kaytoil

I was in the Potterow student union yesterday when I walked past a poster for the German Society Bierfest. The poster consisted of two mugs of beer being held in front of a woman's cleavage. That was it. The breasts and the beer filled the entire A4 landscape piece of paper. My male friend and I thought that was a bit extreme even for tongue in cheek student fare. Conveniently, that day the society posted about the Bierfest on their mailing list so I sent them a little e-mail.


"Dearest German Society,

I am impressed by the sexist posters for the Bierfest. I hope you can come up with something better next time round. Good luck with the event though!

Yours disappointedly,

Kaytoil"


Their reply:


"Dearest Kaytoil,

We at the predominantly female German Society believe that everyone can
enjoy boobs, and would have done an equivalent naked-male-in-Lederhosen
effort to complement the other poster had we had a sufficiently buff male
committee member willing to pose. However, our hottest members from all over
the sexual spectrum will be in attendance at the Beerfest should you wish
for some equivalent man-boobs!

Cheers, and sorry if the posters caused any genuine offence,
-'name here'
(President)"


I like breasts too but I still don't like sexist advertising. Having completed a German degree myself, I can pretty confidently say that our German Society would never have dreamed of doing something so tasteless. If you're going to do bad taste humour try to make it a little less blatantly offensive and make the effort to put a male in too or maybe just give the female a face.

Hello hello,

After many good conversations at the recently formed Edinburgh University Humanist Society and reading a friend's nifty humanist blog, I have decided to create one of my very own. Feel free to come and have a read of my take on life, the universe and everything. I've already had a comment with a weird question from some random guy with his own religious agenda. My internet experience is complete! That said, I do welcome any kind of comment so knock yourselves out. The first couple of posts are a bit serious but it should get a bit lighter now that I've established the basics.

My humanist blog: http://thishumanist.wordpress.com/

Enjoy!

Hmm,

So the other day I decided to write to a clothing company I quite like. It was recommended to me by a friend and they make well-made, hard-wearing, long-lasting, ecologically sourced items for active people such as BMX-ers, skateboarders, cyclists and suchlike. Unfortunately, while they have a women's range stocking UK size 16, not all of the women's clothes go up to that size. Pretty fustrating. So I decided to drop them a line about it.

Below, you will find my e-mail (last) and their reply (first).


------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello *kaytoil*,

We agree with everything you wrote, but to make any size we need to be
able to make the minimum our factories demand. That means we need to be
able to sell them too.

This summer we introduced a size 16 in all girls styles. It only took
us 3 years to do so. We are getting asked more and more so one day we will
do it.

Right now we can't afford it. Keep watching.
Apologies,

ade

howies
www.howies.co.uk

Bath House Road, Cardigan, Wales SA43 1JY
Direct line: +44 (0)1239 622 345
tel: +44 (0)1239 614 122
fax: +44 (0)1239 615 598



------ Forwarded Message

Subject: Women's sizes


Dear Pete,

I've just finished making an order of some nice Howies
clothing, but I was a little disappointed that I
couldn't order everything I wanted. I have noticed in
the women's sizes that although the women's range
includes size 16, there is no size XL which would be
the size 16 equivalent. This means that I can't buy
some of the tops and jackets because they only go as
far as L (size 14). That's quite fustrating for those
of us who are built a little bigger or sturdier.

I can assure you that women of all sizes lead an
active lifestyle; mine includes juggling, martial
arts, going to the gym and playing basketball and
football with friends. There are also plenty of us
that want to buy ethically sound, well made clothing
too. Ideally, I would love to see clothing ranges
reach size 18 too, but for now could you please just
be consistent with the sizes you have by making sure
that all designs are available in all sizes. I do love
the Howie's women's designs with some cut to fit
flatteringly and some cut loose and baggy for comfort
and movement.

I hope to be able to buy more Howies in the future.


Thanks for reading!

Hey folks,

So this is horribly, horribly overdue and late but here's my account of the Bristol Comic Expo 2006 May 13-14th. I only went along to the Saturday but it was pretty cool. It was a really nice mix of bigger companies, self-published comics and comic shop stalls selling back issues and merchandise. The bigger companies came first with their multiple table stalls as you came in and then the comic shops were along the sides, which left you with lots of room for the stalls with the creators all along the middle. The attendance worked out really well with lots of people there but you could still move and see the stalls and there was even air to breath but it did get a bit toasty. I didn't check out many of the talks except for a small talk about UK self-published comics. It was a panel of people recommending one or two comics each and I found it a bit weird and unhelpful to be honest, but maybe that's because it didn't really mention many of the ones that I like. I did manage to discover a few more people and see some favourite so that was pretty cool.

Now the swag list:


*** Mary Baird *** http://www.diyhamstercraft.com/

Elephant, Elephant, Hippo, Rhino?

Cute collection of strips about a rhino in the zoo and his new neighbour the tapir.


