Some old ghosts and some new

Grave Stone

Diane kemble is the Education Coordinator at the Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation in Plymouth Notch Vermont. Calvin Coolidge and Achsa Sprague were both born in Plymouth Notch, and both buried in the beautiful old cemetery up there. Last Spring I drew a comic version of Achsa Sprague's life called, I Sill Live: Biography of a Spiritualist. I recently sent Diane a copy of I Still Live, and she sent me this picture of my picture of Achsa's grave set up against actual Achsa'a grave:




It feels special, as if the cycle has come full circle.
Like the World card in the Tarot. Like a dream that ends at just the right moment.

Thanks Diane! This picture really made my day.

Dear NASA

I was watching Star Wars last night at midnight. Not the stupid new Star Wars, but the old one, where the forces of good face their innermost demons and the heroes and villains are powerful sorcerors whose magical tradition has survived on planet-force throughout centuries of imperialist technology. The moon was full in Aquarius, and somewhere on earth, people were watching a lunar eclipse (For the full run-down, check out my friend Rhea's Full Moon Report here). I got to the part in the movie where Darth Vader is trying to break Princess Leia ("her resistance to the mind-probe is STRONG...") and then that ugly evil dude makes her watch as he blows up her peaceful home planet Alderon with the Death Star when it hit me--OH MY GOD. THEY'RE GOING TO BLOW UP THE MOON.
I turned off the movie and went outside. I've often felt like I could get a sense of the emotional climate of the world (or at least my world) by reading the expression on the Moon's face. Looking at the moon last night, I wanted to cry.
And I decided to write an open letter to NASA. Here it is:

Dear NASA.
Are you INSANE? You're rocket scientists. You're supposed to be smart. bombing the moon is the stupidest idea I've ever heard. Yes, I know there are already craters on the moon and asteroids hit it and stuff, and we probably won't even SEE the 5-mile chasm that your 2-ton load is going to blow. But do you really have any idea what you are DOING?? Don't you know the moon controls our tides, our crops--all bodies of water? Don't you know that human bodies are like, MOSTLY water? And I don't care Mr. rocket scientist that you don't bleed it out every month--don't go releasing your man-period energy by blowing up stellar bodies, okay?!? And I'm not worried about the alien inhabitants like some internerds out there, but I'll tell you one thing I know--the GODDESS is going to be fucking PISSED. You don't just go and blow up the Goddess's son/lover like that. Are you crazy? Don't you know 2012 is coming up? Of course you do, you know everything. So you should know that it's probably not a good time to start fucking with planetary orbits and gravitational pulls. It all started with demoting Pluto the other year--you KNOW he was pissed. And though he may have sunk into a deep depression (or was that me), he's still here, (in retrograde, in Capricorn for the next 248 YEARS) and he's surely not fucking around. So my point is, you better not send that man-missile into space or else I'm gonna--What? It's ALREADY UP THERE?! You took advantage of the fact that the following week the entire world was in mourning over MJ to just slide it in under the radar, right? Well, I can say with conviction that the Moonwalker would NOT be happy about this. NOT AT ALL.
You know what I"m really hoping? I hope I wake up tomorrow and find that this is all a big joke. People will laugh and tell me how gullible I am to believe such a thing. Bomb the Moon? Yeah, right. And I bleed from my crotch for 5 days every month and don't die. Give me a break.

No, but seriously ya'll. Don't let them do this.

Portland Zine Symposium

well, today I am feeling too sick to go to the symposium. I hope I feel better tomorrow.
For now, I will post some panels from my most recent comic, one I prepared for the Dicentra Collective's anthology zine, When Language Runs Dry: a Zine for People With Chronic Pain and Their Allies. Dicentra is rad, check out their blog here.
Speaking of serendipity, another book debuted at the zine symposium also titled SICK. It is subtitled: a Compilation Zine on Physical Illness, edited by Ben Holtzman. He's a real nice guy, and the book is really good. You can buy it here from AK Press.
I was away last month at Fancyland for an art getaway. It was lovely and wonderful (endless gratitude, Sacha). However, most of the time I was so sick out there that it made it very hard for me to focus on any of the projects I had planned. So I decided to draw a very personal comic about disability, feeling sick all the time, and the various frustrating and depressing experiences that ensue. Sometimes I wonder: how much more "coming out" can I do? So this will be my coming out as disabled post. the picture below, I actually drew while lying in pain on the couch in the amazing new lodge that my friends built last summer (I do not have a "builder-body", but me and my sweetheart helped out by cooking two weeks worth of meals for a rotating band of builder-friends):

and here's a couple more:

Fortune Telling

Check the caption!

Okay, so I did some Stumptown, did some Release Party, still working on the symbol dictionary and just finished a creepy-kid story for the Sundays 3 anthology, put together by the Sundays guys (see above.). Currently working on: Babe Bean Bio, Gay Genius Comics, a comic for the Dicentra Collective's chronic pain zine: When Language runs dry (I am very excited and nervous about this one.), and my own personal esoteric agenda.

Finally! (book release announcement)

Event: Book Release, Art Show, and Book-Signing
for
I Still Live: Biography of a Spiritualist
A Xeric Award-winning graphic novella by
Annie Murphy
Friday, April 10th (the first Friday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox), 2009
7:00pm--10:00pm
1914 S.E. Ankeny
Portland, Oregon


Come celebrate Spring and the spirit of renewal, rebirth, and recovery
with this comic book tribute to poet, activist, and spirit-medium Achsa Sprague, and a show of original artwork from the book.

What the people say:

"I Still Live is a masterful hybrid work.
Part adaptation of the spiritualist Achsa
Sprague's diary, part history book, and
part memoir, it channels the past into the
present in a haunting and vivid way."

--Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home

"Annie Murphy has that rare gift to make
history feel immediate and urgent. I Still Live
is not only well researched but comes alive on
the page. Achsa Sprague has been revived."
--James Sturm, author of The Golem's Mighty Swing

"This was the most self-assured debut of the year by
an artist whose interests include the intersection
between spiritualism and feminism and whose style
occupies the space between quietude and poetic sweep.
As she refines her style, she will be a fascinating talent to watch."
--Rob Clough, of Sequart Research and Literacy Organization.

review at comicrelated.com

news article from Vermont Woman Magazine
#3 on Comics Journal's ten great minicomics of 2008

Thank you to Charles at Eberhardt press for printing this
new and improved, two-color off-set version of the comic,
and thanks so much to the Xeric Foundation for funding it.

I sure hope you can make it.
Sincerely,
Annie Murphy