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Ha, very cute. I recently drew a pickle too, very weird coincidence... Dubious Pickle? Very cool name idea...

lovely, absolutely lovely

Nice! I like all the different tones of grey, and I like the expression.

Anette Heiberg
www.wynlen.no

Excellent! Your line work is quite impressive. This works well. Cheers!

Yay! That's awesome, Sarah (re: manuscript critique)

Thanks for participating in the Forest! This was a particularly good month. (I was really happy with the reviews! Lots of reviewers, interesting books, etc.)

Thanks!! I'm very excited, though revision always sort of makes me want to crawl under a desk!

Yay for EofF! and yay for Readergirlz, and Daniel Pinkwater's cool book.

I have to say that you have that balance of character names well struck - I tend to just borrow names from people I know, but I do have an older baby name book... it helps to read through it periodically to see what names are... reasonable. Of course, then there's always Baby's Named A Bad, Bad Thing for those names you can mock...

I'm looking forward to seeing your revisions based on The Word of Travaglini.

Even though there's hard work ahead, you're one step closer closer to following your dream. Congratulations!

your sketches are simply great. Slovang sketch is lovely

As usual your work is very impressive. : )
I like tha brush work in your top piece alot. : )

yay more goodies!! Simply Amazing!

Great pics Alina! I love the lamp post!

Lovely sketches Alina!!!!I LOVE cheese!!!!!Haha!!!(^_^)

I concur with alexei, i LOVE cheese too! :) as for the bad cow drawing, i think i've said it before, if i could draw like you on a bad day, i'd be soooooooooooo happy! :) love love LOVE the Solvang sign! Used to go with my family alllllll the time when i lived out there ~ it's a very cool place indeed! ;)

I really like your sketches. The (watercolor?) is a great way to keep the art 'loose' but yery pretty. Keep it up!

fun drawings and fun post. here's a little nugget of knowledge about cows. they have a lot of gas and destructive farts. i hear that cow farts contribute significantly to the depletion of the Ozone layer. becasue we're big beef eaters in the US, all the cow farts add up....
anywho. fun post. hehe.

Hey...u got some really cool stuff going on. I love the feel of rough work.

THank you everyone.

Ethan,
THank you, yes this is watercolor. :)

katzenjammer,
Thank you, interesting story about cows indeed ... thought may be all the cars we use cause more damage then cows ... may be?!

What... I said Ha! Ha!... anyways... Hey Alina.... Dig your characters... that little Green dude is awesome.... not bad meaning bad... but bad meaning cow... I like it... (bad as you may think)... maybe its just the lines you use... either way... all to the good... Check ya later.... PEACE!
J

minty is a major critic
and a bit of jerk sometimes:)

nice drawings as usual.

Great stuff. Always a pleasure stopping by.

-Ryan

I have never met a cow that cared where he lived, they are pretty much indifferent.

Beware of bad cows...
the drawing is good , the cow is bad...
good work as usual..

wonderful Solvan Lamppost! (You know how much I like lampposts!)

great solvang flag ilu >8-)

Hi Alina,
Nice beautiful sketches as always!
I want to see your REAL sketchbook when I visit to LA!

Hola ALina!! tu trabajo es cada día más lindo.
Que tengas un buen fin de semana!
cariños

keep getting more awesome!

What a great idea!

Hehe, it's sweet and funny.
I really like your style all together :)

Cheers to you,

Milenko

aha.. it works in cartoons..
great idea, the light bulb might be turned on everyday on your head..
great as usual alina..

Thanks for the comment in my blog!!.. you have a really nice job here.. very fresh and very friendly.. I also checked your animation blog.. congratulations, you are a so talented artist.. =)

LOL!!!! I love these!

Hmmm, that might be worth a try. Your sketch is so alive! I love the bunny slippers.

Different feelings, but beautiful both!

Hehee..loooove the cartoon!

I like the top one alot. Can't two toothless Alinas just get along?

What a great idea - I think we all wish we could have one of those sometimes!

THank you everyone for your visit and fun comments.

Adnan,

HA ! HA !! Thank you. Actually those two aren't me or my alter ego or Minty ... they are those of my sliblings who I shipped to Pluto before I eas borned. HA!! HA!!

lol very funny!!!! sometimes i need a light too!

