Sean Äaberg

THE GOBLIN NEWSLETTER 78

Part of my rules for writing THE GOBLIN NEWSLETTER is to not write about current events, mostly because there are millions of people commenting on whatever is to the fore during the day. I watched a commencement address given by documentary maker Ken Burns that was great until he started to talk about how this election is an existential threat to the country. The election is a symptom of how screwy this country is, it’s not the be all & end all, it’s a pinch point. Because of my decis...

THE FIGHTING FORTRESS!

Coming on the 13th! The Fighting Fortress as an stl file! Jaycee did a fantastic job on this one!

VEHICLE BY INHALT

This is my new favorite song.

THE GOBLIN NEWSLETTER 77

I can remember 9-11 happening. It was a sunny day in the late summer, fall was around the corner. The first plane slammed into the World Trade Center when me & Katie were waking up, listening to our radio alarm getting ready for work in our West Oakland loft. It felt hallucinatory, like the world had been turned upside down. I didn’t know it yet but an illusion I held had been shattered. At the library later that morning I was watching the CNN live stream & the second plane hit. Thi...

THE GOBLIN NEWSLETTER 76

I have had more creative ideas for projects than I have time lately. It’s like I figured out what my hindrances are & now I’m flowing those ideas through the new slots. This level of creativity is awesome, my brain is dredging these concepts up & presenting them to me & they are all solid bangers & part of increasingly complex webs of ideas that are creating a really solid platform from which to launch new projects! I’ve got a list in my head (I should type it out, i’l...

THE GOBLIN NEWSLETTER 75

Coming so close to non-existence gave me such a profound taste of the Universal that the specific felt irrelevant to me. I feel like Gandalf after returning from the fight with the Balrog, a different color, hard to identify. Still, my job is to push the Hobbits out of their comfort & meet their destiny on the road less traveled. But honestly, I was shook, dazzled by the cosmic nature of it all. What it felt like to shed myself. I wanted to be Universal & I wanted to only express the ...

THE GOBLIN NEWSLETTER 74

Upon returning home from a visit to her Brother’s Family in San Francisco & having to read their saccharine books to their kids & watch their TV, Katie thanked me for my dogged watch over the media that came into our home, the movies we watched, the books we read. Most people understand this in a protective, censorious way, but that was never my intention. I hold fast that certain cultural products are the equivalent of junk food for the mind & spirit & that to grow into a h...

THE GOBLIN NEWSLETTER 73

Dr. Bronner’s is one of my favorite companies of all time. I liked them well before I used the soap, I just love the audacity of making your packaging be wall-to-wall screeds with little care for the usual graphic trickery. You used to be able to send away for a bunch of the soap labels in a self-addressed stamped envelope back in the day. We would send away for all kinds of weird things by mail back in the day. The screeds were Dr. Bronner’s original passion, the message, he would lectur...

DIRTY DEEDS BOOKLET

I've been working on the booklets for all the expansion boxes, here's the beginning of Dirty Deeds.

THE CHICKEN WITCH

Alex Siddy animated the DUNGEON DEGENERATES Chicken Witch! It’s cool to see him quiver!

THE GOBLIN NEWSLETTER 72

I was a hard leftist growing up, not subscribing to any sectarian philosophy. I still believe in a highly modified set of leftist ideals but they have been heavily tempered over the years by my interactions with actual leftists, regular people & the real world. I describe my politics as non-politics, or at least nothing resembling the way political understandings are today. Realism & pragmatism have tempered my youthful zeal & desire to fix the world. Now I don’t believe the wor...

THE GOBLIN NEWSLETTER 71

One of my favorite children’s book series is Mercer Mayer’s Little Monster. Published from 1977 to 1980 & overshadowed by the success of his far inferior, ignorable Little Critter series, Little Monster books are amazing. It might seem weird to have a favorite children’s author, but that was one of the possible uses for my art I thought of when I was younger. I might try some in the future too. My mom curated a fantastic selection of books for me growing up. This period of consuming...

THE GOBLIN NEWSLETTER 70

I want to open a bookstore in the future. A hermitage that I can share with other people. A place that can be totally life affirming for the right people. Out of all the trappings I jettisoned post-stroke, my record collection, my rocker gear, my drums, various other collections, the buttons wing of GOBLINKO & so many assumptions about the way I & the world works, I haven’t turned back, missed anything… but my love of books, actual paper books & reading has increased & got...

THE GOBLIN NEWSLETTER 68

I don’t talk enough about the things I’d like to see. I’d like for each region in America to work hard on amplifying, refining & exaggerating the positive aspects of their culture & be honest about, identify & work on the negative elements. Regional therapy. This would be for the improvement of that region’s people & visitors. I’d like for each city to work to identify their key positive traits & accentuate them, work on them, communicate them so hard you can’t...

LABOR DAY SALE !

Everything is 25% off at GOBLINKO today with the code LABOR in honor of all us working stiffs!

RATS IN THE RATHAUS

I decided to start focusing on my writing a few months ago. This has led me to try writing my first short story. I haven't written more than 12 pages of fiction historically & I've written lots of shorter non-fiction pieces. This is the first longer attempt at longer fiction, I'm really enjoying it & as I was telling Katie, I probably put in my 10,000 hours twenty years ago. Its fun to actually know some tips & tricks that come naturally for me. My intention is to write a short st...

