thisisit

He realized that he had become mostly filled with ill will and malice. He would walk home late at night stumbling slightly from the after work drinks and stop to stare at couples dining in restaurant windows.  He would stand mere inches from the glass. When they would look up at his unwavering attention he would then mouth "FUCK YOU. FUCK THIS. FUCK YOU" with more than the socially acceptable amount of direct eye contact.

Later in his apartment, surrounded by half read books, he would sit on the couch his head nested down onto his chest and glare at the radiator. This wasn't quite how he had envisioned filling his time. Occasionally he would get up, walk three times around the room stopping to open half filled notebooks before sitting back down. Eventually he slept.

rabblerabblerabble

"The Russians are coming!" I gasped "Quick we have to get to a storm drain so we can escape through the sewers and start our lives over. We will be the Resistance, we will smear our faces with refuse and laugh over burning barrels when the Red Machine thinks it has won! We will be the disease inside their body, the burr under the saddle . . ."

"Ahem" she rolled her eyes and turned towards the wall "If this is what you call dirty talk then I'm just going to sleep"

ohshitohshitohshit

the slow crackle and hum of fading radio stations breath frosting up into the sky the late night filter of wan yellow streetlights asphalt brittle and slick stumbling the taste of whiskey bitter on the tongue fingers too cold to fumblingly unbutton coats hands grasping pushing pulling saliva warm and bitter with cigarettes keys dropped and kicked off porch sudden laughter biting lips till blood comes breath harsh and insistent from the lungs

My stumptown votes 2011

Best Artist: Emily Carroll, "His Face All Red"
Best Writer: Carla Speed McNeil, "Finder: Voice"
Best Cartoonist: Sarah Glidden, "How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less"
Best Letterer: Brittney Sabo, "Francis Sharp in the Grip of the Uncanny, Vol. 1"
Best Colorist: Emily Carroll, "His Face All Red"
Best Publication Design: Zack Soto, "StudyGroup12 #4"
Best Anthology: "StudyGroup12 #4", edited by Zack Soto
Best Small Press: "The Whale" by Aidan Koch
Best New Talent: Michael DeForge
Reader's Choice: Francis Sharpe in the Grip of the Uncanny Vol. 1 by Brittney Sabo