Posts By: Elly Blue

Manor Threat: Snake Pit Comics 2013-2015

May 12, 2016 — by Elly Blue

Manor Threat contains three more years of daily diary comics from Ben Snakepit. This episode brings us to the town of Manor (pronounced “MAY-ner”), a suburb of Austin, Texas. Ben buys a house with his wife and adjusts to slow-paced country living. He also turns 40 and gets a new job, and then gets another job. Along the way, he draws a three-panel comic describing each day’s events, however dramatic or monotonous. Against that steady march of time, patterns emerge and shift and the result is a meditative, addictive read that captures the humanity of everyday life. Bonus for true fans: A surprise ending!

Walking with Ramona: Exploring Beverly Cleary’s Portland

May 12, 2016 — by Elly Blue

Walking with Ramona explores the streets, schools, characters, and neighborhoods of author Beverly Cleary’s Portland. With this newest and most unusual Portland guidebook, readers can walk the very sidewalks Beverly walked and climb the very school steps that Beverly climbed. You’ll see the grocery parking lot where Ramona got stuck in the mud, the park lawn where Henry Huggins hunted nightcrawlers, and the real Portland street that became Klickitat Street, their fictional home. Beverly Cleary’s Portland was much different than the Portlandia of today. Walking with Ramona brings to life what that 1920s and 1930s Portland was like for the “girl from Yamhill” who went on to become an internationally beloved author. Characters like Ramona and Beezus, Henry and Ribsy, and Ellen and Austine come to life on this hour-long walking route through the Northeast Portland neighborhood where Beverly grew up.

The book features an approximately three mile walk (or bike ride!) around Northeast Portland, plus other Oregon destinations.

Threadbare: Clothes, Sex & Trafficking

May 12, 2016 — by Elly Blue

Ever wondered who makes your clothes? Who sells them? How much they get paid? How the fashion and sex industries are intertwined?

Threadbare draws the connections between the international sex and garment trades and human trafficking in a beautifully illustrated comics series. Anne Elizabeth Moore, in reports illustrated by top-notch comics creators, pulls at the threads of gender, labor, and cultural production to paint a concerning picture of a human rights in a globalized world. Moore’s reporting, illustrated by members of the Ladydrawers Comics Collective, takes the reader from the sweatshops of Cambodia to the traditional ateliers of Vienna, from the life of a globetrotting supermodel to the warehouses of large clothing retailers, from the secondhand clothing industry to the politics of the sex trade. With thoughtful illustrations of women’s stories across the sex and garment supply chain, this book offers a practical guide to a growing problem few truly understand.

Featuring the work of Leela Corman, Julia Gfrörer, Simon Häussle, Delia Jean, Ellen Lindner, and Melissa Mendes.

Commute Diary #4: Maxed Out

May 12, 2016 — by Elly Blue

the feeling of driving a car Leaving work right around 5pm and biking home in rush hour traffic is always a big treat. Swooping past the blocks of cars waiting to get on the freeway in Portland’s Rose Quarter is one of my life’s not-so-guilty pleasures. I don’t take pleasure in the frustration of people caught in traffic, but the freedom to move down busy streets with relaxed alertness rather than stiff, fearful caution is a joy I’ve only experienced during group bike rides like Critical Mass. During rush hour in Portland, cars form their own Critical Mass. Their daily demonstration is more effective than the bicycle variety, as it’s always well-heeded by leaders who want to widen roads and add more asphalt to our green-ish city. I wish these blacktop-happy folks would read up on induced demand before making their case, but that’s beside my point today, which is the extreme joy that comes from even a minor, exhaust-choked respite from having to dodge moving cars.

Anyway, on Tuesday we left work at 5:10 and the traffic was backed up for blocks and blocks and blocks. It’s always fascinating to watch the inappropriate and dangerous ways drivers react to other cars being in their way, and this particular commute was especially stimulating, which made up for the extra caution needed as we watched cars swerve into the bike lane, accelerate suddenly to turn down side streets, and, at one point, scoot out of the way as a frustrated bus driver took to the sidewalk for a dozen feet to get around a box truck that was taking its half out of the middle.

We passed the freeway and the traffic only seemed to get worse. As we crossed Burnside, we ran into a friend waiting to cross the street, and stopped to say hello. He told us what was up: The light rail was skipping downtown during a long construction period, meaning most commuters were skipping the light rail and its clunky shuttle over the gap. He was walking home from work, he said because the buses were packed, and way off schedule because of the roads clogged with cars. Maybe he’ll start biking later this week, he said.