THE GOBLIN NEWSLETTER 67

I used to view negative emotions as something that got in the way of life. This was such an obviously wrong & childish way of thinking. Negative emotions are an enormous part of life. They are teachers. It was the things that created the negative emotions in me that I saw as getting in my way. These things like my parents getting a divorce, kids at school not understanding me, not being as good at things as I wanted to be, my fear of heights, the fumes from the toxic culture that everyth...

THE GOBLIN NEWSLETTER 66

I had this realization the other day that my youthful desire for power was actually a need to control my immediate surroundings. I felt such visceral & total disgust towards things I didn’t like, my ultimate want was to not feel that way. I didn’t know that I could diminish these feelings without trying to control the world around me. However, the more I had control over my own life & myself the less I desired power. It’s obscenely straight forward & mechanical. I have also ...

THE GOBLIN NEWSLETTER 65

I’ve been thinking alot about resentment & holding grudges. So many of the subcultures I was involved in growing up had a very encouraging attitude towards anger, resentment & grudges. Culture for beaten dogs. Seems like a profound, all-too human mistake to make your entire way of life out of these things. Punk seemed to be at least half constructed of negative emotions. The fashion, music, lifestyle was an extension of these emotions. I naturally don’t hang on to these things, no...

MINIATURES

DUNGEON DEGENERATES miniatures are 25% off with the code MINIATURES, the sale ends at the end of September, we’re launching a crowdfunding campaign to have Jaycee resculpt all our conventional old minis & offer them in metal, plastic or as stl files! From GOBLINKO! Painted by Navin Weeraratn.

THE GOBLIN NEWSLETTER 64

Art, fantasy, games & the like are seen as a place of escape for most people. I have been interested in using these things not as an escape from reality but as a doorway between worlds. A doorway that adds dimension & flavor to reality. I have an issue with escape, I feel that if real life is not worth living there is a real problem. If a person chooses to escape this life through whatever vehicle, they are doing themselves & their fellow humans a tremendous disservice. A thing ca...

MORE GOBLIN MODE BOOKLET

I'm really pleased with how this is looking. I should be working on Dirt Deeds but I was inspired to work on this one - to establish the structure I'll be using on all of them.

THE GOBLIN NEWSLETTER 63

(The above image is an old zine cover I never used)

I went through a major shift in consciousness when I hit 22. I wasn’t where I wanted to be in life, I wasn’t even sure what I wanted but I knew that the little world of Punk wasn’t cutting it for me. I felt woefully incomplete. I knew I wanted a wife & kids, but I had no idea what my life would like. It was terribly alienating from the Punk scene that had been my world up until then. I was cutting my own path through life. I ...

GOBLIN MODE BOOK

I've been working on the Goblin Mode book. Have a look!

THE GOBLIN NEWSLETTER 62

When I was in high school we were given an employment test. All the sophomores were supposed to take it. I was excited to find out what course I should be on, even if I had decided my path previously. These tests should have been administered in the second grade. How early is the die actually cast? Mr. Lyons, my useless guidance counselor, who really looked like a useless guidance counselor gave me the results & it said I should be a… magician. He shrugged, had nothing to add. I really ...

THE GOBLIN NEWSLETTER 61

I have been interested in doing projects, my works to relate to a larger group understanding for a while. I don’t do this based on how the group identifies itself but how I identify the group or what I want for that group or how I want that group to see itself. I did this for Punk, for Oakland, for the Eugene art scene, for the big tent of Rock&Roll & for lowbrow fantasy. I do a good job, I show people potential, give them ways at looking at things differently. Give them a sense of ...

THE GOBLIN NEWSLETTER 60

I have a vivid sense of right & wrong. It goes beyond good & evil & it gets more complex than that, it’s almost a smell test. I used to go on & on about following my nose or my gut. I can remember distinctly facing down the options to be a Buddha or a Devil when I was fifteen or so. I chose both. I realized that I had to have some Devilish traits to survive in this world & that because there was no waiting monastery in the hills for me growing up (that I knew of), so I h...

THE GOBLIN CHICKEN

Introducing the Goblin Chicken by Alex Hagen

THE GOBLIN NEWSLETTER 59

I watched the big speeches from the RNC & the DNC this year. I have listened to the big speeches from both conventions since 1992, maybe 1988. I generally don’t like politicians because so much of getting elected is making promises that don’t fit into the way the actual machinations of government work, the other aspect is creating a straw man out of the opposing side & saying why you’re not like them. This George Carlin quote popped up into my head “Inside every cynical person...

THE GOBLIN NEWSLETTER 58

I started to understand the nature of creativity in my early forties. Creativity is akin to & as crucial as water. A water that brings a new angle to everything we do on this Earth & ultimately gives the things we interact with a new shine & keeps them interesting, us inspired & allows us to access emotions we maybe had a hard time accessing. I have become something like a faucet or river for that water. It’s my responsibility to harness that energy correctly & part of m...