Links, Affiliations and Suchlike

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Freak Nation is all about community building; naturally, we have links to a variety of other sites. Listed below are the sites we think are important enough to link to, starting with major sites that help the freak community in one way or another. But we also have categories of webcomics, freak shopping and vendors’ sites, and even where to find sexy freaky people. All these categories are sorted alphabetically by the site name.

If you came to this page because you want to link to us and you’re wondering if that’s okay — the short form is, “yes, that’s fine”. But if you want more details, you could look at our linking policy page, and even get a nifty banner that you can use in your link.

Major Freak Sites

• the American Civil Liberties Union: If you practice a weird religion, engage in odd sexual practices, wear funny clothes, or like to say iconoclastic and unorthodox things, it’s a safe bet somebody wants to stop you from doing it any more. And if you live in the U.S., then the ACLU are the people that keep those somebodies from forcing you into Mundania. Donate money to them today, so they can keep it up.
• bisexual.org is “the official web site of the Bisexual Foundation”, and has news, events listings, writeups of books, videos and music, and even a personals ads section.
• the Electronic Frontier Foundation: What the ACLU does for weird people in general, the EFF does for the Internet in specific. Know why the CDA got struck down, and COPA’s on hold? Because of them. Go read their site, and give them money.
• Gothic.Net Webzine: This gothic horror site is in its 28^th year, and now includes news, reviews, forums, and live chat as well the fiction that’s been its standby staple.
• polyamory.org: The site’s domain name pretty much says it all, huh? Resources for and about polyamory, including a FAQ that’s useful to point people at so you don’t have to answer the same questions over and over again.
• sfgoth.com: A community site serving the San Francisco Bay area gothic community.

Freak Shopping

’Cause you know we’re all consumerist whores at heart... no, really, these places do have cool stuff. Since you’ve gotta shop somewhere, why not at one of these?

• Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab: For all you scent freaks, this purveyor of fine oils, incenses, perfumes and scents specializes in “magickal, Pagan and mythological blends, Renaissance, Medieval and Victorian formulas, and horror/Gothic-themed scents.” Beware, their goods are painfully addictive.
• Good Vibrations: This San Francisco-based sexual supply shop goes way beyond just “sex toys” — they also have informative books and videos, product info, their own magazine... the list goes on. If you need to buy something that relates to sex, you need to shop here.
• Lip Service: Cool, hot, authentic clothing for goth-punks with a somewhat fetishy feel. If you go clubbing at all, you want some of their clothing.
• ThinkGeek: If geeks want it, this place has got it. Clothing with slogans advertising programming languages and OSes? Floor mats that say “There’s no place like 127.0.0.1”? A case of Jolt Cola? A mini Swiss Army knife with a fold-out USB memory card as one of the tools? They’ve got all of this, plus loads more.

Cool-Ass Freak-Oriented Webcomics:

• Kevin Pease’s Absurd Notions is only updated rarely, but it’s a wonderful mix of RPGing and tech-geeking, including a wonderfully BOFH-ish character.
• Ghastly’s Ghastly Comic — Warning! Sexually explicit!
  Subtitled “Tentacle Monsters and the Women Who Love Them”, this comic doesn’t stop there. That’s really more of a jumping-off point. From there, the strip moves on to chibi trannies, BDSM switches, Cthulhu references, and the usual teasing of furries and flaky Pagans. Not for the easily offended.
• General Protection Fault: GPF Technologies is a software company whose personnel include mad scientists, secret agents, gamers, a Trekkie, a pair of hard-coding geek babes, and a sentient slime mold. Hijinks ensue.
• Help Desk, aka “Ubersoft”: This one should be required reading for anyone who’s ever had to work in tech support. Or who’s had to call tech support too many times. Or who just hates Microsoft...
• Kevin and Kell: Anthropomorphic animals running their own ISP — it’s both furry and geeky! From Bill Holbrook, the cartoonist behind Safe Havens and On the Fastrack. Available in the herbivore version (all pretty and dressed up) and the predator version (“lean, mean, and to the point”).
• Megatokyo: Piro’s a sensitive, shoujo manga and dating-sim addict; his best friend, Largo, lives in a fantasy world of overclocked hardware and first-person shooter l33t-ness. The two are stuck in Tokyo and trying to survive. This comic is the source of some of the funniest shirts on ThinkGeek.
• PVP Online: Life at the offices of the computer-gaming magazine Player vs. Player is always interesting. On the one hand are the ongoing platform wars between the cynical Mac (and Starbuck’s) addict Brent and the PC gaming guru Francis. On the other hand, there’s a mythical troll (yes, as in, “big, blue, has horns”) who works as the magazine’s intern...
• Queen of Wands has gained some notoriety among freaks for its depiction of a bisexual, polyamorous character. This included one of the best quickie descriptions of polyamory anywhere — in just two issues. The comic is now “in reruns” — its author having finished the story, she decided to loop back to the beginning and publish it all over again. Includes occasional crossovers with Something*Positive.
• Sexy Losers — Warning! Sexually explicit!
  With manga-style art, “Hard” shows us the very explicit world of people who can’t always ever get what they want. No taboo is too taboo for Hard; be prepared for incest, necrophilia, coprophagy, and so on. Sadly, no longer being produced.
• Shadensmilen: If schadenfreude is “that joy you experience at witnessing another’s suffering”, then shadensmilen is “the malicious glee experienced from watching the misfortune of a happy face”. An ongoing series of single-panel depictions of smiley abuse.
• Sinfest: Tatsuya Ishida’s delightfully irreverent comic features an “evil wannabe” who idolizes the Devil, as well as the sex-positive Monique.
• Sluggy Freelance: Describing this one is hard, but let’s try this: Hapless web designer Torg and his best friend, Riff (a sort of twenty-something mad scientist/inventor) live with somewhat mundane Zoë, her mystically-inclined friend Gwynne, a voracious alien, and a talking ferret. They’ve been exploring alternate dimensions and battling demons for years now, and creator Pete Abrams shows no signs of slowing down.
• Randy Milholland’s Something*Positive is full of bitterness, bile, and witty sarcasm. It is not for the easily offended! Seriously, nothing is sacred to this man. There are occasional crossovers with Queen of Wands.

Sexy People

Wanna see sexy people on the Internets? Sure you do! (Or, if you don’t you can just scroll back up the page...) Here’s some sites with pictures of sexy people that don’t all look like bleached-blond silicone-enhanced bimbo clones posing for frat boys.

• Cute Geek Guy Gallery: Smashing the stereotype that all geek guys look like total dweebs.
• Gothic Babe of the Week: This is the original, and has been running for years and years.
• Goth Boy of the Week: The navigation on this one is kind of horrid, but the boys are cute.
• Gothic Sluts: A pay site run by the people who put out Blue Blood magazine. It may be for money, but the people behind it are authentic.
• Spooky Hotties: This is sort of like a “Hot or Not” site for spooky boys, spooky girls, and... um, spooky pets.

Think we’ve left out something absolutely critical? Heck, what about your site... it’s a high-quality site of interest to freaks, right? If you’re wondering “How could they have possibly forgotten to include Mxyzptlk?!?” — well, hell, we may not even have heard of it. Send us an email telling us all about it, and if we like it, we’ll add it here. Please note that “all about it” means a little more than just the URL or domain name; the more you rave about how cool the place is, the more likely we’ll follow the link and evaluate it.