If this all isn’t an argument for functional commuter rail transportation, I don’t know what is. In the meantime, I’ll take my joys where I can get them, even when they’re in the most unlikely (and probably unpopular) places.

The Great T-Shirt Reckoning

May 11, 2016 — by Elly Blue

We have a lot of fun with the t-shirts that we design and sell. Folks love them, and it’s always a thrill to spot one in the wild. But Jeff, our warehouse manager, has reported an increasing number of headaches in finding specific t-shirt sizes to fill orders, we finally took the plunge and embarked on a long-needed t-shirt inventory. If you’ve ever worked in a retail or sales environment involving t-shirts, you can probably feel our feels right now. Depicted here: Dane and Sidnee, doing the damage like champs.

This literal stock-taking has caused us to do some figurative reckoning as well, and we’ve made the decision to cut way back on t-shirts. Waaaaay back… to just our 3 (or maybe 4) most popular designs: Evolution, Put the Fun Between Your Legs, and our logo, the Chainring Heart (and we’re on the fence about Ask Me About My Bikenomics… it’ll depend on how many of those find new homes in the next couple months).

As for our other 17 (!) designs, browse them here (or come into our store), and pick up your size before they’re all gone. Every shirt that finds a new home gives our Jeff another piece of his life back!

Commute Diary #3: Anger is a Secondary Emotion

May 10, 2016 — by Elly Blue

I’ve doled out some bad, inactionable, sort of pompous road rage advice in my day. “Breathe,” I’ve said. “Remain calm.” Ha. As if it were so simple.

But finally, I’ve got some real help — from brain science! A zine I edited a few months ago has had a major impact on my commute. It’s called This is Your Brain on Anger, and it’s by by Dr. Faith Harper, a counselor in San Antonio who wrote it as part of the wind-up to her 2017 book with us, Unfuck Your Brain (you’ll hear more about that one later!). Like I said last time, I get pissed off a lot while I’m biking, which is not exactly the emotional state I’m going for in life, and also doesn’t exactly inspire me to make great choices in traffic.

Anyway, the gist of this zine is that anger is by definition always a secondary emotion—we use it in place of whatever we’re actually feeling that isn’t as culturally or personally acceptable. Like, say, the terror of a truck grille all up in your face, or the hurt of getting callously brushed aside by someone texting in luxury SUV—both literally in the road and metaphorically in your rapidly gentrifying city.

“Anger is a secondary emotion” has become my mantra on the road. It’s sort of helpful in forestalling my own anger… though once I’m mad, I pretty much forget everything but that ’til later. Most of all, it changes my response to someone else’s anger. When I hear a horn blare, or feel the whoosh of air as a car zooms past me too close and fast, I think “secondary emotion.” Wondering what they’re actually feeling and taking out on me is weirdly soothing. My reflex to respond by flipping someone off, blowing them a kiss, or yelling something sarcastic or crass dissipates completely when I can imagine that what they’re feeling is something other than murderous psychopathy.

In reality, almost nobody on the road actually hates me personally and wants to kill or maim me. I’m not so enlightened that I can excuse or even really forgive reckless or callous driving—don’t people realize they’re behind the wheel of a two-ton weapon? But it’s nice to learn that I can at least feel some compassion for someone’s bad choices and reactions, and prevent myself from ruining my own day by reacting in kind.

Ebooks and Bundles… Microcosm steps up to the 20th Century in style

May 09, 2016 — by Elly Blue

Years ago, we ran a post-holiday campaign urging readers to trade in their unwanted Kindle ebook readers for their same market value in zines. A couple folks went it, and everyone won. Times have changed, though. We caved and made everything we put out available as an ebook for a few years. It had seemed like we were really missing out, but then it turned out that only a very few of our books could even break even on the ebook conversion fees in three years. Starting in 2017, we’re going for a happy medium, where we convert only ebooks that we project will not lose money, and figuring our losses for each book are still smaller than most publishing houses’ marketing budgets. We’re not totally sure that it’s still a good idea, but we’ll keep trying ’til we know for sure that it isn’t.

In the meantime, if you are one of our rare ebook-buyers, and you want us to keep making them, we strongly encourage you to buy our ebooks directly from us! Ebook is now an option on checkout for almost all of our published titles. And in brand-new news, we just added an option where you can buy the ebook along with the paperback for just $3. When you buy an ebook on our site, you’ll get an email with download links to (usually) all three major formats within 24 hours.

And now we’ve also joined the race to the lowest price … at least, temporarily, with our new Super Bundle program. Every month for just one week we’ll run some kind of screaming deal with a theme. The first one (which runs through the end of our day on Tuesday, May 10, 2016) contains 8 books for $20 + shipping (or $10 if you want ebooks only), all on the theme of DIY summer projects. We’re still figuring out June’s theme and dates, but we’ll let you know.

