Did you know that the last time meat prices were this high, Reagan was in office? That’s one reason I write in a New York Daily News op-ed that if you want to save money, giving farm animals a bit of a break will also give our wallets a break, too. Amusingly, the paper named the op-ed, “Quit Meat, Save Dough.”

Speaking of money, a major battery egg producer was fined $6.8 million this week after admitting to bribing USDA officials to approve potentially rotten eggs.

And egg-laying chickens are on the political map in Massachusetts, where we’re waging a major campaign to ban battery cages, veal crates, and gestation crates. Here’s the latest coverage.

Want to learn more about these kinds of animal protection campaigns while networking with tons of other like-minded animal advocates and eating off-the-hook vegan food? Come to the Taking Action for Animals conference in DC June 27-30!!!

Paul Shapiro
Vice President, Farm Animal Protection
The Humane Society of the United States
Follow at http://twitter.com/pshapiro

P.S. Video of the week: Just a cat playing with a pig. No big deal.

Sorry for the last minute notice but Animal Place’s annual Music in the Meadow is tomorrow! GUESS WHO IS GOING TO BE THERE. Ok I’ll tell you! Not only my idol Panda Bob, but the newly famous Mr. G and Jellybean! Oh, also, in terms of people, vegan NFL football player, David Carter, Jr. of the Oakland Raiders! 

Plus, vegan food will abound! And the barns and pastures will all be open. And let’s be real, all we care about is cute rescue animals and vegan food. Of course there will be music too! That’s titular! 

Get your tickets now! And tell me if Panda Bob is all cool in real life!

Hello, vegan ice cream sandwich lovers! This Kickstarter is for YOU! Two Seattle folks, Chelsea and Chris, have taken it upon themselves to bring Seattle its very own vegan ice cream sandwich truck! Did I say truck? Because I meant to say VW BUS! Or “grandfather punch-buggy” as my brother would say, right before slugging me in the forearm. 

Seattle Cookie Counter plans to have 30 flavor combinations and they sound AWESOME. Like check out my friend here at 6 o’clockish:

Coffee Chip? COME AT ME, BRO. Gimme that on a chocolate cookie sandwich and let’s call it a life. 

There are lots of fun pledge rewards, including a kids’ ice cream party and even a special ice cream sandwich-laden marriage proposal package! So if you live in the area or plan to ever visit, (which you should, I hear it’s nice), then pledge and get your rewards so we can take over another town with our yummy vegan innovations!

Here ye, here ye! June 14th, the Philly VegFest this way comes! Heads up: This is a don’t-miss event!

You should know by now that your pal Megan Rascal is a native Philadelphian and I always try to share the Philly vegan goodness with yous guys. And boy, does the VegFest promise goodness! First of all, the event is FREE. Those are my four favorite letters in the perfect order (I’m sort of whatever about “reef”). Sponsored by the Humane League, there’s going to be all sorts of fun stuff like vegan food, cooking demos, and awesome vendors. Por ejemplo, the creators of the amazing vegan restaurant Vedge will be there with news of their forthcoming vegan bar! HOT DAMN. That’s so funny because “vegan” and “bar” are my two favorite words (in no particular order). 

Other exciting things to look out for: Miss Rachel herself from Miss Rachel’s Vegan Pantry will be there cooking (and being awesome, but that’s a given), animal-rights juggernauts Mercy For Animals will be tabling, and Blackbird Pizzeria and HipCityVeg are just two of the super-dope food vendors lined up. 

To keep up with all the announcements of more fun stuff they keep adding, follow Philly VegFest on FB. This sounds like it’ll be an amazing vegan day! Who wants to hop the Bolt bus with me on the 14th? I can make my dad pick us up at the train station and take us to Pine! He loves when I let him do stuff for me!

Vegansaurus Zombie by Toe Tag Riot artist Sean Von Gorman! AMAZING!

