It’s Your Funeral is now available for Pre-order!
Hi everyone! Emily here!Â
It’s Your Funeral, the original Graphic novel written by me, drawn by @smellestine​ and lettered by Matt Krotzer is now available for pre-order from @ironcircuscomics​! The book comes out June 2nd, but you can pre-order it RIGHT NOW from Amazon or Indiebound:Â
 Indiebound: https://indiebound.org/book/9781945820526…
Join Marnie Winters, the Earth’s newest and grumpiest ghost, as she interns at the inter-dimensional Department of Spectral affairs, an organization dedicated to helping troubled spirits let go of their earthly hang-ups and woes so their spirits can cross over to the afterlife.
Luckily, Marnie’s not alone! She’s guided by the insufferably enthusiastic alien social worker, X'Lakthul (or Xel, for short). Sure, the earth branch of the DSA might be the laughingstock of the multiverse, but hey: it’s a living!
If you like The Blue Valkyrie (or, ESPECIALLY if you like Ellen’s comic Parisa!), you’re going to LOVE this story about healing, learning to love yourself, and being ok with being not ok. Get the office comedy you’ve been DYING to read!
Sometimes, as I’ve written in the past, a comic doesn’t need to have a high concept or poignant message. Sometimes it’s enough for it to just be fun! But sometimes… sometimes fun just isn’t enough.
New review! Sorry I’ve been neglecting tumblr update posts, it’s because I don’t like tumblr.
Just a heads up, I talk about some darker stuff than usual in this review, including incarceration/institutionalization, trafficking and homelessness, all with regards to queer and trans youth.
This one turned out a bit personal, hope you enjoy it!
Western culture has an odd veneration for royalty. Our fairy tales and fantasies are full of Good Kings, Wise Kings, and Fated Kings, while Disney has made fortunes upon fortunes churning out fictional princesses for us to adore. It’s a romanticism that seems incongruous with the bloody true history of such things. So if there’s one thing I appreciate about Kill Six Billion Demons, it’s that it never shies away from laying bare the fundamental essence of royalty: violence.
Almost forgot to post the update here whoops! Please enjoy~
Many early webcomics were notoriously a mishmash of genres and themes. Undoubtedly this trend was tied to the popularity of “monkey-bacon-ninja” “random” humor that was overbearingly popular at the time. But an equal factor was that webcomics in those days had little chance for mainstream exposure or success. In the absence of pressure to hone a craft or make a commercially viable product, an atmosphere of exploration, experimentation, and subcultural comradery flourished. Many webcomickers chose to ignore traditional genre boundaries, and in doing so created a new genre, which I will call “fantasy soup”.
Kids fantasize about being adults, or at least they fantasize about having the freedom and power that adults seem to have. That’s why so much of media made for children features kids doing adult things: solving mysteries, fighting monsters, having adventures, thwarting adults. Oftentimes kids have the clarity and imagination to see the supernatural for what it is, while their parents are too stuffy and boring to see what’s in front of their eyes. In these stories, kids get to be the heroes by playing the part of adults.
I have a confession: I haven’t actually read a lot of classic science fiction, and most of what I have read, I hated. Clarke’s too horny, Bradbury’s too racist, Dick’s too pessimistic, Orwell’s too reactionary. But one book in the “canon” actually stuck with me to this day because of its exploration of non-human intelligence: Asimov’s I, Robot. Through a series of short vignettes, Asimov extrapolates how an artificial brain might behave under the strictures of three simple rules: Protect, Obey, and Survive.
“Over the past year, most of these funds you will see on the various websites have already exhausted the legal aid that they have raised. That is why we are even in the position we are in today where the pipeline construction has been halted.
Let’s make sure that they have EVERYTHING they need to fight off the Dakota Access Pipeline. Let’s make sure they have every type of attorney they need. Let’s make sure that they have the funds to fight this battle on the front lines and in the court room.
They are counting on you. Give your best gift today, please. And encourage everybody you know to join you.”
There are interesting layers of meaning to the word “soft”. In one sense, it can mean comfortable, inviting, pleasant to touch. In another, it conveys instead looseness, a lack of structure, or a yielding quality. These connotations have an unspoken gendered quality to them – “soft” is code, in so many ways, for “feminine”, and whether something being soft is a good or bad thing betrays much about the speaker’s attitude towards femininity. As a case in point, whenever a dude dismisses something as “soft scifi”, I get the sense that he prefers scifi that follows strict rules, that doesn’t deviate from real-world scientific theories, that dispenses with ooey-gooey trivialities like “romance” and “feelings”, and that he would call these things “hard scifi”. Tillie Walden’s On A Sunbeam is not for that guy. This is a comic that is proud of its softness, and with good reason. A story of young love,…
Please reblog, and donate if you can. I co-coordinate Detroit REPRESENT!, a QTPOC youth organizer collective sponsored by AMP, and I’m asking for your help for one of our members. K is a young, black lesbian who worked through a lot of very hard things as a teenager, including abuse and long periods of homelessness. Since joining us in 2015, K has been flourishing as a young activist: she has served in our fellowship program, given workshops as a peer educator, conducted outreach to homeless youth, and led a campaign for QTPOC youth against intimate partner violence.
