Queerest Friend

COLOR THE ABYSS: a scientific deep-sea coloring book featuring over 30 real organisms, focusing more on less famous species though the giant isopod was a given. Page backs are blank so you can take them out and display them without sacrificing a different page! Buy here

UNBELIEVABLE BUGS: illustrated by me and @revretch, obscure and weird insects with writing appropriate for the youngest age groups. Link

THE HARMBURGER FILES: with cover art by Trevor Henderson, I order only 31 of these each Halloween season and have just a few left over from 2024. Compiles the original Harmburger and Burgrr.com creepypastas with some new details and scenes added, a new ending, related stories, lots of new silly things and a complete illustrated compendium of the setting's little meat creatures. Buy here

from @.mprnews on Instagram.

Cactus leather is "cactus fiber, mixed with various compounds to form a bioresin, which is then poured over a polyester carrier," or, in other words, it's plastic + some cactus material, being deceptively marketed as though it is made entirely from cactus.

Apple leather is "dehydrated apple waste combined with polyurethane," or, in other words, it's plastic + some apple material, being deceptively marketed as though it is made entirely from apples.

Cork leather is "thin sheets of cork which are bonded onto a fabric backing, usually made of polyester, using a polyurethane adhesive" or, in other words, it's plastic + some cork material, being deceptively marketed as though it is made entirely from cork.

Pineapple leather is "pineapple fiber based felt combined with polyurethane," or, in other words, it's plastic + some pineapple material, being deceptively marketed as though it is made entirely from pineapple.

The closest I was able to find to a non-plastic "vegan leather" is mushroom leather, which is made from compressed mushroom mycelium. That compressed mycelium is biodegradable, which is more than you can say about basically anything else on this list, except it's also extremely fragile and falls apart in pretty much any context you'd want to use leather, and so to increase its durability it's usually – you guessed it – combined with polyurethane, which means that while you can make a biodegradable leather-feeling material completely out of mushrooms, almost all of the mushroom leather that you can actually buy is really plastic + some mushroom material, being deceptively marketed as though it is made entirely from mushrooms.

IT'S PLASTIC, FOLKS