After what was a rough couple of weeks, where work obligations and some health issues I thought I’d mostly put behind me reared their ugly head, I’m finding my way back to posting. I did not have it in me to look at a computer screen any longer than was absolutely necessary.

To kick things off here, I'll throw in a brief status update.

Work

I won’t really get deep into the subject, but I just crossed the four year mark at DataStax. And the milestone has me thinking about some things. I’ll probably have more to say about it at some point here. Especially in regards to the last year, where I found myself swept up in the pivot to AI, and the perspective it gives me. It's definitely changing the picture, for where I might be heading as a designer and illustrator.

Home Life + Side Projects

My dog, Ripley, is nearing full recovery from her TPLO surgery. That involved months of rehab, and it’s nice to finally enter the light at the end of the tunnel. While there is a chance she’ll need an additional surgery to remove the metal plate that held her leg together during the bone's healing process, she’s easing into activities that involve running and jumping, and things are feeling somewhat back to normal around the house. The couch is no longer off limits!

And speaking of the house, I’ve pulled the trigger on a new project — updating my attached garage. It’s maybe not the sort of thing I would bother mentioning here, but there’s an element to it that could affect my ambitions for design-related side projects. As things stand, the spare room where I store all the vintage print ephemera I collect is so full of stuff I can barely navigate the space, let alone document anything. BUT… if I can relocate some of that mess to the garage, then I’ll regain the space to work and photograph things I’d like to share. And going a step further, if the garage is clean enough after the remodel and I can introduce some climate control out there, maybe I can devote an area of it to those activities. So we’ll see how all of that goes.

Then, next on my to-do list is drawing up a plan for how we might revamp Speculative Identities over the winter months, for a relaunch of that project.

Books

Some new additions to the library:

Hell, Ink & Water: The Art of Mike Mignola (2024) →

Waneella Decade (2024) published by Volume →

A Natural History of Empty Lots: Field Notes from Urban Edgelands, Back Alleys, and Other Wild Places (2024) by Christopher Brown →

Raven Rock: The Story of the U.S. Government's Secret Plan to Save Itself—While the Rest of Us Die (2017) by Garrett M. Graff →

Comics

Last week, I received my backer rewards for comics creator Simon Roy’s latest Kickstarter project, REFUGIUM, which included the hardcover sci-fi graphic novel, a companion “Refugium Creature Compendium” guidebook, and an original inked page from the comic.

And Gou Tanabe’s adaptation of HP Lovecraft’s The Call of Cthulhu showed up today.

Design

I’ve really slowed down on my collecting as of late, but I did pick up a great 1968 brochure from McDonnell Douglas Corp’s Douglas Missile & Space Systems Division, on “The Space Age World of Manufacturing Engineering.” I’ll share a look at the cover, but the interior is equally impressive. Like so much of what is stashed away in my collection, I really need to scan and document this one in entirety, and share it in the COLLECTED section of my website.

Music

A couple of albums that showed up last week:

The Official Score from Scavengers Reign. Loved this animated series! Sadly, I was too slow to get Mondo’s special edition pollination vinyl.

And Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works Volume II (Expanded Edition), which is probably my favorite thing he’s done.

Well… still struggling to get these out regularly, despite having all sorts of things I could share if I got my act together. In the meantime, here’s the latest in the same vein as the transmissions that have gone out in weeks previous.

Books

Recent additions to the library:

Growing Up in Alphabet City: The Unexpected Letterform Art of Michael Doret (2024) →

Forecast and Fantasy - Architecture without Borders, 1960s to 1980s (2023), Lugemik and Estonian Museum of Architecture

How to Think Impossibly - About Souls, UFOs, Time, Belief, and Everything Else (2024) by Jeffrey J. Kripal →

Into the Cosmos (2024) by Stathis Tsemberlidis →

Karla Knight - Navigator (2023), The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum

After the Flying Saucers Came: A Global History of the UFO Phenomenon (2024) by Greg Eghigian →

Music

Pre-ordered the vinyl for Trouble by GHOST COP, after the duo released the first single “Problems.” Catch the video here.

Art

Illustrator James Heimer’s Matinee Idle 3 subscription is now available! The 4-issue zine is “like tv guide, but exclusively for classic horror and sci-fi movies. Over the month of October, weekly issues contain 4 pages of air times, reviews, and artwork celebrating the joy of televised terror.” Find James on Instagram to catch a glimpse of artwork from previous issues.

A quick look at the latest acquistions.

