(image) by Nahp Suicide (image) [Above: Talamia] Talamia describes herself as a "photographer, illustrative designer, and thinker." She lives is South Africa. She has been shooting for SuicideGilrs since 2008, and has more than 30 sets in the site. How did you first get involved with SuicideGirls? more

by Nahp Suicide


[Above: Talamia]

Talamia describes herself as a "photographer, illustrative designer, and thinker." She lives is South Africa. She has been shooting for SuicideGilrs since 2008, and has more than 30 sets in the site.

How did you first get involved with SuicideGirls?

I had always loved the concept and internet stalked the models of SG ever since I could remember but was always under the misconception that it was a US only thing. The day I came to realize this was not so was when I randomly stumbled upon a local girl's FB profile page whose profile picture had the SG logo on it. It was Lynx, and she introduced me to Diaz, and from there I threw myself at SG with a fervor.



What's your background photography-wise?

I have a four year degree in BA: Information Design (aka Information Architecture), which covered some photography here and there, but mostly I am self taught.

 



[Orijin in Art of War]

What was the first photo you had published?

If we're talking print media then It was probably a campaign series of portraitures of VJs and musicians for MTVbase that ran in a variety of music and youth related magazines.

How would you describe your style?

Having trained as a creative director-designer I find it very difficult to adhere to having one particular style. Or rather, I cannot see it in my work, even though others have said they can. All I can say about my work at this time is that I strive to makes images that are striking with the right amount of contrast to make the image pop.



What gear do you use?

I currently use the Canon range of equipment including a variety of L lenses.




[Lumo in Afterglow]

How important is Photoshop in your final images?

One always continually strives to achieve the desired end result out-of-camera so as to minimize reliance on post-editing, but Photoshop will always be vital for the odd blemish or bruise or stubborn stray hair.



What gives you ideas and inspires you to create such amazing sets?

The question is more like what doesn't give me ideas for sets. Everything from dreams; the products of popular culture; the things people say; even patterns that emerge in tiles! Everything, no matter how trivial, can make splendid set ideas, and the more idiosyncratic the better. But what helps most directly is getting to know the amazing women I have gotten to work with and allowing them to inspire me.



[Hadess in A Beautiful Mind]

What is your favorite image?

There are so many favorites it's really hard to choose. From the way the light sculpted Lumo's beautiful form (in Afterglow – see NSFW image) to the stunning water-like reflection in the image of Hadess (in A Beautiful Mind – see NSFW image).

Tell us why it's your fave and how you achieved it?

I like using light sources that wrap around the body's contours to illuminate the fine details of shape and form. Reflective surfaces also provide gorgeous points of visual interest.

Is there anybody or anything you would love to photograph that you haven't?

I love working with strong creative women. Some that come to mind are (I've probably left out three dozen others!) Bexi, Serial, Radeo, Bully, Jamity, Rashel, Prussia, Liu, Clio, AnnaLee, Nena, Waikiki, Manko, GoGo, Rigel, Vice, Annika, Bee, Flux, Lumi. Apart from being tremendously gorgeous, they are all so provocatively intelligent which is the biggest kind of turn on.


[Tarion in Kiss The Machine]


[Tarion in Decadence]


[Tarion in Swingers' Club]

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(video) Los Peyotes - Bdaaa (Liu and Prussia) (video) Los Peyotes - Garage o Muerte (Liu and former hopeful Kya) (video) Reptil - Vital (Nahp, Krito, and Lethal) (video) Cana Brava - Un Día Normal Fatto (Lethal) (video) Probot - Shake Your Blood (Too many too list) more

Los Peyotes - Bdaaa (Liu and Prussia)


Los Peyotes - Garage o Muerte (Liu and former hopeful Kya)


Reptil - Vital (Nahp, Krito, and Lethal)


Cana Brava - Un Día Normal Fatto (Lethal)


Probot - Shake Your Blood (Too many too list)

by Steven-Elliot Altman (SG Member: Steven_Altman) Our Fiction Friday serialized novel, The Killswitch Review, is a futuristic murder mystery with killer sociopolitical commentary (and some of the best sex scenes we’ve ever read!). Written by bestselling sci-fi author Steven-Elliot Altman (with Diane... more

by Steven-Elliot Altman (SG Member: Steven_Altman)

Our Fiction Friday serialized novel, The Killswitch Review, is a futuristic murder mystery with killer sociopolitical commentary (and some of the best sex scenes we’ve ever read!). Written by bestselling sci-fi author Steven-Elliot Altman (with Diane DeKelb-Rittenhouse), it offers a terrifying postmodern vision in the tradition of Blade Runner and Brave New World...

By the year 2156, stem cell therapy has triumphed over aging and disease, extending the human lifespan indefinitely. But only for those who have achieved Conscientious Citizen Status. To combat overpopulation, the U.S. has sealed its borders, instituted compulsory contraception and a strict one child per couple policy for those who are permitted to breed, and made technology-assisted suicide readily available. But in a world where the old can remain vital forever, America’s youth have little hope of prosperity.

Jason Haggerty is an investigator for Black Buttons Inc, the government agency responsible for dispensing personal handheld Kevorkian devices, which afford the only legal form of suicide. An armed “Killswitch” monitors and records a citizen’s final moments — up to the point where they press a button and peacefully die. Post-press review agents — “button collectors” — are dispatched to review and judge these final recordings to rule out foul play.

When three teens stage an illegal public suicide, Haggerty suspects their deaths may have been murders. Now his race is on to uncover proof and prevent a nationwide epidemic of copycat suicides. Trouble is, for the first time in history, an entire generation might just decide they’re better off dead.

(Catch up with the previous installments of Killswitch – see links below – then continue reading after the jump…)



[THE KILLSWITCH REVIEW – CHAPTER TEN, PART THREE]

[PURGING THE SYSTEM]

[Previous Chapter]

Haggerty, Elsa, and Regina followed Svoboda to the square. On the viewscreen throngs of angry protesters demanded that BBI give up those responsible for supplying the Junior Citizens with the units and suspend its activities during the course of the Federal investigation.

“How’s it coming, Ricardo?” Svoboda asked the young man busy at a remote-access terminal hardwired into the exposed groundwire.

“It’s hard to sort through the data,” Ricardo answered. “So much of it is clutter and repeats of the same incidents.”

“Can you use this terminal to access the nationwide BBI boards?” Haggerty asked Elsa.

“I’m not sure,” she said. “My log-in would give central control my coordinates.”

“Not if you’re using PE,” Svoboda said. “We can leapfrog your access all over our network.”

“How shall I interface?” she asked.

“Let me see your prongs,” Svoboda said.

