Feeling inadequate?

Here's a flyer-y thing I made for the calendar from a picture of Kylie sitting on a cannon on Cardiff Bay. Pass it on!

Babes with Brains Calendar for Women's Aid

Have just updated the website with a pre-order link and a preview of our Babes with Brains Calendar for Women's aid. We have Women's Aid's official blessing and thank you, so we're good to go!

Our models have been chosen (the seven published cover girls and the next five) and we're trying to arrange another few photoshoots to get some new pictures for the occasion.

I'm going to re-post the info I posted to the website here, because it's important, and I'm just going to tell you the same thing, so:

Villains, Minions, Virgins of the Undead! The Antagonist is thrilled silly to present our 2011 Babes With Brains Calendar!

It's twelve months of full-colour, spiral-bound glory featuring twelve (and just maybe a top secret lucky #13) beautiful women chosen for their considerable intelligence and kindness of disposition!

All proceeds will be donated to Women's Aid to help them in their quest to end domestic violence.


Babes with Brains

Babes with Brains: a tongue-in-cheek title for an overdue concept. For those of you just joining us, the models featured on the covers and throughout the issues of The Antagonist are the Babes, women of all ages and walks of life chosen for their intelligence over their dress size, lovingly photographed in places and situations that are personal as they are playful. This project is attempting to show, one issue at a time, that all women are beautiful and that there is nothing sexier than a woman who can crush you with her mind (as if anyone needed convincing).

We've had the honour of photographing some incredible women over the past year and half, and now we're bringing them all together in a series of new pictures for a cause: to raise money for Women's Aid.

Domestic Violence is a serious problem that affects women, children, and men all over the world. One in four women in the UK alone will experience domestic violence in their lifetime. Women's Aid is a charity that strives to put an end to the violence, raising awareness and protecting the affected, saving countless lives in the process.

It's an important cause, and that's why we're donating all of the proceeds of the calendar to help them in their mission.

Some of the models you know, and some of them will be new to you. We have stunning previously unpublished photos of Kitty Moran, Elizabeth T, Jen Sheehan, Lisa Ray, Emily V, and Ophelia from Issues 1 - 6, as well as some new faces including the lovely Liz Wride, Kylie R of Issue 7, and a special guest appearance from our personal rock star, Englane Read (see above).

The calendars are full-colour, spiral bound, designed from scratch by the Editor and include noteable dates (Pagan, Christian, and Antagonistic!) all year round. They are available by pre-order only, and you must place your order by midnight GMT on the 5th of December. They will be shipped to you anywhere in the world from the Headquarters, hot off the presses, in time for Christmas (or Yule). You can get them on the website or from our Squid Shop.

For more on Women's Aid, click here.

We'd like to remember those affected by domestic violence in the calendar. If you have anyone you'd like mentioned, please contact us.

Submit to issue 7!

Issue 6 has been out for a week now and I've been getting some good feedback -- more than usual, anyway, and it's the kind I like. One nice man said when he read it he felt like he was on another planet (???), and I've got three new (excellent) writers. Yay!

It's already time to get started on Issue 7. I know because I dreamt in InDesign last night. You didn't know you could do that, did you? It was fairly technical, and I was laying out the music section. Some people have dreams about flying. I dream about fonts.

Anyway, a lot of the content for Issue 7 is already in and ready to go. To all of y'all out there who sent in your stuff -- thank you! We've got some great interviews with EnglanE, Craig Jeffrey, and The Exposed, a new short story by gonzo fictionalist Robin Ganderton, and far too many amazing pictures of Kylie to choose from. That's a pretty good start!

I still need any features, rants, reviews, fiction, poetry, pictures, obscenities, and anything else you want to send in. I need everything before the end of the month because I want to get this issue out EARLY! So if you've got something you'd like to see in it, send it over! As always, it's primaryantagonist@gmail.com.

Record Store Day and Visual Diabetes

Let's just stop pretending there's anything good about tumblr. As far as these things go, it sucks. It's not easy to use in the slightest, it's just like mega twitter, and I haven't quite worked out the appeal of twitter, either. So screw you, tumblr, i'm posting all of my ramblings on blogspot.



Have had an amazing weekend. Went to Spillers for Record Store Day and had a nice chat with Nick here. For those of you not familiar with it, Spillers is the oldest record shop in the world and is currently under threat by the rising rent prices resulting from the new St Davids 2 shopping mall that's opened up across the way. We here at the Headquarters are big fans of Spillers, and they even stock your favourite magazine. What's not to like? Support independence! Visit Spillers in Cardiff or online here.



Oh, and we met this lovely little rat. Isn't he cute?

We ditched Bullet For My Valentine's record signing for a £10 of jelly beans before heading to the Castle Arcade for Part I of Kylie's epic 2-Day photoshoot of awesomeness. I could say that we actually shrunk Kylie and stuck her in a dollhouse (because we have been watching Harvey Birdman ALL weekend), but that would take away from the awesomeness that this place actually exists. And you can buy cheese in it.



Today we walked down to the Bay and took a boat out to Penarth where we wandered around aimlessly for an hour, passing a surprising number of derlict apartment buildings on our quest for soda pop. Eventually we ended up back at the Bay and grabbed some ice cream before getting on the carousel. I wanted to ride backwards with my camera, but settled for side sadle and we ended up with my favourite picture from the weekend. We call this one "Visual Diabetes."



Mmm mmm good.

In other news, The Antagonist will be appearing at the London Zine Symposium at the Rag Factory on Saturday, 29th May, so come out and see us! We'll have plenty of back issues on sale and we might even bring a few more t-shirts. Good stuff!

Best Day Ever

February 17th was the greatest and best day for The Antagonist in recent memory.

First of all, Issue 4 is out now and it's a free download (get yours here). It's shorter, yes, but that's because all of my writers went on vacation and because it's hard to put together a magazine with minor content gaps when you've been working as much as I have (I'm doing office work for a charity now, but that's beside the point). Nevertheless, Issue 4 turned out awesome thanks in large part to a few great pieces (you know who you are), a trip to Bristol, a hot girl in red fishnets, and a fantastic interview with Niki Lee.

This leads me to Part 2 of why this day was so magical. Niki loved her article, and we love Niki, so Niki is going to write for us. For real. She's going to be writing a column all the way from West Hollywood and we could not be happier.



Disregarding what I just said, Part 3 actually makes us even happier still. Neil Austin sent us our new mascot at random (see above). He's perfection. We adore him, and we are hell-bent on getting some t-shirts ordered as soon as humanly possible. Who wants one?

Part 4 is that we're looking into collaborating with Grievous Jones for some form of future project. We don't have to tell you how cool Grievous Jones is, and we're also holding high hopes for a regular column from Grievous himself. Very exciting.

Part 5 (these just keep going) is that The Antagonist has applied to exhibit at the London Zine Symposium this May. Won't hear back until next month, but the fact that such a thing exists is a big Win and we'd love to be a part of it.

Part 6 is that the printing company got in touch with us with some excellent rates for our limited edition issues, and

Part 7 is that two new Babes with Brains (Theresa and Kylie) have been scheduled for photoshoots in the near future.

All things considered, best day ever.

Marvellous.

Also, I'm giving away free downloads of Issues 1 - 3 for the rest of the weekend on the website. If you missed one, this is your chance. Go now!