My Short PenPal Journey

Back in the early 2000's I used to send letters and packages to Europe and Asia a lot, had music pen pals, and boy was that fun. Getting their albums in the mail and sending them my own. Not as intense as the Tape Trading days of the 80s and 90s by any stretch of the imagination, but it was my own little bubble of snail mail excitement. It soon faded into nothing, it became E-mails and soon MySpace messages only because people hated checking their e-mails, now its the same with Facebook and Instagram, they avoid E-mails like the plague and getting anyone to mail something is like asking for their left testicle.

Around 2013 I sent my last CD in the mail to someone and it flatlined until 2020, not because of the covid crap, I just really wanted to send letters again. I went through a stack of old letters from an old bandmate and got super inspired, wrote him, and he wrote back. SUCCESS. Now I wanted more, like Sinistar I HUNGER. So I got to work, contacted people via Fartbuuk and Instapiss, and suddenly home addresses appeared.

But of course, like back in the day, I couldn't just send a normal letter, I never knew wtf to say anyways, so I over compensated by scribbling skulls and offensive shit all over the paper to make it more fun. Anything extra I could do, I would do. Every inside joke appeared, and re-reading their replies every so often brought massive joy. It was a snapshot of an exciting and happy moment, a piece of art in my hands made by another person who hand wrote it. It felt real. It felt like a rebellion against this digital age....yet it was commonplace only 2 decades ago.

Here are some of the things I've made and sent to friends:

Sometimes a simple design is enough

A friend of mine is into Judge Dredd & Mortuary Drape

I sometimes like to Shape the mail too, for comedic effect

He is really into Kiss so he got Gene's Crotch

Fold it up and you get the letter.

I didn't obscure the playlist for those interested!

Another Shaped One, Warhammer Battle Standard Style

Lots of X-Acto knife work on this one, totally worth it!

Some packages came with stickers too

Lots of inside jokes here, if you were there, you get it

I also made my own Stationery because I was jealous

of all those people on youtube with expensive paper.

This was for my friend Scufflemoss with his logo.

Inspired by incredible mirror frames

I was definitely reading The Silmarillion when I made this

Feels Militant, Like Space Marine Mail?

Ooga Booga Scary Monstaaah

Definitely based off some ORC type Shield

This one was used/drawn by Maddy

Unfortunately I don't have photos of the older packages from the early 2000's, my artwork was nowhere near as good back then. But once again my penpal days have seemingly come to an end once again. Not many willing, and if they are willing they are so impaired when writing back it takes too long or never shows up. It really sucks, a dying art for sure, but now I trade and sell my little art zines (check like every other post on this blog to see them or my instagram below) which saves me time drawing tons of individual things for people. 

Have you done stuff like this too? 

Hit me up on INSTAGRAM or beefusvongriefus1889[AT]gmail[DOT]com

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