Comics

Received my backer reward for the English translation of the sci-fi graphic novel FRONTIER by Guillaume Singelin. I had purchased the original French edition when it came out, but am happy to now have one I can actually read! And it came with a load of goodies… patch, bookmark, stickers, sketchbook, and 3D-printed resin mini-statuettes. I love Singelin’s art, but am also impressed with the graphics and production of everything. If you’re interested in reading the comic and missed out on this, it should be available in stores next year in a retail trade edition. There’s also a preview link on the Kickstarter campaign page.

Books

The Starry Wisdom: A Tribute to H.P. Lovecraft (1994) edited by D.M. Mitchell

Cyborg: Evolution of the Superman (1965) by D.S. Halacy, Jr.

An Introduction to Cybernetics (1963) by W. Ross Ashby

The Story of Cybernetics (1971) by Maurice Trask

Music

“The Nuclear Laundry” by DOOMLODE 12” Vinyl LP (2024 Edition). Find DOOMLODE on Bandcamp to give them a listen.

“In Time of Emergency, Radio Kit No. 1," 12” vinyl released by the Department of Civil Defense in 1968. Featuring 10 radio spots, to aid radio stations that were “besieged with calls from listeners asking what practical measures a person might take to increase their chance for survival” during times of heightened tensions between the nuclear powers. You can give the spots a listen at the online Civil Defense Museum.

Art

Started following illustrator and fine artist Robert Watts on Instagram. And ended up acquiring one of his smaller original sci-fi themed paintings when he put a few on sale. Titled “The Ring Miners,” it depicts a team of ships mining the rocky field of some far-flung planet’s ring. Whenever I think of blue-collar work in space, this is one of the first jobs that jumps to mind.

I’m a bit late posting this week’s transmission, due to it having been week one of my dog’s recovery from TPLO surgery. She’s a “velcro dog” and couldn’t handle being separated from me for long, especially in her rough condition. And with her being confined to one room in the house for safety reasons, it was tough to spend a lot of time in the office. That said, I finally got a chance to work up a quick look at some things that came in or crossed my radar this week.

And this coming week, I might try something a bit different with what I post.

Books

Picked up some new and old this week.

The new…

Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology (2023) edited by Shane Hawk & Theodore C. Van Alst Jr. →

The Alien Perspective: A New View of Humanity and the Cosmos (2024) by David Whitehouse →

The Singularity (originally published in 1960) by Dino Buzzati →

Run ’n’ Gun: A History of On-Foot Shooters (2024) from Bitmap Books →

The old…

GOD & GOLEM, Inc.: A Comment on Certain Points where Cybernetics Impinges on Religion (1966) by Norbert Wiener

Cults of Unreason (1973) by Christopher Riche Evans

The Minds of Robots (1963) by James T. Culbertson

Shuffle-Brain: The Quest for the Hologramic Mind (1981) by Paul Pietsch

Music

The Jenova 7 album “Lost Sci-Fi Movie Themes” showed up in the mail. “A love letter to the far out sounds of 60s, 70s and 80s sci-fi cinema; a ‘lost’ soundtrack featuring cosmic grooves, dusty breakbeats, fuzz guitars and outer space synthesizers.”

Also ordered the latest vinyl release from The Night Monitor — “Perception Report 3” — soundtracking unexplained phenomena. “Cover story: December 1987. The wild landscape of Ilkley Moor in Yorkshire (UK), where Philip Spencer (pseudonym) and his camera had a lonely morning encounter with a strange being… 'There was a small green creature about 10 feet away,' he says. 'As I brought out the camera it scuttled away and stopped about 40 feet from me.' Spencer photographed the creature. It made a dismissive movement with its right arm and he watched it disappear around a bluff. Shortly after, a silver disc-shaped object shot into the air and disappeared into the clouds.”

Design

Didn’t collect much in the way of design artifacts this week. Though I did acquire a nice modern plastics catalog for Bel-Art, which dates from 1967. The interior is unremarkable, standard stuff, but the cover is fantastic.

Books

Received an order from Counter-Print Books this week. The newly published monograph on Polish graphic designer Jan Hollender (1907-1989), by Patryk Hardziej. A reproduction of the 1973 Japanese Trademark and Logo Type. And Superstorm: Design and Politics in the Age of Information (March 2024) by Noemi Biasetton.

And then from the LA-based Bibliomancers, Occult Eye, which is the latest in a series of books they’ve published collecting mass market paperback covers from various themes and genres of esoteric and spooky nature. As described by the publisher, “Our fifth book takes a closer look at the world of the occult sciences, ESP, parapsychology, spiritualism, iconography of new religious movement, pagan fashion trends with a special examination of the graphics and design elements from 1970s gnostic newspapers, this book has it all!” Find them all here if any of that grabs you.

