Drinky Crow Drinks Again / Daytripper

Issue No. 74

MORE SEAFARING, SUICIDAL BIRD BOOZING AS DRINKY CROW DRINKS AGAIN

Drinky Crow Drinks Again
by Tony Millionaire
Fantagraphics
2016, 128 pages, 10.8 x 8.8 x 0.7 inches (hardcover)

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Captain Maak (captain of the ship), Uncle Gabby (the Irish monkey), Gunslinger Jesus, Phoebe Bird, and everyone’s favorite violent, binge-drinking, suicidal avian anti-hero, Drinky Crow, are all back and more beautifully bizarre than ever in Maakies: Drinky Crow Drinks Again. From the confident, well informed, but often fevered hand of well-known American weekly comic strip artist Tony Millionaire, comes this new Fantagraphics landscape hardback collecting recent syndicated strips (along with some additional material). The book is as handsome as you’d expect, coming from this artist and this publisher (even if it’s the first Maakies collection not designed by Chip Kidd).

You never know what you’re going to get from Tony Millionaire, but you know it will never be boring and it will always be beautifully rendered. Even more so than most, Millionaire’s comic strips feel like you’re mainlining the author’s own insane membrane, watching him think out loud and exorcising his demons with pen and ink on paper.

The incredibly meticulous old-school draftsmanship, the many allusions to old comic strips and classic art, lots of clever twists and brilliant pay-offs, strips that dead end, and ones that go completely off the rails, often ending in violence or suicide – it’s not always the smoothest ride, but it’s one you’re compelled to take, even if just for the gorgeous scenery. Luckily, Tony Millionaire, Maakies, and Drinky Crow have far more riches to offer than that. – Gareth Branwyn

MOON AND BÁ’S DAYTRIPPER IS A MASTERFUL NOVEL BY ANY METRIC

Daytripper
by Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon
Vertigo
2011, 256 pages, 6.7 x 10.2 x 0.5 inches (softcover)

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I don’t think it would be too hyperbolic of me to say Daytripper is one of the best graphic novels I’ve ever read. It’s a big story told in small moments. The epic, emotional core is powerful and life affirming, but brothers Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá get there through the lightest touch of character.

Without giving too much away (because there is so much to discover), the story is about Brás de Oliva Domingos, an aspiring novelist stuck writing newspaper obituaries. His life is both unique and unremarkable, and we meet Brás at a different age in each chapter. Theses ages are told in a non-linear fashion, and mostly feature life-changing moments. The twist is that these moments rarely seem life changing as they are happening, as is usually the case in real life. We live each day as if it is any other, only noting the important bits later.

For Moon and Bá, recognizing the personal is a matter of life or death. Brás spends most of the book pining for more in his life, always dissatisfied with where he is. It’s as if he’s constantly waiting for his “real life” to begin. Moon and Bá suggest that life isn’t the point when you finally find the success you’ve been craving, or when you finally meet the love of your life, or any number of other things. Your life is now, today, in whatever situation you happen to be in. Life is happening all around you, and it’s crucial that you not miss it.

The storytelling alone is incredible, but the art pushes the novel to even greater heights. Moon and Bá employ a realistic style that makes their São Paulo feel like the real city. This is crucial considering the more fantastic elements they periodically introduce into the book; they tiptoe across magical realism, and the art helps to keep you grounded. Their work is incredibly rich in detail, while the color has an almost sun bleached quality to it that appears lifelike. This is a masterful novel by any metric. – Alex Strine

Books That Belong On Paper first appeared on the web as Wink Books and was edited by Carla Sinclair. Sign up here to get the issues a week early in your inbox.

