being an outsider is a competitive sport

A comic about the sillier parts of the goth, metal, and punk scenes.

[punkpuns]

I found a comic that I drew and forgot to post in October.

I know I make a lot of comics about vests; that’s because people ask me a lot of questions about vests.

The reason I say no iron-on patches is because they’re difficult to sew into place (very thick, require a lot of force to move the needle through) but also because just ironing them on doesn’t work - they’ll peel pretty quickly unless you sew them in place.

Dental floss is a cheap, very strong material that you can sew with, but if you can make it to a fabric store I actually really, really recommend getting upholstery thread, which is heavy-duty thread used to make furniture. It’s fairly inexpensive and very strong and unlike dental floss it comes in multiple colors.

If you’re new to sewing and/or you’re sewing with dental floss you should use a needle that has a large eye to make it easier to thread. I’d recommend picking up a pack of embroidery needles because they’re meant to be used with multi-strand embroidery floss so they have wider eyes than a lot of smaller hand-sewing needles.

Good luck, buds.

[ms-demeanor]

Transgress Fest Is the Only US Festival of Its Kind to Celebrate Trans Punk Artists

We talked with founder Drew Arriola-Sands to learn all about what makes this year's edition "the best it’s ever been."

Hey BTW if you’re in LA this weekend Transgess Fest is on Sunday at The Smell in DTLA; $15 from 6pm to 11pm.

And also just very cool facts Continuity Girls is on at 7:30 and features great musicians, one of whom happens to be the bassist in P.i.T.

So basically there’s a really kickass show this weekend and you all should go because it’ll be awesome.

[punkpuns]

Uh okay look I know I basically disappeared (a lot happened, my mom and father in law died and my spouse had a heart attack and quad bypass and lost his job and moved out of state and my band lost two members after my partner got sick and I had to spend a bunch of time caring for him; it has been a REALLY shitty couple years) but now the band has been reconfigured and our new bassist is in Continuity Girls and is going to be playing this really awesome festival and y’all should come if you’re in LA this weekend.

(also hello it is nice to see y’all, I think I’m going to try to answer some of the asks in the inbox with one-off illustrations this weekend)

[punkpuns]

Help people who fall in pits. Help people who fall in pits. Grab other people to help you help people who fall in pits.

If someone goes down in front of you there’s a pretty decent chance you’re going to go down trying to get them up but if you see someone down grab at least two people around you and get them to help you to pull up the person who fell. 

And I’m super extremely completely serious about going to a doctor if you lose consciousness from a boot to the head or knocking your skull on the ground. Concussions are serious business and if you’re out for more than a couple of seconds that’s a pretty good indicator that something is seriously wrong. If you or a friend is out for a couple of minutes after getting hit in the head CALL AN AMBULANCE.

Anyway be safe-ish.

[punkpuns]

Knocking around is kind of just part of being in a pit but it should go without saying that you’re an asshole if you’re shoving people in order to knock them over.

Don’t be a jackass.

[punkpuns]

@spirit-absent Thanks for asking about this!

Waaaaaaaaayyy back as the 8th page of Punkpuns I posted this comic that touched on etiquette in the pit: http://punkpuns.com/post/148975560342/008

This comic is much more about how to not get catastrophically injured in a pit.

And here’s the deal, a lot of places where pits break out aren’t really that dangerous. In May when I broke my toe in a pit at a H09909 show it was bouncy and physical, but it wasn’t so packed that you’d have to worry about getting crushed. When my friend got kicked in the head at a Circle Jerks show he went down but it was calm enough that I was able to get him up and when I fell two other people helped pull me up; it was bustling and rough and I had fingerprint bruises on the backs of my arms for a week but there was no real danger of getting trampled.

I tend to stay away from huge churning pits at metal shows and festivals; that’s a bit more risk than I’m willing to take, personally.