Music

Picked up “This House Is Haunted” by The Night Monitor, after seeing they re-released it on a 12” blue marbled vinyl LP. I stumbled across The Night Monitor on Instagram not too long ago, and was an instant fan of their “soundtracking of unexplained phenomena.” You can find this and their other albums on Bandcamp.

And I recently saw Tim Maughan (author of Infinite Detail) announce his involvement in a collaborative work from himself, musician Hyetal, and visual artist R3N. “Inspired by contemporary sci-fi-like chaos, wellness tech, and megalomaniac CEOs, ‘Red Gates’ is an abstract, multi-format, first-person narrative experience. It details the visions experienced when a near-future VR meditation device is alpha-tested by its creator in an immersive journey told through three intertwining mediums—sound, visuals, and writing.” I was sold, and pre-ordered it here.

Art

Got a fantastic original watercolor piece in the mail from Australia, by illustrator and artist Tim Molloy, that I snatched up when it was posted on Instagram. Molloy describes their work as “ridiculous apocalyptic psychedelic art” and this particular piece is titled “Oneironaut Falling.” If that leaves you scratching your head, oneironautics refers to the ability to travel within a dream on a conscious basis — and following from that, an oneironaut is someone that consciously explores dreams.

I actually discovered Molloy’s work when I picked up a neuroqueer lit anthology, Spoon Knife 5: Liminal, that featured one of these oneironauts on the cover. Hit with that, I had to track down the artist to see more. And it’s pretty cool that from there I was eventually able to end up with an original from the series.

Tim Molloy’s work lives here and on Instagram, if you’re interested in checking it out. And there’s a book on the way, called The Painted Wastelands, that is set to feature much of what you will see.

Design

I’ll end this week’s transmission with a glimpse at something I just acquired yesterday evening, that I’m pretty excited about. Based on the cover alone, I purchased this 1961 Annual Report for the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) that I came across on ebay, which was a gamble that paid off big. The interior proved to be full of great design and illustration. Not only that, when the seller contacted me about delivery I learned that they lived right down the street from me. At first I thought they were crazy, wanting to drop it off at my house, but had missed that they were located in Wichita, KS. And based on my chat with them, they are open to making some deals on other design-related offerings that caught my eye. So hopefully there will be more to come on all this! And of course, I need to share this report more thoroughly when I have a chance.

Various things I’m looking at, reading, listening to, acquiring, etc. When something cool comes across my radar, I feel like I need to put it on other people’s radar.

Comics

Picked up the trade for Our Bones Dust by Ben Stenbeck, after reading the single issues as they hit comic shop shelves. Being a post-apocalyptic tale with artificial intelligence and extraterrestrials in the mix, this was one I highly anticipated. Really enjoyed the story, which is bleak but not without a bit of hope, and Stenbeck's artwork is fantastic. The first issue is available to read online via Boing Boing if it is something you’d like to check out.

Books

Not really reading anything significant at the moment, but purchased some new releases that should be interesting.

Towards the Realm of Materiality: Designing Philip K. Dick’s Non-Existing Technologies

Sad Planets by Dominic Pettman and Eugene Thacker

Music

Decommissioned by Nate Hofer. Experimental solo pedal steel guitar, recorded in a decommissioned missile silo in Kansas.

There’s a story about it here. And a limited edition vinyl album with letterpress printed sleeve is available from Hammerpress or Nate’s Bandcamp. A beautifully executed project all around.

Art

Wood sculptor Aleph Geddis is opening his secret store again later this month. I purchased a few small “portal buddies” at a past sale, one wood carved and the other cast in bronze, which now grace my living room fireplace mantel. You can check out Geddis’ work on his website or find him on Instagram. And sign up for his mailing list if you’d like to get access to the secret store when it opens.

I also recently snagged a commissioned piece from Jesse Balmer, after he offered up limited slots on his site for original drawings based in one of the past eras of his work. I chose to have something from the "Cyberiad" series, pointing at a few pieces I really liked, with the prompt being that it depict an “act of creation or invention” in the spirit of the "constructor" robot protagonists from Lem's The Cyberiad stories. You can see the result below! And find more of Balmer's work here or on Instagram.

Design

Patricia Klein, whom I’ve followed for some time now after discovering her design work via Instagram, has some interesting collections up on the Are.na content curation platform that have grabbed my attention.

Diagrams without context…

alien aesthetics

Some new reading material that arrived recently.

