I’m Comic Sans,

BY MIKE LACHER

Listen up. I know the shit you’ve been saying behind my back. You think I’m stupid. You think I’m immature. You think I’m a malformed, pathetic excuse for a font. Well think again, nerdhole, because I’m Comic Sans, and I’m the best thing to happen to typography since Johannes fucking Gutenberg.

You don’t like that your coworker used me on that note about stealing her yogurt from the break room fridge? You don’t like that I’m all over your sister-in-law’s blog? You don’t like that I’m on the sign for that new Thai place? You think I’m pedestrian and tacky? Guess the fuck what, Picasso. We don’t all have seventy-three weights of stick-up-my-ass Helvetica sitting on our seventeen-inch MacBook Pros. Sorry the entire world can’t all be done in stark Eurotrash Swiss type. Sorry some people like to have fun. Sorry I’m standing in the way of your minimalist Bauhaus-esque fascist snoozefest. Maybe sometime you should take off your black turtleneck, stop compulsively adjusting your Tumblr theme, and lighten the fuck up for once.

People love me. Why? Because I’m fun. I’m the life of the party. I bring levity to any situation. Need to soften the blow of a harsh message about restroom etiquette? SLAM. There I am. Need to spice up the directions to your graduation party? WHAM. There again. Need to convey your fun-loving, approachable nature on your business’ website? SMACK. Like daffodils in motherfucking spring.

When people need to kick back, have fun, and party, I will be there, unlike your pathetic fonts. While Gotham is at the science fair, I’m banging the prom queen behind the woodshop. While Avenir is practicing the clarinet, I’m shredding “Reign In Blood” on my double-necked Stratocaster. While Univers is refilling his allergy prescriptions, I’m racing my tricked-out, nitrous-laden Honda Civic against Tokyo gangsters who’ll kill me if I don’t cross the finish line first. I am a sans serif Superman and my only kryptonite is pretentious buzzkills like you.

It doesn’t even matter what you think. You know why, jagoff? Cause I’m famous. I am on every major operating system since Microsoft fucking Bob. I’m in your signs. I’m in your browsers. I’m in your instant messengers. I’m not just a font. I am a force of motherfucking nature and I will not rest until every uptight armchair typographer cock-hat like you is surrounded by my lovable, comic-book inspired, sans-serif badassery.

Enough of this bullshit. I’m gonna go get hammered with Papyrus.

The new issue of Novembre, made by Maxime Büchi, Jeanne-Salomé Rochat, Florian Joye & myself is finally out.
It will be available in Switzerland in bookshops and newsagents from next week on, and in a selection of shops worldwide soon. A series of launches (Geneva, Zürich, Basel, Paris, London) will follow, we will keep you updated.

With features on/by:

Adrian Wilson
Aida
Alena Kostantinova
Alexander Binder
Alexandre Vauthier
Ali Stepka
Aline Guberan
Amanda Bühler
Amira Hayden
Andrey Bartenev
Anne Rochat
Anita Wey
Anouk Manser
Athene Galiciadis
Axelle Stiefel

Ben Perdue
Beni Bischof
Bevel by Jonathan Goldstein
Bianca O’Brien
Bill Yarrow
Bonsoir
Brian Kerstetter

Camie Rebord
Camille Grandaty
Candice Bary
Carin Wester
Carole Colombanie
Cartier
Cerre
Charlie Harrington
Christoph Hefti
Claude-Hubert Tatot
Claudia Comte
Clayton & Flavie Webster
Clément Delépine

Damir Doma
Dan Hoy
Daniela Retana
Dave Lüthi
Dave Marshal Sturm
Delphine Roche
Denis Pernet
Denis Savary
Dominic Knecht
Dora Wilkenfeld
Duane Pitre

Elise Lammer
Emily Wabitsch
Emmanuel Thibault
Erik Madigan Heck
Estelle Hanania
Esther Moisy-Kirchbaum
Ezio Diaferia

France Fiction
Francesco Casarotto
Franco Gobbi
François Chaignaud
Franz Gertsch
Frédéric Baldo
Fuzi

Geoff Trenchard
Gilles Furtwängler
Guillaume Pilet

Henrik Vibskov
Helve Leal
Helvetica Bold +

Ilaria Norsa

Jack Ferver
Jason Farrer
Jean-Luc Verna
Jesper Thomsen
Jennifer Teets
Jon Leon
Jonas Marguet
Jules Spinatsch
Julia Schweizer
Juliette Fayard
Julien Pujol