Thanks for sticking with us through big changes in our world and yours! And as always, get in touch if you have questions or ideas or just want to say hi.

Commute Diary #2: Music and Road Rage

May 05, 2016 — by Elly Blue

sound bike About a year ago, I was visiting my pal Davey’s bike shop (the recently exploded & then reopened G&O Family Cyclery in Seattle) and impulsively bought a little, waterproof speaker that straps onto my bike’s handlebars.

It immediately changed my daily life. Instead of a tedious, repetitive daily chore, my commute instantly became a solo dance party on wheels. Suddenly, fewer people would pass me in the bike lane. Was I inspired to keep pace with the music, or were they hanging back to rock out to my tunes? Hills seemed less steep, and the familiar sights I passed every day took on new meaning and interest in alignment with the soundtrack.

I also noticed, though, that my music choices majorly affected my experience and how I rode. One day I put on a particular punk album, and rode recklessly and made unsafe choices—that was immediately deleted from my phone. For a while I biked to work listening to the Riot Grrrl bands I’d never explored in the 90s, and would arrive feeling energized, empowered, and all worked up and ready for the day. But eventually, I realized that listening to Bikini Kill, although it spurred me along to great speeds and passionate determination, was also giving me a major case of road rage. Every little clueless, reckless, or thoughtless thing that someone in a car would do would set me cursing; even just driving past and existing on the road at all seemed inexcusable. It was exciting, but not fun, and not how I wanted to interact with the world or feel every day.

So I deleted all the angry music, too.

What did that leave? Well, my friend had just turned me on to her favorite band, Cloud Cult. Sitting in her house and listening to it for the first time, I was skeptical. The lyrics were sentimental and their extreme positivity turned me off to an extent that a therapist could probably have a field day with. The musical style was not one I was used to enjoying. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t relate to it, either, and I am sorry to say that I did judge it a little, despite my best effort not to.

But now it was the only album left on my phone. And the first time I played it on my commute, the difference was amazing. The upbeat tempo worked perfectly to bike to, and the extreme positivity … as well as the active attempt that I had to make to embrace it … gave me a whole new attitude on the road. Someone passed me too close and I grinned. I witnessed a near crash, and went around it, whistling.

Have my musical tastes changed from angry to posi? Absolutely not! I mean… okay. Maybe. Go figure. At least having a music-induced mellow attitude on the road during my commute gives me the time and space I need to have a heart-to-heart with myself over my lifelong musical choices and their connection with my emotional state. All that for only the cost of a bike speaker and a few albums? Priceless.

– Elly

Indie Bookstore Love: Mac’s Backs in Cleveland

May 03, 2016 — by Elly Blue

Our indie bookstore crush this month is on Mac’s Backs, a paperback-focused new and used bookstore in the Coventry district of Cleveland, Ohio. This was the store where young Joe would go to get inspired… and when we went back a couple of years ago (after having peanut butter, banana, and pickle sandwiches at the attached restaurant), the bookseller he remembered best, Suzanne, was still there, with a friendly greeting! The store is one of those labyrinthine places, where just when you thought you’d seen every section you find a new door or spiral staircase and it takes you to a whole new realm, with books stacked everywhere and a well-chosen but not-too-controlled selection—perfect for browsing.

We partnered with Mac’s Backs this month in honor of Independent Bookstore Day (which was technically in April, but we like to celebrate it every day). Suzanne, now the owner, thoughtfully answered our interview questions. Read on!

1. What is the story of Mac’s Backs? How did you decide to get into the bookselling business?
My business partner Jim McSherry opened the bookstore in 1978 and when he was looking to open a 2nd location in 1982 I came on board to run it. I thought I would be doing it for a few years until it got off the ground and here I am 36 years later!

We are a new & used bookstore with magazines located in a busy walking neighborhood near Cleveland’s museums and Case Western Reserve University. Our area is very diverse and we have a wide range of customers. It is essentially progressive, democratic and left-leaning politically. There are also lots of families that come here—we are attached to a very popular restaurant that caters to all generations. Our business district has many unusual indie shops and restaurants and being part of such an eclectic shopping community has contributed to the longevity of our store.

2. Joe still talks about buying books from you when he was a teenager growing up punk in Cleveland. Have you seen changes over the years in what kind of books your teenaged—and other-aged—customers are looking for, and what they seem to be making of them?
Over the years our customers have read to educate themselves as well as for entertainment. Our best sections have always been classics, literary fiction, philosophy, poetry and political books like the People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn. We have a huge used science fiction section so we have tons of sf customers. Our biggest growth sections in the last few years are children’s books and graphic novels. And if five good graphic novel for middle-grade girls could be published every day that still may not be enough to satisfy the demand!