Elsa raised her left hand and extended her two middle fingers; twin prongs snapped upward from the tips.

“Those are RJ,” Svoboda said. “We’ll need an adapter to convert her from masscapture down to sinewave.”

“Whatcha got under the hood, darlin’?” Ricardo asked Elsa.

She looked at him quizzically.

“What model are you?” he rephrased. “Archimedes or Descartes?”

“I’m a Marcus,” she replied, almost proudly.

Ricardo whistled appreciatively. “Hot rod,” he said. “I think I’ve got an adapter in my shop that will work.” He went to check on it.

Onscreen the viewcaster reported, “Federal agent Keenan has issued warrants for the arrest of Jason P. Haggerty, the BBI employee suspected —”

The transmission broke up. A grainy image of a young man appeared. “We interrupt the latest government propaganda to bring you the real news,” he said. “Here’s why you don’t want a Killswitch, folks.”

“Pirate broadcast,” Svoboda explained.

The boy’s image was replaced by that of a pretty girl no more than fifteen standing in what looked like a wooded area, holding an armed KV unit. She was clearly distraught. The transmission kept breaking up, making it difficult to hear what she said.

“. . . what does any of it . . . too much . . . showed me the way. Is this my answer?” The girl stared at the box, tears brimming over. “Is this what I —” A coughing spasm shook her; her finger convulsed on the button.

Her eyes widened as she dropped the box, which kept recording from where it fell to the ground, a dizzying angle.

“I didn’t mean to!” she cried as she collapsed face to face beside the box; the lens focused on her wide brown eyes glazing over as the toxin took effect. “I’m so sorry —”

The transmission cut off. The grainy image of the young man reappeared briefly before the “legitimate” viewcast reasserted itself.

“We apologize for these continued interruptions,” the viewcaster said. “Federal officials are taking steps to locate the source of the illegal broadcasts. Representatives from BBI assure us the recording is not authentic but was likely engineered by one of the so-called Ban the Box groups who oppose the use of the Kevorkian unit. So far no one has claimed responsibility. In other news . . .”

“Why would BBI assume that the recording is not authentic?” Elsa said.

“Because it’s in their interest to say that it isn’t. Clearly it’s real,” Haggerty said.

“Instructions on how to crack the boxes and retrieve the recordings are circulating the Net,” Svoboda said.

“Whoever gave the order to cover things up will probably claim it’s to keep a lid on the panic,” Haggerty said bitterly. He’d come across such things from time to time in his career. The presses were always judged accidental and were so rare as to be acceptable, however tragic. This was different. This child’s death was not an isolated, regrettable incident but part of a much larger picture purposely shrouded from public view.

Haggerty felt ashamed. For decades he had accepted the use of a device that made suicide easy. He was part of what was going on. The idea that more young people might get caught up in the suicide contagion, regret their decision, and be unable to reverse it appalled him.

“What’s the usual time frame for copycats after a publicized suicide?” he asked Elsa.

“It varies,” she said. “The statistical majority occur within the first day, usually within the first few hours, depending on commitment level and access to means of expiration. It tapers off considerably after that, the percentages decreasing over twenty percent per hour, seventy-five percent per day, corresponding in most cases to level of media saturation.”

Ricardo jogged back. “Try this,” he said, catching his breath and handing a palm-sized electronic device to Elsa. “And we’ll pray you don’t fry out the terminal.” He offered her a stool to sit on.

Elsa fitted the device onto her finger prongs and slid the end into the requisite port. “I shall need instruction,” she said.

“Get a feel for it first,” Svoboda said. “See how the bit rate comes through at irregular intervals?”

“Highly compressed packets of data unfolding in waveform as they decode.”

“Beautifully put,” Svoboda said. “Try to create a packet yourself, reversing the process.”

“I understand,” she said, surprising him. The BBI gateway appeared on the monitor and requested authorization. “Inferior to standard modes of encryption but quite admirable considering you are piggybacking on preexisting technology not designed for this purpose.” The terminal began synching and taking in data. “We’re inside,” she said.

“Get us reports on all national pressage from the moment of the live broadcast until now,” Haggerty ordered.

“Processing,” she said.

Regina gripped Haggerty’s shirt sleeve.

“Fourteen presses overnight across all zones and forty-six presses nationwide since nine a.m. Eastern Standard Time, eighty-nine percent of them from geographical locations in the Eastern time zone.”

“You said we were already seeing deaths in the hundreds,” Haggerty accused Svoboda.

“I’ll be more than happy to be proven wrong,” Svoboda said. “But those are only the East Coast numbers, and only the suicides that utilized BBI equipment. It’s a Sunday afternoon. Kids are inventive and that type of data is slow to report.

“Aside from utilizing BBI equipment, all other methods of suicide combined average two to seven hundred against termination by press,” Elsa said. “Based on that fact I find your predictions unsound.”

“Be that as it may, it’s been seventeen hours since the press,” Svoboda went on. “Twelve hours since the first cracks began appearing in the news blackout, five hours since the news went viral. I believe you will see an exponential increase in those numbers by this evening.”

Haggerty winced. “Keep monitoring, Elsa,” he said. “Let us know if there’s any spike.”

“Affirmative, Jason,” she said.

“I’ll teach her a few tricks to access what we need on the Net,” Ricardo offered.

* * *

Excerpt from The Killswitch Review, published by Yard Dog Press. Copyright 2011 Steven-Elliot Altman.

Steven-Elliot Altman is a bestselling author, screenwriter, and videogame developer. He won multiple awards for his online role playing game, 9Dragons. His novels include Captain America is Dead, Zen in the Art of Slaying Vampires, Batman: Fear Itself, Batman: Infinite Mirror, The Killswitch Review, The Irregulars, and Deprivers. His writing has been compared to that of Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Michael Crichton and Philip K. Dick, and he has collaborated with world class writers such as Neil Gaiman, Michael Reaves, Harry Turtledove and Dr. Janet Asimov. He’s also the editor of the critically acclaimed anthology The Touch, and a contributor to Shadows Over Baker Street, a Hugo Award winning anthology of Sherlock Holmes meets H.P. Lovecraft stories.

Steven also bares ink on his body, and is bi, as in bi-coastal, between NYC and LA. He’s currently hard at work writing and directing his latest videogame Cursed Love, an online free to play gothic horror RPG from Dark Hermit Studios, set in Victorian London. Think Sherlock Holmes, Jack The Ripper and Dorian Gray mercilessly exploit the cast of Twilight. Friend Cursed Love (Official Closed Beta) on facebook and you can have fun playing out this tawdry, tragic romance with Steven while the game is being beta tested!

