is in fact a list of stamps-- Polish stamps. The gr is neither grams nor grains, but Groszy, 1/100 złoty.

@norlik even found a link to one of the stamps mentioned, the Madame Curie commemorative.

Thank you so much, @norlik! I love the internet!

U is for Ulysses Butterfly

When I was hunting down U animals for Ben Towle's Animal Alphabet, I saw the Ulysses butterfly & immediately thought of the novel by James Joyce, one of my all-time favorite books.

It was such a pleasure transcribing Joyce's words. If I were completely mad, I would do a huge series of these including the entire text. Wouldn't that make quite an installment? But as I'm only slightly mad, I'll stick to one, featuring the first & last bits. (Click for a better view.)

I highly recommend that you go get the book & fill in the gap!

p.s. This one is all Photoshop

T is for Tahr

This week's entry for Ben Towle's Animal Alphabet.

Ball-point, marker & white gel-pen on brown paper, fooled with in Photoshop.


(Pssst! By the way, if you're looking for the missing "S" you'll find it on my Oddments blog.)