the carbon
based mistake

zines & books & photography & printing

& writing & blasphemy & art & design &...

the carbon
based mistake

zines & books & photography & printing

& writing & blasphemy & art & design &...

BASEMENT ZINES

Dozens Sold Since 1998

The Carbon Based Mistake continues to disappoint nearly everyone except for a handful of people, and his mother.

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What we need now is love and outsider art plastered all over this god-forsaken world.

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Screen printing and DTF/DTG T-shirts and maybe a hoodie or two, and probably some beanies.

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Tons of Nonsense

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50+ Years of Questionable Decisions

100% Success Rate, making art while maintaining a full-time job under a very vocal protest.

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Vinyl Vandalism

What we need now is love and outsider art plastered all over this god-forsaken world.

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UNAPPEALING APPAREL

98% Complimented

Screen printing and DTF/DTG T-shirts and maybe a hoodie or two, and probably some beanies.

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OTHER EPHEMERA

Tons of Nonsense

Greeting Cards, Tote Bags, Jewelry, Trading Cards, Oddities, Patches, Pins, & More...

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SHOP ALL

50+ Years of Questionable Decisions

100% Success Rate, making art while maintaining a full-time job under a very vocal protest.

Shop Zines

STICKERBOMBS

Sticky Vandalism

What we need now is love and outsider art plastered all over this god-forsaken world.

Shop Stickers

UNAPPEALING APPAREL

98% Complimented

Screen printing and DTF/DTG T-shirts and maybe a hoodie or two, and probably some beanies.

Shop Apparel

OTHER EPHEMERA

Tons of Nonsense

Greeting Cards, Tote Bags, Jewelry, Trading Cards, Oddities, Patches, Pins, & More...

Shop Ephemera

SHOP ALL

50+ Years of Questionable Decisions

100% success rate making art despite maintaining a full-time job under very vocal protest.

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Completely Unknown Due to Lack of Interest

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About The Carbon Based Mistake

Terrifically conceived and massively executed. It is rare to see people understanding what design is and actually moving toward a complete order for their idea.

Paul Hornschemeier, Forlorn Funnies

Marc Calvary's zines always annoy me, because they always seem to be short and expensive and full of the feeling that he is saying "I'm so clever" when he is putting it together.

Joe Biel, Zine World

A Demographic of None

You're Already Dead

Marc Calvary was initiated into self-publishing in 1991 and established the carbon based mistake in 1998 to take the form of zines & books & photography & printing & writing & blasphemy & art & design, while drinking from the poisoned well.

Besides the main project, a series of zines, Marc finds the time to do other projects by being annoyingly anti-social. All proceeds will go towards making more art in the spirit of the Perpetual Art Movement.

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Basement Zines

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Side Projects

Free Downloads

My new website will be online soon, I’ll have something like 70 new things available. All limited edition because I can’t afford to mass produce. I just have to clean a few things up first. GIMMIE another month, and then you can all ignore me again. Get ready to mute the hell outta me!

Apple TV released a movie in 2021 that I just watched for the first time tonight. Swan Song. I liked it very much. Interesting sci-fi premise of clones and scientific reincarnation. I recommend it if you haven’t seen it. However there’s one scene that bugs the hell out of me that involves someone coming home in the middle of the night, everyone in the house is asleep… yet practically every light is on in the entire house. It’s maddening. I get it that the scenes wouldn’t have been visually interesting if they were in the pitch black. So why not rewrite it to take place on a lazy Sunday afternoon? Same scene could have been accomplished and it wouldn’t be in some weirdo family’s home where they keep all the lights on when they sleep.

I have so much to say about Brian Fuller’s full feature directorial debut. After a long career in television he made his first movie and it’s so very rewarding. DUST BUNNY! Check it out right now.

I’d like to formally announce the opening of my new art studio. Come on down! Just be sure to tuck your pants into your socks so no rats run up your leg.

Please don’t be that person who gets up in the middle of a movie at home and doesn’t ask someone to pause it. #onebattleafteranother

I just started watching One Battle After Another and it starts out and there’s this guy in the corner pretending to play an air piano in time with the soundtrack and I thought to myself “that’s an interesting choice…” and I was still willing to see it through. That’s how much I care for an artist’s vision. Even if I don’t agree with it I’m usually interested in seeing what they thought was a good decision. Turns out it accidentally started playing the ASL version which has a sign language interpretation throughout the movie! Hahah, I love sign language but thankfully there’s an option to turn it off.