Diane DeKelb-Rittehouse spent several years in Manhattan as an actress before marrying her college sweetheart and returning to the Philadelphia area where she had been born. Diane first worked with Steven-Elliot Altman when they created the acclaimed, Publisher’s Weekly Starred-Review anthology The Touch: Epidemic of the Millennium, in which her story “Gifted” appeared. Diane has published a number of critically acclaimed short stories, most notably in the science fiction, murder, and horror genres. Her young adult fantasy novel, Fareie Rings: The Book of Forests, is now available in stores or online.

Interested in buying a printed copy of The Killswitch Review? Well, Steve’s publisher Yard Dog Press was kind enough to put up a special page where SuicideGirls can get a special discount and watch a sexy trailer. Just follow this link to KillswitchReview.com and click on the SG logo.

* * *

Related Posts:
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter One
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter One, Part Two
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter One, Part Three
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter One, Part Four
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Two, Part One
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Two, Part Two
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Two, Part Three
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Three, Part One
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Three, Part Two
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Three, Part Three
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Four, Part One
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Four, Part Two
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Four, Part Three
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Five, Part One
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Five, Part Two
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Five, Part Three
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Six, Part One
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Six, Part Two
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Six, Part Three
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Seven, Part One
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Seven, Part Two
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Seven, Part Three
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Seven, Part Four
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Seven, Part Five
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Eight, Part One
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Eight, Part Two
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Eight, Part Three
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Nine, Part One
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Nine, Part Two
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Nine, Part Three
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Nine, Part Four
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Nine, Part Five
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Ten, Part One
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Ten, Part Two

Since there's a fake boobs thread I though I'd start another in the same vein so that we could appreciate the best of both worlds. I'll start: (image) Aria Giovanni

By Blogbot Co-founded by two former LA Weekly editors, Joe Donnelly and Laurie Ochoa, Slake is a highly collectable quarterly compendium “devoted to the endangered art of deeply reported narrative journalism and the kind of polished essay, memoir, fiction, poetry, and profile writing that is disappearing... more

By Blogbot

Co-founded by two former LA Weekly editors, Joe Donnelly and Laurie Ochoa, Slake is a highly collectable quarterly compendium “devoted to the endangered art of deeply reported narrative journalism and the kind of polished essay, memoir, fiction, poetry, and profile writing that is disappearing in a world of instant takes and unfiltered opinion.” Slake takes form as a hybrid of book and magazine, combining the non-disposability of the former with the kind of editorial prowess of the latter that harks back to an era when Bukowski wrote for the likes of Hustler and the LA Free Press.

Earlier this year we caught one of Slake’s live events, for which they are increasingly becoming renowned. Held at the Last Bookstore in DTLA, the reading featured many of the writers that have contributed to the lastest edition of Slake, which explores the concept of “Dirt” in all its forms. The night’s highlights included a hilarious turn from actress and comedian Lauren Weedman (a.k.a. Horny Patty from Hung), an essay from sex industry worker-cum-writer Antonia Crane, and a short story from Larry Fondation, which is excerpted below.



Dirty Girl by Larry Fondation

Wanda owns a dog but she never takes it for a walk. It shits inside. Sometimes she cleans it up, sometimes she doesn’t. Pieces of dried-up dog shit dot the floor of her apartment. But it’s not just the dog shit. Her whole place is a mess: piles of dirty dishes, empty beer cans and wine bottles, unwashed clothes strewn about.

She doesn’t shower very often, either. Every couple of weeks. She smells, but not much given how infrequently she bathes. She’s popular at all the clubs. Men love her. She always has a boyfriend.

Her romances all seem to last about a year. They end with the boy screaming, “You’re gross!”

I can never figure that out. She’s the same the whole time. It’s like, after a year they realize just how unclean she really is. Wanda doesn’t seem to care. A week or two later, she’s got another guy.

Her circle of friends is once removed from mine, but we hang out at the same places. I first meet her at the Short Stop on Sunset. The bartenders there are good, but there are too few of them, so you have to wait forever for a beer. Wanda is standing next to me. I can smell her a little, but I like it. She smells like sex and sweat.

We order the same drink—Irish and soda—and we laugh about it.

“You buying?” she asks. She is teasing but I can’t tell at first.

Her hair is greasy but she has a sly smile, sexy for sure. She tells me she already has a boyfriend, but we exchange numbers at the end of the night anyway.

***

The first time I go to her place, I can’t believe it. It looks like the set of a movie about degradation and squalor. I come in anyway. She hands me a cold beer.

Evidence of her boyfriend abounds — large-size Chucks and men’s underwear on the floor.

“My boyfriend’s out of town,” she says.

We flirt but do nothing. We talk a lot about music and bands and drink a lot of beer. At about 3, I head home.

***

I lose my job at Sea Level Records because they close the store. I start hanging around with Wanda most afternoons, but she has to be home every day by 3 because she gives her neighbor a blow job when he comes home from school.

The kid is a little Latino guy in the eighth grade.

“You want to watch?” she asks me.

“No,” I say, but I do not leave.

“My boyfriend won’t watch either,” she says.

She takes the kid in the bedroom. Ten minutes later, they are done and the kid goes home. She looks at me.

“What?” she says.

I don’t say anything.

It’s usually easy for us to talk, but now I am kind of quiet.

“It helps with his confidence,” she says. “He used to flunk every subject. Now he’s getting straight A’s.”

Sure enough she pulls out a couple of copies of his report cards — a steady rise in his performance, I admit.

“Don’t be judgmental,” she says. “He’s a boy, not a girl.”

***

Two days later I watch.

Sergio is glad to have me play the voyeur. He is proud and happy and puffing up his tiny chest. He smiles widely when Wanda swallows.

I want to tell him that Wanda and I have never touched each other, but it is not appropriate.

When they are done, Sergio asks for a beer.

“You’re too young to drink,” Wanda says and sends him on his way.

“When he hits the ninth grade, goes to high school, I gotta cut him off,” she says. “He needs a girlfriend.”

“You’re right about that,” I say.

“You hungry?” she asks.

She microwaves some taquitos. While we are eating, her dog takes a dump on the floor. I offer to take the dog for a walk.

“A little late,” she laughs, pointing at the pile of shit.

She goes to the fridge and grabs two cans of Pabst.

“Besides, you’ll spoil him,” she says.

***

I begin to drop by unannounced. Today she is reading. She reads a lot, in fact.

“You like Kant?” she asks me.

“The categorical imperative?”

“I prefer ‘a.’ ”

“ ‘A’?”

“Yeah, the indefinite article …”

“Okay.”

“I love the German Idealists.”

She is reading a Penguin paperback anthology with that title. She puts her book down and smiles at me.

“Especially Hegel.”

