People Hands by Ben Rosen

Today is a busy day for Liz Prince and the internet! First up is my new comic, on the subject of ipods, for If You Make It. Click the panel below to read the whole thing, and leave a comment if you like it!



Secondly is an interview I did with the new interview website Question Riot. Give it a read if you want to learn some new things about yours truly. Interesting that these things would get posted on the same day, and they both mention one of my favourite bands of the moment Dear Landlord; it all comes full circle, folks.

see, there's a movie

they made a movie

it might even come out in theaters one day if we all wish really hard

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I just got permission from Lynn to post this, so here it is!

In 1859 I would be one of the Chinese immigrants settled in the Malaccan straits. Dad would be in his element playing the middleman between local merchants and British colonials, while I'd help my mum supplement the family income by weaving mengkuang mats (and to her great exasperation, I still would not sit like a girl). It is a time full of change as new cultures and governments intermingle, and I would feel the barest inkling of some sort of pull that, not too long later, I imagine would draw me away from home and out into the world.

( Illustration behind the cut )

Most people did a writing/art combo, so the lines of the contest were blurred a little bit. Regardless, my favorite entries were these:

• krishnaa's entry about living in India, here;
• meeleena's awesome drawing that she should expand into a comic, because I'd read it, here;
• ducttapesnakes's written/drawn entry about being biracial in 1859, here;
• and Lynn Lau's written/drawn entry about Chinese immigrants living in the Malaccan straits, which I'm waiting on permission to post here.

You four are getting books, so please send me your addresses when you get a chance!

Everyone else, thank you so much for entering! All of your entries were wonderful, and I had a tough time narrowing it down to four. I wish I could give you all books. ♥

There is a new page long comic on my website, click on the thumbnail to read the whole thing:







And, if you'd like to hear a daily quip or two, you can follow me on twitter (username comicnrrd).

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I totally love Brian Heater's interview with Heidi MacDonald in which they look back on comics trends in 2009. If we are lj friends because you like comics, you may find it interesting: LINK.

P.S. I got a new Wii game this weekend that may solve my vocab problem. My Word Coach for Wii. It was like $10 at Game Stop. Whee. I love that my Wii games will make me smarter and healthier (My Word Coach and Wii Fit Plus). Ha.

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books I read this year that weren't necessarily published this year:

ANATHEM, Neal Stephenson -- this is a really long book and at first it's very slow, dense, full of made-up lingo and alien concepts, and then it becomes a rollicking adventure story and tackles all these fascinating ideas in such a way that they seem new. It's about a lot of stuff I'd been reading about in non-fiction over the last 4-5 years, but he presents it from an alien perspective, with different names for things, and somehow that makes all our real-world science and philosophy easier to understand.

MAGIC FOR BEGINNERS, Kelly Link -- it took me way too long to actually read anything by her, but oh my GOD, the story itself, "Magic For Beginners", is like the best, seriously the best short story in the history of the universe. I don't think I even read the entire collection, but when I got to the end of that story (it's like 60 pages long) I went back to the beginning and read it again. Seriously, you owe it to yourself to track down the book and read that story. It's everything good and right, magic and teenagers and love and rooftops and libraries and being obsessed with a TV show and stuff, all told in a brilliant way that I could never begin to explain. It's the best.

LIGHT, M John Harrison -- this on first read was like my favourite book EVER, but I need to read it again to doublecheck. It's one of those really mind-bendy far-flung-future books, crossed with a current-day (actually 1999/2000) story about a physicist/serial-killer, but not as stupid as I just made it sound. Really mind-expanding, heart-rending, etc. Deeply human.

DOOMSDAY BOOK, Connie Willis -- my dad gave it to me. Science fiction about a college student traveling back in time (for school!) to the middle ages and accidentally winding up in the middle of the Bubonic Plague. A bit rocky at first and then it becomes gripping and somewhat moving.

DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY, Erik Larson -- Hope told me to read this, it was great. The story of the Chicago World's Fair in the late 1800s, interwoven with the story of a really fascinating serial killer. Non-fiction. Erik Larson is not related to Hope Larson or Erik Larsen, btw.

SPIN, Robert Charles Wilson -- I bought this for my dad and then I had to read it to make sure he'd like it. I think he'll like it! It's friggin' awesome! These kids are out in the backyard one night and the STARS DISAPPEAR! then over the next 30-odd years they grow up in this strange new cosmic world order. If you like speculative fictiony stuff or the big sprawling Stephen King-type sagas, this is a great book. I believe he already wrote a followup to this book (it came out around 2005 and won the Hugo) but forget that shit, this one book is good. I hate how all the sci-fi/fantasy books are all "FIRST BOOK IN THE ____ TRILOGY" or "SEQUEL TO THE AWARD-WINNING ______". I just want to pick up a book entirely based on its cover art and enjoy it or not, I don't want to become a member of your secret club.

