Hey sailors (and non-sailors)! Just a reminder that I’ll be at the Portland Zine Symposium tomorrow with a bundle of awesome stuff to sell. “What kind of stuff would this be?” you might ask. I WILL TELL YOU.
There will be Baggywrinkles 1 & 2, Tales from the Fragment, nautical button packs(!!!), squeaks of the coveted squeaky walrus (only 5 cents!), and (new for this event) genuine Monkey’s Fist necklaces! Check out this knot-tacular action:
A little bit of background, for those of you not familiar: The Monkey’s Fist is a knot generally tied around a spherical, heavy object (like a lead ball or, in this case, a marble) to create a long-flying projectile. The proper term for such a thing is a heaving line, which was often attached to heavier mooring lines when the distance required to get them to dock was too far for a sailor to throw the line itself. With the heaving line attached to the mooring line, it was possible for a sailor to launch the former a long distance (due to its weighted end) and then let those ashore haul the mooring line across.
While flinging heaving lines is damn good fun, it can become a bad habit for docking, so remember kids: they’re a privilege, not a right. And throwing a mooring line on its own inherently makes you more of a badass. So don’t get lazy.
EH-HEM. ANYWAY.
SOME BUTTONS!
I don’t know why having buttons makes me freak out in an “OhmygawdI’marealcartoonist!” kind of way (possibly because everyone seems to have them and they’re “cool”), but I’m really excited to have them. I’ll be selling them in packs of three, but if you ask nicely I’d probably sell you one on its own for 50 cents or something. There are a few nerdy sailor ones, several that say “Stay Baggy,” a rare few that say “The entire ocean is broken,” and some general nautical varieties. If I have leftovers from the Symposium this weekend I’ll get them up on the site.
That’s all for now! I really encourage you all to come out this weekend, since the event is free (FREE!!!) and there will be something like 140 awesome people tabling. Unfortunately we don’t get table assignments until the morning check-in, but if you really have to know where I am before you come, I’ll be posting my location on Twitter once I’m set up.
Hope to see you guys tomorrow!