And ride, ride, how we ride, and ride, low ride…

I just finished watching SISU: Road to Revenge. If you haven’t seen the first movie (SISU) please watch it. @mizgreen and I are going to be watching the last Mad Max soon, and it got me thinking about SIsu. And I remembered the sequel was recently released. If you liked the new Mad Max movies, you’ll love this. First movie is essentially just this old Finnish dude killing Nazis and it’s glorious. In part two he beats down the Soviet Army.

Based on all historical knowledge and scientific studies, which is most likely to be true in some sense?

1) Vampires or
2) That there is a God overseeing humanity?

I loved Predator: Badlands. (Don’t rent it from Amazon Prime, for some reason the subtitles are screwed up.) I didn’t realize I’d like this movie as much as I did. Very good, similar style to Hawley’s Alien: Earth. First time since I was a kid that I cared about an Alien/Predator crossover, if done in these similar styles. Lots of humor and foreshadowing.

Gas Leak Detectors. A sure fire way to find out if you have a gas leak or not. Guaranteed 100%Effective.

New Pin coming soon when the new website is finally launched. Let’s just make this about ourselves, ok?

Here’s a necklace I made from asphalt I stole from the middle of the crosswalk on abbey road. The next time someone gives you something to eat, dig into it like an animal. Take it in your dirty paws and just chomp down with no care in the world. Eat that fucker up with crumbs falling all out your mouth like some kind of monster.

I ordered this from the artist @funf005 but it got lost in the mail, and then found! It’s still snowing here so it’s weather appropriate. But we keep her snowpeople out all seasons.

Happy New Year! For my west coast friends, I’m speaking to you from the future. Things are just as shitty now as they were in 2025, so we’re just going to start over at year 0001. Call it a fresh start. (I’d say 00001, but who are we kidding, no way we last that long)

Current project: I took my childhood bible and cut it into rolling papers. I made my own saliva activated glue, and had these boxes made. Now I’m adding the glue, letting it dry, and folding and collating them. This will take a while but when it’s done we’ll have some blasphemous indulgence.

Rewatching the Walking Dead and damn, Carl! I love your handwriting.

You should rent or buy the movie Rabbit Trap. I rented it but I think I’m going to watch it a few more times, so it would have just been cheaper to just buy it. It’s folk lore inspired, and the soundtrack is amazing. It’s as if the movie couldn’t have been what it was without the soundtrack, although the story was great, the soundtrack was one of the main characters. It makes me want to look deeper into 1970’s experimental ambient music, more than what I’m familiar with. @lucreciadalt @brynchainey

If you haven’t seen the movie INFLUENCER by Kurtis David Harder, then go watch it and then follow it up by watching the, if possible, even better sequel, INFLUENCERs. There better be a third chapter called INFLUENCED that is about a copy cat killer.

How old is this ad campaign? I haven’t seen those big monitors in forever.

I can’t believe I caught one of these in the wild. I hear about these people and see screenshots of them from time to time.

There’s this independent film called IT ENDS by @alexander.ullom that I’ve been hearing about for awhile but haven’t been able to see because for some reason no one has bought distribution rights. There are a few movies out there with similar themes, like the amazing film BRIGHTWOOD by @daneelcar but IT ENDS is an entirely new idea. You can now rent it on Letterboxd (which I just learned you can rent from, I thought it was just a movie site to catalog and rate films) I highly recommend renting it tonight. It’s about 4 friends stuck on a road that never ends and according to the director cost as much to make as the catering would have cost in a budgeted movie set. It’s great movie, watch it.

I’m about a quarter into Mark Z. Danielewski‘s newest novel Tom’s Crossing, and it’s already a contender for my favorite novel. I have so many things to say about this book, but not at 1:30am.

I think this is the second time I’m visible on screen in any movie I was ever in and I’m about .25” high on the overpass and you wouldn’t know it was me unless I told you. The story behind it is great. I was on the set of Forrest Gump with Jon Krueger and Mike Tappan @the_red_rabbit and other people I’m forgetting because this story is just about the 3 of us, if my memory serves me right. Before filming started the director made it very clear that no one was to go up onto the overpass. Apparently there was some insurance thing. So about 10 seconds before they call ACTION! Jon says to us: “Let’s go up on that overpass.” And we all thought that was a splendid idea. And that’s the only reason you can see us in this movie.