WHEN YOU REACH ME, Rebecca Stead -- Hope got this for me for christmas. It's a YA book set in New York in the late 70s and it's about time travel and it's really quite nice. Like a classy Donnie Darko-type story for a slightly younger set. It gets into the philosophy and science stuff in a nice way, not dumbing things down. It's strongly reminiscent of the kinds of books I was always getting from the library as a child (maybe partly because it's set in the 70s). I can't talk about it too much because Hope hasn't read it yet.



I didn't read a lot of comics, feels like. I haven't even cracked open a volume of PLUTO (I was reading scanlations a few years ago, so, I mean, I've read a bunch of it, just not in these editions). So I won't do a list of comics. (i really liked DETROIT METAL CITY though)

I am considering a list of some of the (extremely sad & dorky) music i've been listening to this year. If anyone knows how to embed a little mp3 player in a livejournal post, please pass that information on in my comments.

I know this is crazy, but follow along with me, 'kay?

So the only RV books I can get at the library are from the 60s. Most modern books are geared towards oldsters, and typically they're travel guides not buying guides.

Since the only unit I could afford anyway would be super old, I'm getting the most I can from these dated books anyway, so that doesn't matter. It's all still good information. The books are really helpful and are illustrated with useful guides that indicate where stuff hooks up and what does what etc. Anyway, in one of the books they also list the price of a new camper van -- $1250!

My mind thinks, 'Gee, that sure is a great price. A buying price. I sure wish I could go back in time and buy this thing.'

And I realized -- THAT COULD NEVER HAPPEN but only for one very crazy reason. If a person ever could go back in time, they would have no way of buying things without outing themselves as a future-person. See, because our money designs have changed. It would look like funny money.

I used to hang on to my old bills, just so I didn't forget what money used to look like, but after awhile I just realized that was dumb, so I spent it. Now all my bills are new.

An enterprising nut out there is probably hoarding old bills for the day they can go back in time and spend them, don't you think? I sort of hope so.

Anyway, this is how my mind works. Usually this is how my stories or comics get written, but because I don't really write or cartoon anymore, I guess I'll just blog the idea.

I want a Winnebago.



EDIT: If Will ever leaves me, I'm going to take off in an Airstream camper into the abyss of America and you will never ever find me. Sigh. I need a road trip!

Will got a bonus for Christmas and used it to buy a Canon Rebel XT. I have no idea what lens it has...it's a used camera so it might not be the one it originally came with...but I am amazed by this thing!

He took some photos of the ginger snaps I baked last week. Behold the sugary detail. Wow!





It makes me feel like a sucker for always buying the cheap weird cameras. I just got a Super 8 camcorder -- still waiting to use it. I've got a Polaroid Land Camera -- that I don't know how to thread film into. I thought I found film for my Kodak Brownie, but the film got stuck after my first shot. Turns out I might not have found the right film after all. My Polaroid Instant Camera won't have film until 2011 (or is it 2010?) and my keychain digital cameras take the worst photos. I've got a Canon Rebel K2 (film) that we took most of our Christmas photos with, but I hate the way film is processed now and my pictures come out looking really digital anyway. Le sigh. Anyway, I'm just glad Will got something useful! I predict a lot more photo blogging in the future.

I was thinking of doing a basic names-from-a-hat drawing, but I'm not going to let you off that easy! Oh ho ho. Here's what you've gotta do:

Tell me about your life in 1859.

If you're 18 years old today, imagine you're 18 years old in 1859. If you're 32 today, you're 32 in 1859. What would life be like? You can choose to be historically accurate, you can make it all up, or you can go the randomly-transported-back-in-time route. But you can't be 18 years old on Middle Earth or Krypton. Regular old Earth is interesting enough.

You can draw a picture, or you can write an essay/character sketch/short story. There will be two winners chosen in both the drawn and written categories, and all winners will receive signed, personalized hardcover copies of the book.

Deadline for entries is January 4th, 2010, and I'll announce the winners on January 5th, 2010–Mercury's original pub date! You can post your submissions in the comments here, or if you're shy, e-mail them to hope@hopelarson.com.

Get cracking!

EDIT: This is open to people everywhere, not just the US and Canada.

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