Sometimes you’ll end up with what basically amounts to an entire audience pogoing and it’s not quite a pit and it’s not super dangerous but there’s still a lot of bouncing and bumping happening.

There’s a lot of variability! Just approach with caution.

If you’re serious about this sort of shit, though, you should practice. The lunge I recommend as recovery from a fall is actually something I learned when I was doing roller derby and it’s really effective but it requires A LOT of thigh and glute strength, so you’ll have to build up to it. Cat-crawling out of a fall is fantastic, but it takes a lot of practice to craw fast enough that you can match the speed of a circle pit, especially if you’re maybe getting stepped on while you crawl.

Anyway, happy new year, y’all.

Be kind, be safe, help each other out.

(oh, and if any of you are in the LA area my band is playing Wednesday January 2nd at Skinny’s Lounge in North Hollywood at 9PM; it’s a birthday show for local legendary rock photographer George Contreras, who has been shooting the punk scene in LA for 40 years. Three local bands followed by live band karaoke, it’s actually fun as hell, come out if you wanna, and if you do come out make sure to say hi.)

[punkpuns]

Heeeeeeyyyyy it’s my favorite holiday.

If you’re interested in a more comprehensive Halloween playlist here’s the link to the one that I listen to year round. It’s got some of the more standard stuff like Oingo Boingo and Marilyn Manson and Warren Zevon, because what’s a Halloween party without Werewolves of London or Dead Man’s Party?

Anyway, happy Halloween. And if you happen to be in the LA area on Halloween night with no plans maybe swing by the Five Star Bar around 1045 because my band will be on and extremely loud and I’ll give you a sketch if you come up and say hi.

Have a spooky day, pals.

[punkpuns]

[punkpuns]

[punkpuns]

I screwed up the illustration and I screwed up the video but between the two you should be able to figure out how to fold things together.

[punkpuns]

Uhhhhhhhhhhhh okay this one got kind of out of hand.

The little zine at the bottom is viewable panel-by-panel on my main tumblr if you don’t feel like printing it out.

Anyway, if the folding isn’t clear in the comic (it isn’t, I kind of screwed up) here’s a video with instructions for three kinds of eight page zines, a half-page size, quarter-page size, and eighth-page size (the printable zine is an eighth-page size):

Did y’all know I started a literary magazine in 2011? My fellow editors and I published the whole thing online for free and had copies printed that we sold for just enough to make sure we could pay for the next printing. You can see the whole run of the magazine here: Issue One, Issue Two, Issue Three, Issue Four. The online version is a pretty good example of what an online zine can look like.

PLEASE BE CAREFUL USING KNIVES. I’ve seen a bunch of soap-cutting videos recently where people are being incredibly incautious with their utility knives. Don’t cut toward yourself, don’t put your fingers on the blade. I know that seems *super* obvious but seriously, I’ve seen so many reasonable, rational, adult humans injure themselves because they weren’t being careful. Hell, I once cut off a huge chunk of my thumb because I wasn’t looking when I closed a knife.

Go make good things.

I’m really sad right now; my mom died two weeks ago and I’m numb over it. Making things is making it easier. I want to make the kinds of things she would have liked, the kinds of things I liked to show her. I thought I’d have more time with her, I thought I’d be able to show her when this comic hits 100 pages and print a book to take to her the way I have with other projects. But I don’t have that time, I won’t be able to share what I make with her.

But I can share it with you. And you can share your work with me.

If you end up making zines or comics or art send me a message and I’ll include links in the next comic or the next time I answer asks.

[punkpuns]

Answering Asks Again

Hi there, I’ve built up a bit of a backlog on asks so here are a whole bunch of them answered.

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Friend I’m sorry I got to you late - but maybe that’ll help, at school you should have a selection of thrift shops around where other students have been donating stuff as they’ve moved off campus and that’s a goldmine. I’d say hit the thrift shops, find some stuff you think looks good and is comfortable, and shop only on half-off days. If there’s nothing that quite looks like you want it to, mod it.