Rental car toll hack/DIY legal guidance/Flounder Mode

Recomendo - issue #471

Rental car toll hack

Rental car companies love to shake you down with their toll programs—- either pay an absurd daily fee (like $25/day!) for their toll service or risk getting slammed with massive processing fees if you hit a toll booth. But here’s a money-saving move: register your rental car’s license plate on The Toll Roads website before driving. I snap a photo of the plate and VIN (enter it here to get the car’s year, make, and model) at pickup and add it to my FasTrak account right there in the parking lot—takes 2 minutes. Set the start/end dates for your rental period and you’re good to go. — MF

DIY legal guidance

Getting legal advice from a chat AI is an okay way to start, but you’ll need something more trustworthy to complete a legal deal. For 50 years I (and many others!) have relied on Nolo Press for legal guidance. Nolo offers fantastic guidebooks to common legal needs — from speeding tickets, to small claims court, to bankruptcy and divorce. In some cases they offer online forms and software to get what you need. I’ve used Nolo to create my own LLCs, partnerships and other legal entities. I also used their guide to change my name legally. They are very clear and trustworthy and much cheaper than a lawyer. — KK

Inspirational profile on Kevin Kelly

This essay on Kevin Kelly by Brie Wolfson, titled “Flounder Mode,” is my favorite profile of Kevin Kelly I’ve ever read. It perfectly matches my own experience of knowing him — a creator who is endlessly curious, prolifically generative, laid-back, kind, and genuinely happy. Equally compelling are Brie’s honest reflections about her career path, which invite me, as a reader, to reflect more deeply on my own choices and dreams. More than ever, I feel inspired to align my creative habits and decisions with what truly interests me. I recommend this to anyone interested in redefining for themselves the meaning of “greatness,” “ambition,” and “outcomes.” — CD

Headphone stand

This simple headphone stand is one of those “why didn’t I get this sooner?” purchases. It keeps my AirPod Max headphones always within reach and has a weighted base to prevent tipping. I went with the metal version over plastic for better durability. A small upgrade that makes my workspace feel more organized. — MF

Bullshit Remover

Bullshit Remover is a fun tool to play with. Paste any block of text into the box and it will remove the “crap” and give you back the truth behind all the words. — CD

Favorite quotes

Time for some more quotable quotes:

• The patient inherit everything the impatient leave behind. — Shane Parish
• Things take longer to happen than you think they will, and then they happen faster than you thought they could. — Rudiger Dornbusch
• I wouldn’t have seen it, if I didn’t believe it. — Marshall McLuhan
• There are two kinds of people in the world… and who is not both of them? — James Richardson
• Everything that moves will be autonomous — Jensen Hwang
• Knowing what you’re doing is way overrated. — Pope.L
• A cartoonist is someone who has to draw the same thing day after day without repeating himself. — Charles M. Schulz
• You have to be unreasonable to see the world that doesn’t yet exist. — Will Guidara
• If I knew where songs came from, I’d go there more often. — Leonard Cohen

I offer these as small mind-tickles to remind you of what you already know, but have forgotten. — KK

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Travel Gear Deals/Avoiding Bug Bites/Bad Behavior Fines

Nomadico issue #163

Cheaper Gear at Amazon

As I’m sure you’ve heard, we’re in the midst of Prime “Day” at Amazon, a sale event that’s going on for 72 hours this time. A few items we’ve recommended before are marked down quite a bit, like the 10-inch Kindle Fire tablet (56% off), the JBL Go 3 travel Bluetooth speaker (30% off), and the Lifestraw backcountry water filter (43% off). This is a great time to pick up earbuds or headphones, like the folding Beats Solo 4 headphones at 51% off.

What Really Works Against Mosquitoes

This Lifehacker article on how to avoid mosquito bites when you’re enjoying the summer weather on your deck is refreshingly concise. I’d add treated Insect Shield clothing to the list for an extra layer of protection, but it’s easy to remember a breeze and the right sprays. “DEET really works, and so do picaridin and oil of lemon eucalyptus. If a mosquito repellent spray (especially a ‘natural’ one) doesn’t have one of these ingredients, it’s probably no good.” I usually go for a higher percentage of DEET than they recommend, which you can find online or at sporting goods stores.

Bad Behavior Fines in Europe

I’ve frequently discussed new travel fees popping up all over, but this article showing all the things you can be fined for in Europe was about five times longer than I expected. You may think Europe is more laid-back about showing skin, but you’d better not walk around in swimwear in parts of Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, or Croatia, with some fines exceeding $1,500. Unruly behavior, smoking in public, eating next to a cultural monument, or even taking a selfie in the wrong place could hit your wallet hard. And don’t pull out a dashcam for your rental car in Austria: it’s illegal there.

How Many Passports?

