Chris Mautner

[Scene is a kitchen - a middle aged woman called JANET is boiling peas at the stove. A younger more colourfully dressed woman named LIZ approached her.] JANET: Ugh... LIZ: What's up? JANET: I am so bored of cooking peas! LIZ: Have you tried... AI peas? JANET: AI peas? LIZ: They're peas with AI! [Liz holds up to us a packet of peas labelled: Pea-i AI - Peas with AI]. LIZ: Al-powered peas harness the potential of your peas JANET: What LIZ [Now a voiceover as we cut to a whizzy technology diagram of peas all connected by meaningless dotted lines] Why not take your peas to the next level with Al Peas' new Al tools to power your peas? [Show a techno diagram of a pea with a label reading 'AI' pointing to a random zone in it] LIZ: Each pea has Al in a way we haven't quite worked out yet but it's fine [Show Janet and Liz now in a Matrix-style world of peas] LIZ: With Al peas you can supercharge productivity and make AI work for your peas! JANET: What LIZ: Shut up LIZ: Our game-changing Pea-Al gives you the freedom to unlock the potential of the power of the future of your peas workflow From opening the bag of peas to boiling the peas to eating the peas To spending millions on adding Al to the peas and then having to work out what that even means. JANET: Is it really necessary to- LIZ [Grabbing Janet by the collar]: THE PEAS HAVE GOT AI, JANET [Cut to an advert ending screen, with the bag of peas and the slogan: AI PEAS: Just 'Peas' for god's sake buy the AI peas. [Ends]

Every ad now

Walt Disney's Christmas Parade #7 (1955). On the cover, we see four rooms inside a home. In one, Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse decorate a Christmas tree. In another, Minnie Mouse and Daisy Duck wrap presents. Upstairs, Scrooge McDuck is asleep in one room, while Huey, Duey, Louis, Morty, and Ferdie sleep in another.

Cover by Don MacLaughlin.

HHS changed the name of transgender health leader on her official portrait Admiral Rachel Levine was the first transgender person to be confirmed by the Senate to serve in the federal government. Her official portrait at HHS headquarters has been altered.

Admiral Rachel Levine was the first transgender person to be confirmed by the Senate to serve in the federal government. Her official portrait at HHS headquarters has been altered. n.pr/48HypvT

“the USPS must turn a profit” makes me want to set things on fire

they put a clause in the fucking constitution about postal service, that’s how important it is

nothing in there about “only if you can make money on it”

no i do not want to give you my email for 10% off. and furthermore, I don’t think i should have to click a button that says “i’m a dumb bitch” to indicate that. you’re a website that sells blankets and you can’t speak to me like that.

25A608 Order

BREAKING: The Supreme Court has cleared the way for Texas to use a new congressional map that could help Republicans win five more U.S. House seats in the 2026 midterms. A lower court found the map is likely unconstitutional for discriminating based on race
www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...

The Trump Administration Wants Immigrants to Self-Deport. It’s a Shit Show The Trump administration has been virtually begging immigrants in the US to self-deport, even offering money. But some immigrants say it’s been nearly impossible.

NEW: You've read a lot about immigrants kidnapped, forcibly detained, and held in ICE facilities -- what about the immigrants *trying* to leave the country? Turns out its wildly difficult for them too.

don't miss this from @telliotter.bsky.social:

What is America now if not a neverending parade of oversized vanity trucks rolling past a woman screaming for help because she's being abducted by secret police

An excellent piece by Maïa Hamilcaro-Berlin and Marlene Agius for @comicsjournal.bsky.social on the cancellation of this year's Angoulême Festival. Have a read...
#AngoulêmeFestival

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection © 2016 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris

Around the Circle by Vasily Kandinsky, 1940
https://botfrens.com/collections/212/contents/137509

ICE Arrested and Separated Chinese Father From 6-Year-Old Son, Advocates Say The father and son were detained at an ICE check-in on Nov. 26, advocates say. The son’s location is currently unknown, while the father is being held at an upstate ICE facility.