Why is it when you watch a trailer you realize that if it’s all music and cinematography and no spoken dialogue (sometimes muting dialogue to highlight the score and impressive lighting) they are trying to edit out the fact that the actors are not convincing enough to appear in the trailer?

The movie Bugonia. Everything I’ve seen by Yorgos Lanthimos I’ve loved. But I haven’t seen all his movies yet. And this has to be one of the most perfect movies I have ever seen. Pacing is perfect and it’s one of the best casts working together that I have ever seen, and it was an inspired script by Will Tracy who has an impressive resume. And it’s 100% based on a 2003 South Korean film called Save the Green Planet! which I’ll be watching next.

Smiling Friends on HBO is so absolutely absurd.

I can’t believe it took me this long to check out Smiling Friends (HBO). It’s absolutely bizarre. Reminds me of a hundred different things, all things I love. But such a unique way to tell a story. Mix media, it looks like a dozen different styles, so many of the characters look so different from each other. Which doesn’t happen often in animation because designers are too concerned with everything looking like a “family”. And did I mention it’s bizarre? Fuck this show is good.

There has to have been a better name for this game.

XENO (available to rent or buy wherever you rent or buy, maybe blockbuster video) was another of those movies that I didn’t think got enough attention. First, it stars Lulu Wilson. One of the best child actors working today and secondly, it’s basically a violent version of ET. And it’s has a possible set up for a sequel, so I’m completely there for that.

Apparently Shelby Oaks has a controversial rating. It’s something like 60/40 vs not liking it vs liking it. I liked it. And find it hard to believe people didn’t like it. What the fuck are you expecting a found footage movie to be? And the fact that it’s only a found footage film for the first 1/3rd is a unique idea.

The DEVO documentary on Netflix is great. Watch it even if you don’t like DEVO. (Maybe especially if you don’t know or even think you don’t like DEVO)

Filomina Cunk might be my favorite comedian. Created and written by Charlie Brooker and Diana Morgan. Among others!

I’m watching Invasion on Apple. It’s taken a long time to get through this series. It’s not the best, but when it’s good it’s great. So it keeps me coming back every so often. I’m just a few episodes from the end and this last part is a lot of fun… whenever there’s a bad episode, the next episode is great. So I keep watching.

I’m redesigning my website. (Going to launch soon) and this is my favorite disclaimer.

Found this old pic of me and can’t find a high resolution version of it so this might be the lowest res version of the best picture I was ever in.

It’s very clear that Guillermo del Toro took the script from Young Frankenstein and just rewrote it in a serious manner.

This is some seriously great death scene design. I’m watching Frankenstein on Netflix. It’s really beautiful to watch. Makes your eyes feel great. So far I like all the deviations from the book. All of them make complete sense if you think about what kind of person would attempt to do this. And what would be the consequences of not being more compassionate. This story could have gone a completely different way if Victor had any compassion.

Tonight I’ll be watching Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein on Netflix, and afterwards will immediately follow it up by watching Young Frankenstein by Mel Brooks.

TRAUMATIKA, I can’t tell if this movie is genius or garbage. I made it half way through before I just realized I couldn’t hack whatever the fuck this is. But it’s interesting enough that I’ll finish this tomorrow when I’m not as tired. HOLY SHIT this movie goes all over the place. It feels like 15 movies so far.

I’m currently reading Tinder is the Flesh and let me tell you it’s amazing but so very DARK.

Jr Wallace coming in and giving the best synopsis of a movie, the best of all time.

I had a craving tonight to watch the original A Nightmare on Elm Street. And it reminded me of when I was a kid and worked on Scream 2 and my friend Jon and I got to meet Wes Craven.

One day Jon was next to him on set and pulled him aside and said “Hi. My name is Jon KRUEGER. You made my childhood a living hell” and Wes Craven apologized.

And then I met him the next day and told him “Hey! I’m a big fan, but because of you my brother was so scared he had to sleep in my bed for 2 years, thanks for nothing.” And he once again apologized.

Today I finished We Live Here Now by Sarah Pinborough and it’s such a unique take on the haunted house trope. You will not see what is coming.

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You're Already Dead

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based mistake

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