Vlad @ Vertvolta Press

Hello to all the new followers! It's been a while since I talked about Vertvolta, & an introductory thread is in order. Vertvolta Press is a publishing house (some would say 'hybrid'). We publish books, contemporary & reprints, & offer consulting & design services to self-published authors (1/5)

One of the most important financial stories out there if you want to know how and why the same five evil guys wind up owning everything.

My fucking god the framing of credible new to the public rape allegations against Trump is goddamn criminal

It should be illegal how much fun James Spader seems to be having on VISIONQUEST

“It seems like a lot of the people who are interested in pursuing immortality in recent years, they seem like the worst people in the world,” Chiang says. “I guess this raises a couple of questions. You know, like one is, would you really want to spend eternity in the company of these people?”

Let our chickens out. Bobcat came round the corner of the house. Who was more surprised? Much scrambling about, all chickens ok & back in coop. Hungry bobcat went off over the fence. What a day. Uh, need a T-shirt?

Here’s last night’s story about the rising prominence of extremist beliefs within the Republican Party, what it has to do with the upcoming elections, and why being 31 years old is one of the least cute ages you can possibly be. https://youtu.be/SnsBI4YxwIs

I’m losing it over here

My heart is heavy. Walter Koenig, our Ensign Pavel Chekov, passed away early today. Walter and I met on the bridge of the Enterprise in the 1960s, and we stayed friends for nearly six decades. When Brad and I married in 2008, Walter stood beside us as our best man.

Yesterday in #Burien, #ICE agents were observed using AR-15-style weapons during the abduction of a community member. Today, they pointed a pistol at a rapid response volunteer, who had been observing from over 20ft away. #ICE is quickly becoming more violent www.facebook.com/share/p/18wA...

Lula winning is great for the planet, great for Brazil, and great for people who aren't revanchist assholes everywhere in the world, but let's not forget that it's also going to make some of the worst people on Earth extremely sad and mad. We should enjoy that, as a little treat.

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbia’s strongman leader Aleksandar Vucic has conceded defeat to a student-led movement in a seismic political shift.

let's fucking go

The most maddening part of this -- which is saying something -- is that the cop who has torn his town into shreds thinks the remaining residents are cool with him because they smile at him when he walks by. Mind-numbing levels of cope. www.propublica.org/article/depo...

Hey, I'm Morgan and I am a multimedia animal artist. Clients include Macmillan, PRH, Tenebrous Press, Rowan Rook and Decard. 📌 🌐 mxmorgan.com ✏️ morggo.tumblr.com 💸 ko-fi.com/mxmorgan 🖼️ inprnt.com/gallery/mxmorgan 👕 mxmorgan.threadless.com

What a lovely article.

I warned 3 years ago that mink farms are a likely route to a new and horrific human pandemic, and once more I'm fervently praying it doesn't map out that way. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I have a friend who is a social worker doing the same work as this social worker. She has also told me stories of women like Amy Acton's mother.

Mary Richards Bowser, who'd been enslaved in Van Lew's household, infiltrated Jefferson Davis’s Richmond home, the capital of the Confederacy, posing as an enslaved domestic servant. She gathered military intelligence that she passed along to other members of the spy ring who serviced the household.

Honestly several things are depressing about ai but the two that stand out are the eagerness of people to outsource thought because cognitive effort is uncomfortable, and the casualness with which people use the shiny, easy thing knowing it's bad for climate change

Well, FINALLY He steps up (mind you, with his fancy foot-steppin’ words) to go at Trump & the Goon Squad

check this out. Book Moon is a legendary bookstore run by legendary ppl & if u help out u will get a legendary t-shirt www.indiegogo.com/en/projects/...

Didn't see THEM using "AI" art! FYI for non-comics folks: Françoise Mouly is Art Editor for The New Yorker magazine and co-founder of era defining 80s comics magazine RAW. Her spouse Art Spiegelman used "AI" art on a sticker for a reissue of In The Shadow of No Towers. He's best known for MAUS.

I continue to be astounded by how “Stock Culture” works. I mean, “there has been zero clamoring” as a fail-statement? Is the a math behind that or is it vibe-buying as a multi trillion economic system? Gossip bitches trading tokens ($$) & jumping at shadows?

As of today, King County Elections (WA) is reporting cumulative turnout of 14.2%. At this point in the 2022 midterms turnout was 11.9%. Make of that what you will.

too many guys are bad-weird now, we need more with this kind of good-weird energy

Bad Art response to bad art

Now that this is out in the open, I can say that a certain book I did for a certain publisher affiliated with one of these people had generative expand used on my cover art without my permission, and it wasn’t removed before publication

This photo— telling quite a story

If I was a freelance New Yorker illustrator, learning the art director was really good at using Claude would be a red flag

Well shit. Not just Spiegleman; Mouly too 😕😑🙁🫤😑 (Look, the simple fact is you lose ALL art cred with me when you dabble in AI in any way; this is an existential crisis for art & creativity & of you are lazy/slum/invest in/actively support AI, then you now hate art & artists. Ps: fuck you)

Ah. Ben Yoho was behind the Vivek attack ad against Amy Acton. Before that, as head of the Strategy Group, he was profiting off his close connection with Kristi Noem at DHS. www.propublica.org/article/kris...

“The White House should not look like the inside of a Red Lobster “ 💀💀💀

GOP does nothing but gin up culture wars. Meanwhile: — GOP slashed SNAP benefits to 5+ million Americans, forcing them to turn to food banks. — Trump's tariffs and war spurred inflation, making it more expensive to eat at The Cheesecake Factory. Prices are now ~13% higher than when he took office.

Bolsonaro’s own goal on eve of vote: he mocks Lula. "Lula's response now is a firm outburst from someone who's always taken the joke in stride, but who, deep down, even as the most powerful man in the country, still feels the pain of the accident he suffered while working to avoid starving to death"

"I won't say positively or negatively...." Get TF outta here with this mealymouthed cowardice; sea slugs have more spine than you

"The Last of Puff" (HBO, 2026)