Solving my mazes on your screen?


You may be aware that I draw mazes. You may be aware that I have some maze books out, and that you can get my mazes printed on stuff to wear, hang, or sit around the house. You may be aware that I have a bunch of mazes posted here for free. In my never ending quest for World (and Lunar) Domination, I’m moving on to your phone, tablet, laptop, PC, and there’s probably somebody out there with a Raspberry Pi enabled potato or something. Maybe the DOOM fruit fly can solve a few?

While, it’s not ready to roll out to a full-ass audience yet, my buddy Jason has put together a way to solve my hand-drawn mazes on your phone, tablet, or computer. You can use your finger, a stylus, the control in the bottom left corner, the arrow keys, the WASD keys, or a mouse to move the cursor to solve the maze. You can change the ink color, erase, or “snap back” to get to the solution. You can pick the difficulty level & keep playing through to that level or all the levels if you’d like. You can also share your stats to social media or via text.

I did a screen recording of the game play on my phone, using my finger and the cursor on the bottom left at different times:

There’s a fancier 5x-ish sped-up version (with music) on TikTok too:

@aixelsyd13

So, my buddy Jason is helping to make my hand-drawn mazes solvable on a screen. This is a 5x-ish sped-up playthrough on my phone. Looking for people interested in testing functionality & providing feedback. That you? Might blog about it later. #maze #mazes #puzzlegame #apps #AiXeLsyD13

♬ I Am a Banana – Parry Gripp

So, we need some people to test this out! What is working? What isn’t? What’s intuitive? What’s not? Tell us about the functionality, and even if you like the idea. Sometimes, I feel like it is difficult to find maze-solving enthusiasts. Share this with your people who may like to do such things!

I’m not sharing the url for the test phase super wide right now so just reach out to me via email, social media, via comment here, or my contact form if you’d like to test the game out and tell is what’s working & what’s not. To quote the infamous Jimmy Pop, I’d appreciate your input.

If people dig it, I’ll add more & draw more! Do you think it’s something that you or someone you know would enjoy?

PlayFlashFrame.com

Also, if you like movies, you have to check out this other game that my buddy Jason made! In FlashFrame, you guess the movie title by a screenshot or poster/promo image from 4 answer choices. You go in to rounds of 10. You can play against other people, or do solo practice. You can pick your genres and narrow it by decade too if your cinephilia has highly specific interests.

I have gone head-to-head in movie naming competition with my kids, and with Jason himself. It’s a fun way to test your movie memory!

I like to narrow in on 80’s sci-fi, comedy, & action films. What would your decade & genres be?

It’s definitely fun and worth your time to check out. A few rounds go by super quick and you might surprise yourself with your movie knowledge!

Also, the more people who play, the more fun it is. You can invite your friends to play head-to-head battles.

🍌🍌🍌

And, for fun, I put the faster version of the maze solving on YouTube too:

Unlike those who enjoy Ohio Valley Style Pizza, art thieves have no taste.


Alright. You know I like Ohio Valley Style Pizza. You know I draw mazes. You know I sell mazes on stuff. I also occasionally dabble in other bad art & design work. One of those examples is my Ohio Valley Style Pizza T-shirt/sticker/whatever they wanna print it on at TeePublic & RedBubble. These people are worse than the people who make the PiTtsburGH StYLe pIzza is jUsT lunChABleS joke about Beto’s and DiCarlo’s.

Apparently, that caught the attention of art thieves around the world wide web. I used the Goog for trying to locate my Ohio Valley style T-shirt, and three from Printerval popped up… my art, but not my storefronts or name attached to them. Who TF is Printerval? This is maybe worse than the last time my art was stolen and the guy reached out afterward mad about me naming & shaming him. That’s some world-class jagoffery.

Google search results showing sponsored listings from Printerval selling stolen copies of the Ohio Valley-Style Pizza t-shirt design above the legitimate TeePublic result.

Three different dingleberries used my art in a store… or one scraping bot did? Who knows what triggered them? The maddening part of these ones was that they were offering to add a licensed design file for $2.99. I think I make about $2.50 on a T-shirt sale at TeePublic or RedBubble, even less on stuff like stickers or buttons. I don’t know off the top of my head because I don’t sell them often. 😂

I’m absolutely not complaining about that. I really don’t push the links, this is for fun, I’m not making a living off of it, & the stuff I do offer is weird and very niche. But all that being said, it’s still my art and any profit from sales should go to me after TP & RB take their massive cuts in exchange for doing all the work.