Her phone rings. She has a steel-blue iPhone. She keeps the volume up. I can always hear both sides of her conversations. Now a man shouts from the other end. Clearly it is her boyfriend. He is still out of town. I am not sure where he is. She has not told me. But he is very angry and loud. He yells for about ten minutes straight. She says nothing.

I pick up her book and, without losing her page, begin to read the introduction. It sounds interesting. When her boyfriend finishes his tirade, she turns off her phone. She looks at me. I can’t tell if she is sad.

“I guess I’m single again,” she says.

We kiss for the first time.

***

Wanda is usually fully clothed when she services Sergio. But today, is wearing her bathrobe with nothing on underneath. Her breasts poke through the folds of the robe. I have only watched their escapades twice. Today she pleads with me to be with them. She does him right by the front door of her apartment. She works extra quickly. He is staring down at her tits. He comes extra quickly. He waits for her to swallow but this time she does not. She hurries him out the door while he is still zipping up his pants.

“Tomorrow?” he asks.

This is different, and young Sergio is confused.

“Yes,” she mumbles with her mouth full.

She shuts and locks the door behind him. As soon as he is gone she flings her robe to the floor. She is naked and sweaty.

“Kiss me,” she says.

I do. We tongue and kiss with all the extra wetness and I am hard as mahogany. We finish kissing.

“Lick me clean and fuck me!”

I unbutton my shirt and drop to my knees. I fumble with my pants as I work my tongue up her thighs. She spreads her legs as she stands, shuffling her feet farther apart on the unwashed hardwood floor. Her pubic hair clumps and sticks together. My tongue parts her labia.

I am Wanda’s boyfriend now.

***

Larry Fondation is the author of two novels and two collections of short stories, all set in Los Angeles. His two most-recent books are collaborations with London-based artist Kate Ruth. Fondation has won a Christopher Isherwood Fellowship in Fiction Writing. Martyrs and Holymen is due to be published in 2012. For more info visit larryfondation.com/.

Original story art crafted by Alex Bacon and Anne McCaddon.

Dirty Girl, as excerpted from Slake Issue No. 4: Dirt, is reprinted with the kind permission of Larry Fondation and Slake Media LLC. Slake can be purchased at many independent LA bookstores including Skylight, Vroman's, Stories, Last Bookstore, and Chevalier's, and at Barnes & Nobles nationwide. It is also available via Amazon on a single purchase or subscriber basis. For more on Slake visit their website, Facebook, and Twitter.

Some SuicideGirls have been modeling for the site for 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, or even 10 years. We thought it would be fun to show you a look back and some of the SuicideGirls throughout the years. This week we bring you Bully! Bully has been a SuicideGirl since 2006. She has 16 photo sets and has gained a... more

Some SuicideGirls have been modeling for the site for 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, or even 10 years. We thought it would be fun to show you a look back and some of the SuicideGirls throughout the years.

This week we bring you Bully!

Bully has been a SuicideGirl since 2006. She has 16 photo sets and has gained a lot of tattoos over the years. Enjoy this sexy look back at the lovely Bully...

From her first photoset Takeover shot in 2006 by WW Studios:





From her photo set Schooled shot in 2007 by Alissa, Bully says here's to her namesake:





She shows her love for Roseanne Conner in her photo set Meet the Conners from 2007 shot by Alissa:





Bully goes to L.A. in her photo set Anthropology shot in 2007 by Sean:





She spearheads the dinosaur revolution in her photo set Osaurus from 2007 shot by Alissa:





Bully gets frisky in the back seat with Adalae in the photo set After Hours shot in 2008 by Alissa:





She gets dirty in the woods in Silence shot in 2008 by Alissa:





She takes a ride with Radeo in Going South shot in 2008 by Alissa:





She goes fishin' in Hook Em shot in 2009 by Amina:





Her photo set 1966 from 2009 shot by Sean is a tribute to classic 60's Playboy sexy:







From her photo set Tumbleweed shot in 2009 by Zoetica she drifts along with the tumbling tumbleweeds:







Bully is Sensational in her photo set from 2009 shot by Fractal:





She takes a Midnight Dip in her photo set from 2010 shot by Sean:





She takes our breath away in her photo set Worth the Pain shot in 2011 by Sean:







From her photo set Patterns shot in 2011 by Sean:





Timeless is the perfect word to describe Bully. From her most recent photo set Timelessness shot in 2012 by Sean:







Hope you enjoyed the lovely look back at the stunning SuicideGirl Bully! Be sure to keep an eye out for a new set coming soon to member review!

Become a member TODAY for only $4 a month (if you sign up for a year) to see all 16 nude pin-up photo sets of Bully - http://suicidegirls.com/join/

(image) by Blogbot (image) (image) (image) Artist / SG Member Name: Finbarr Farmer / Fimbis Mission Statement: Being a straight edge guy in Ireland means I don't spend quite as much of my time propping up the bar as the stereotypes would lead you to believe. Couple that with living in a very small-minded... more

by Blogbot







Artist / SG Member Name: Finbarr Farmer / Fimbis

Mission Statement: Being a straight edge guy in Ireland means I don't spend quite as much of my time propping up the bar as the stereotypes would lead you to believe. Couple that with living in a very small-minded town and insanity probably isn't far away if action is not taken! Being creative is my outlet, a way to keep my brain active and fresh.

Art was all I was ever interested in while at school. I couldn't paint or draw all that well, so I gravitated towards the computer in the corner of the room and have been sitting there ever since. I can think of an idea walking down the street, looking through a magazine, listening to music or watching TV and immediately take note of it to return to at a later date. The idea I start out with pretty much always evolves to be something different at the end and I love the process.

Medium: 95% digital (Photoshop/Illustrator) and 10% pencil/pen.

Aesthetic: Multi colored glowstick.





Notable Achievements: Standing on a box on Grafton Street in Dublin (Ireland’s busiest street) at 2 PM on a Saturday, April 2006 and giving a speech about my speech impediment.

Flying to Australia (and staying for a year) on my own in 2008 with just the clothes on my back and my laptop after my luggage had been lost in a London airport.

Being asked to design flyers for Karma Suicide.

Selling something on Society6.com/.





Why We Should Care: How often do you stumble upon an Irishman who does not drink? Exactly!! For that reason alone, my work is worth a look!!!

I Want Me Some: You can find my work on Bahance, Society6, and in this thread on the SG Fan Art Group.