3. What are your favorite books that Microcosm publishes or distributes? What about your favorite non-Microcosm book in the store right now?
Some of my favorite books that I buy from Microcosm are by Aaron Cometbus. I liked learning about the Berkeley booksellers in The Loneliness of the Electric Menorah and I really enjoyed Bestiary of Booksellers. There is a writer in Ellensburg, WA named John Bennett who used to publish a series called Survival Song, which was an episodic chronicle of his life that I was addicted to reading. I find the same everyman qualities in the books by Cometbus.

Other Microcosm staff and customer favorites are The CIA Makes Science Fiction Unexciting, Bikes in Space, Henry & Glenn, Guide to Picking Locks, This is Your Brain on Anxiety, How to Ru(i)n a Record Label, and Good Trouble.

My favorite non-Microcosm book to recommend to customers is Through the Windshield by Mike DeCapite, a fictional account of a soulful cab driver in 1980’s Cleveland whose best friend is a wise-cracking compulsive sports fan who bets on everything.

4. What do you think of the state of the book industry right now, and where do you foresee it going in the next ten years? What would you most like to see happen?
I think neighborhood and indie bookstores have been strengthened in recent years. The robust grassroots buy local movement across the country has really made a difference in how people think about shopping. They understand that their choices have consequences in their community and have responded by supporting local independents—and that has made a huge difference. This has allowed us to continue to do what we have always done—to be a friendly community gathering place, maintain a broad and interesting selection of books for our customers to discover and provide the best customer service possible. And our partners in this have always been the small presses like Microcosm.

Anything else you want to share?

Happy Anniversary Microcosm!!

Thanks, Suzanne! Everyone, go to Cleveland and find our books and others at Mac’s Backs!

Commute Diary #1: It’s a jungle out there

May 03, 2016 — by Elly Blue

hobo jungle from flickr commons We just got back into town this past weekend, after a couple of weeks in California. In that short time, there is a noticeable increase in the number of camps, and the number of tents at established camps along our route to work. Biking past before 8am, the tents are silent and zipped up; in the evening, people sit outside, playing instruments, chatting, watching the world go by.

There’s been a growing theme on the bike blogs and facebook groups I follow: fear of all the people living outside. The particular, rising fear for a while was of bike theft. My old employer at the BikePortland blog covered the topic extensively, even organized a bike theft summit. On every story, the comments were steeped in the fear—and presumption—of impending violence. That seemed to almost be dying down… and then there was a sexual assault on a secluded bike path, and suddenly it seems that fear of the homeless has turned up to fever pitch. It blew up last week on a thread (now deleted) in a facebook group for women cyclists. “I have empathy, but…” was the refrain. Fear trumps all.

It’s been upsetting to see the changes in Portland over the past decade. Ten years ago, mental health funding was kiboshed by the outgoing mayor, bent on leaving the city worse than she found it, and it’s been a long, fast slide downhill since then. In 2007-2008 and again in the past few years, our housing market has gotten beyond tight and prices have become untenable. Tearing down old mansions to build new apartments is okay with me; the gouging rents in those new apartments (and, in response, in older ones), not so much. If you don’t own a home or have a really stable, well-paying job, or preferably both, you’re really just a few months away from being shit out of luck in this town, and if you haven’t got a backup plan, well, welcome to being the newest member of the most-feared class of Portlander.

I find that prospect terrifying; I also find it impossible to fix that fear on the people it’s happened to. There are deranged people making bad decisions that are likely to hurt others at all levels of society; I’m way more nervous about the ones who are actually in positions of power, or who, not even realizing their power, have an influential voice among their friends and neighbors.

If you are actually living outside, then yes, your chances of being assaulted is tragically high. If you have a home and are just passing through… well, let’s just say your risks are astronomically higher inside your own home, while on a date, or at a party.

I think about all of this now as I bike to work. When I saw a man walking down the street yesterday in the peak of the heat, yelling and swinging his fists in the air, was I an anomaly for being more concerned for his safety than my own? It’s not that I’m particularly empathetic—that’s not my strength at all!—but I’ve spent a lot of time on city streets. I’ve done my diligence looking at the actual risks. And I’ve paid attention to the scary rhetoric on internet message boards by homeowners who are “empathetic, but,” and what I hear from the so-called progressive citizens of Portland makes me wonder if a Trump America would really be such a big change after all.

– Elly

Read more by Elly about bicycling, class, and many other issues