If SakuraArt, Mindyguw, & Kemarsporat2zl actually exist, they can all kiss my ass. Are people doing this, or is it all scripts & bots? I’m guessing even if I watermarked it, that could be easily removed… and paying to copyright an image that doesn’t sell seems to be a negative sum game.

If people worked as hard at creating as they do stealing, they might actually make better art than I do.

Oh yeah, the site said that there were currently 8 in carts. I hope that’s a sales pressure tactic and not real. I don’t think I have sold 8 T-shirts total. 🤣

Screenshot of a Printerval listing displaying absurd pressure tactics like 'In 8 carts' for a niche pizza t-shirt that has barely ever sold in real life.

I follow artist Ryan Conners (KilkennyCat Art) on Threads. She has dealt with art theft for quite some time. Sometimes it’s direct. Sometimes the art is changed. Sometimes it’s scrapers. Sometimes it’s actual damn physical stores. Check out her incredible cat art! I reached out for advice and she suggested the DMCA‘s to the websites & to follow-up with Cloudflare.

At any rate, I had Claude.ai help me draft a DMCA and look for more. It found one on ClickOneShirt where I was unsuccessful in finding any more myself. This one was unhinged in that it contained this copypasta-ish word salad that can only be an LLM-fueled fever dream:

It was a sweltering summer afternoon, the kind where the air hung thick enough to feel like you could almost drink it, and the thought of anything remotely warm made me want to crawl back into bed. But my stomach was rumbling something fierce, and the memory of my Grandma Betty’s cookouts, specifically her version of Rawdog the cheese and toppings Ohio Valley style shirt, danced in my head. It wasn’t really about the shirt, of course, but the meal that went along with it. Back then, we used to pile into her dusty station wagon and head over to the local butcher shop in anticipation.
Rawdog the cheese and toppings Ohio Valley style shirt: buy and enjoy this shirt

The butcher, a man named Mr. Henderson with a walrus mustache and perpetually stained apron, always greeted us with a hearty laugh. He knew Grandma Betty’s order by ass: thick-cut, juicy Italian sausages and an assortment of cheeses, the good stuff that melted like a dream. She was a stickler for quality, and the toppings were just as important. Onions, peppers, a jar of Mrs. Renfro’s ghost pepper salsa (that stuff burned, but man, was it good), and always, always, a mountain of shredded cheddar.

Back home, the process was almost a ritual. The sausages would sizzle on the grill, the smell alone enough to make your mouth water. Grandma, meanwhile, would be expertly slicing the hot dog buns, the kind with the squared ends. The real magic happened when the sausages were split and the cheese went in; it would bubble and blister like something out of a cartoon, just oozing perfection.

ClickOneShirt.com

Like. What? Seeing the words Grandma and Rawdog in the same sentence is unsettling to say the least. It doesn’t even make any sense. Why has this backstory been invented? More importantly: Did it work to sell T-shirts and should I add it to my listing?

This is some J. Peterman level shit. Is Eddie Sherman working at ClickOneShirt?

Bonkers, I tell you. Bonkers.

“He knew Grandma Betty’s order by ass: thick-cut, juicy Italian sausages and an assortment of cheeses…” WHAT?

Also, I reached out with a Google report tool to get the fraudulent art removed from their search listings. Who knows if any of it will pan out, but at least I can say I exhausted every avenue that I had available.

-🍕-

So, if you’re following this absolute shenanigans of the highest order, this may help:

The Original:

The Thieves:

Where I Reported It:

If This Sounds Familiar…

Same shit happened with my maze designs:

I hope to have a follow-up saying how quick and cooperative everyone was, but… we’ll see I guess, won’t we? I know where I am going to get a celebratory slice or two.

I guess I should have mentioned that you should buy a T-shirt or some stickers or a maze book from my various stores. It’s better than Grandma Betty using what should be my profits to rawdog Mr. Henderson the butcher.

Bunny Rabbit | Garden & Easter Mazes 🐰🥚🧺🥕🫑🥦🥬🐇


You should really buy my maze book. It has mazes like this, only in black & white. It has all the solutions, too.