• The Mars Review of Books Vol 1, Issue 1 print edition →
• Klara and the Bomb by Crystal Bennes →
• Terraform - Watch/Worlds/Burn edited by Brian Merchant and Claire L. Evans →
• An Immense World by Ed Yong →

Well, I guess this is a fresh start. If you’re wondering where all my previous transmissions went — long story short, this blog was one of several sections of my site that had content sacrificed after I lost my hosting service and we ran into trouble with the migration a few months back. I didn’t feel like it was worth the work to try and restore everything. What matters, is getting myself back into the habit of writing regularly. Even before the site went haywire, I probably hadn’t posted anything for months. Maybe a year?

And while I’ve had the itch to put things out into the world, Instagram — where I was most active online — has become hard to look at. At this point, it’s been over two months since I’ve posted there. Even prior to that, it was getting pretty sporadic. Wherever the hell that app is going, it’s starting to feel like something to move on from. Probably best to primarily share things here, in my own domain, where anyone who is interested can find it minus all the noise.

So, with that said, how about a status report?

Work

Still powering away at DataStax, where we’re taking a hard look at the brand and where to go with things next. Not at a point where I can really talk about what all is in the works though. But the company is doing well, in spite of tech’s economic woes.

—

Home

Mostly hiding indoors, as the heat here in Kansas has been consistently triple digits for weeks now, with only a few days of relief here and there.

Just prior to the rolling heatwave, I did do a little remodeling — as followers on Instagram know, I cleaned up an old 1950s/60s shelter that was under my back porch. Originally accessible via a manhole and ladder, in the 1970s the previous owner of the house dug a ramp from the detached garage and cut a hole through the block wall. But the whole thing was in serious disrepair when I bought the place. The hatch leaked. There were more leaks where they breached the wall. The original electrical was a hazard. So with my brother’s help, we fixed all that. And then, I maybe went a bit overboard. And turned it into "the bunker."

Funny, after that transformation, I had an electrician come out to put some things on separate breakers. I’m sure he thought I was nuts. He wouldn't be wrong, I guess.

Side Projects

The Speculative Identities site needs an overhaul, which is going to be a pretty heavy lift involving both design and development. I need to update the experience to account for some things I want to do with the content going forward. We need to move to the latest version of the CMS we use, since we are on an old unsupported version. And we need to move everything to new hosting. So we’re probably going to break a lot of stuff in the process of trying to fix it.

Prior to all that work, I also have a number of updates I need to make to existing entries, based on new info that was brought to light by some readers. I’ve been away from it so long, I really feel like I’m letting those folks down. On top of that, I still get emails from readers that are just discovering the site, telling me they love it and want to see more.

To do all this, I really need to get myself to a place where I can be in the office for personal work. I think the screen time associated with a full-time, remote job has kind of taxed me in a way that my self-employed design work didn’t. Feels like it used to be a lot easier to get away from the screen multiple times a day, to give myself a break. At this point, when my work day ends, I tend to close the MacBook until the next day out of exhaustion.

—

Recently Acquired

Still stacking books. Still filing away papers and ephemera. I’ve slowed down a little, but have lucked into some nice stuff. The latest, was a 1955 “Atoms for Peace” booklet published by General Dynamics and designed by Erik Nitsche. It even had an invitation to the First U.S. Trade Fair of the Atomic Industry still tucked inside of it.

Recent Reading

- Books

The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Graeber and David Wengrow

To Govern the Globe: World Orders and Catastrophic Change by Alfred W. McCoy

I’ve been on a history kick here, and these are giving me some new perspectives on things.

- Comics

EX.Mag Vol. 4

A limited-run 300 page mecha-themed comics anthology published by Peow Studio, with some knockout stories and art (all in 2-color Risograph style). I had pre-ordered it, but it still appears to be available in their shop if you’re interested in checking it out.

Griz Grobus

Simon Roy has been running comics over on Webtoons, which I’ve been getting a kick out of. These are stories spinning out of the sci-fi world we saw in his book Habitat (which I had a little back and forth with him about for Speculative Identities).

- Design

"An Archeology for the Future in Space"

A pretty fascinating conversation between between Fabien Girardin (Near Future Laboratory), Simone Rebaudengo (oio) and Fred Scharmen (author of Space Settlements and Space Forces), on their design fiction process for the Dubai Museum of the Future’s Level 5 exhibit, the Orbiting Space Station (OSS) HOPE, which gives visitors an immersive experience of future life in space. Set in the year 2071, they not only created objects from that imagined future, but a whole history and culture behind it.

- Film

Finally got a chance to see NOPE, which I really enjoyed. If you’ve already seen it (spoilers after the jump), there’s some interesting background on the UFO design here.

—

Ok, I think that is long enough for one post. Will try to get at least one of these out a week going forward. See you next time.