In his new comic series, Matt Miner, a vegan of 11 years, takes a look at ethics from a zombie perspective. Toe Tag Riot centers on an early 2000s streetpunk band that suffers from a serious curse—sometimes they become zombies and have to eat human flesh to stay alive! However, they are “ethical zombies” and decide to only eat racists, misogynists, and homophobes. But…

Finding that the transformation back into regular, filthy, punk rockers is taking longer and longer each time, the band goes on one last cross-country tour, chasing the cure to what ails ‘em and hilariously/brutally slaughtering the worst of humanity along the way to an explosive showdown with The Westboro Baptist Church.

Since Matt Miner is one of Vegansaurus’ favorite vegan comic book creators, I caught up with him to hear more about Toe Tag Riot. The series is still in the works and Matt is currently holding a Kickstarter to produce the comic. You can get a lot of awesome perks from the fundraiser, like an amazing commissioned watercolor by Sean Von Gorman! I just contributed so I can get one of Figaro and I’m drop dead ecstatic. 

Toe Tag Riot standard cover by Tristan Jones, colors by Doug Garbark.

I asked Matt a few questions about the project (and other very important things like puppies and food trucks), here’s what he had to say:

Vegansaurus: What’s an “ethical zombie”? Is it the zombie equivalent to an ethical vegan?
Matt Miner: Hey Megan! I’m so glad you asked. Seeing as how I think zombies literally can’t survive on a plant based diet, the only “ethical” choice, once zombified, would be to eat bad guys like misogynists, racists, and homophobes.  

Make the world a better place by slaughtering and devouring jerks and hate groups!  Why not?  Can’t see the video? Watch it on Vegansaurus.com!

How does your veganism influence your work?
There’s a bit of me in any project I do and a lot of my creator-owned work has a hidden message of compassion or tolerance in it. With my comic series Liberator, the whole premise was about young vigilantes who break the law to protect abused animals. With Toe Tag Riot, I started thinking about “what/who would I eat if I was a zombie? What’s the most-ethical choice of human to consume?” and it kinda snowballed from there.

What’s your favorite vegan/vegan-friendly eatery I’m NYC?
Do food trucks count as eateries? Because the Cinnamon Snail food truck is my favorite vegan food in NYC, possibly the world. Follow them on Twitter at @VeganLunchTruck and ask them to NEVER EVER AGAIN take the 5-spice seitan sandwich off their menu EVER again.  🙂

Are you fostering any cutie pie animals now? Pictures or I don’t believe you. 
Aside from our personal “zoo” of rescues, we are indeed fostering a fantastic 7-year-old tiny little pit bull mix named Reeses! She kinda looks like a Corgi/Pit and she just beat breast cancer like a true champion. All she wants to do is cuddle and play, so NYC area, if you have room in your heart and your home, hit me up for more info on Reeses. Find me on Twitter at mattminerxvx​ or email MattMinerXVX@gmail.com.

Reeses. Oh em geeee. 

Why are you Kickstarting this comic series? Why do you need to raise money to make the book?
We’re making the book to tell a super fun story of punk rock zombies but also to put an inclusive, and LGBT-positive message out into comic shops and into the hands of a fandom that can still be an intolerant, sexist and homophobic place at times.  

The Kickstarter pays for the art team’s rates and for all the rewards and shipping—making comics isn’t a cheap undertaking, so that’s why we headed to Kickstarter. Kickstarter is all-or-nothing funding, so if we don’t raise the full amount then we won’t collect any of it and the book will be scrapped.

If we succeed on the funding, though, we’re going to put this amazing story into the hands of people worldwide who might not normally think twice about calling someone a “fag” or a “slut”.  

So, please pledge—and share the project on your social networks. We have some incredible rewards for those people awesome enough to throw their support behind this great project.

Thanks, Matt! And thanks, Sean! I can’t wait for my Figgy picture!

BONUS! Another drawing from Sean Von Gorman: Rock and roll Vegansaurus!