And look, tossing out everything you’ve got and starting fresh is pretty wasteful - maybe see if there’s someone in your dorm who would be down to trade? Maybe you could set up a facebook clothing swap event for people on campus? Use it as an excuse to get to know people. Or mod the clothes you’ve got - khakis and a polo can be turned into cutoffs and a tanktop pretty easily, and a stencil plus some acrylic paint from the art supply section of the campus bookstore can make you some pretty awesome custom stuff, you can dye even the most pastel of sundresses black.

Experiment, figure out what you like. Start slow and add one piece at a time - maybe stovepipe jeans aren’t your thing so buying four pairs would be a mistake. Maybe you only want to wear yoga pants and I salute you, but that’s up to you to figure out.

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This feels a little bit trollish because I’m having trouble envisioning an adult who works in a law office and in local politics but hasn’t figured out how to dress in a way they want to or hasn’t figured out whether or not they should.

I’m going to assume you’re young in which case I’m going to actually recommend that you don’t bring much of your style to work for one reason: optics are important.

If you’re involved in local government, work at a law office, and are a punk it stands to reason that you’re pretty politically active and motivated to make changes in the world, and it sounds like you’re uniquely positioned to do so! But here’s the thing: the last time I went to talk to the city council and a group of us showed up in black the local paper called us “kids” and “extras from a Depeche Mode video.” I now own a mousey brown skirt suit and a wig to go talk to the city council.

It’s great to express yourself, it’s less great if expressing yourself prevents you from achieving your goals or making the changes you want to see in the world. It’s really easy to pigeonhole punks as slacktivist poseurs who masturbate to Richard Spencer punching remixes and never vote and that’s because a lot of punks live up to that image.

So I guess what my real advice is is feel out your office, maybe you can get away with skull earrings or a grommeted wristband for your watch but keep your hair to neutral colors if it’s going to get you fired. Activists need attorneys and paralegals and local city councils on our side so there’s value in sucking it up and dealing with the system until you’ve got uplifted enough voices to change it.

Unless you work at, like, the Exxon law offices or with a prosecutor or something. In which case ? why? would you be here? of all places?

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Okay the true punk answer is wear whatever you’re comfortable in. Nobody should care what you’re wearing and if they do they’re an asshole.

That said I understand why it can be uncomfortable to stand out in a crowd - a dark pair of pants, a tee shirt, and a hoodie (if it’s cold enough for one) should be physically comfortable and won’t make you stand out like a sore thumb. Wear comfortable shoes that are thick enough to protect your feet in case you get stepped on, make sure your jeans have enough pockets that you don’t have to carry a purse.

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ALWAYS. If you want in on this donate $10 to the ACLU, RAICES, a local abortion fund, Planned Parenthood, or the United Way Flint Water Fund. Any of these groups will email you a receipt for your donation. Screenshot that receipt and send it to me through tumblr messenger along with a picture of whoever you want illustrated, if you want to see them as a punk, goth, or metalhead, and the names of their 3 favorite bands and I will get an illustration back to you (1 figure only, waist up, grays, no background).

If you donate more I’ll do a more detailed illustration. Here’s an example of one that I did for one of my college professors:

She donated $100. I’ve got limited time to draw so if you want a drawing like that one ^^^ message me first and make sure I’ve got my schedule clear enough for it.

