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Drawing of a silver person standing in the desert in front of a flying saucer.I really enjoyed the original run (Saucer Country) at Vertigo and the second run at IDW (Saucer State)…that ended on a cliffhanger, and I’m really looking forward to being able to read the conclusion!

Saucer Country is a dark thriller that blends UFO lore and alien abduction with political intrigue, all set in the hauntingly beautiful Southwest.

The comics by Paul Cornell & Ryan Kelly follow a presidential campaign whose candidate believes she has been abducted by aliens, what that means to her and the country, and weaves through every aspect of UFO conspiracy mythology you can think of.

The first volume ran from 2012-2013, and the second volume picked up in 2017…and it was really weird to see how prescient the first run had been, as well as how the 2016 election season influenced the second part.

Finally in 2022 they ran a crowdfunding campaign at Zoop (launching on election day, of course!) to fund the concluding chapters and a collected edition.

And now: It’s done! It’s printed! It’s shipped! I got my copy in the mail today! (And it’s been long enough that I’m going to want to start at the beginning anyway.)

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It’s one thing to say “I make hammers, and can’t be responsible for the fact that some people use them to break people’s kneecaps.”

It’s another thing to hand out free hammers to the kneecap-breakers, or pay them to use your hammers instead of someone else’s, or hire them as spokespeople, or use their testimonials to promote your business. “So-and-So’s hammer is the best for breaking kneecaps! And you can quote me on that!”

Under those circumstances, claiming to be opposed to kneecap-breaking wears a bit thin.

Related: I canceled my paid subscriptions to newsletters on Substack, leaving this note (minus the links) on each:

I’m disappointed in Substack’s response to the Substackers Against Nazis letter. I’ll find some other way to support the author without using Substack as a middleman.

Originally posted on my test GoToSocial site.

Update: I should point out that this was a last-straw situation, as the writing was already on the wall in April when the CEO repeatedly refused to answer an interviewer who asked point blank if they’d allow overt racism on Substack Notes.

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You know the old joke about “drugs would be cheaper?”

The Adderal shortage has gotten so bad that Mexican pharmacies are selling counterfeit pills to tourists…made of meth.

(I should clarify that it’s the counterfeit pills, not the tourists that are made of meth.)

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Update: Sadly, science fiction author Terry Bisson (who wrote “They’re Made of Meat” among many other stories) died a few weeks later.