Very funny Alina! You shipped your siblings to Pluto? Hilarious! I like the Solvang painting very much too :)

hhahaha great stuff alina! And a very warm thanks about reminding me of solvang. The wife and I plan on goin there to visit in a couple of weeks!

Great post!

Fun stuff (Like usual) I like the flying saucer with the little tiny alien guy in it.
Thanks for all the times you stop by and leave comments Alina, much appreciated....

Hahahaha, the wired girl is great, cheers, bye.

Hahaha!!!I love it!!!Very funny and cute Alina!!!

wow! love this crazy sketch!

Oh my! Your work is always so amazing! So much life and energy. I really like them both!

This is really fun. I love the colors.

Yay, I love silly drawn before sleep doodle! Sometimes that's when the best silly doodles are made...
Cheers

very fun pics ^_^

Is that a winged mouse I see in the cage ? :-) How do you come up with such ideas ? :-) It's cute !

Love your sketches, always fun to look at!

Thank you everyone!! :)

Christophe,
THank you!! HE ! HE!! Yea ... there a winged mouse in the cage! :P Just think it's funny ... to put a weird animal in there. :P

Great energy and fresh colours, love the illo. Plus it is from a sketch book which makes it better.
Great stuff.

Bunny Slippers and a UFO! An automatic A+ when both of those things are used in the same drawing. There IS a rule for that! A+!

I like the flying saucer driven by a mysterious cat...

Hi Alina!! I just adore those bunny slippers and the hairstyle and the green dress! ; ) My little girl loves bunnies and dresses. Super adorable pic!!

Smiles from Texas!!,

The Countrygal

Great pre-sleep drawing - very inspiring. I agree... bunny slippers kick ass.

wonderful slippers

Sooo cute! I love it when you draw topics of food. ;)

YO! sweet cartoons animals and
landscapes, Thanks for the comment
you have some pretty impressive
body of work!!

Your work is so wonderful—imaginative and effortless. At least it looks effortless. I'm sure it's not. The details in the sleep doodle really make it. Those bunny slippers are hilarious. Love the screamy red mouths on the kids. And fangs. Colorins is nice because it doesn't compete with the linework but adds just enough color to really make it fun.

WOW! How SUPER cute is that Alina with the lightbulb!?!? I LOVE it! And the seabirds are wonderful, but, as you know, i'm a sucker for birds in general! heehee ;)

both are great.
the cartoon is very funny.

nice movement on the bottom page.

Okay you're just making stuff up with that top one...that is great...love how fluid you are with your work...

All the detail you've put into the doodle looks great... Really like your idea.

Hahaha! This is just so cute! I love their expressions. So fun...

Cheers,
Theresa

it's the rabbit shoes! THOSE ARE GREAT.

i wonder what i'd have to do to get some of you original artwork... i wonder if anything could be "arranged"...

-____^

&Rew.

THank you everyone for your visit and comments. :)

&rew,
Thank you. I sell original artwork, if you see anything you like, please feel me to e-mail me. My e-mail link is in the profile page. Most of my artworks are available for sell. :)

I love your work!

Your style is unbelievably cute! I love how it's on a spread in your sketchbook. I'm inspired to give that a try now when I'm doodling in my sketchbook. :D

The loose linework makes everything seem so natural and adorable. I love it!

Fantastic Alina, a real joy of an illustration

Maybe it would work! Silly greatness!

I love the Solvang doodles. It looks like a calm and beautiful place! I also like the lovely sleep doodle, so cute!

love it!

;)

That snail is fun Claire. So shiny.

Ok, how about writing a novel about faking your own death in order to publish a successful novel, and all the perils to follow?

I'd read that.

Renfield.

H.B. Marcus is writing? Again? Didn't you kill yourself off with your first book? ;)

I remember an old, old jazz tale by Steve Allen who once owned up to publishing a jazz recording by an old, dead black man. It was great jazz and sold really well.

We all know where this is headed. Huh?

The piano part was played Steve Allen to see if his success was his name or his jazz. And he wanted to play different jazz wihtout a hassle by critics or fans.

He was caught because he overdubbed a descant, a third hand, onto some of the tracks and one of the jazz player/composers listened too closely and recognized the piano was three hands.

Obviously neither dead, black or alien.

I just read the first six GOOGLE hits for H.B. Marcus, ending with 'reader' reviews of his own book based up the supplied excerpt.