Now that AI is answering our questions, sometimes even giving the right answer, you don’t see many articles like this answering a single search query like “How Many Passports Can You Have?” The answer, according to this Travel + Leisure article, seems to be “plenty” if you want to go to the effort. There are even circumstances where you could have two for your home country.

A weekly newsletter with four quick bites, edited by Tim Leffel, author of A Better Life for Half the Price and The World’s Cheapest Destinations. See past editions here, where your like-minded friends can subscribe and join you.

Mooncop / Super Graphic

Issue No. 75

MOONCOP – A STORY WITH EXISTENTIAL PATHOS THAT WE EARTH-DWELLERS CAN RELATE TO. RELEASED TODAY!

Mooncop
by Tom Gauld
Drawn and Quarterly
2016, 96 pages, 6.6 x 8.1 x 0.6 inches (hardcover)

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The great Moon colonization project was a failure. The few diehards who remain in their prefab pod-like houses are going back to Earth. That leaves the unnamed lunar police officer with barely anything to do as operations wind down. Author/illustrator Tom Gauld is in top form with his just-released Mooncop, telling a simple story with a deep layer of existential pathos that even we Earth-dwellers can relate to. – Mark Frauenfelder

SUPER GRAPHIC: A VISUAL GUIDE TO THE COMIC BOOK UNIVERSE

Super Graphic: A Visual Guide to the Comic Book Universe
by Tim Leong
Chronicle Books
2013, 196 pages, 7.4 x 9.4 x 0.6 inches (softcover)

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How has Superman’s logo changed shape since it was first created in 1938? How long do comic book characters tend to stay dead? How do the populations of fictional cities compare to New York City or London? Tim Leong’s Super Graphic: A Visual Guide to the Comic Book Universe uses bright maps, word webs, graphs, and flowcharts to answer questions like these and illustrate correlations among different comic book characters. Most of his information comes from the usual Marvel and DC superhero comic books, but he also analyzes information from such classics as Tin-Tin, Peanuts, and Archie comics.

The smartest graphs show Leong’s skill for bringing together information into succinct visuals, such as the charts showing that superheroes tend to wear primary colors while supervillains tend to wear secondary colors. Other spreads draw information from the comic book business or affiliated merchandise. For example, some infographics discuss which demographics reads comic books, which characters won most often in Marvel Universe Trading Card Series, and which comic book writers are the most prolific. Still other pages use the graphs to make sight-gags without providing any insight or trivia. These pages, such as the graph entitled “A Personal History of Saying ‘Good Grief’” which is drawn as the pattern on Charlie Brown’s shirt, are briefly amusing but not the pages to study. Instead, take your time exploring Scrooge McDuck’s family tree, the character web of Sin City, and the pie charts of every weird pizza the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have eaten. You never know when that information might be useful. – Megan Hippler

Books That Belong On Paper first appeared on the web as Wink Books and was edited by Carla Sinclair. Sign up here to get the issues a week early in your inbox.

Big History

Tools for Possibilities: issue no. 146

Compact timeline of global history

Histomap of World History

Not a map really, but a 5-foot-high chart showing in one glance 4,000 years of human history on a global scale. Thirty years ago I saw this on the wall of someone’s dorm room and it flipped me out then, and every time I’ve seen it since. Its beauty is how Mr. Sparks divies up world power (somewhat crudely) into its main factions graphed in each increment of fifty years since 2000 B.C.E. Different civilizations are color-coded so one can easily trace the flow and ebb of culture over the centuries.

It has three uses for me: whenever I am reading about some historical event I can instantly see what else was going on in the world at that time (for instance, what was happening in France during the Ming Dynasty). I also get a very intuitive sense of the rises and falls of civilizations, a pattern that no other chart or book has been able to give me. And hanging on the wall, it never fails to elicit gaps of shock when visitors recognize our modern place in the chart. At ten bucks, it’s a bargain education.— KK

