Feathertale
 http://feathertale.com

           
             Feathertale is a raucous postmodern party, full of absurdism that would make Bartheleme proud.  The journal defines itself as “a confusing and disorganized forum for writers, poets and artists to showcase their genius.”  This is like the hot girl at the party calling herself fat.  There is nothing confusing and disorganized about Feathertale at all.  Starting at the homepage, readers are treated to a simple but stylish design featuring a watercolored monkey wearing a top hat.  The site is very easy to navigate and when your cursor passes over a category like “contests” or “poetry,” the monkey starts to sleep, paint or solemnly pour himself a drink.
            The monkey is a good indication that this isn't a stuffy, hoighty-toighty literary journal.  You will read no tear-jerking, Southern Gothic, Faulkner ripoff where everyone dies.  You will instead  have the chance to read some of the best and most hysterics-inducing contemporary writing on the internet in the form of either poems, short fiction and cartoons. 
            The poetry is mostly goofy stuff best read with a grin.  It is more often an exercise in toying with poetry and defying convention than actual “serious poetry.” It often has the smell of Ondaatje on it--which I mean as a compliment.  Lisa Zoran, author of The Blondes Lay Content, has four poems on the site.  Her work is impressively expressive especially considering how brief it is. Her tight, witty poems are about nine lines on average.  Like much of the work on Feathertale it is deceptively simple.  Other poetic contributors include Leopold McGinnis of Red Fez and Ryan Bird who managed to pen one of the most intriguing and bizarre titles you'll ever read; A Nightmare, From Which 50 Cent Wakes Up Because He Smells Burnt Toast, Before Subsequently Realizing He Is Submerged In A Bloodied Hotel Bathtub, Short One Kidney, & Feeling Suspiciously Numb From The Waist Down.
            The fiction is at times reminiscent of work you'd find in McSweeney's, self-referential, irreverent and funny.  The archive is busting with talented writers like Iain E. Marlow.  Two of his short pieces, Wile E. Coyote Hospitalized with Depression and a story about how Superman may be taking steroids are the kind of sharp clever bits you'd wish you'd written yourself.  Jimmy Chen's Rap Lyrics Brought to their Logical Conclusion by a Paranoid Neurotic is definitely in this category as well.  In one section, he finishes Snoop Dogg's famous line for him, “Bow wow wow, yippy yo, yippy life is meaningless suffering.”  If you are sick of the Dave Eggers-inspired hipster metafiction ever present today, then you may be overwhelmed here.  But I ask you what other journal features a surprisingly literary and effective flash fiction about how to fart?
            What also sets Feathertale apart is its inclusion of cartoons, many of which are great.  Matt Goerzen presents a cartoon entitled, Santa Claus and Karl Marx. It's not artistically groundbreaking or anything, but it, like so much of the art in Feathertale, is a great concept executed beautifully.  The hilarious gory and sick cartoons of Matt Hammill are good examples of this.  Think The Far Side with better art and a lot more bleakness.  Meanwhile, Anthony Swaneveld, a graphic designer (see http://sandwichcreative.com/) brings the noise, as they say, with two choice cartoons; Evolutionary Advantage and The Cake Goblins Don't Like to Share.  The former is a funny take on genetic mutations and the latter has a cake goblin in it, 'nuff said.
           
            Design: 4/5 
             Simple, pleasing and monkey-centric.

            Content: 4/5
            Funny, dark, odd, inventive and updated often.   

            Uniqueness: 3.5/5 
            Cartoons are a nice touch.  Will remind many of McSweeney's.

            Appeal to non-literary types: 4.5/5 
            Humor and brevity could attract a wide audience and the cartoons don't hurt either.

            Overall: 4/5 
            Bookmark it, baby!