New sugar claws comic just released:

- Part One

- Part Two

- Part Three

Only four more to go!

America:

If everything turns out well, and my passport application goes through I should be heading to the U.S.A at the end of the month to visit some friends in multiple states. I'm very excited, it's been almost 5 years since I've last visited, to be honest I consider myself more of an american than a Canadian, so the last few years have been a sort of private hell due not being able to travel.

I really hope nothing fucks up my passport application, waiting for it to come in is torture...

I plan to visit a couple of places during my trip including the Samuel Freeman Gallery, which brings me to...

Octopus Sex:

My favourite piece of artwork is Masami Teraoka's "Sarah and the octopus", the piece is a contemporary adaptation of the master woodblock artist Hokusai's "dream of a fisherman's wife".

The reason why I find "Sarah and the octopus" such a captivating and tantalizing piece of artwork is because I feel it's the most spectacular, beautiful, and skillfully crafted homage to what I consider to be one of the most important motifs of the anti censorship movement (the original "dream of a fisherman's wife print").

The "dream of a fisherman's wife" print was meant to serve as cautionary tale about being too intrepid, Masami's piece is also a modern cautionary tale about the perils of HIV... Hence why the heroin of the piece is holding a female condom.

Hokusia's print holds a very special place in my heart because of the individuals it inspired.

My literary hero Henry Miller was said to have a print of "dream of a fisherman's wife" in his possession. While I doubt the veracity of that claim, since it was most likely a false rumour started based on Millers depiction in the film "Henry & June", I'm fairly certain he had seen the print, and I would go one step further and say it probably had some influence on his work, at the very least on an ideological level.

The print went on the inspire the artist David Laity to make his own adaptation of it, and later on during his exhibition in Australia the police raided the place and confiscated the piece based on "obscenity" charges. There was an investigation and fortunately the case went on to be dismissed.

Of course the significance of Hokusai's print still remains greatest in Japan where the image originated, once again serving as a sort element of anti-censorship against Japan's ridiculous and pernicious pornography laws.

In japan it was (and possibly still is) illegal to depict any penile penetration of genitalia, so artists used tentacles as a means to circumvent japanese censors. Hence leading to that sub category of animated pornography known as "tentacle porn".

The most famous of these pornographies is considered by many to be the original "legend of the overfiend", on an interesting note that film is often incorrectly cited as being the first film to deal with the subject matter.

However that would be untrue, "legend of the overfiend" was the first cartoon to portray act of tentacle sex, the first film to handle the subject matter was actually a live action film from the 1970's called "possession".

Possession went on to win the grand jury prize at Cannes, and starred Sam Neil (who would later star in the blockbuster film "Jurassic Park").

The Image of Hokusai's print has now become somewhat mainstream, appearing in Kenny Vs. Spenny, as well as Mad Men, and is considered a staple of the ero-guro movement (Japan's equivalent to the dadaist movement that Dali and others belonged to).

Masami's "Sarah and the Octopus" is a wonderful piece which inspired my to write this panegyric article on it, hopefully I've done it justice.

Sincerely,
- Celx