A surprisingly deep, absurdist romp through human history and the creation of the universe from the perspective of – yes, that’s right! – a bag of those faux-Italian “Milano” cookies. Without giving too much away, let’s just say when I first read it I gasped out loud at its sheer audacity. The deeper you get into the narrative, the more fervently you race to see what happens next. And by the end, you can’t quite tell if you should be laughing or crying. This slight tome was drawn by post-apocalyptic sci fi nut and local Dune enthusiast Eli Tripoli (@eltripol, elitripoli.com), also author of “Me and the Muad’dib” as well as the series “Auto Mica”, and was co-written by Andy Gill, filmmaker and Kirkland native. I have personally bought this book several times just as an excuse to read it again, even though “I’ll always remember...”

Confusing Costume is as colorful and exciting as a trip to the Goodwill bins in SODO: it’s fascinatingly weird, deliberately confusing, and has a little something for everyone. Part feminist propaganda, part autobiographical scrapbook journal slash fashion look book, its stated goal is: “Let’s liberate fashion!” What I like best about Confusing Costume is that it outlines the way the author has come to understand fashion, and invites the reader to invent their own looks as one’s own unique form of self expression. Unlike the world of mainstream capitalist fashion that tries to make everyone look the same by spending money you don’t have on disposable factory-made garbage, Cora Lee paints a picture of fashion that is collaborative, fun, and, well, liberating! One of my favorite concepts from the book is that the dress-up play we engaged in as children should be our approach to getting dressed as adults. We should aim to arrange outfits that please ourselves aesthetically and emotionally, as a way to externalize the complexity and beauty of our souls. While most of the zine is a fashion manifesto, there is also a “Coloring Pages” segment featuring the artist’s rad fashion illustration, as well as a sweet mixtape in the back! It also has a really fiery section that beseeches men to wear skirts as a way to break down the gender binary that reads like a recipe from the anarchist cookbook. If you’d like a taste of what the book is like, go ahead and follow @butterbeanbun before coming by to check out Lee’s entire oeuvre in our shop!

Shop Assistant Sean recently read Outfoxed by Dylan Meconis. He's still going through a phase where he loves foxes, so this one really caught his eye. This is great story for a mature child reader (as our 10-year-old SAS could be categorized) and still appeals to adults. Here is what SAS has to say:

"It shows a useful moral, that you can't force someone to love you, no matter what you do. I love the art and book itself. The art is unlike most that I see in comics." 

Pick up a copy today at Push/Pull, made available to us by Emerald Comics Distro.