Now there's a story that demands to be told - but you'd have to be a combination of Kafka, Max Schulman and Mary Shelley to do it justice.

Renfrew, where is my MontBlanc?! Why not take the Vincent Lardo role? He picked up the writing of the Archie McNally series when Lawrence Sanders died. You can make yourself anyone you'd like!

There were at least six Tupac Shakur albums released after he died. Maybe your new books can be 'found' in your archives.

I think you've found the key...

Meta-morphs!
~sheesh~

Robert Ludlum has been writing from beyond the grave for years. Just find a friend to sogn on as co-author.

kd

Yea, my son says if I'd kick off, they'd have a better chance of selling my manuscripts. :)

kd -

That's not Robert Ludlum from beyond the grave, it's all just a vast conspiracy. . .

egp (author of a soon-to-be-submitted conspiracy thriller first novel)

Hey, VC Andrews has been doing it for years.

I think you should've planned better. If you're going to fake your death, you have to then create a new identity and 'will' that person all your manuscripts. He/you can simply state that while he was alive, he wrote several manuscripts that he/you can trickle out onto the market. Simple.

Love this!

Your third novel could be about an author who fakes his own death.

I've just noticed this has already been suggested - it's a hot one!

bookbabie has decided to simply cut off her ear to get attention and mail it to Judith Regan.

nitwitness said...

"H.B. Marcus is writing? Again? Didn't you kill yourself off with your first book?"

Oh drat! You took the words right out of my fingers. First thing I thought was that the poor man was making a comeback and what a travesty that would be.

You could always quote Mark Twain: "Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated."

Oh my, those are hideous.

Good grief, not just HP but Daniel Radcliff. Would this be a record for the youngest living person to get his face on a stamp?

The stamps are pretty bad. But what's your problem with the French Harry Potter covers?! There's a charm and a wit about them, a touch of gentle spookiness where appropriate, and a nice palette, too. And have you taken a good look at Scholastic's strangely saccharine Goblet of Fire cover lately?

Viva la France!

Nah. I never liked the Scholastic covers either (sorry, Cheryl). For me it's German or nothing. Any nation that has the guts to put Harry in dreads and teeny tiny glasses has my instant and abiding love.

The French covers are fine for what they are, but flat. The palette is, yes, nice, but not very original. For all of them it looks as if the artist glanced at other covers from other nations and then slapped together something with only the vaguest sense of the book.

I love me my French, but surely they've a better illustrator out there. Do some Sempe Harry Potter covers! THOSE I would buy.

Not an original palette? Who worries about how original a palette is? Anyway, I went straight to Amazon to check out this German business. Well... I must respectfully disagree. The small glasses may be cool glasses but that's part of why they're not the best choice for the character. And Harry's so angular on those covers, and his lips are so pouty, and his hair is so artfully disheveled; he makes one think of a girl who got to college and realized that she could freak out her parents by cropping her hair and switching to a Women's Studies major.

Well, we still have the Scholastic covers to dislike together. Sempe's an interesting alternate idea. What I'd like to see, actually, is for Scholastic to comission HP drawings by a range of illustrators. (Macaulay's Hogwarts, Quentin Blake's Snape, etc., etc.) Then they'd have a coffee table book that they could to raise money for x, y, or z worthy cause.

Remember that you heard it hear first.

I think that this cover would appeal to a 6 year old - to me it does not really reflect the target audience it is aimed at.

I know that we should not judge a book by its cover, but let me tell you kids DO! I have problems with my kids being put off by book covers when we look at reading material in the library. Only later in life do we learn the lesson.

http://lifelongreader.blogspot.com

Congrats on your success! It’s funny to be reading about taking one’s career to the next level this morning because I have decided to do the same thing. I started taking steps to end a small part-time job that was taking more time than it was worth and now look forward to being more focused on freelancing 100%. I feel nervous, happy, and excited. And relieved, believe it or not.

Wow, that’s excellent news Jen! I’m so happy for you — those 12 hours are going to be a godsend, and if things take off like I think they will for you, you can add more hours/days, etc. Yippee!

I am a Jen Applin fan! Great news, Jen. You go!

The writer mama life is so about making adjustments and balances as you go.

Stretch while you can! How about a writer’s conference next?

It’s like a working vacation!