Now, after working so hard to build a stable life for herself, K is facing homelessness due to a crooked landlord. Despite always paying rent early, she was served with an eviction notice when building management changed hands. With no explanation or warning, the new landlord was adding fees not mentioned in her lease, and late fees on those, going back months. Agencies we’ve spoken with have confirmed the landlord is in the wrong, but that there is little recourse in Detroit because the system is so overloaded.
Knowing an eviction ruling would disqualify her from her state rent assistance, K has paid hundreds of dollars from her fixed SSI income towards settling the ever-growing fees, leaving her struggling to buy food. The landlord is well aware that her rent assistance could be revoked, and using this threat to extort her and/or pressure her to move so they can raise rent.
On top of this, the new landlord has:
Refused to provide receipts for her payments
Refused to make repairs to her broken toilet
Refused to deal with a cockroach infestation in the building
Refused to repaint her apartment door when it was vandalized with threatening messages
Called the police when she asked for an explanation of the fees
They have now taken K to court twice, both times over less than $50, both times dismissed because she had already paid. In a better world, we would be able hire a lawyer to fight this and win, but at this point her lease is up and she needs to get out.
My family is doing what we can to provide her with temporary housing on our couch, and help her find a new place to live. But she needs help with the costs of getting moved and settled. I’m estimating the following expenses:
$800 for security and damage deposits
$300 for moving, van rentals & storing her things while she looks for a place
$227.50 to cover legal fees from the last court date
$100 for laundry and furniture steam cleaning so she doesn’t take the roaches with her
$150 to replace any furniture that can’t be saved
$250 to stock the kitchen of her new place with nourishing food
$90 or so for payment processing fees on donations raised
K is a person who, despite everything she’s been through, spends much of her energy trying to make the world better for others—we can’t let her fall through the cracks. If you can give even a small amount, it would make a world of difference in K’s life.
Something that’s come up a lot is the need to organise deindustrialised communities to help them not only not fall for the racist bigotry of Trumpism, but to win concessions and empowerment for one of the most neglected and ruined sections of the working class. This is often seen as quite hard, especially given that the tradition of the organised left and working class in both Britain and America is a trade unionist one - how can workers strike back against capital when they are without work, when they are now surplus to capital’s requirements? For that reason I think it’s worth looking at the Piquetero (Picketer) movement in Argentina, another country severely affected by deindustrialisation and the consequences that follow for trade union organising. These were (and are) community based unions of unemployed workers whose primary tactic was blockading motorways and transport hubs - if workers can’t disrupt the production of capital, they can still disrupt the flow of capital. These groups, organised around the demand of “work, dignity, and social change,” were highly effective at winning new welfare benefits and work programmes from the government. We’re seeing a revival of roadblock tactics by oppressed communities in BLM on both sides of the Atlantic - we need to see it happening in working class communities too imo
Recently, a group of antifascists in Nyköping, Sweden succeeded in completely shutting down fascist activity in their city.  This is our interview with A., one of the Nyköping antifa, about how they did it:
1) Can you tell us a little bit about where you live?
We’re present in the city of Nyköping. It’s your regular city, nothing very special about it!
2) When did you notice that nazis were beginning to be a problem in your town? Â Was there a certain event or point that made you decide that you had to take action?
We decided to get together and do something ourselves when we started noticing an increase in fascist activities in our city and everywhere else, and to get this city as friendly and as discriminatory free as possible for the refugees that would be arriving.
4) When you decided to take anti-fascist action in your town, what concerns did you have?
Most of our concerns were with safety. Being masked up and dressed in black only gets you so far, and there were certain concerns with security officers and cops.  Seeing as these “soldiers of odin” also are masked up, people had a bit of a fright when we started out, until we showed them where we stood whenever we were out.
5) How did you decide what action you should take? Â Did you research it first, or talk with other people?
We did a lot of research before! We actively follow this tumblr and have made use of a lot of the tips. We started out with first covering small areas with just stickers, but quickly moved on to street art, longer nights out and covering larger parts of the city with stickers in one go.
6) How did you find your fellow anti-fascists that you work with?
Most of those who are involved were interested in it before we got together. We’ve known each other for a while before we started out, so it was easier to quickly organize  for us!  (Interesting thing; One of those who is with us now approached us on the streets, in fear that we were nazis. They were very relieved when we told them that we were not, and got in contact with us later!)
7) What was your first action like?
Our first action was pretty short. There was a small area in the city that had quite a bit of fascist graffiti. We covered it and replaced it with antifascist slogans instead. This is what I see as our first BIG action at least!
8) Was there any reaction to your first action?
