Trouble Down Pit

I bet you never knew that Lisa was wearing an electric blue miniskirt with fishnet stockings, and was being tickled by members of a secret and ancient order of ducks. In fact, you’d be amazed how many art historians are unaware of all of this. Y’see, comics are educational, but you knew that all along, I bet. Memo to self: fishnet takes ages to draw – avoid it in future.

Lookee! I have lots of ickle linking images:

(slowly animated)

Add to your pages and spead the gospel of Trouble Down Pit silliness!

This weekend was lots of fun, with beer and gaming galore. On Sunday I finished reading my top tip for Christmas book presents: Special Topics In Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl (UK link US link). It’s a very odd book, but it’s one of the most entertaining novels I’ve read for years. It’s about an over-educated American girl going into her high-school year, and encountering the usual problems of friends and betrayal; however, all may not be as it seems. Or it might be… It’s actually an incredibly hard book to decribe, because all the basics that you can tell anyone about it sound incredibly prosaic, but the massive plot shift about two-thirds through the book and the brilliant final chapters are so great that it would be a crime to even hint at what they are.

I can see how the style might irritate some; the narrator, as I said before, is over-educated and has the slightly pretentious style of a sixteen year-old who enjoys complex metaphors, but there’s a lot of humour in the metaphors too, and if you can accept it then you’re in for a real treat. If you’re wondering what to get people for Christmas then I think that this would be an excellent choice – just make sure that they stick with it through the very long set up and into the superb pay-off in the latter part of the book.

Speaking of superb things, I’ve been listening to Give Up by The Postal Service (UK link US link). It’s a combination of beautiful lyrics, heart-breaking vocals, and lovely bleepy music. The second track on the album, called ‘Such Great Heights’, has to be one of the best songs about love that I have ever heard. You can hear it for yourself over on their MySpace page. If that first verse doesn’t make your head explode with glee then you are a cruel being with a chest full of shards of ice, slowly rotating in the sad breeze of life. Yep.

While I’m here, I’ll just say that last order dates from my shop before Christmas are rapidly approaching. To the US – 8th December, to Australia – 13th December, to the UK – 15th December. Don’t miss it! The shop is here.

That’s it from me for today. I guess I’d better think of what I’m going to do for Friday’s strip… What will it be? Who knows? I know I don’t yet… I love surprises! Have a great week and I’ll see you on Friday.