*** Selina Dean *** http://noddingcat.net/

Fantasma #2, #3
Fantastic cat vol. 1 (graphic novel)
Jar
Snails Don't Have Friends

My favourite Sweatdrop Studios artist still with her distinctive style and prominence of cats with a darker edge. Nya!


*** Foxy *** http://www.critter.net/~voop/

Foxtails: Sweatdrop ashcom #3

Rambunctious girls with animal ears always wins points with me. You can see the Rumiko Takahashi influence in some bits.


*** David Goodman *** http://www.bahala-na.co.uk/

Catgirl Comicbook Convention Crisis

Apparently, he spent all year playing computer games instead of drawing comics instead producing a short comic involving catgirls. I forgive him entirely. ~<3


*** Roger Langridge *** http://www.hotelfred.com

graphic novel: Fred the Clown
mini comics:-
Art d'Ecco
Doctor Sputnik #1,#2
Frankenstein meets Shirley Temple
Henry Plib's Got Two
Knuckles The Malevolent Nun
Let's ask Fred the Clown
Mugwump's Big Night
Quizmaster Gump
Spitoon Funnies

A new discovery! I haven't had a chance to read much yet, but I like the older comics style (a bit acme library maybe?) and the art is pretty meticulous, lots of silent movie humour.


*** Gary Northfield *** http://stupidmonsters.blogspot.com/

Bernard Cribbens' Rousing Tales of Action and Adventure (with Matt Abbiss)
Freddy the Little Goldfish
The Funny Plastic Skeleton
Great!

I will always adore his sketchy doodle style that somehow always seems to have loads of great expression , poignancy and humour.


*** Dan Rowbottom *** http://www.cosmic-apple.com

Moonsparks collected edition 1
The Robot
Return of the Robot
The Teacher
Moonsparks #2, #3, #5
10 Things You Never Knew About Birthdays (almost entirely true)

The master of the weeny, tiny, whimsical mini-comic, and a really nice guy to talk to. What's not to love about these?


*** James Turner *** http://www.beaverandsteve.com/

Beaver & Steve: Vol. 1A Shoeful of Trouble

One of my favourite webcomics signed, doodled and dedicated. Got a nifty evil moth badge too. What a swell guy!


*** Laura Watton *** http://www.laurawatton.co.uk/

Squish-chan's Adventure

Nifty humour and nifty art. I like. Hella cute octipus story. ^_^;;


*** The Girly Comic *** http://www.factorfictionpress.co.uk/girly/

The Girly Comic #12 Summer 2006

Woohoo! Finally this one is all female comic artists. Yay! My dream would be for the UK to have a regular all female comic artist compilation maybe The Girly Comic will manage this yet.


*** Markosia Comics *** http://www.markosia.com

Dark Mists: Kuroi Kiri, Bumper Edition (#1,#2), #3
Scatterbrain #1,#2

Markosia win the award for shiniest UK comics publisher by far. These glossy comics feature new artists and new writers. Haven't got round to reading them yet. Dark Mists has a whole pretty Japanese influences geisha crime thriller thing going on (written by a woman, Annika Eade :), and Scatterbrain has striking dark, sketchy, scary artwork from a 19 year old. Impressive. Their behind the tables display also had the best array of curvaceous female behind and bust. We pointed out this out and suggested they include some male eye-candy next time too.


Grabbed some back issues for 'Catwoman: When in Rome' and 'Harley Quinn'. I seem to be developing a DC villainesses obsession, but they are pretty cool. There should be something with Poison Ivy, she's such an underused character: a biologist/botanist/toxicologist geek gal with a general disdain for humanity and lesbian undertones. That's makes her pretty appealing in my book.

If you want to go to next year's Bristol Expo, look here for details:

http://www.comicexpo.net/

Whoo!

I have just got back from the Web & Mini Comix Thing 2006, which was cool and full of lots of comics I hadn't heard of, as well as some pretty well known web comics. Among the exhibitors present, I recognised Weebl & Bob and The Little Gamers. Weebl & Bob had an impressive array of t-shirts, badges and plushies. My awesomest discovery of the day was Joanthon Dalton. He does this amazingly beautiful artwork where the both the character design and the backgrounds were full of intricate detail and from the pages I read it looks like he has some nice stories too. He didn't have any comics for sale although there's a story about to appear in an anthology but I did manage to acquire a really nice sketch of one of his protagonists. My whimisical fun comic discovery was Richard Tingley with some daft sketching that just hits the spot. Finally, I fell in love with the sweet comics of Ayako Takagi. She has figures, pins and keyrings so it looks like she muct be pretty well established. My cool new web comic find was 'The unfeasible adventures of Beaver and Steve'. So much joy. So, all in all, I was quite restrained. Here are the contents of my swag bag...


Jonathon Dalton - http://www.jonathondalton.com

Awesome free sketch
Awesome free bookmark
I await his first comics with eager anticipation!