A 6-year-old boy is missing after ICE arrested him and his dad in NYC last week and shipped them off to separate facilities. www.thecity.nyc/2025/12/02/i... @thecity.nyc @gwynnefitz.bsky.social

This They Might Be Giants TONIGHT SHOW performance of "Birdhouse In Your Soul" from 1990 remains firmly lodged in my noggin thanks to the Tonight Show Band's full commitment and Doc Severinsen's incredible trumpeting... It took an already great song and made it transcendent.

optimistic guy in the town from Uzumaki: well I think our town is BLESSED by spirals

Have you read Cimes?

The Snoid

Purchase

Peter Purves-Smith, Kangaroo Hunt, 1939
https://botfrens.com/collections/14377/contents/1135620

We are all in the gutter: Starman at 30, part 1 - The Comics Journal Starman is 30 years old? Where did the time go? Good thing Alex Dueben is here to do a deep dive on this influential James Robinson/Tony Harris superhero series.

Highly recommended: this long piece by Alex Dueben on 30 years of James Robinson’s Starman. @comicsjournal.bsky.social

Introduce yourself with five concerts you’ve seen

Nine Inch Nails
Bob Mould
Richard Thompson
Warren Zevon
Les McCann and Eddie Harris

YouTube video by Husker Du - Topic Love Is All Around

hi i bet you need to hear Hüsker Dü performing the Mary Tyler Moore song live in 1985 today

Happy birthday, Sparky!

Every panel is a gem

A little girl asking “how can they call me strange?” Drawn by Moto Hagio, from the story Girl on Porch with Puppy

I’ve written about Julia Gfrörer’s work before, but Moto Hagio was new to me and I really can’t overstate how hard she walloped me. Ouch ouch ouch www.tcj.com/the-silent-r...

Neil’s 80th birthday and the 50th anniversary of “Zuma” arrived only a few days apart this month. Monumental moments both. As I rhapsodize:
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/l...

Legendary reggae singer, actor dies at 81 His wife announced the news on Instagram on Monday.

R.I.P. Jimmy Cliff

Udo Kier, German Actor Who Appeared in ‘My Own Private Idaho,’ ‘Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein,’ Dies at 81 Udo Kier, a German actor who collaborated with everyone from Andy Warhol to Lars von Trier to Madonna, died on Sunday morning. He was 81.

RIP Udo Kier, damn

variety.com/2025/film/ne...

The silent rebellion of certainty: Moto Hagio & Julia Gfrörer - The Comics Journal Julia Gfrörer is perfectly capable of flawless rhetoric, as proven in the second of two Frasier parodies within World Within the World. She shows us a series of panels of environment furniture behind ...

I love comics www.tcj.com/the-silent-r...

DW Griffith directed BIRTH OF A NATION (1915), a virulently racist film (and neither his first nor his last one of those) that saw racist violence follow wherever it was screened.

So, naturally, there are film bros and gals who think we should "ignore the racism" and keep it in the canon.

Thread

Chart showing detention population, among those arrested in the interior, by criminal record, May 2019 through present. There are three lines shown. (1) Prior conviction (which rises from around 9,000 in January 2025 to just over 16,000 in November 2025), (2) Pending criminal charges (which rises from around 5,000 to 15,000), and (3) No criminal record (which rises from around 1,000 to 21,000).

NEW: ICE has finally released post-shutdown detention data. The latest data reveals that a full 40%(!) of people arrested in the interior and held in ICE detention have no criminal record; no criminal charges or prior convictions. That is up from just 4% when Trump took office.

Nocturnos - The Comics Journal Nocturnos by Laura Pérez, translated by Andrea Rosenberg (Fantagraphics, 2025) reviewed by Aug Stone.

Also from me today, a review of Laura Pérez's wonderful Nocturnos for @comicsjournal.bsky.social . "Nocturnos... is a powerful book. A spell to remind us how nature weaves a way into everything around us, down to our subconscious"
www.tcj.com/reviews/noct...