Thanks Diana and Writer Mama!
Joanne-Sometimes I think deciding to make a big change is actually much harder than doing it! Best of luck

I have no space or great love for vinyl toys, but Mickey as a pirate is really cute.

They have been really trying to make Mickey to recreate his 30’s brashiness with some success…these are interesting however.

I don’t particularly care for vinyl toys. But a Mickey Mouse homage to the Clash is priceless.

I probably just feel that way because I listen to the Clash, and understand the reference.

Are this Disney approved I wonder? Either way they look fantastic. I would love to see a Pirate Mickey short (or feature for that matter). Disney needs to take note: give Mickey his bite back.

Travis:

They should be approved! If it wasn’t, Disney’s Japanese lawyers would’ve gone after them.

Remember that Medicom is a legit company in Japan. They are perhaps best known for making “Real Action Hero Series’ collector dolls of popular characters, both Japanese and American (and otherwise). From superheroes (Ultraman, Masked Rider, Kikaider, etc.) to monsters (Godzilla, Gamera, etc.), to American characters (The movie version of Judge Dredd, BTW, was their first RAH figure, interestingly!). Their work is nothing short of impressive! I have the Masked Rider RAH doll (the old version of Rider 1) from back when the RAH line was relatively new. (They’ve done newer, more impressive and detailed versions of the same character.)

Their other toys are quite impressive! They have vinyl toys, and they have put out some *very* impressive Disney stuff. They also did some toys of breakfast cereal mascots like Tony the Tiger! I recommend Medicom’s items to the average Disney/cartoon collector.

Ooo! That Clash Mickey is something I’ve got to get. Damn! More money flying out of my wallet.

Mickey smashing a guitar like some idiot punk rocker is just repugnant. The 1930’s Mickey is an interesting enough character in his own right when portrayed properly. There is no excuse for Disney whoring him out like this.

Both of these can be found on eBay now. With shipping they seem to range from $75-$125. Out of my price range. Still would love to have a Pirate Mickey (even though they don’t want to seem to show his face…)

Pete, how is that whoring Mickey out? I’m more annoyed to see him represented as a hunk of ugly plastic in a happy meal that no one wants than to see him in a high end vinyl that accomplishes the difficult trick of making the little cipher actually look interesting for a change.

While we’ll never see the old gun toting adventurer of yore, it’s nice to get a little less sugar in the mouse from time to time.

Repugnant? Really? Isn’t that kind of strong, considering that Disney already “whored him out” in the 70’s with Disco Mickey? Or the 80’s new wave/Miami Vice Mickey. Which is really more offensive?

Guess it depends on your taste in music… :0)

Pete, Nobody is saying that the 1930s Mickey isn’t an interesting character, but in 2007, that character is largely irrelevant to today’s audiences. We can either continue embracing Mickey (and other cartoon characters) as historical relics or find new ways to make them relevant to today’s audiences. BTW, I don’t have any particular affection for these toys. I’d rather see Mickey updated by filmmakers for artistic reasons than by merchandise licensees looking to make a quick buck, but I see little problem in exploring the potential of the character and creating something new that contemporary audiences can relate to.

So I guess you’re also okay with “The Loonatics” making Warners characters more relevant to today’s audiences? Just asking…

Travis: Ouch! That’s why I try to avoid eBay for figures these days. A good import shop is HobbyLink Japan, which charges the Japanese retail price for their items and has a couple different shipping options. They’re getting Pirate Mickey in April: http://www.hlj.com/product/MEDVCD-088

(And having gotten one of Medicom’s vinyl Mickeys in the past, I agree that their models are very impressive indeed!)

I wouldn’t compare the Loonatics with a vinyl art toy produced in limited quantities. Loonatics reimagines, recasts and redesigns those characters to be something completely different than what they were intended to be in their creation, whereas this is an attractive looking version of Mickey with a guitar. Period.

Different strokes though, Pete. You’ll always have Steamboat Willie and Plane Crazy.

like some idiot punk rocker

…but it’s the CLASH. That’s not idiot punk, it’s genius!

Besides, look at ‘im. His character design hasn’t changed a bit, it’s just Mickey and a guitar.

I really do wonder what some of you think about the Mickey in Kingdom Hearts sometimes…

“…it’s just Mickey and a guitar.”