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Boy howdy do I ever:

https://www.ocweekly.com/five-native-american-bands-to-give-thanks-for-6596916/

https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2016/09/8-artists-exploding-the-concept-of-native-american.html

http://remezcla.com/lists/music/los-angeles-latinx-punk-bands/

http://tanyatagaq.com/

http://www.toiletovhell.com/here-are-some-indigenousnative-metal-bands-to-help-you-celebrate-columbus-day/

http://remezcla.com/features/music/the-ogs-goth-playlist/

http://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/38098/1/photos-from-la-s-latinx-metal-scene

https://www.mixcloud.com/LovelyMetalhead/lovely-talks-heavy-episode-25-black-and-metal/

http://lord-kitschener.tumblr.com/post/158978645618/so-goth-i-was-born-black

https://www.racked.com/2017/10/23/16492192/black-goth-girls

http://coilhouse.net/2012/09/i-am-so-goth-i-was-born-black/

http://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/28372/1/why-is-the-history-of-punk-music-so-white

http://diningwithdana.tumblr.com/post/115035345741/pocs-in-gothdarkindustrial-music-hey-fab-bats

http://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/28419/1/the-black-punk-pioneers-who-made-music-history

http://www.post-punk.com/goth-so-white-black-representation-in-the-post-punk-scene/

As to whether I’ve got any comics in particular about race in the goth/punk/metal scene, I’ve touched on it here and there and discussed why racism doesn’t belong in the scene but I’ve never gone in depth about the people of color who have been erased from the history, but I would very much like to and I have some notes that I’m collecting to do so.

[punkpuns]

There’s this really great conditioner that I think is by garnier? That smells like bananas and you can use it as a mask or a conditioner or a leave-in and you end up with your head smelling like candy and actual frizz control and it costs like three dollars so I’m 1000% here for that shit.

[punkpuns]

I broke my toe at a show in May because I wasn’t wearing good enough shoes to be in the pit that I didn’t exactly plan on being in. Learn from my mistakes, protect your toes.

But seriously. Please stay safe at shows and drink plenty of water and don’t get awful sunburns and PLEASE wear your earplugs. You can get super cheap, super comfortable reusable ones that still allow for great sound fidelity in the high end and then you won’t have to worry about developing a permanent ringing/hissing soundtrack later in life.

[punkpuns]

hey also please tell me if the image quality is unusually bad; I lost the normal piece of paper I use to measure the page and so I think the proportions are wonky and are creating issues with the picture.

[punkpuns]

Just a silly quickie about fashion for now.

If anyone has figured out how to store jackets without snapping hangers or shredding other clothes in drawers let me know, the best I’ve found is using a scuba hanger but that’s expensive (and if you try to put three on one hanger they shred each other).

Here’s hoping your favorite stuff stays safe and your stitches never pull out at the crotch.

[punkpuns]

A shockingly high number of people don’t know what promoters are. They book venues and promote shows - it’s pretty much what it sounds like on the box. But the cool thing about chatting with promoters and getting to know them is that they’ll talk about what’s coming up and what they’re excited about, which is a good way to get a line on a show before anything is announced.

And if you’re looking for the local scene you’ve gotta go to bar (or record store, or coffee shop) shows. If there’s one band playing that does the kind of stuff you like they’ll know about all the cool little basements and backyards and second-story-walkup-that-says-it’s-a-sewing-machine-repair-shop-but-they-do-shows-on-weekends type places. I recently played a show at a bar I’d never heard of that’s in an area of town I don’t usually go to (a bit touristy an fancy for my style) and found a great band called Aboleth (seriously, sludgy stoner metal with just the most kick-ass harder-Janis-Joplin style vocals, go check it out) who I might have never heard of if not for Rock Karaoke night at a bar in North Hollywood.

This is also great if you’ve moved into a new town - a couple weeks ago I was talking to a guy named Chainsaw who moved to LA from Atlanta and didn’t know where the good metal shows in the area were; my band plays Metal Mania Mondays once a month so I was able to tell him about the Rainbow’s Metal Mania nights and what kinds of bands played there most frequently. Turns out it was exactly what he was looking for and I think he’s in a band with the bouncer there now.

Just. Like just go talk to people. The music is out there.

[punkpuns]

Songkick is the reason that I was able to find tickets for my partner to see his favorite band, who he had never seen, who have been broken up for six years, for the one show they’re having in our city. Tickets sold out within a week of the show being announced.

Songkick fucking rules.