Mr Connors’ Latest Obsession

There’s this crazy woman in my life.

She’s not named Nancy, but that’s a different story or two.

Seanan McGuire - actress, organizer, singer, cartoonist, performance artist. I’m sure she has a paying job or three as well, but she’s been too busy living all of these other aspects of her life, three and four at a time, for me to notice.

A good sort of crazy. We can use more good crazy.

What I didn’t know about Seanan was that she writes this humor column. My first Phouka arrived in the mail last October, forwarded by a mutual friend.

I was hooked immediately and signed right up.

Good stuff from a great Crazy Person.

Enjoy.

by Patrick Connors, editor, webmaster, bon vivant

So what’s this alien wine business, anyway?

Have the Martians taken over Napa Valley?

Not exactly.

AWC is commentary, humor and stories from the science-fiction community. As a group, we’re interested in nearly everything, from ancient sword technique to modern pro wrestling, from illusion to politics (which are much the same thing).

Good writing, good art, and yes, food and beverage as well.

Where’d the name come from? Well, I cartoon on occasion, and got silly one day…

CARTOON: (the original is unavailable at this time)
PANEL 1:
CLOSE-UP of a KLINGON. Dialogue: GAK! RETCH! P’TUI!!
PANEL 2: TWO-SHOT: Now we see the WAITRESS taking the Klingon’s order. We can see the table and the menu as well. The waitress is a complete pro. The nice uniform, the waitress smile. She’s completely unaffected by the Klingon or his order. And she asks him: And to drink with that, sir?

Now the cartoon was supposed to end there. Just a nice little commentary on Klingon culture as perceived by a Terran who barely speaks the language. But the random scrap of illustration board I was using had space for one more panel. So in a moment of silliness, the cartoon got extended:

PANEL 3 (this panel is all words): Which leads to the question: What wine goes best with Gak? Find Out! Read Alien Wine Connoisseur!

The name grabbed me, I was thinking of starting a ‘zine, and here we are.

Have fun! Keep those cards and letters coming!

Patrick Connors