Of course, you can just enjoy these here for free too, just like all the other ones on my blog. I really like it when people share their solutions in the comments or by tagging me on social media.

You can use my maze book like an adult coloring book too. Some people color in all the dead ends until the path is revealed. I fully support maze solution anarchy.

Maybe print these out & try them while you’re waiting for Easter dinner to cook, passing time before your seder meal for Passover, fasting for Ramadan, or you’re contemplating what to plant in your vegetable garden.

If you do celebrate Passover, Ramadan, Eid al-Fitr, Beltane, Ostara, Imbolc, Chaitra Navratri, Ram Navami, Vishu, Ugadi, Vaisakhi, Baisakhi, Hanamatsuri, Qingming, Walpirgis, just Spring Equinox… or some other holiday… Would you like a maze themed for that? I try to approach everything with a mix of reverence & levity. I like to learn about other people’s holidays and the meaning & traditions behind them.

A hand-drawn maze where the object is to help a rabbit eat all of the vegetables in your garden.
It's a hand-drawn Easter egg hunt themed maze.

I may have to do a guinea pig themed maze soon…

Oh yeah, you can get the vegetable garden one on a T-shirt or a bunch of other stuff at TeePublic or RedBubble if you’d like to wear it while you garden or hang it on your wall.

Shamrocks & Shenanigans ☘️🍀| Mazes for St. Patrick’s Day


OK, so I drew up a maze with a Leprechaun and a pot o’ gold, because… Stereotypes. I thought it may be a fun activity for people who celebrate their Irish or Celtic heritage this time of year. I do love to rock the Celtic Shenanigans 🍀 playlist on random more often than usual this time of year. You can spare me your “dusting off” Dropkick Murphys/Flogging Molly jokes. I have heard them all, and I listen all year. (I also don’t drink much any more, but my Beer 🍻 playlist also feels stereotypical and apropos.)

A colorful maze featuring a leprechaun on the left encouraging viewers to help him reach his pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, all set against a light green background.

🪙☘️🪙🌈🪙🍀🪙

I also made a shamrock maze & a four-leaf clover maze, for a fun quick activity, & I uploaded them to my TeePublic & RedBubble shops. Everything is on sale right now at TeePublic, including these two designs. Get T-shirts for $16, stickers for $3, or all kinds of other cool stuff. You can even customize the colors of the products, so you can have a black hat or T-shirt, a green one, or whatever you prefer.

Which one do you like more, the shamrock (three-leaf clover) or the lucky four-leaf clover? Should I add this leprechaun maze to the shops too?

☘️🍀

Check out all of these mazes, in a printable black & white if you’d like:

🍀☘️🍺🤘🍻☘️🍀

They work great as adult coloring book pages too. You can fill in the dead ends to find the path, or just color ’em however you please. I’m a big fan of anarchy.

You can check out my playlists on your preferred streaming service with these links from Tune My Music:

Let me know if you think I’m missing something good for either list!

Also, what do you like to eat for St. Patrick’s Day? I have been hungry for something like this. Maybe with potatoes this time.

Winter Mazes | Parking Chair, Snow Shoveling, & Groundhog Day – Plus a bonus Valentine’s Day Maze!


I feel like it’s been a while since I posted a maze. Here’s 3, with black and white and color options for each. I have posted them on social media, but they’ll probably be slightly better quality here. Who hasn’t felt this winter to their core? Snow removal struggles and anger at poor Punxsutawney Phil have been all over social media.

I post this as I contemplate selling mazes on Etsy. Think there’s a market? I see other artists selling small *.pdf packs of printable mazes, coloring pages, or other hand-drawn puzzles or activity pages. A lot of the stuff you can find free online via Pinterest, or places like here on my blog or r/mazes. Are there people looking for paid downloads? They would of course probably be exclusive or only elsewhere available in my books. It’s certainly way more about art & expression than money, but it is cool to see my mazes on stuff, even if I’m my own biggest customer.

Oh, can’t forget a small bonus maze first since it’s Valentine’s Day!

❤️🥰💖💗💓💘💝

The Pittsburgh Parking Chair Maze.

You have to respect the chair. You can get an official one, or up your game and put out a walker, a table or even a statue of Jesus. Don’t park there if you didn’t shovel! Luckily now we don’t have to worry as much about it, but we lived in Dormont for years where no one really owned the spot in front of their place. The anger is real when someone ganks your spot after you labored for sometimes hours to clear it.