***

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(image) by Blogbot (image) (image) (image) Artist / SG Member Name: Finbarr Farmer / Fimbis Mission Statement: Being a straight edge guy in Ireland means I don't spend quite as much of my time propping up the bar as the stereotypes would lead you to believe. Couple that with living in a very small-minded... more

by Blogbot







Artist / SG Member Name: Finbarr Farmer / Fimbis

Mission Statement: Being a straight edge guy in Ireland means I don't spend quite as much of my time propping up the bar as the stereotypes would lead you to believe. Couple that with living in a very small-minded town and insanity probably isn't far away if action is not taken! Being creative is my outlet, a way to keep my brain active and fresh.

Art was all I was ever interested in while at school. I couldn't paint or draw all that well, so I gravitated towards the computer in the corner of the room and have been sitting there ever since. I can think of an idea walking down the street, looking through a magazine, listening to music or watching TV and immediately take note of it to return to at a later date. The idea I start out with pretty much always evolves to be something different at the end and I love the process.

Medium: 95% digital (Photoshop/Illustrator) and 10% pencil/pen.

Aesthetic: Multi colored glowstick.





Notable Achievements: Standing on a box on Grafton Street in Dublin (Ireland’s busiest street) at 2 PM on a Saturday, April 2006 and giving a speech about my speech impediment.

Flying to Australia (and staying for a year) on my own in 2008 with just the clothes on my back and my laptop after my luggage had been lost in a London airport.

Being asked to design flyers for Karma Suicide.

Selling something on Society6.com/.





Why We Should Care: How often do you stumble upon an Irishman who does not drink? Exactly!! For that reason alone, my work is worth a look!!!

I Want Me Some: You can find my work on Bahance, Society6, and in this thread on the SG Fan Art Group.









***

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One of the most impressive aspects of San Diego Comic-Con is the annual masquerade, where cosplayers show off their creative designs. Everyday people create the images of comic book, movie and video game characters with costumes rivaling big Hollywood productions. For his documentary on Comic-Con, Morgan... more

One of the most impressive aspects of San Diego Comic-Con is the annual masquerade, where cosplayers show off their creative designs. Everyday people create the images of comic book, movie and video game characters with costumes rivaling big Hollywood productions. For his documentary on Comic-Con, Morgan Spurlock chose one cosplay artist to follow for a portion of the film.

Holly Conrad designed an entire ensemble of Mass Effect costumes for the 2010 masquerade. Comic-Con: Episode IV – A Fan’s Hope follows Conrad from designing the costumes in her garage through assembling them on stage, as one of four stories surrounding the convention. He also follows a group of artists seeking mentorship, a comic book shop owner and a couple of geeks in love.

Holly Conrad is one of the film’s breakout stars. Simply from the ingenuity of her Mass Effect costumes, producers of the Mass Effect movie offered her a job as a consultant on the film. Everywhere she goes in her Shepard costume, she stands out and gets compliments from impressed onlookers. That includes driving to the film’s Los Angeles press junket. Conrad planned to give all her interviews in costume, so she was suited up as she drove to Beverly Hills one Thursday morning. We spoke with her by phone, her very first interview of the day, to celebrate the glory of cosplay. She also wore her costume to the film's Hollywood premiere.

SuicideGirls: Do you ever feel like cosplay is committing social suicide?

Holly Conrad: [Laughs] At times it can be but I think if you do it right, you tend to be more socially accepted than suicidal.

SG: Yeah, don’t guys think the costumes are hot?

HC: I think they do. I think it depends on the person. A lot of times obviously they have Slave Leias and things like that, but my personal preference is space armor.

SG: I’m not saying it has to be revealing, but I imagine people would admire a good costume.

HC: Exactly, yeah. Definitely.

SG: I’m a one man show as a journalist. How do you manage the stress of putting together a group act?

HC: [Laughs] It’s pretty stressful. Mostly just random arguments that turn into hugs and crying when everything gets suddenly better.

SG: We see in the film when one of your team can’t quite handle the costume, and you have to manage that.

HC: Oh yeah, usually what I try to do is take care of the people in the more complicated costumes because they’ve got it way worse than I do. Ideally we have someone’s boyfriend or someone’s friend handle it for us. If we can get more people to help that’s the best but obviously if we can’t, then we just kind of make do.

SG: Is it harder to find supplies and craft stores these days with the economy?

HC: Not really. Actually, I live in L.A. now and all the special effects stores and everything out here are all still totally here, so it’s different but it’s not a complete lost art yet.

SG: How much time do you have to play Mass Effect?

HC: Actually when I first started playing the game is when I decided to make the costume. I think I had over 15 play throughs on the second game so I had quite a bit of time between my day job and making the costumes to play the game. I made sure to play all the way through before I was completely inspired to make all the suits.

SG: What is your day job?

HC: Well, back then I was working at an animatronic factory called Garner Holt Productions. It was over in San Bernadino where I grew up, kind of in that deserty sort of area. That and the haunted house is where I met a lot of my team. That’s where I was working the whole time until I decided to go crazy and spend all my money and start my Comic-Con suicide mission.

SG: What did you do for Garner Holt?

HC: They do a lot of stuff for Disney and things like that but I was just in the molding department, being a mold rat. I was just doing my cleaning mold thing, clay walls and things like that at the time. Then I moved to figure finishing which is where I learned to do more of the sculpting sort of things that I ended up learning to do.

SG: Have you always had work in the industry?

HC: No, not always. A lot of shops lay you off or you take an internship and it doesn’t work out. I usually end up working in a coffee shop if things go south. [Laughs] I’ve worked out six coffee shops.

SG: That’s good solid work.

HC: Yeah, at least you know if things go bad you can definitely go and work at a coffee shop or something like that. It’s always good to have a backup.

SG: Have there been any costumes you attempted and couldn’t complete?

HC: Actually there’s been quite a few. It’s usually not because I can’t complete them. It’s just because I don’t have time. So I’ll usually start something crazy and then halfway through I’ll just get another project that’s paid and have to put it on the back burner.

SG: What are the ones we never got to see?

HC: Oh, I had a costume planned for Star Wars: The Old Republic that was one of their main characters. They wanted me to go to cons and things like that. I just completely ran out of time, ran out of money. They weren’t paying me for it. It was just going to be for fun but I just didn’t have time to complete it. I really want to make a Star Wars costume in the future so it’s on my list.

SG: What other subjects or characters are on your dream to do list?

HC: Oh my God, a lot of obscure games. Not necessarily obscure but older games that I was a big fan of as a kid I’d love to make some costumes of. Like Baldur’s Gate, it’s another role playing game that Bioware did I can’t imagine how many years ago. It was like late ‘90s. There’s a whole group of people from that game that I would just love to recreate. It’s all medieval costumes and armor so it’d be really fun for me.

SG: Where do you cosplay the rest of the year?