Mickey in the act of SMASHING a guitar. If he were playing it like a civilized musician (which lets out punk rockers in my opinion), I’d have no problem with it.

Regarding Tom’s comment that Mickey has not been redesigned or reimagined, well, that may not be so in the physical sense here, I’ll grant you, but he is out of character. Besides, considering how many people lambasted Warners for coming up with “The Loonatics”, I’m surprised at the number of folks who praised the supposed Mickey that showed up on this site a week ago in that “Neo-Mickey” proposal. Seems that when it comes to reimagining cartoon characters, there’s long been a double standard, especially among those who are primarily Warners fans. They believe that the Looney Tunes are off-limits, yet they love to see all sorts of oddball or unsavory things done with Disney characters. I’m sick of that mindset and I’ll continue to shine a light on it to expose it as the double standard it most clearly is.

Travis: It’s funny that you don’t see Mickey’s face, because Medicom always has multiple angle pics of their figures on their official site (which is in Japanese). So I wouldn’t be surprised if this was just one angle.

I think the main difference is that Neo-Mickey looked nice. True, I think everyone agrees that they’d rather see Mickey as HIMSELF with little to no alterations, but Neo-Mickey was more of an experiment in redesign than anything.

Loonatics is just complete molestation made solely for the purpose of attracting “kids.” Which we could use to apply to this Mickey Clash figure (which I myself dont like at all, loved the band) except most “kids” today have never heard of the Clash.

Pirate Mickey however, I think fits in just fine. Anyone remember “Yo Yogi”? Man. My brain hurts just thinking about it.

I don’t know about some people, but I personally love the idea of Mickey Mouse acting and looking like a total bad ass, rather than the wimpy boring home owner they turned him into sometime in the 50s, to the point where they stopped making Mickey shorts completely because no one cared anymore.

It may be out of character, but when compared to all the horrid crap they make of Mickey out there where he just has that same sappy smile and arms up in the air over and over again, it’s nice to see him being a little mean for once in a while, and breaking something. I think this was a reason I loved Runaway Brain so much. (This toy company made some fantastic vinyls based on that toon, btw, and a lot of the B&W cartoons as well, including he gun touting cowboy Mickey).

There’s a appeal here of seeing a character who is always so wholesome being a little bastard, is all =P

If they made Looney Tune toys like this, I’d love those also. The difference there being that the characters were close to perfect to start with, whereas Mickey was for a long time a very boring un-funny character.

One other note: I think when a lot of people were praising Neo-Mickey, they were praising it on its design, but for the most part, people didn’t think Mickey fit into the idea much.

Nothing new about Mickey acting brash…just look at some of the licensed English Inter-Art postcards produced in the 1930s - Minnie surrounded by young mice as she pushes a baby buggy with Mickey in the foreground saying, “I’m not the marryng type.” In another three Mickey mice have been drinking with the caption, “Three blind mice.” In another Mickey is about to jab a cat with a knife. In another Minnie and a cow are in the picture and Mickey says “How happy I’d be with either.” Seems like everything gets recycled eventually.

Is Mickey just about to smash his guitar or is he trying to kill a cockroach with the headstock? The pose is sort of ambivalent… and so am I. I trust that Disney would never massively change the image of Mickey, lest they incite the curse of the avenging Walt.

Forget about it. Mickey’s been less a character and more of a corporate logo for a very long time, So, either way, he’s already like an embalmed mouse enshrined à la Lenin’s Tomb. He’s everywhere and nowhere. It’s kinda’ deep and cosmic and makes my head hurt when I think about it.

Pegleg Pete and Clarabell Cow, on the other hand, are totally ready for their own major motion picture! So much talent gone to waste.

Disney Japan is a very separate entity from the rest of the Disney empire and they do a hell of a lot of marketing and extending of the core characters that would never be allowed in the US. It’s a very different market, with different ideas about who the characters are/can be. Pete Emslie is outraged at HIS Mickey being interfered with. Japanese people feel just as strongly that the characters are theirs too - remember Tokyo Disneyland has been open over twenty years and it is probably the highest traffic Disney resort in the world.

There is a steady demand for the kind of high quality reinterpretations that Medicom do of all kinds of pop culture characters. Disney Japan get a certain kind of cachet from the eagerness of pretty trendy outlets to use Mickey, Minnie et al in ways that integrate them into products that people actually care about, rather than walling them off in sterile museum cases that nobody is allowed to touch. The range of ‘official’ interpretations would astonish you if the sight of Mickey with a guitar is so incredible to you!

