Showing posts with label NCBD. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NCBD. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 26, 2025

Rob Zombie - Heathen Days


I've never been very interested in Rob Zombie's musical solo career. Truth is breaking up White Zombie when he did was obviously a smart thing for him, but that first album set a tone each one since that I've tried to listen to matched - two or three good songs, nothing I can't live without - and that's about it. 

That brings us to the lead single off the upcoming album, The Great Satan, out February 27th on Nuclear Blast Records. You can pre-order HERE.

Maybe this record will be the one. I really want to connect with RZ's music, especially coming off another viewing of 31 a few weeks ago that left me remembering what I like about his style, as opposed to what I don't. Anyway, I'll probably wait until the album's release before considering throwing down the money for a physical copy. Just to be safe. 



NCBD:

A very light NCBD. Also, notably, the final issue of Catacombs of Terror that I'm likely to buy; the series has maintained the level of quality set by its predecessor, Epitaphs From the Abyss. However, I'm looking to cut some costs after the end of the year, and comic subs were a great place to start. Mainly because I've run into storage space issues once again.


It's an odd feeling, thinking not just about storage, but the likelihood of what I will re-read in my lifetime. I can definitely stand to trim my collection - my CLZ Comics account that I use to track it shows I have 532 unique series and 3,177 comics nested within, and I know for a fact I haven't logged everything. Still, there are 2 full long boxes and no less than 32 short boxes in my office, taking up space. About half of that is out of the way in a closet, but the other half... forces me to get creative. I've been able to maintain a fairly stable status quo by enacting several purges over the years, and while it's true some of the stuff I purged I regret, overall that regret won't keep me from doing what I have to do to stay sane. Because, you see, I'm also a bit of a neat freak and anti-clutter totalitarian, so my collector's impulse runs 100% against that. Cognitive Dissonance galore. 




Watch:

I stumbled across the trailer to Chinese Director Bi Gan's upcoming film, Resurrection, the other day and had to post it here. I know I usually trash-talk trailers, but when you have zero frame of reference, sometimes they can be awe-inspiring and help you find new things. Such is the case here:


I am unfamiliar with Director Bi Gan's previous film, Long Day's Journey Into Night, but apparently I need to remedy that ASAP, because his new film looks visually amazing!




Playlist:

Oliver Nelson - The Blues and the Abstract Truth
Charles Mingus - Three of Four Shades of Blue
Rob Zombie - Heathen Days (single)
Barry Adamson - Cut to Black
Perturbator - Age of Aquarius
Denison/Kimball Trio - Neutrons
The Saxophones - No Time for Poetry
Miles Davis - Ascenseur pur l'échafaud OST
The Velvet Underground - White Light/White Heat
Ulver - Liminal Animals
Ulver - Weeping Stone (pre-release single)
Jordan Patterson - The Hermit
Ashes and Diamonds - Are Forever
Spotlights - Rarities
Blut Aus Nord - Ethereal Horizons
Slow Crush - Thirst
Ashes and Diamonds - Are Forever




Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.


• Six of Cups
• Ace of Cups
• Eight of Pentacles

The act of creating vacuity to communicate with the unconscious can lead to an emotional breakthrough, but requires a level of concentration I am currently lacking. 

A lot of indications lately that it would be to my benefit to resume practicing mediation. I'm not sure why I am so damn reticent to do so, but I am. 

Wednesday, November 19, 2025

Fear John Cale!


This past Monday morning, a text from a good friend put John Cale's 1974 album Fear back on my radar, and I have to say, I'm not sure how I've gone so long since last listening to this. This ended up setting up a whole "70s NY" day on the stereo. I needed it!




NCBD:

Big Pull. Let's go:

Dreadnok War Part 2! Already! I either didn't realize or forgot this book was going bi-weekly for the duration of this event. An event which, might I add, is off to a really good start. As Mike Shin and I talked about on a recent Drinking with Comics, Issue 13 was easily the best issue of the Energon Universe's G.I.JOE title to date. Hope they keep it up!


This one started strong but really suffered during the middle, so I'm hoping the story will come back around again at the end. I love the art, but it limits how the story is unfurled. There is a lot of "You're telling me everything, but I want you to SHOW ME!"


I find the unrelenting pace of Larazus: Fallen almost intimidating at this point! Hahaha. Seriously, I'm spending November reading the three Criminal Deluxe Editions, but I may make Lazarus my re-read project in December or January. Can't wait to catch up!


The first issue of this was fantastic, so I'm excited to see where it goes. I believe I read this won't be an issue-to-issue series, but rather it will jump around and chronicle High Strangeness across the 20th-century American landscape.


The Laphams have me hooked on their small-town, Southwestern Crime story. 


One of the VIP titles of 2025, Michael Walsh, James Tynion and friends have crafted one helluva bloody good time with Exquisite Corpses




Watch:

Not much in the way of movie news lately, or at least nothing I care about. Here's a trailer for Edward G. Ulmer's 1945 Noir Detour.


I discovered this one last year for Noirvember and just had my second viewing the other night. A nice, tight little Noir with all the elements you've come to expect from the genre. Ulmer's not reinventing the wheel here, but that's not really what Noir is about. If we want that, we fast forward to Neo Noirs. Or how about, Sci Fi Neo Noirs?