HC: I’ve been to a lot of different Cons actually. Usually we have a panel at PAX, the Penny Arcade Expo. We go to the Penny Arcade Expo east and west. I’m going to WonderCon in costume. There’s quite a few different smaller cons that aren’t just Comic Con that are actually really, really awesome. Almost more artsy and cool at times than Comic Con can be.

SG: What are you going as for WonderCon?

HC: I actually made a Mass Effect 3 Shepard Suit so it’s a completely new suit but the same character.

SG: Was Mass Effect your best costume or do you have other favorites?

HC: I have a few favorites. Before I did the Mass Effect suit at Comic Con I did a 12 foot tall character from an old game called Planescape: Torment. It was this super tall goddess woman built onto a PBC frame that I actually built onto a handicapped scooter so it looked like it was floating. That was insane because it was 12 feet tall. It was the tallest thing they had in the competition that year. I was really proud of that because at the time I had no idea what I was doing and it still turned out okay.

SG: Who is that character?

HC: The character was The Lady of Pain. It was sort of like a goddess woman.

SG: How did you do 12 feet?

HC: I actually built it onto the base of one of my mom’s old handicapped scooters. It was actually almost like I rode in it rather than walked in it so it was kind of like a float. It came out awesome though. It was really fun. We couldn’t even get any good pictures of it because it was too tall.

SG: What are your plans for Comic-Con 2012?

HC: Well, I’m getting ready for this Comic-Con and I think my plan is everyone in the movie, we want to get back together and wear our suits again for one last convention in those suits. I’m going to be making Steph, you saw her in the movie when we did all the triumphant things, Steph was there so I’m making her a costume and a few other people. So it’s just going to be the same thing.

SG: Is the Mass Effect movie still happening?

HC: I actually don’t know. I haven’t heard much either. Last I heard they were getting a director so I guess they’re still working on that, or if they’ve done it they’re waiting to announce it after the third game’s been played out. The third game was just released.

SG: Do you still have a job on the movie?

HC: As far as I know. They don’t actually tell me much so I’m hoping. I’ve definitely got my fingers crossed for that. I know how all this stuff works so I’m just like I hope it happens.

SG: Have you had a chance to play ME3?

HC: Yes, I have.

SG: Have you beaten it yet?

HC: I have beaten it. I did actually beat it.

SG: Thoughts?

HC: I actually really, really like it. I love all the characterizations and everything. I know that there’s a bunch of controversy around the ending but I think people are just jumping the gun. I think they just need to wait and see what they’re going to come out with next instead of fan raging over the ending, because the whole game was amazing and beautiful. The characterization is just fantastic. I’m a huge fan of all the characters. That’s why I make the costumes. That’s honestly why I play the game anyway.

SG: How did you pitch yourself to Morgan Spurlock?

HC: First I sent a letter, so I sent a letter talking about what we were doing for Comic-Con and all that. Then after that we did a YouTube video and we put out a YouTube video of us working in a garage on all the costumes. The video ended up going viral on Reddit so it ended up getting 100,000 views in a couple weeks or something crazy like that. So it was sent around to all these game companies and game companies started recognizing us. It ended up being that Morgan saw it and they really liked it and liked our story. It just kind of happened.

SG: Were there other cosplayers you were up against?

HC: I think there were actually. I saw a couple of people, this isn’t official, but I saw a couple people online saying, “Oh, I was up for this position.” People that follow me on Facebook say, “I saw the movie and Holly Conrad is great.” Everyone’s been super positive, even if they weren’t a featured character in the movie because the movie is so amazing.

SG: How do you feel when you’re able to dress up as someone else?

HC: I love it. I always kind of joke that it’s kind of like being in drag minus the gender confusion. You get to completely be another person, another persona for an extended period of time and it involves a lot of makeup and dressing up and being uncomfortable. But it’s kind of like a complete transformation from normal daily life which I think is what makes it really, really fun.

SG: How is your self-image as Holly?

HC: Oh, I’m pretty happy with my self-image. I enjoy finding fashionable things. I still dress in crazy leggings with space patterns and things like that. I think my cosplay kind of leaks onto my everyday life in a way, but when I was younger it was really hard. I didn’t have a great self-image in high school and elementary school, but I kind of developed it over time in making costumes.

SG: Did cosplay help you define yourself?

HC: Oh, completely. Completely because it was kind of a mix of all the things I enjoy like costumes, armor, fashions and all those things. It sort of gave me a place to express the art that I was interested in while at the same time obviously making you feel good about yourself because you get to make something, wear it and have people enjoy it.

SG: Do you do work for hire? Where could someone contact you?

HC: I actually have been doing work for hire. I’ve been crazy, crazy busy but you can go to my website if you want to check out all my stuff. I’ve actually been working for Bioware, the company that made Mass Effect and a few other people who’ve done really cool side projects. I have a website. It’s just Hollyconrad.com and my twitter is where I update everything and usually send everyone because I’m on there all the time talking about what glue I’m using. It’s the same thing, @HollyConrad. My tweets are usually about me burning myself and what kind of glue I’m using.

SG: What is the good glue these days?

HC: Actually Barge glue. I use Barge glue for everything. It’s kind of a super toxic glue that shoemakers and special effects artists use. It’s just a really intense glue.

SG: Has costuming become your full time job now?

HC: Yeah, it has actually. I’ve been doing costuming and I’m working on doing tutorials for YouTube and all that kind of stuff so it’s been really, really awesome. I actually did production design for a short film a couple months ago which was really, really fun. That was kind of like a dream come true.

SG: Have any other movie companies reached out to you?

HC: No, they haven’t. I actually haven’t heard much. I mean, the movie’s not out yet so maybe once it all comes out I might get some people calling which would be super exciting.

SG: Did you get to know any of the other subjects from Comic-Con: Episode IV?

HC: Oh yeah. Actually all of us get along amazingly. It’s really, really great. James and Se Young who got engaged in the movie, they were actually working on the same production that I was when we did production design. So Se Young was actually the art director and James was one of the producers and editors. My whole team worked on the project too so it was really, really cool.

SG: What’s that project called?

HC: It’s still a secret project. We’re under NDA.

SG: How do you like your first press junket?

HC: Well, I’m still in traffic getting there. I’m hoping it’s going to be awesome because I started getting dressed in my costume. I’m actually driving in my costume right now. Then one of my lights wasn’t working so I freaked out about that. Now I’m in traffic hoping my lights are still working and looking absolutely ridiculous.

SG: What portion of the costume are you wearing in the car?

HC: Oh, everything. Including the makeup.

SG: Have you gotten any looks from other drivers?

HC: I just don’t notice anymore to be honest. It’s so common these days, I really just don’t even notice.

