“JANG! SANG THE KANGAROO” appears in Birdy #94, with art by Jonny Destefano. Naoko needs to find the blue monk Aobozu and rescue the boy he’s kidnapped. All that’s in the way is the bloodrot, the war between the Lords of Hell, and an Australian mind parasite:
JANG! JANG! JANG! RANG THE HAMMERS IN THE RAIN.
JANG! JANG! JANG! CLANGED THE LINKS OF BLOODY CHAIN.
JANG! BANGED THE BOOMERANG BOUNCING IN HER BRAIN.
JANG! SANG THE KANGAROO –
“Her Lonely Work” appears September 2021 in Birdy #93, inspired by art by Jason White:
The Hive is doing its work and its workers are happy.
The three present hum together faintly as they turn on the paralyzer. The eyes of the human child in the bed flutter open as she wakes. This is an occasional side effect of the paralyzer, and while it is not desirable, it will not affect the subsequent procedures. He is likely to forget it by morning anyway. It does not occur to them to consider the utter terror he must be experiencing, though they will administer another sedative in a moment.
Fortunately the child has not worn a shirt to bed. This makes placing the torso mantle easy. As the probes pierce his flesh they simultaneously administer a healing agent; they will leave no scars, or minimal scars, tiny dots easily dismissed. A pneumatic syringe administers the sedative, and the boy’s eyes close again.
“The Purp” appears in Birdy #92, Aug. 2021, with art by Dave Danzara. Prognostication is a drug.
The doomsayers crowded the corners but between them there was no agreement. NEW YORK WILL DROWN, read one sign. NUCLEAR WAR 10/21/35, said another. Still others mentioned plagues, droughts, assassinations, but no one took them seriously. Everyone knew the really successful prophets were behind paywalls.
“Prism and Prison” appears in Birdy #91, July 2021, with art by Hide Miyagawa. It’s fascinating how metaphors – which is to say, stories – can both offer new perspectives and lock us into just one. Ultimately all concepts fall short of reality, and the universe is always greater than our thoughts about it; but this is not to say it is something concrete, but rather is infinitely labile, wood turning to smoke, gasses condensing into planets.
“Humans are not machines, she told herself. The brain is not a computer.”
“Grandmother Releases Her Ward” appears in Birdy #90, June 2021, with art by Graham Franciose.
He did not recognize his uncle at first. His hair was cut differently, and he wore pieces of mirrored glass, like abalone shells, in front of his eyes. The rest of his apparel was like nothing Naadkym had seen before: blue leggings, a checked red shirt, tough-looking boots. “Hey!” the teenager said finally.
The stranger turned. “Nephew,” he said, and that’s when it fell into place. “Uncle!” he yelled, and ran to greet him properly.
Examined more closely, he saw that Yehl had changed in less obvious ways also. He seemed … older, with new lines in his face. This was confirmed in an unexpected way when Yehl asked, “How long have I been gone?”
The young man was puzzled. “Six months, I think.”
Yehl shook his head, looking worn. “That’s what I thought. Grandmother’s spell really is powerful. To me, I’ve been gone three years. The whole village, then … ” His eyes went distant with calculation. “Two hundred years vanished, more or less.”
“A Bonfire in the Belly of the Beast” appears in Birdy #89, May 2021, with art by Peter Kornowski. When life gives you tentacles, make a weird, wild Lovecraftian short story, amirite?
Being consumed by a dark god was just the beginning…
Here’s a Birdy story I wrote with the help of an AI. Basically, at key junctures in the narrative I would feed the preceding paragraph or two into https://app.inferkit.com/demo, a predictive neural network, and then incorporate the text it gave me into the story. Really I could have carried this much further (and perhaps still will), but I think the result is gloriously weird.
* Edit May 2024: This story aged kind of hilariously, given that the tech it used was already dated at the time it was written, and very shortly ChatGPT revolutionized AI text generators. I’ll have to consider how to best make use of the new tech…
The Dream Machine By Joel Tagert
My latest in Birdy Magazine. Your phone is your government.
https://www.birdymagazine.com/featured/land-of-the-noble-free-by-joel-tagert/
A few weeks ago I was feeling bored and restless (as one does during a pandemic), when I suddenly remembered: I know how to draw! So I broke out my Prismacolors, as I have not done in many a moon, and with little forethought drew this Fudō Myōō. Known as “the Immovable Wisdom King,” Fudō Myōō is most often depicted seated on a stone to symbolize that immovability, but here is shown seated on a lotus amid the flames, a symbol of the Middle Way of Buddhism. It may be that many people conceive of Buddhist practice as little more than navel-gazing, but don’t be deceived: to face life directly requires a fierce and steadfast spirit.
On a technical note, I’m afraid the photo can’t really do justice to the image, and you’ll just have to take my word that the colors are astonishingly vibrant. This was my first time using Prismacolor markers in combination with the color pencils, and I was amazed at the saturation. Feel like it’s what I’ve been looking for for years.
THE FELL AND THE FAE 