Kenneth Libbrecht
Kristy Sparoy
Kunsthall Basel

Lady Tarin
Laurent Kropf
Laurent le Deunff
Les Urbaines
Lou-Maria Kiddo
Luc Andrié
Luca Galasso

Mabe Bethonico
Mads Dinesen
Mali Lazell
Marcelo Gomes
Marco Poloni
Maria Palm
Marie Thomsen
Mark Cox
Marie-Caroline Hominal
Marinka Limat
Marlène Van de Casteele
Mary Katrantzou
Matthew Xavier Callahan
Matthieu Lavanchy
Mauricio Nardi
Mélanie Skriabine
Melissa Wolfgang
Mette Thorsgaard
Minimarket
Miriam Leonardi
Musée suisse de la mode
Myrthe de Poel

Natalia Brilli
Nathalie Bicrel
Nathalie Nobs
Nancy Medina
Nanna Flachs
Nicola Formichetti
Nicolas Coulomb
Nina Egli
Nine Yamamoto-Masson

Odile Bernard Schroeder

Pablo Arroyo
Pablo Bronstein
Patrick de Rham
Paola Lavinia Basile
Pauline Beaudemont
Play Hunter
Priska Morger

Rémi Barbier
Rémi Lamandé
Robert Grosvenor
Romona Eschbach
Ronan Pécher
Runólfur J. Hauksson

Sam Falls
Samuel Gross
Sandra Berrebi
Sandra Hildebrandt
Scott Bourne
Sean Thomas
Shaun Casey
Shawna Ferreira
Sigurd Grünberger
Silvia Prada
Simone Prusso
Sorin Pacurariu
Stefan Rinck
Stephan Steiner
Stine Goya
Suzie Bird
Sybille Walter
Sylvain Menétrey

Thibaud Etcheberry
Thomas Adank
Thomas Lehner
Thomas Lanfranchi
Thomas Smith
Tim Hamilton
Tim Philip Neugebauer
Ting Ting Qian
Tommy Chase Lucas
Tristan Gigon

Ugo Signorello

Verena Zeller
Vlad Varma
Vincent Lamouroux

Yitzhak Rabin Gallery

Zachary Watkins
Zana Bayne

Where the hell have I been? Oddly, I don’t actually make it into stores very often but I did make it to the book fair at PS1 last Sunday where I discovered that ACT UP and Opening Ceremony have teamed up for a worthwhile fundraiser. The drive has been in effect since June and there are still buttons and t-shirts available for 2 and 50 US dollars respectively including this Opening Ceremony exclusive featuring “the four questions”. Read the fine print…

”

do you resent people with aids?

do you trust hiv-negatives?

have you given up hope for a cure?

when was the last time you cried?

”

Big Shout OUT to the legendary Larry Kramer for instigating one bad ass pack back in ’87 and props to Brigette Nicole for initiating the re connect and stackin’ chips for the soldiers.

ACT UP meets at the LGBT Center every 1st and 3rd Monday of every month. 208 West 13th street – NYC.

RIP Steve Michael.

See HERE and HERE.

Our friends Jerôme Rigaud (who also is the webmaster of this very site and an once flatmate of mine) and Alex Bettler recently launched a website called “design Marketo“.

DesignMarketo is a platform diffusing up-and-coming designers’ small and limited productions.
We also organise events where you can pop by and see the real thing – last one was in Milano: FoodMarketo and London Design Festival.

DesignMarketo seems to be a pretty advanced proposition in the new deal of global retail. Alongside other conceptual online retail resources such as LN-CC, we find here the proof of the inability of the traditional trade system to adapt to the fast-pace evolution of artistic (in a general sense) practices.

For now, propositions mainly stick to design and applied art, but it is no high-risk bet to say that it will probably shortly be applied to fine arts. Time will tell.

Design Marketo also carries Sang Bleu

I do have a particular affinity for the raw, the brut, the minimal. Gif have been around for a minute but, what an endless source of virtual delight. Like photocopy for printed matter, I guess. The geek in me says: Check this shit out.

(gifs hereunder by Françoise Gamma)