Comic-Con: Episode IV - A Fan's Hope is now playing in theaters and On Demand.

(image) Nicoletta (image) Liu (image) Priscila (image) Joeey Please continue... more

Nicoletta


Liu


Priscila


Joeey

Please continue...

(image) by Nahp Suicide (image) [Above: Talamia] Talamia describes herself as a "photographer, illustrative designer, and thinker." She lives is South Africa. She has been shooting for SuicideGilrs since 2008, and has more than 30 sets in the site. How did you first get involved with SuicideGirls? more

by Nahp Suicide


[Above: Talamia]

Talamia describes herself as a "photographer, illustrative designer, and thinker." She lives is South Africa. She has been shooting for SuicideGilrs since 2008, and has more than 30 sets in the site.

How did you first get involved with SuicideGirls?

I had always loved the concept and internet stalked the models of SG ever since I could remember but was always under the misconception that it was a US only thing. The day I came to realize this was not so was when I randomly stumbled upon a local girl's FB profile page whose profile picture had the SG logo on it. It was Lynx, and she introduced me to Diaz, and from there I threw myself at SG with a fervor.



What's your background photography-wise?

I have a four year degree in BA: Information Design (aka Information Architecture), which covered some photography here and there, but mostly I am self taught.

 



[Orijin in Art of War]

What was the first photo you had published?

If we're talking print media then It was probably a campaign series of portraitures of VJs and musicians for MTVbase that ran in a variety of music and youth related magazines.

How would you describe your style?

Having trained as a creative director-designer I find it very difficult to adhere to having one particular style. Or rather, I cannot see it in my work, even though others have said they can. All I can say about my work at this time is that I strive to makes images that are striking with the right amount of contrast to make the image pop.



What gear do you use?

I currently use the Canon range of equipment including a variety of L lenses.




[Lumo in Afterglow]

How important is Photoshop in your final images?

One always continually strives to achieve the desired end result out-of-camera so as to minimize reliance on post-editing, but Photoshop will always be vital for the odd blemish or bruise or stubborn stray hair.



What gives you ideas and inspires you to create such amazing sets?

The question is more like what doesn't give me ideas for sets. Everything from dreams; the products of popular culture; the things people say; even patterns that emerge in tiles! Everything, no matter how trivial, can make splendid set ideas, and the more idiosyncratic the better. But what helps most directly is getting to know the amazing women I have gotten to work with and allowing them to inspire me.



[Hadess in A Beautiful Mind]

What is your favorite image?

There are so many favorites it's really hard to choose. From the way the light sculpted Lumo's beautiful form (in Afterglow – see NSFW image) to the stunning water-like reflection in the image of Hadess (in A Beautiful Mind – see NSFW image).

Tell us why it's your fave and how you achieved it?

I like using light sources that wrap around the body's contours to illuminate the fine details of shape and form. Reflective surfaces also provide gorgeous points of visual interest.

Is there anybody or anything you would love to photograph that you haven't?

I love working with strong creative women. Some that come to mind are (I've probably left out three dozen others!) Bexi, Serial, Radeo, Bully, Jamity, Rashel, Prussia, Liu, Clio, AnnaLee, Nena, Waikiki, Manko, GoGo, Rigel, Vice, Annika, Bee, Flux, Lumi. Apart from being tremendously gorgeous, they are all so provocatively intelligent which is the biggest kind of turn on.


[Tarion in Kiss The Machine]


[Tarion in Decadence]


[Tarion in Swingers' Club]

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by A.J. Focht A month out from release and AMC has already sold out advanced tickets for The Ultimate Marvel Marathon which promises to show all of the movies leading up to The Avengers before the midnight release. But if you didn’t get your tickets to the nine hour movie marathon there is no need to... more

by A.J. Focht

A month out from release and AMC has already sold out advanced tickets for The Ultimate Marvel Marathon which promises to show all of the movies leading up to The Avengers before the midnight release. But if you didn’t get your tickets to the nine hour movie marathon there is no need to worry as AMC will be adding more locations. Cinemark theatres have also joined the party hosting the marathons at half the price. While AMC is charging $40 a seat for the marathon, Cinemark is charging $20. Although, it is unclear if the midnight showing of The Avengers is part of the Cinemark package.

The Iron Man 3 release date is scheduled for May 3, 2013, just a year after The Avengers. Now it looks like Ben Kingsley is in talks to play the villain for the third movie. Insiders at Marvel have debunked the rumor that he will play Mandarin, without giving any hints as to what his role might be.

DC Comics is launching a new round of comic titles this July. The titles in the mix so far are National Comics and Masters of the Universe. National Comics will feature obscure and offbeat heroes, starting with Jeff Lemire’s Kid Eternity. Masters of the Universe will follow the adventures of He-Man against the evil Skeletor. Don’t be expecting the classic He-Man story as it looks like his origins have changed, and as the series starts, Skeletor has already won.

Do you want to bring a little piece of The Hunger Games home with you? Well now you can since Katniss Everdeen has been transformed into a Barbie. I don’t know when Barbie started idolizing child warfare, but this Katniss Everdeen doll is equipped with a bow and arrows nonetheless. If that isn’t good enough for you, you could always buy District 12. Henry River Mill Village, the location for District 12 in the film, is now on sale and can be yours for only $1.4 million.

The Hugo Awards, one of the most prestigious awards in science-fiction, has listed this year’s nominees. Among the top contenders are all the big players: Harry Potter, Doctor Who, Captain America, and…Community? That’s right. In what can only be described as the best nomination ever, the Community episode ‘Remedial Chaos Theory’ has been nominated for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form. While it is up against some excellent Doctor Who episodes, this episode stands a good chance of winning thanks to its excellent use of alternate and parallel universes.

The Doctor is getting wrapped up in some legal issues of his own. David Tennant starred in a new Virgin Media commercial that has upset the BBC. The commercial played off time travel, and for BBC anything time travel with David Tennant is their jurisdiction. They sent a takedown request to Virgin Media saying they do not want to be perceived as endorsing any organization.

Facebook has paid $1 billion for the purchase of Instagram. While the purchase has had many Instagram fans nervous, Mark Zuckerberg announced they plan to let Instagram grow free from the Facebook brand. Is that enough though for Instagram fans or do you still worry that Facebook ownership will taint it?

Christopher Moore is one of America’s funniest novelists and his new book, “Sacré Bleu,” a novel subtitled “A Comedy d’Art,” makes the case for him also being one of the smartest and most inventive. Arguably his best work, the book is set in the Belle Epoque era and involves the impressionist... more

Christopher Moore is one of America’s funniest novelists and his new book, “Sacré Bleu,” a novel subtitled “A Comedy d’Art,” makes the case for him also being one of the smartest and most inventive. Arguably his best work, the book is set in the Belle Epoque era and involves the impressionist and post-impressionist painters who lived primarily in the Montmartre district of Paris. Starring Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, who is so colorful and entertaining a character that it’s hard to believe that Moore didn’t create him, it’s a strange and fascinating novel that is about, among other things, the color blue.

