Botan rice candy stickers:
The Quickening

Botan Rice Candy stickers. They come from boxes of vaguely citrusy, Japanese candy wrapped in clear, edible wrappers. They're a bizarre blend of kiddy kitsch and creepy camp. And you were introduced to them in a previous article. You're an expert now — a master of these strange little emblems from a distant land.

But did you know that Botan Rice Candy stickers can be used to compose crazy, comic-book adventures? They can. Flak presents:

The delicate, handwritten Botan Rice Candy adventure by James Norton.
The soulless, hollow computer Botan Rice Candy adventure by James Norton.

As for the stickers themselves, more have been unearthed — at the terrible cost of having eaten something like 500 pieces of rice candy in a week. Let's take a look at the newly uncovered treasures.

	Unlike the miserable shrine-carrying wretches from the previous batch of stickers this guy seems genuinely jazzed to be hauling around a big, wacky looking papier mâche thing. Or is it really a dragon about to savagely dismember his enemies? Looking at the sticker, it's hard to tell.
	This little lady looks remarkably placid. Perhaps she knows that grape-fed geese invariably produce the richest, fattiest foie gras in the world — and she lacks the conscience to care. A beautiful monster. A beautiful... monster.
	It's bedtime for Lamp Boy. But why the smirk? Perhaps he sold Salon stock before it went through the floor. Perhaps he had a rival slain by Mr. Rampaging Animated Dragon. Or perhaps he knows Goose Girl (see above) is waiting for at home for him with a sheer negligee and a plate of foie gras.
	Pow! This puppy's car is sponsored by many of the world's most powerful transnational corporations, including Racing Modeles, American Cartoon, Modeles Body and, of course, Pow. But puppies can't drive! Oh no! That concrete embankment looks pretty nasty... The car is in flames! Oh, the puppymanity!
	Two dogs. Six question marks. A series of brutal unsolved crimes. In the end: Who knows? Next week: The Wonder Dogs consider special versus general relativity.

Will more of these colorful treasures come to light? Perhaps. Perhaps if we're all exceedingly good, deranged Japanese animators will send more of these colorful pieces of sticky paper to our blighted shores. Make a wish, America.

— James Norton (jim@flakmag.com)