Partly that is a consequence of the corporate nature of these kinds of characters; there is no one definitive version as long as so many people have to work together to create them, but that can be an advantage if you have the creative imagination to see the possibilities. It’s important to put it all in context. These are merchandise, not ‘rebranding’ - they aren’t changing what Mickey is, just extending/riffing off it. Just like here there are multiple versions of Batman all running around at the same time, but rather than weakening the concept of what Batman is, they make him stronger because everyone can choose the one that resonates with them most.

Last year I wrote a book about this stuff y’know, Amid! It’s published by Kodansha Japan. I interviewed Sanrio’s art director as well as artists like Takashi Murakami and Yoshitomo Nara, Junko Mizuno and Michael Lau. You might find it instructive as to explaining just what people get out of Urban Vinyl and Art Toys.

And Tom - Medicom did do a guntoting Mickey a couple of years ago!

Loonatics was a different situation because the Looney Tunes characters are not currently being produced in their original designs and characters. Loonatics is all that was available as far as new material. That was sad.

However, Disney’s got a raft of attractive (and horrible) redesigns and fresh takes out there to see, from Disney Babies (you still see some of that around) to the Disney Cuties (which are frickin’ wonderful), through to the Pirate character merch that the Disney Stores offered a couple of months ago, down to this Clash flavored Mickey. In the mix are the Cube shaped toys- whatever those are called, the Kubricks, the clumsy looking Disney heroes line, the Kingdom Hearts takes, etc. etc. Pixar’s Finding Nemo simultaneously inspired a flat 2-D collection of images for licensing as well as the more familiar 3-D images from the movie. Pixar’s done this a couple of times, I think.

Sometimes it’s a great thing and two or more radically different versions can thrive and compliment one another. The best example of this is obviously the Winnie the Pooh license. Pooh’s got Disney movie merchandise and alternate stuff that instead follows the E. H.Shepard illustrations, and both are beautiful. Batman similarly is represented by dozens of different approaches to the character, both visually and with regard to the building blocks of his story and environment.

That’s a happy union- the opposite of the Loonatics, where there was no real vision or affection for the characters in any capacity other than as little cash cows. The thinking there was that somehow Bugs and Daffy were “broken” and had to be updated in order to be relevant, but that “updating” meant having that gang-tag redesign done and recasting them as dark, unfunny ninja turtles-like superheroes. There is nothing in that last sentence that I could defend.

So, anyway, this reinvention is as old as the medium itself. Chasing trends, updating characters; as long as the results are offered as just ONE interpretation, and those handling the job are talented, and tasteful, it can be a good thing for fans and non-fans alike.

Whew! Sorry I ran on so long.

Another new figure for fans of the Runway Brain Mickey.

Addressing the argument about Mickey smashing the guitar, let’s not forget that Mickey in Steamboat Willie swung a cat by the tail, squeezed and choked a duck, and pulled suckling infant pigs from their mother so that he could play her nipples. Now that would make an awesome vinyl doll!

These are awesome. I must have! I also like this one…

http://www.medicomtoy.co.jp/vshop/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=1_31&products_id=594

While vinyl dolls isn’t something I collect, I do like the out of the ordinary, don’t see every day of these vinyl dolls.

I never cease to envy the Japanese for getting all the interesting, fresh, more adult-oriented Disney merchandise.
I remember a time when Disney Stores sold BOOKS and ORIGINAL CELS and FIGURINES and things that would have some appeal to people older than 10. Not any more - it’s all cheap tshirts, beanie plushies and plastic doodads for kids. They don’t even sell pins anymore, outside of the theme parks. I love the Japanese Disney figures, they have so much more dynamism and care put into them than most American stuff.

I find it telling that the Disney characters in the Japanese-produced Kingdom Hearts manga are more drawn more accurately than 90% of official Disney publicity art.

Mickey? Holding a Sword? How did that get past the labyrinth of focus groups?

I wish I could afford these dolls. I would buy them all. Are they so expensive because they have to be imported from Japan? And I can’t make your link work, Mr Phoenix! What is your book called and where can I see it? Is it on Amazon?