Vigorously Lazy

Annalemma #4 Preview from chris heavener on Vimeo.

So this thing is here, though I don’t have the big shipment yet, just a rush box. Pre-order now! I can just tell this issue is going to sell faster than ice tea at a sweat lodge.

We were lucky enough to have Chicago small press stalwart Anne Elizabeth Moore contribute a little something to issue #4. Anne edited the now-defunct Punk Planet as well as Best American Comics series. So the lady has chops. Oh, and if you’re the pro-integrity, anti-advertising type and you haven’t read Unmarketable yet then you’re clearly not taking adbusting culture to its logical conclusion.

Looks like Nordic illustrator Esra Roise’s site got a bit of a makeover. It also looks like she’s moving beyond the hyper-realistic pencil drawings she’s famous for and is moving into more collage and water-color type stuff. Exciting!

Just uploaded a new essay over at Annalemma. Stella is a bitter sweet love letter to a ’91 Cutlass Cierra that saw a family through good times and bad, sickness and health, life and death. You Chicagoans may recognize the author, Rob Duffer, from the beer-hazed nights at Sheffield’s monthly reading series RUI. Also accompanying the essay is a stellar soft-focus image by long-time friend Josh Letchworth. It’s all part of our lead-up to the release of issue #4 which is available for pre-sale now!

My mom sends me a lot of these inspirational chain emails like, “If you’re ever feeling sad, read these pick-me-ups…” and “50 reasons God loves you…” I’m pumped every time I see one in my inbox. This pic of hungover Garfield was at the bottom of the email I got this morning. Thought I’d share.

Mysterious Dance Hero from chris heavener on Vimeo.

This guy is a fucking genius. Please repost on your various blogs and social networking sites. This man’s magic must be shown to the world. This is the next internet super star! Come on people! Let’s do this! Together!

Looks like I’ll finally get around to reading some Jane Austin. Thanks, Chronicle, for making boring things not so boring anymore.

New and exciting things happening over at Annalemma. We’ve got a new story from Nick Ostdick accompanied by a pretty wicked depth-of-field shot by Mr. Bryan “Bear” Soderlind. All this is just a whistle-wetter for issue #4 which, I might add, just became available for pre-sale. Issue #4 will ship on 2.17.09. Order from the website and you get 25% off the cover price! Can’t beat that deal with a lone baseball’s shadow growing longer in the dusk light symbolizing waning youth.

The Annalemma site is having some technical problems today. I’ll keep you posted as to what’s going on as soon as things get rolling with us. And to thank you for your patience I’m going to be throwing a story from the new issue up on there this afternoon. I’ll be posting one or two stories up there per week until the new issue release date, which is February 13th, btw. Those of you attending AWP will be the first to get your mitts on it.

UPDATE: We’re up and running again. Not sure what happened. I think our host decided April Fools Day came early this year.