Moore is fascinated by what made the impressionists so radical–that they created unconventional work and lived in unconventional ways. If this novel is less laugh out loud than some of his previous books, it’s because Moore is trying for a different tone in this book. While there are plenty of hilarious moments–just try looking at a Renoir painting after reading the book without cracking a smile–the book details the murder of Vincent Van Gogh and how his friends try to discover what really happened. Along the way you’ll learn the best way to test a baguette, how color is made and learn a lot about art (although admittedly, some of what we learn is fictional). Moore is currently on book tour and we spoke to him about his just-released novel.


ALEX DUEBEN: I feel I should ask at the outset, have any art historians been harmed in the making of this novel?

CHRISTOPHER MOORE: Not yet, but there may be a few cardiac incidents once the book is out. I took some liberties.

AD: You mentioned at the end of the book that you set out to write a novel about the color blue. Why blue? And why not, say, vermilion?

CM: To be honest, I just don't remember. It just came to me, like, out of the–well, you know.

AD: This feels in some ways like a book that could have taken longer to research than to actually write. How much research was involved and how long did it take to craft this book?

CM: From the time I started working on it to the time I delivered it was four years. I was still doing research as I was writing it, but the actually writing time was about 18 months.

AD: I am forced to admit that I have never given thought to how to create color and after reading how they did in your book, I'm a little amazed that anyone went through such trouble.

CM: When you consider that humans have been harvesting color and using it to make art for nearly 100,000 years, it's not surprising that we moderns would take it for granted. The Australian aborigines, which, in spots, retained a stone-age culture well into the last century, actually have “sacred” color mines where their ochers are dug, and the colors were traded between bands all over the Australian continent, since you could only use a certain color for a certain type of painting. Color and religion are tied. Color is part of creation. I think color is so ingrained as part of human culture that now we don't think of it as having a source, any more than we associate the food we eat or the clothes we wear with the plants and animals from which they come.

AD: You spoke a little about the impressionists in the end but I was wondering if you could just talk briefly about what you love about them and find so fascinating about their work.

CM: I think I was first drawn to the Impressionists work as a respite from modern life, which is somewhat ironic, I suppose, since one of their goals was to portray modern life as they saw it. When I was on book tour I would go to museums to get out of the pace and patter of self-promotion, have an experience that wasn't about me or my books at all, and looking at Impressionists' paintings gave me that break. Later, when I learned about their lives, and about what they were trying to do as artists, and how unconventional it was at the time, I gained a whole new level of respect for them, as people as well as painters. They all had the ability to work within the conventions of art at the time and make a living, but they did something that broke with convention, in a counter-survival way. Creative courage is impressive, and inspiring.

AD: Who was Henri Toulouse-Lautrec and what made him the perfect character for a Christopher Moore novel? Was he really that colorful in real life?

CM: Toulouse-Lautrec was the Count de Toulouse-Lautrec Monfa, he was royalty, and was heir to a substantial fortune -- he didn't have to make art to survive. He was injured as a child in a riding accident, and his legs never healed properly, and he also had a genetic bone disorder (probably because his parents were first cousins) that cause him to be very short of stature. He discovered, early on, that he was very good at drawing, and as his athletic activities were limited by his disability, he got a lot of practice. When he came of age, he went off to Paris to learn to paint, and attended drawing classes with Vincent Van Gogh, Emile Bernard, and other budding artists of the day. In addition to being an extraordinary painter and printmaker, he was a bon vivant, a notorious drunk, who lived much of his life in brothels and cabarets, and recorded life there in his drawings and paintings. It's the combination of his being an artist and a bit of a madman that made him the perfect character for one of my books. Since I decided to open the book with the murder of Vincent Van Gogh, having a diminutive detective who was his friend, try to solve the murder, was irresistible.

AD: How important was it to spend time in Paris researching the novel?

CM: I don't think I could have written the book if I hadn't spent time in Paris. Much of Paris as it stands today, was built in the 1850s, so it hasn't really changed that much, so being there gave dimension to the scenes, plus, there are huge collections of the art that I was writing about, and living around where it was painting, gave me a perspective I wouldn't have had otherwise. 

AD: What is the challenge of writing a historical novel that's set in the more recent past, as opposed to Fool or Lamb?

CM: Mainly there was just more to work with -- almost too much. In the case of Lamb, for instance, they didn't even know where Jesus was for 30 years of his life, and Fool was constructed around Shakespeare's King Lear, which had so many anachronisms in the original play, that I had to make up a mythical time in which to set it–in other words, I was able to work with huge holes in history. With the Impressionists, they more or less knew what each of them had for breakfast every day of his life, plus, each was more or less recording moments of his or her life on canvas. It was a huge body of knowledge, and the challenge was how to pare it down and tell a story with a pace that would satisfy a modern reader. 

AD: Why did you want to include so many paintings throughout the book?

CM: I didn't want to assume that my reader had seen the art I was talking about. I have only seen a lot of it in the last few years, and yet so much of the story depends on understanding what the art looks like. I thought it would give readers who might have come to my work through the vampire books or the Pine Cove books a door into this new world I was writing about. 

AD: Do you fear that Renoir will be best known by his new catch phrase: I like big butts?

CM: I can only hope. I just couldn't resist writing a scene where he says that. In his biography he more or less says that a lot, I just sort of used a phrase we've heard before. Sometimes you just have to swing at a comedy slow-pitch, like when Manet sees Whistler at an art exhibition and the first thing he asks is, “How's your mother?”

AD: Is hitting someone upside the head in fact the best way to test whether the baguette has been properly made?

CM: I have no idea, I just thought that would be funny. Parisian society seems to sort of revolve around the baguette, even today, and I thought it would be funny if every morning you saw bakers smacking their kids in the head with a loaf to test the crust. 

AD: Is there a chance we might someday see a pseudo-sequel featuring Toulouse-Lautrec and the Art Nouveau movement?

CM: I don't know. I really like the art from that period, but it's not nearly as rich or influential as the Impressionists. It was really more decorative and design, like Art Deco, than revolutionary, like, for instance, Cubism or Surrealism. I love the period and the characters of the time, but if I were to revisit Paris, I think I'd have to tell the story around something a little more universal–maybe just use Belle Epoch Paris as the setting. Everyone was there, just everyone, so there's a wealth of historical material to launch from.