Dear POMEs, we are officially two weeks out from the submission deadline for Comrade Himbo! If you need a little himspiration, check out this story on the gay men who flooded the alt-right “Proud Boys” hashtag with images of gay romance, love and affection. Or, simply gaze into the Shōjo Eyes of COMMUNISM.
Not unrelated: in labor writing this week, we are thinking about Anne Helen Petersen’s latest newsletter entry, “You’re Still Not Working From Home,” about the new patterns of post-COVID working life, and how to reclaim our time for better work, not more work. Also, we would be remiss not to give a thank you/shout out to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Elizabeth Warren for pulling out of the New Yorker Festival in solidarity with The New Yorker Union’s digital picket line.
Having trouble getting the week started? Worried about, well, everything? Try out this short, cute text game about anxiety by POME fave Jazzlyn Stone, The Demon.
The grand American tradition of getting ready for Christmas before Halloween continues, but we can’t be mad at Dolly Parton for announcing her upcoming Netflix Christmas special, since we really need something to look forward to! If you’re in Austin, this is also a great time to get in on Manos De Cristo’s annual tamale sale, running through the end of November, and funding emergency food and clothing relief, quality low-cost dental care, and adult education classes for children, adults, and seniors in need.
Our very own Pome, Alejandra Martinez, has an amazing essay in the Ransom Center Magazine about the complexities of queer history through the archival writings of Radclyffe Hall and Una Troubridge.
We caught up on a ton of exciting comics news this weekend: we are incredibly pumped for local comics mom Lilah Sturges’s new middle-grade fantasy comic Girl Haven, illustrated by Meaghan Carter lettered by Joamette Gil! Elsewhere in the ever-expanding world of YA comics, we had a chance to get a sneak preview of Mad Cave’s new YA line, Maverick, during the most recent Mad Cave Showcase, and every single book looks like an absolute must-read. Kwanza Osajyefo and Tim Smith 3’s comics series BLACK, in which only Black people have superpowers, was acquired as a feature-length film by Warner Bros.!
The roots of modern-day fandom are often traced back to Star Trek, but we recently learned about “Grangerization,” a popular late nineteenth-century practice of mixed-media book augmentation that displays really interesting features of early fan culture!
In some cases, the resulting work smacked of obsessive fandom. One collector expanded a copy of an 1828 biography of Lord Byron from two volumes to five, rebinding the pages to accommodate 184 illustrations and 14 letters and autographs. Another turned a three-volume 1872 biography of Charles Dickens into nine oversized books packed with broadsides for performances, actor portraits, letters, and images taken from illustrated editions of the author’s books.
Stay safe and sane, POMEs! The Crone Zone wants YOU to keep your head up so we can all yell together about our Patron Saint Dolly in a couple of months!