🌨️🪑🌨️🚗🌨️

The Snow-Shoveling Maze.

A lot of people are over it. We got hot with an amount of snow in our area what we haven’t seen since 2010, and it stayed cold for quite some time. Removal was difficult unless you kept up with it through the storm… and even then some folks had their sidewalks piled upon by the snow-plow trucks. Here you can do some scrawling instead of shoveling. This might work as a coloring page too? You can work back from the dead ends and the solution will be left.

❄️🪏❄️🚪❄️

The Groundhog Day Maze.

Who doesn’t love Punxsutawney Phil? I guess a lot of people when he predicts 6 more weeks of winter. We can’t balk at tradition now, can we? If you get stuck in this maze, you might feel like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day.

There once was a groundhog from Punxy.
Instead of consorting with skunks, he
Sat with turkeys to gobble
On that famous knob hill
While all the bystanders got drunk, see?

❄️🌸🪻⛄

So there you have a winter maze drop. As always, if you take the time to complete one, please share it & tag me on social media. If you dig these free mazes, I have lots more. I urge you to also maybe buy a book or a T-shirt or hoodie. Also, let me know what you think about selling *.pdf downloads on Etsy. Is it worth it?

That one time one of my mazes was in the Fat Wreck Chords ‘Zine/Catalog…


Anyone remember punk rock compilation CD’s, & their ‘zine/catalogs? I remember lots of ‘zines out there, and still love all the great punk rock that I found through Fat Wreck, Epitaph, Lookout!, Asian Man, Honest Don’s, Drive-Thru, No Idea, Hell Cat & more.

It was fun to be included in stuff like this! (I got some art in the 90’s FIEND CLUB Bleeder’s Die-Gest too!)

Check out the maze, and the pages it was part of:

A hand-drawn maze with the text 'Help FLOYD get to the refrigerator for a beer!' at the top and 'FAT WRECK CHORDS' in the center, with an illustration of a refrigerator at the bottom marked 'FINISH!'

You should try to solve it, post your solution, & tag me @AiXeLsyD13 on your preferred social media platform. And, of course I spelled refrigerator wrong. 🤦🤷

A vintage punk rock compilation catalog featuring a maze and an order form for Fat Wreck Chords merchandise, with playful illustrations and text related to punk culture.

You can check out a few more pages on my Threads post or on Instagram:

Did you dig the Survival of the Fattest, Punk-O-Rama, Greatest Shits compilations, & all the associated bands? Who were your favorites?

Snuff, Guns ‘n’ Wankers, & Dogpiss always stood out to me!

🏴‍☠️ Curses, Cutlasses, and Cauldrons | Joel Fatal, Local Troublemaker


I’ve posted before about other friends that have written books. That’s not new. I know some cool-ass people. This scoundrel has an Ernie and the Berts tattoo though.

I was on a boat in the ocean exactly once in life. We were far enough out that we could not see land. I was told it was a rather calm sea that day. I still puked over the side. I caught an amber-jack, that apparently was not good eating because of a potential parasite? I am deathly allergic to shellfish, and I am not a fan of the beach. I have probably only had rum a handful of times and it was always mixed with Coke or Dr. Pepper. Still though, who doesn’t love the romance & adventure of pirate imagery, and pirate songs?

Here’s my review of Joel’s book:

This collection of thoughts, reflection, & feelings is delivered not unlike catching a glimpse of a ghost ship in the mist on the barely discernable horizon. Sometimes it’s just hinted at on the whispers of the wind or waves of the open sea. Then, all of a sudden you’re in the crow’s nest surveying the chaos of the poop deck in a storm or in the captain’s quarters as he sips rum and recounts tales of anarchy, punk rock, rebellion, & love by candlelight. Maybe it’s the brig? Or a deserted island. It’s left to the reader to fill in the gaps as they dream of their own adventures, shenanigans, & longing. Who can’t relate to a journey, physical or metaphorical? What is the line really? Get lost in this book, & create your own treasure map to get out or to get further lost. 🏴‍☠️

You should pick it up on Amazon via KDP or check out the Goodreads page.

