Nuthin' But a Gorehound

 

From their 1983 live album, Smell of Female, here are the immortal Cramps with a song I think a lot of Horror fans can relate to.

I'd never heard this live album before, but like most of those I have heard from The Cramps, it's fantastic. There are some hysterical introductions and asides from Lux, and Ivy's guitar seems particularly "trash heap" in its stringing and tuning, which of course, adds to the band's overall sound this particular night in 1983, arguably smack dab in the middle of their prime.

---

---

---

31 Days of Halloween:

1) When Evil Lurks/VHS 85/Adam Chaplin

2) Tales From the Crypt Ssn 1, Ep 6 "Collection Complete"

3) VHS

4) All You Need is Death

5) Slashers (2001)

6) The Beyond/Phenomena

7) The Convent

8) Evil Dead 2

9) The Autopsy of Jane Doe

10) Totally Killer

11) Ritual (Joko Anwar)/The Final Terror/Grave Robbers

12) Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (w/Joe Bob)

13) Never Hike Alone/Never Hike in the Snow/Never Hike Alone 2

14) Puppetman

15) Creepshow Season 4 Episode 1

16) Return of the Living Dead

17) Don't Look Now

---

---

---

NCBD:

My picks for NCBD; watch for this week's episode of Drinking with Comics tomorrow where I'll talk a bit more in-depth about each of these:

Coming out of that Wolverine Crossover, I'm not entirely sure where we are in Benjamin Percy's Ghost Rider. That's not the book's fault; I actually think this issue might be the start of a new arc that gives us a little more information on Talia Warroad and her upbringing in the Cult of Mephisto. Could be very cool to explore the MCU's version of a "Satanic Cult," only based around Mephisto. I'd love to see a character like Frank Castle's old nemesis The Reverend pop up here, but that's doubtful. Still, if they could tap into a tone comparable to those old Mike Baron Punisher stories, that'd be fantastic, but I'm basing this on absolutely nothing outside my own agenda.

I'm digging that we get to see so much Corinthian for sure, however, I feel like I need to go back and re-read all of Nightmare Country and Nightmare Country: Glass House in order to move forward. The Thessaly one-shot that carried the story between Part 3 and 4 threw me a bit. Time to recalibrate. Tynion's doing an incredible job of giving us a new story worthy of having "Sandman Presents" on the cover, with a tone that definitely falls right in line with the first two trades of the original Sandman series. 

Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino's Tenement is picking up speed, and every issue gets darker, weirder and, well, better! Can't wait to see where we're going today.

LOVE this cover. I'm an issue or two behind on TMNT, so here's another one that it's time to catch up on.

---

---

---

Playlist:

Joy Division - Closer

My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult - Confessions of a Knife

My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult - I See Good Spirits and I See Bad Spirits

Ministry - The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste

The Cramps - Smell of Female (Live)

Red Lorry Yellow Lorry - Talk About the Weather

Trust Obey - Fear and Bullets (half 1994 Edition and half 1998 Edition)

Bauhaus - Burning From the Inside

---

---

---

Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Queen of Cups - the watery aspect of water - High Emotional Understanding

• Three of Wands - Inner aspirations 

• XII: The Hanged Man - Sacrifice

Sacrifice for your Art. There's really no other way to read this. Seeing this, I'm going to make a point to spend extra time working on the book this weekend. I'm in what is probably the second-to-last pass on Black Gloves and Broken Hearts, and it sounds like it's time to turn up the productivity levels a bit more than I already have.

No Love Lost on Grave Robbers

Traditionally, my love of Joy Division becomes particularly strong in Autumn. Or at least that's how it was before I moved to L.A. Well, order appears to have been restored because it's October and Substance is once again running in my veins. Here's "No Love Lost," which always sounded a lot more like Warsaw-era to me.

---

---

---

31 Days of Halloween:

I basically rode Shudder TV's Slashics for the majority of the evening. Here's what I saw:

 

This movie is nuts. I caught it from about ten minutes in, but you get it right away. Well, you don't 'get it' until the end, but that's what ended up turning this one into a positive viewing because otherwise, Joko Anwar's Ritual goes to some places I don't normally like to go. I'd definitely count this one as a "recommend," but you have to come with your game face on because there's some rough shit here.

Next, A rather passive rewatch of Andrew Davis's brilliant Backwoods Slasher/Survival flick The Final Terror: 

 

I posted the same trailer a few months ago, after the first time I caught this one. A really solid film that does what a lot of Backwoods Slashers try to do and fail (F13 - looking at most of your early works). Also, young Joe Pantoliano and Darryl Hannah, and some really beautiful photography by the Director, who doubled as Cinematographer. Susan Justin's score is pretty bitching as well, and all of this adds up to produce a flick I'd rank up there with Jeff Lieberman's Just Before Dawn and Peter Carter's Rituals with Hal Holbrook.

Finally, Slashics ended my night with Rubén Galindo Jr.'s 1989 clusterfuck Grave Robbers:

 

I'm sorry. Did I say the last movie was nuts? Nope. THIS flick is nuts. I think Rubén Galindo Jr. saw every 80s Slasher, Possession and Zombie flick and his brain just blendered them into a crazy, gory, Satan Smoothie, and I'm here for it. This is criminally underseen, but it's on Shudder, so seek it out. Just make sure your expectations don't stray above, "Get f*cked up and gawk at the ludicrous."

1) When Evil Lurks/VHS 85/Adam Chaplin

2) Tales From the Crypt Ssn 1, Ep 6 "Collection Complete"

3) VHS

4) All You Need is Death

5) Slashers (2001)

6) The Beyond/Phenomena

7) The Convent

8) Evil Dead 2

9) The Autopsy of Jane Doe

10) Totally Killer

11) Ritual (Joko Anwar)/The Final Terror/Grave Robbers

---

---

---

Read:

Oh man, it arrived:

After only reading one 'issue' of the Weird Walk zine, I was absolutely smitten. Paying for the shipping, though, was often daunting. When I saw the creators were compiling many (or maybe all? This one's thick!) of the floppies into a tome, I immediately pre-ordered it. And forgot it, which was cool, because when I opened the box yesterday, there was a moment where I felt like a kid receiving a fabulous Christmas gift. Can't wait to dig in.

---

---

---

Playlist:

Cristobal Tapia De Veer - Smile OST

Walter Rizzati - House By the Cemetery OST

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Blood

Joy Division - Substance: 1977-1980

NIN - Not The Actual Events

Halloween Spotify Playlist

---

---

---

Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Ten of Cups

• Queen of Cups

• Four of Pentacles

My parents are poised to sign a contract to sell their house, and that means A LOT of work and stress up ahead for the remainder of the year as we take the steps to move them and find them a house. No sweat, but there's the inevitable emotional deluge that will hit me at some point, the one people have asked me if I've felt yet. We moved into that house in 1986 when I was ten. That's a long time, and I love the house, the area, everything. The part of Palos I grew up in is essentially a tiny enclave in the middle of a forest preserve (if you reaed Shadow Play Book One, yep, that was the inspiration for Gallows Hill). Anyway, I read this as a warning that emotions are going to step in and gum stuff up for me; can't let that affect the work. 

Hell, now that I 'say' that out loud, this might also be a warning about interrupting my writing. I just finished the second draft of Black Gloves and Broken Hearts, my *ahem* Young Adult Giallo novel, and I'm hoping to have it out by Christmas or, at latest, January 1. I need to keep that in my sights regardless of what happens with the move.