August 21st, 2023

One attempt I made to create something in a similar vein to “The Duck: How to Make THEM Pay” was inspired by a book my dad had when I was little. It was called “The Gashleycrumb Tinies” by Edward Gorey. It was an ABC book with spectacularly dark line drawings, each letter featuring a child suffering horribly.
For some reason I was looking at the World Health Organization website and discovered that there were (at the time) exactly 26 vaccine preventable illnesses listed. An alphabet!
So I sat down and created a tribute to Edward Gorey, The Anti-Vax ABCS -26 poems of children suffering preventably. That was pre-pandemic, so it needs an update to include covid.
Of course, it needed art, and an artist I am not. So I reached out to fellow yoyoer Coffin Nachtmahr (yes, that’s his name). Look him up, he’s one of the most spectacular looking humans on the planet. He’s a yoyoer, skater, and artist. I asked him for some graffiti-style line art letters.
He took forever.
When I finally got samples from him, I was blown away. Each letter was a detailed drawing the reflected the illness it matched. When I asked about it, he casually informed me that he collected old medical texts. Because of course he did.
Book finished, I learned a key lesson about independent publishing. Research your topic. I published it, waiting for the nutjobs to start leaving terrible reviews based entirely on the title. Crickets. Tried running ads, but they got rejected due to the topic. I did eventually get a few of and they are funny. “This is fiction and should be listed as such.” Well…it’s a book of poetry about fictional people, so you are correct. But the symptoms described are medically accurate.
It doesn’t sell a lot of copies, but it makes a hell of a fun gift to give people. There’s a barbershop in Seattle that has both that and the duck book for folks to read. The owner brings their kid to a yoyo contest in Seattle that has a vendor booth that sells my books every year. They thought both books were hilarious.
If you’re looking for a gag gift for a friend, or something to give to the anti-vaxxer conspiracy theorist in your life to but them, pick up a copy!