We don’t know the initial reaction of the people in the area, but it was up for a long time before authorities sanitized it.
9) What other actions have you done?
Most of our actions consist of spreading our presence to other parts of the city. We have a lot of stickers and it hasn’t been a problem to quickly cover areas with them. Occasionally we do street art. We are, however, planning a bigger action that will take place in a couple of weeks!
10) What has been the result of your actions?
The result has been amazing. In the beginning alot of our stickers were taken down, but right now? You can walk anywhere in the city and see our presence, which we are quite proud of!
11) How did the nazis react?
Not well. It mostly started when they covered our graffiti and we theirs, and that was pretty much it for several weeks. We ripped down their crap, and they ours, so we started to keep an eye out on when our stuff was taken down. When we eventually narrowed it down, we decided that we would confront them at their regular spots. It quickly escalated from there. What started as shouting in an alley ended in a fight. It lasted only  a couple of minutes, but it was intense. We think that they started getting in more of their fascist friends from nearby towns, as their numbers grew for a little while and confrontations became regular for a while. Eventually they just stopped showing up, they stopped taking our stuff down, they stopped covering our graffiti. We haven’t seen them for over a month now. Good riddance, if you ask us!Â
13) What is it like in your town now?
It feels safer. It’s definitely not perfect, but it’s safe. We’re glad to say that racism is often immediately confronted here now, and the local people (and us, of course) are doing a lot to make the refugees feel welcome. We try to organize fun things to do for them and with them, like football games, board games, as well as we try to encourage them and to inspire them. We try to make them feel safe enough that they can ask anyone for help without having to fear that they’re gonna be harassed by fascists.Â
14) What advice would you give to people in other towns that might want to do something about fascists or racists where they live?
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Our advice is; organize! There are a lot of cities without an active antifa and/or antira presence, and the best thing to do to get it there, is to make it yourself. Even if you’re alone, just putting up small stickers or slogans can go a long way. Try to look among your friends to organize with first, as it is a lot easier when you can do this with a good friend, as there’s immediately a sense of trust between you.  The most important thing that we think you should do is to show that there’s opposition! One little thing can snowball into something huge. Another important thing is to not take risks that you yourself are not comfortable with, or are prepared for. We always prepare ourselves for the worst, that way we have plans for most situations that we could get in. If you think that putting something up at that moment could get you in serious trouble, don’t do it. Your safety is also important.
Donald Trump is a fascist. We shouldn’t be afraid of the word: it’s simple and accurate, and his fascism is hardly unique; it’s just a suppurating outgrowth of the fascism that was already there. Still, this time it’s different. The fascisms of Europe in the 1920s and 30s, or east Asia in the 50s and 60s, or Latin America in the 70s and 80s were all the response of a capitalist order to the terrifying potency of an organised working class. Fascism is what capitalism does when it’s under threat, something always latent but extending in claws when it’s time to fight; it imitates mass movements while never really having the support of the masses. (In Germany, for instance, support for the Nazis was highest among the industrial haute bourgeoisie, and declined through every social stratum; look at Trump’s share of the voter per income band and see the same pattern. The workers didn’t vote for Trump, they just didn’t vote for Clinton either.) But today the organised working class is nowhere to be found. There’s no coherent left-wing movement actively endangering capitalism; the crisis facing the liberal-capitalist order is entirely internal. It’s grinding against its own contradictions, circling the globe to turn back against itself, smashing through its biological and ecological limits and finding nothing on the other side. This is the death spasm, a truly nihilist fascism, the fascism of a global system prickling for enemies to destroy but charging only against itself. There’s no silence in the final and total victory, just an endless war with only one side. It’s not entirely the case, as the slogan puts it, that the only thing capable of defeating the radical right is a radical left. The radical right will defeat itself, sooner or later, even if it’s at the cost of a few tens of millions of lives. We need a radical left so there can be any kind of fight at all.
Sam Kriss, “How You Lost The World” (via chicanochamberofcommerce)
A federal judge has ordered bottled water must be delivered to Flint residents unless officials can prove there is an operating, properly-installed water filter in their home.
Some good news for y’all. The ACLU won a victory the other day in Flint Michigan. What do you want to bet that the cost of having to supply residents with clean water will inspire change pretty quickly?Â
Organizing around the things we agree on (self defense, mutual aid, class consciousness) is the only thing that matters right now. What happens 20 years, 30 years MINIMUM from now is not important, though long term goals are reasonable and important- at this point if we decide to get separate ways, having defeated the capitalist threat, that is one thing. But the material and social prerequisites of revolution, by most anarchist OR Leninist standards, have not yet been met. You need a system that provides some care for people in place of the one you are working on destroying, based on mutual aid and solidarity. You need a network of communications and supplies. You need a public that is on your side at least enough to not point out where guerillas are hiding, etc etc etc. And that shit can be built here and now, whenever we are ready and done with petty squabbles and straight up lying about each other.