A hand holding a book with an illustration of a witch stirring a cauldron against an orange background, featuring a skull and crossbones in the upper corner.
Curses, Cutlasses, and Cauldrons by Joel Fatal, Local Troublemaker

After you read Joel’s book, you’ll probably want to listen to my “Let’s Get Scurvy 🏴‍☠️🦜“ playlist, and maybe even try my treasure map maze (from my book, You Can See Yourself Out). Tell me what you like from the playlist & make suggestions for more songs in the comments!

A hand-drawn treasure map maze featuring a pirate ship, sea creature, palm tree, and treasure chest, set against a background of winding paths. (Hand-drawn by AiXeLsyD13)

You can get this one on a T-shirt, and a ton of other stuff too.

But really, buy Joel’s book. Tell me what you thought about it in the comments, you barnacle-ridden bilge pump!

A person with a beard and glasses (Joel Fatal) holds four copies of a book with a pirate-themed cover featuring a skull and crossbones.

Shameless Plug: Get a Turkey Maze T-shirt! 🦃✍️


I love Thanksgiving. It’s coming soon. This is some Turkey Day attire that you can relax in. Wear it under a nice cozy flannel. It appears to be on sale at both my TeePublic and RedBubble shops currently. You should take advantage of that if you’re so inclined.

You can get this design on an apron, a coffee mug, a tote bag, a hoodie, a blanket, a pillow… or all kinds of stuff really. You can change the clothing color with a bunch of options & styles at each site too. Poke around & see if you can find something you like!

Also, you can print this out & try to solve it for free. Or do it on your phone/tablet/whatever. You can post it on social media & tag me @AiXeLsyD13.

A colorful maze illustration of a turkey with intricate patterns in its feathers, depicting a fun Thanksgiving theme.
A maze illustrated in the shape of a turkey, featuring intricate labyrinth patterns throughout its body and feathers.

Of course, I have a buch of other Thanksgiving themed mazes too:

I suggest printing the mazes for guests to compete to see who can finish first while dinner is being cooked. I have my recipes tips & tricks for that too… as well as recipes Turkey Noodle Soup and Thanksgiving Sliders. I’ll even hit you right in the stuffing nostalgia.

Hey, this pumpkin maze works for Halloween and Thanksgiving if you ask me. And, you can get two versions of it on all kinds of stuff too:

You can get the full color orange one on stuff at TeePublic and at RedBubble. You can also get the black & white one on stuff at TeePublic. I thought that might look cool on an orange T-shit.

You can do all that while listening to my Thanksgiving Playlist too, on Amazon Music or whatever you listen to.

🍗 Have any suggestions for Thanksgiving recipes, songs, or mazes? I’m all ears. 🌽🌽 Hit me up in the comments!

Spiderweb Maze 🕷️🕸️🪰


I felt like drawing another Halloween sort of maze. I will probably do some more. I wanted to give this a bit of color too. As always, I’d love it if you solved the maze on paper or on a screen, posted it so social media, & tagged me.

Have fun with this. Print it for your Halloween parties, to pass out with candy, or just for fun. Free to use, just don’t steal & sell it.

I really used to be super creeped out by spiders. Perhaps I should make a series of different kinds of spider mazes. The fly is kind of a blob here. I may do a cleaner version at some point. Still working out if I want the next book to have a theme or just be chaos (again).

A black and white maze depicting spider webs with a spider and a fly, featuring the text 'HELP THE SPIDER GET TO THE FLY!'

You can get the black & white version on all kinds of stuff like stickers, T-shirts, mugs, & wall art at TeePublic & Redbubble.

You can also get the orange version on all kinds of stuff like stickers, T-shirts, hoodies, & aprons at TeePublic & Redbubble.

There’s a whole Halloween category of my stuff at Redbubble. I got some stickers for myself to pass out in our non-food Halloween treats bowl.

We are a food allergy household, and while peanuts, tree nuts, or chocolate aren’t triggers for us, we participate in the Teal Pumpkin Project & offer 3 separate bowls… of “traditional” stuff, stuff that is does not contain or is not processed with nuts or chocolate, & total non-food treats. The non-food stuff goes well every year!

Don’t forget to check out my other Halloween mazes like the Haunted House/Graveyard, old Halloween maze merch, and stuff from long ago, or even longer ago!

You can try to solve some of these while listening to my Halloween & monster playlists! Or, check the newest one (I cannot stop!): Halloween | Certified Bangers 💀🦇🕸️🕷️