For the last six months, we’ve been elbows-deep in melted plastic, failed molds, and the kind of stubborn optimism that keeps you going when your twentieth test shot comes out looking like modern art instead of an action figure. This weekend at the Designer Toy Art Festival in Philadelphia (August 9-10), we’re finally unveiling what happens when you mix revolutionary joy with a whole lot of trial and error.

It’s been a whirlwind few months here at New Ellijay Heavy Industries, and I’m thrilled to finally share what we’ve been working on. This weekend at the Designer Toy Art Festival in Philadelphia (August 9-10), we’re launching not just one project, but an entire ecosystem of interconnected stories and toys, all rooted in my love of pulp history, radical storytelling, and handcrafted design.

Terry Gene Bollea, better known as “Hulk” Hogan, was by all acounts a racist pig, a supporter of Fascism, and an all around asshole. He was also one of my childhood heroes, and I’m far from alone in that. He’s dead now, and I guess it is time to think about what it means to find out your heroes are monsters.

A good friend asked me for a list of my favorite books. I put some thought into it, and decided it should probably be a blogpost. I’m not going to do a ranked list, because I think that’s impossible Comparing some of the books on this list to one another just doesn’t make sense.

I launched a Cable Network. If you’re in the Ellijay Telephone Company coverage area, you can watch it on channel 176. If you’re not, you can watch it online or on roku (or even embedded on this post!) The whole thing is a Community Centered, local first production and broadcast, powered entirely by free software. Click through to watch the stream and learn more about how and why I built it.