If you can believe it, we are OVER halfway through 2021. Personally, we don’t fully believe it, but we present the following Afternoon Snack as evidence that we are, in fact, in the second half of July.
POSE is one of the best shows on television right now, and we were overjoyed to hear that Mj Rodriguez got the Emmy nomination for Best Actress! If you haven’t watched or caught up on POSE yet, please give yourself this gift. JUST LOOK:
Some interesting publishing news was reported recently: according to Publishers’ Weekly, “graphic novels made up nearly 20% of adult fiction unit sales in the first six months of 2021, compared to 9.3% last year.” Some youthful serialized titles like insanely popular shonen manga My Hero Academia are counted as “adult graphic novels” for this report, which feels like an odd categorization, but nonetheless, it’s a staggering number, and very heartening news for comics makers!
If you want to bask in some vintage comics looks while contemplating graphic novel possibilities, check out this Moomin apparel and accessory collection dreams are made of at Cath Kidston (UK-based, but ships to the US)!
In very serious labor new, if you haven’t yet heard on social media, Frito Lay workers have been on strike for 14 days, and as of this publishing, are resuming negotiations today with the Fortune 500 company. The striking workers have asked supporters to boycott Frito Lay and PepsiCo (its parent company) while the strike continues over absolutely horrific, life-endangering conditions. Vice spoke with a union steward at the Topkea, Kansas Frito Lay plant last week:
After 37 years, I still get forced to work 12 hours a day, seven days a week. Seven years ago, my wife passed away and I spent a lot of time in grief counseling, and I told the company, I don’t want to work 12 hours a day seven days a week. I ended up getting FMLA [Family Medical Leave Act unpaid leave], but they’re still having me do it sometimes. You come in at 7 a.m. and not only do you work eight hours, but when you get off at 3 p.m., they suicide (force you to work a double shift) you and have you come back at 3am. There’s 850 employees and it’s true for half or three quarters of them.
To conclude for today, let us zoom out and contemplate the absolutely inconceivably old history of the land. To vibe is human; to fossilize, divine.