…or why are you here, reading this post? Go away if you cannot believe, at least a little, that chocolate is a most sacred magic. Inherent in the fermented seed of the cacao tree may be one of the most profound mysteries in the universe. This is not hyperbole.

I forgot to mention that the Geranium Lake Properties comic in this previous post was not published in newspapers, neither was the comic in today's post. Yost thought the panels contained too much dark color of the same value to be legible when reproduced by the web offset printing used by newspapers. Both masks were printed as part of the…

"A child in the midst of play does not bother to ask, why do I play? What is the meaning of play? Do you exist? Are you alive? Then you need not ask yourself, why do I exist? What is the meaning of life?" So said Patchy Kettle to Ornasein, as the two friends sat in the Panbyermog Temple Tavern…

"Your god is new and young and unwise," said Patchy Kettle to Rabbi Menachem and Rabbi Yosef in The Book of Ornasein (one of five books that make up the Esornom Imaginaria). Patchy Kettle bowed low, and with the side of his bare hand he scraped up a little dirt from the path. He stood straight and held out his hand to show the soil to the rabbis.

November is my favorite month - I was pretty sure I had mentioned this before, but I have not made a tag for November, so now I am less sure that I have told this secret here at Vraicking. It is not a well-kept secret, or at least, I do not keep it well. It is kept through the inattention and indifference of other people.

Today's post starts off with the mask of Hinyod-iskunzu as it appeared in "A Detour to Balmy Point". I thought it was an appropriate image for the several holidays that collide at this time of year. Yesterday was Samhain, also All Saints Day. Today you might be celebrating the Day of the Dead, or maybe All Souls Day, or both, or if you are inclined to be Jackalopian, you may be enjoying a cup of coffee accompanied by a brown butter cake or cookie for…

I promised for Halloween I would save one ghost from the Ghost Festival series. I cannot say this is my favorite ghost, for I have several favorites from that series, but I can say she is nearly my…

I found this Geranium Lake Properties comic early in the year and instantly decided to save it for the Halloween season. This is a mask of Mother Jackal wearing a headdress that represents the Horn…

For the Halloween season, I enjoy hearing a tale of retribution enacted by the dead or a witch or an affronted deity or goddess or some kind of otherworldly creature. Generally, I enjoy revenge stories that balance the scales of justice - The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas is one of my favorite novels. Today's post partakes only a little of the spirit of revenge but very much of the need for justice.

Needful Magic, No. 49 Second Variation We can guess that Wm. Yost was only vaguely (or not at all) aware of Austin Osman Spare's arcane practices of sigil magic. I think Yost knew Spare as a Symbolist artist, as an early twentieth century harbinger of Surrealism, and as an accomplished pen and ink illustrator, similar in talent and frame of mind to Harry Clarke and Aubrey Beardsley.

To Be Hanged First, Or HowI Love Thee in a Low Small Space,Collapsible and Square When the hours of the day are dried head-to-toe,you might recruit a leper or one more plaster facewafer-thin between us. Await and forget my returnacross fat open country,a jerry-rigged nation of twodistant coasts becoming inches. On that day…

I mentioned in a previous post that Yost had written over a hundred short stories set in the Geranium Lake Properties universe; most of them are still unpublished. The GLP universe is fanciful and fictive, yet also true. Yost himself was trapped a universe much like ours. Yost's universe, with its secretive Inultaru culture and asemic occult practices, is so very much like our universe that it could be our universe…

I have nothing more to say about today's post, except to note that this is a classic Geranium Lake Properties comic, which combines asemic writing with abstract comics and visual poetry. You could buy my calendar, if you feel like it.

Here is the last page of my asemic, abstract and unfinished graphic novel, The Book of Clea and Enoch aka Intrepid Spirits. Also included in this post are examples of a front and back cover, plus a copyright page. All images are black and white; if you decide to print, I have no objections to the use of color paper for the zine.

Atzeeko Takka is a demon who expects strict professionalism from himself and his fellow demons, but he is also a 9-to-5 kind of guy who clocks out and does not take his work home, or anyplace outside the business environment1. He is a passionate mah-jongg player who prefers to play with a merry group of fellow-enthusiasts who embrace their wins and losses with equal cheer. 1Which might be Hell or Ghishokka Syantuminnen, which can be translated from Inultarumek as the Greater Demonsphere. Needful Magic, no. 70

Here be demons in the wallpaper, but this time the wallpaper is green, not yellow. This is the second1 of three posts featuring the demon masks of El Conde Pajaro de Malaguero and his pals, which is a Halloween-appropriate endeavor I have been intending to complete for three years. Way back in 1992, Yost asked Larry Tritten if he could adapt a situation in Tritten's short story2 "Green Roses" for…

Here are pages 22, 23 and 24. The next post in this series will include page 25 (the last page) and the suggested cover design.

Music for today's mood is "Lucky Man" by Emerson, Lake and Palmer, and "This Big Hush" by Shriekback. The sixteenth of October is celebrated by the Inultaru as Second Day. Most jackalopes consider Second Day to be the traditional first day of the official Halloween season, when you can finally buy candy corn and try not to eat the whole bag (or several bags) before the last day of October.

We have four more pages to post in The Book of Enoch and Clea, plus the covers. Here today is the title page, which most people think of as the first page in a book, but I like to number it as zero or nothing. I made a previous announcement about my new calendar for 2026; in case you missed it, here is a second notice for you (I probably will post a few more notifications before the end of the year). The calendar is available for purchase at Zazzle.

"Promises are easily made by a liar, mishwa veljen. And most men find it easy to lie," said Aunt Teefah to Jack Loki in "The Business of the Venerable Green Eminence". From that adventure comes this mask of a kolkesplir, in which the fading tindulmoss colors of summer linger beside the emerging firruberry colors of winter. mishwa veljen - beloved nephew who is also a rascal and/or silly.

I thought about saving this Geranium Lake Properties comic for December or January, keeping it for the snowy blue depths of winter, and never mind that we do not ever have white Christmas seasons around here. It is still our tradition to muse upon snowdrifts and snowflakes and yeti and reindeer. However, today I managed to postpone an onerous obligation, through no effort of my own, except for acting out one of my easy, cheerful performances, letting things unfold as they might. My reward was a bit of unlooked-for freedom, which is as close to a snow day as I am likely to get. 6EQUJ5

Pages 19, 20 and 21 of The Book of Enoch and Clea...

6EQUJ5 Stormy weather warning: This is a grumpy post - I hope at least it is not inaccurate - can metaphor be described as accurate? Anyway, you may feel the mood of this post is somewhat dire. I am a kind person, even tender-hearted. But if I want to comment on the shortcomings of patriarchy, I will. Men have screwed up.

the zombie waltz somewhere behind aclown-painted wall of violinsscratching and voices stirredthe dead will stay andsome will come backunwilling witha hitch and dragand dissolve withinthis rim of mo…

If you are keeping track, these are pages 16, 17 and 18, with more to come. The title on today’s post is not a clue or particularly important, sometimes I just need a handy eye-catcher. Stay …