Jeremy Dennis - http://www.alleged.org.uk/jrd/

Mini comics:
Giant sized manthing no. 2
Little mysteries
Mystery silence theatre
The new fanny anthology
Unfinished projects
What are you here for? answered by google


B. Gillespie/Fred - http://www.koniption.blogspot.com/

Mr Maximo & Rabbit Vol II: On Gothic, Romance & Rabbits
Rabbit Painting Postcards
Stars Rabbit Painting badge
Mr Maximo da vinci badge


The Girly Comic Anthology - http://www.factorfictionpress.co.uk/girly/

The Girly Comic: Spring 2006 #11
The girly comic presents: The Powder Room


Kelly Hernandez - http://www.kellyhernandez.co.uk

Lowborn no. 4


Ayako Takagi - http://www.uamou.com

Uamou from another planet #1 & 2.
Where is my heart?
Uamou with ice-cream enamel pin
Cat postcard


Richard Tingley - http://www.richardtingley.co.uk

Fink #1
Naked


James Turner - http://www.beaverandsteve.com/index.php

orange 'Imagination!' t-shirt

I just had to post this quote from Courtney Love about what to look for in a boyfriend:

"If you can't be friends with him, forget it. If he doesn't know how to get you to actually shut the fuck up, it's not worth that much."

I think that about sumarises what I look for in a relationship. You have to be friends but at the same time, he needs to be able to stand up to you and be honest with you. The rest works itself out on an individual basis. The quote comes from an article 'Bad like me' that features in "The Bust Guide to the New Girl Order". It's a cool book and Bust is a great magazine.

Go read Bust or order the book now:
http://www.bust.com

(Bust can be bought at Borders bookshop in the UK. Go buy!)

Finally, I have time to report on my comics haul!

For those of you who don't know, Caption is an annual self-published/small press comics event based in Oxford, UK. It was a two day event although I only managed the Saturday. It was cool to finally see in the flesh some of the comic artists I'd been reading about in compilations such as Action Girl (Slave Labor Graphics) and the self-published Girl Frenzy, and to discover new comics and artists that I liked. They had plenty of workshops and events, although I limited myself to the panel about creating your own comics for as little as possible. Other than that, I browsed the comics for sale brought along by the artists and was weak to the stall selling Slab o' Concrete's back catalogue for 50 pence each.

So here's what I picked up (alphabetized by author):

The Spiral Cage: An autobiography - Al Davison
Spiral Dreams - Al Davison
Spiral Dreams: Sobakz's Dream - Al Davison
Scar Tissue - Al Davison
The Raven - Al Davison
Peckham Dreams - Al Davison & students
Quetzal Avocado Startup Plan - Jeremy Dennis
Copse: The cartoon Book of Tree Protesting - Kate Evans
Bahala Na! - David Goodman
Bahala Na! 02 - David Goodman
Bahala Na! 03 - David Goodman
Bahala Na! 04 - David Goodman
Bahala Na! 05 - David Goodman
Artistic Licentiousness #3 - Roberta Gregory
Comix Comix - Roberta Gregory
Low Born #1 - Kelly Hernandez
Low Born #2 - Kelly Hernandez
Low Born #3 - Kelly Hernandez
Slapdash - Kelly Hernandez
Daytripper - Kelly Hernandez
Queen of the Black Black - Megan Kelson
Inner City Pagan: Living Poor - Lee Kennedy
Tiny Bubbles - James Kochalka
Magic Boy and the Word of God - James Kochalka Superstar
Black Candy - Matt Madden
King-Cat: Comics & Stories #51 - John Porcellino
King-Cat: Comics & Stories #52 - John Porcellino
King-Cat: Comics & Stories #53 - John Porcellino
Flaming Hand - Paul Schroeder
Small Pets - various
Sunny for Girls #1 - various
Sunny for Girls #2 - various
Superstate Funnies: a sampler of UK and European comic art - various
Teddy - Virginie


More info on the Caption comics convention:
http://www.caption.org/

Eeeee. I have discovered dice games!

I was browsing at the The West End Craft and Design Fair, which is part of the Edinburgh Festival in the grounds of St John's church, when I came across this stall called "Nice Dice" with loads of dice in different colours and materials. I am now the proud owner of a set of six brass dice with a booklet of dice games. They are really gorgeous though. The stallholder had all different coloured variations of dice, 'dodgy' dice for cheating and dice made of brass, iron and aluminium. The brass ones feel really nice to handle and we have already played some of the games with them. It's also nice to play with the numbers as you work out the scores. I just need to find people willing to sit around with me and play with dice while I get far too excited.

See the craft fair -
http://www.3d2d.co.uk/festival.html

See the dice -
http://www.highland-games.co.uk

Welcome all to my first ever lj incarnation!

I don't really know whether I'll post that often and what the content might be, but I suspect it will be something to do with stuff I've discovered and thoughts I've had. First things first, I have to find my friends on here!

Take care everyone!

kaytoil