Understanding geological and biological time

Correlated History of Earth

The long view. Or rather, views. Geological time and biological time run at such different paces that the two perspectives are not easily brought together. This crisp chart joins them with extraordinary clarity. It lays out the chronologies of continents skittering around the globe, of comet and asteroid impacts, and of life’s increasingly diverse groups of living creatures and how they fit into geological time. And more. Ordinarily, combining such staggering amounts of information would yield mush and muddle. But this exquisitely printed, laminated poster manages to present 4.5 billion years of geology and biology as the unified whole that it is. Like a good map it teaches something at two feet away, or you can get out a magnifying glass and read down for details. — KK

• From the chart’s Web site:
  “Included are plate tectonic maps, mountain building events (orogenies), major volcanic episodes, glacial epochs, all known craters from asteroid and comet impacts, over 100 classic fossil localities from around the world, fossil ranges of plants, invertebrates and vertebrate life forms, and major extinction events as revealed by the fossil record. Also evident on this chart are the “Cambrian explosion” of animal phyla and the juxtaposition of reptiles and mammals across the Cretaceous/Tertiary (K/T) boundary. Hundreds of illustrations add a striking visual dimension to the data.”

5,000 years of history in one square meter

Diagrammatic Chart of World History

Simply the best overview of the — long now — I am aware of. Displays with utmost intelligence 50 centuries of civilization, as revealed in the complex rise and fall of ancient powers. Because it is not as linear as the famous, previously-reviewed Histomap, it is not as handy for quickly locating a fact in time, but its extra dimensions make this diagram the one I keep returning to to grok the past 5,000 years.— KK

Once a week we’ll send out a page from Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities. The tools might be outdated or obsolete, and the links to them may or may not work. We present these vintage recommendations as is because the possibilities they inspire are new. Sign up here to get Tools for Possibilities a week early in your inbox.

Retro Recomendo: Household Tips

Recomendo - issue #470

Our subscriber base has grown so much since we first started nine years ago, that most of you have missed all our earliest recommendations. The best of these are still valid and useful, so we’re trying out something new — Retro Recomendo. Once every 6 weeks, we’ll send out a throwback issue of evergreen recommendations focused on one theme from the past 9 years.

Unclog sewer drains

We live in an old house and the sewer pipes get clogged a lot. I got tired of paying a plumber $150 to clear the pipe every time it clogged, so I bought this $27 hose attachment, called a Drain King. It’s a rubber bladder that you insert into the sewer line opening. When you turn the hose on, the bladder expands, forcing the water to push the clog out. It has never failed me. Read the glowing testimonials on Amazon for this thing. — MF

Bathroom phone shelf

You are sitting on the toilet but there is no place to park your phone safely. This is an everywhere-in-the-world problem, with a first-world solution: this hefty, heavy solid metal, toilet roll shelf. The shelf is flat, dry, and stable. The roll holder underneath is easy to use. It can also store books, wet wipes, etc. As a courtesy I replaced our guest bathroom roll holder with this, and I like it so much I may do the rest of the bathrooms. — KK

Smudge-free surfaces

I bought a 10-pack of these extra-large microfiber cloths ($12), and now I keep them everywhere—home drawers, office, car, purse. They leave every surface spotless in seconds. I spend at least 10 hours a day staring at a screen or wearing glasses. I never knew I needed something so much in my life. — CD

This vacuum cleaner really sucks

The Bissell Zing Canister (model 2156A) was only $50 and it exceeded my expectations. It is bagless, quieter than any other vacuum cleaner I’ve owned, and has powerful suction. It’s great for hardwood floors (I don’t know how well it works on carpeting since we don’t have any). — MF

Best stain remover

Tipped off by the comprehensive research at America’s Test Kitchen, I’ve found that the best — really the only — stain remover for laundry that really works is sodium percarbonate, which is a powder you need to mix in water before each use. (No liquid spray works nearly as well.) You then soak garments for 6 hours and wash. It completely removes just about any food stain, even stale ones. There are generic versions available but a proven brand of percarbonate is OxiClean Versatile Stain Remover. — KK

Simple strategy for cleaning

The next time you have a big mess to clean up, try the “pile method.” Gather everything that needs to be put away into one giant pile, then sort the items—like with like—into smaller piles. Put those piles away one by one. This way, you avoid getting sidetracked as you put things away. At first, it felt counterintuitive to make one big mess, but it really does speed up the process, and it’s so satisfying to be efficient and tidy. — CD

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What’s in my NOW? — Steven Ovadia