I cracked Ridley Scott's Blade Runner out after watching Chinatown this past weekend. It just seemed like the perfect follow-up to Polanski's film. This film still feels fresh and beautiful. Only one problem, and I'm looking at Warner Bros home releasing as the guilty party. Ever heard of DVD rot? I have the Blade Runner Ultimate Edition 5 Disc collection, and when I went to fire up the disc with the US and UK Theatrical cuts, the Anti-Piracy statement came up, and then literally nothing else.

Okay, fine. I moved on to the version I usually watch, the Final Cut. I made it to Roy's arrival at JF Sebastian's place and the disc stopped. 


AHHHH!!! I looked this up online and found that there are apparently a lot of issues with DVD Rot Warner Bros. discs produced from 2006-2008. The Ultimate Edition came out in 2007, so this puts what was once a fairly expensive set squarely in the affected timeline.

Fucking Warner Bros! I LOVE the packaging on this one, so this hurts. Thinking I'm going to suss out any issues with the remaining discs, then try and find a Blu-ray copy and just transfer those discs into this package. That said, if the Blu-rays were also manufactured in 2007, well, am I just setting myself up for future failure? Why does this shit have to be so difficult!




Playlist:

John Cale - Fear
Velvet Underground - White Light/White Heat
Roxy Music - Eponymous
Brian Eno - Here Come the Warm Jets
David Bowie - Hunky Dory
Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Iggy Pop - The Idiot
Television - Marquee Moon
The Rolling Stones - Some Girls
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks - Live 1977-1979
Mastodon - Crack the Skye
Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
The Cramps - Stay Sick
Failure - Fantastic Planet
Roxy Music - For Your Pleasure
Ministry - HOPIUMFORTHEMASSES
Soundgarden - Louder Than Love
Young Widows - Power Sucker
Massive Attack - Mezzanine




Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.


• Nine of Swords
• II: High Priestess
• Queen of Pentacles


Conflicting Wills can be assuaged with nurturing. Those who oppose you do not have to be your enemy.

So nice when these are so blatantly on the nose.

Wednesday, November 12, 2025

White Hex - Sisters

 
From White Hex's 2014 album Gold Nights, released by the always lovely folks at Felte Records. This is an old favorite, part of the music that helped me rise from the ashes of my old life. Unfortunately, this Australian duo retired in 2015, so we only have the two albums, only one of which I am familiar with, the aforementioned Gold Nights. While I'm thinking about it, time to check out 2012's Heat, which you can listen to on any of the music streamers, or, at the group's Bandcamp, which thankfully is still up. Highly recommended.


NCBD:

I'm excited to read a couple of the titles in this week's pull. Let's go!


Last month's #25 was Robert Kirkman and Dan Mora's first issue taking the reins on the title from Daniel Warren Johnson and Jorge Corona and they did an outstanding job! Really set the tone for what is to come, while building on all the little threads woven throughout the book so far. I think Mr. Corona's visual style was the perfect accompaniment for DWJ's narrative; Dan Mora's style feels super slick in comparison - not a bad thing! Look at this cover - it looks a bit more like the Transformers titles Dreamwave or IDW used to put out. That said, there's definitely room to bring the 'bots out of the wreckage they've all languished in thus far, and this could be the perfect way to do that. 


We covered this recently on Drinking with Comics, but I'll reiterate here that my favorite thing about reading my first Spider-Man: Noir series is that all the character's dialogue is in Nick Cage's voice in my head!


Event Horizon: Dark Descent is still shaping up, so I'm not entirely certain how I feel about it. That said, last issue's inclusion and specific naming of the Demon Paimon really surprised me, so I'm here for whatever Hell Dimension madness Christian Ward and Tristan Jones are serving up as we go deeper into the events that set up the film Event Horizon!


The final issue of Dan Watters and Hayden Sherman's brilliant Batman: Dark Patterns! I've loved this series, but it's time to let ol' Bats go for a while. going out on a high note with this one, though. 


The solicitation promises, "... a return to the Terror Drome..." and I am all about that. Kind of a bucket list toy I never procured as a child and I'd be hesitant to invest in if Classified did it now - which they won't - the Terror Drome always felt like the coolest thing in Cobra's arsenal when I was a kid. The way Larry Hama's run depicted Cobra mass-manufacturing them as arms to be sold to any country or mercenary that would pay their price - I loved it so much. It's been a minute since I've even thought about this thing, so let's take a moment and check out the old school toy commercial to cap off today's NCBD!


Man! That takes me back something fierce. 



Watch:

Noirvember continues with Roy William Neil's 1946 Black Angel


I knew nothing about this film before K and I stumbled across it on the Criterion Channel a couple of nights ago. Honestly, I don't even really remember the description, just "staring Peter Lorre can often be enough to get me to press play. And this one did not disappoint. 

Pretty conventional to start, there's a drunk on a bender, a couple shady dudes with hats, and a dead woman. Where this one makes its mark is the fact that it incorporates musical elements and then gets really freakin' dark at the end.

If you're looking for a Noir that does a little something different, this one's worth your time. And hey - Peter Lorre, right?




Playlist:

Steve Moore - Jimmy and Stigg OST
Coleman Hawkins - Wrapped Tight
Pepper Adams - Encounter!
White Hex - Gold Nights
Ritual Howls - Their Body EP
Melvins - Thunderball
Deafheaven - New Bermuda
Young Widows - Power Sucker
Dance with the Dead - Psycho Disco (single)
The Wraith - Gloom Ballet
Odonis Odonis - Eponymous (pre-release singles)




Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.


• Two of Pentacles
• Eight of Wands
• Eight of Cups

Successful partnership requires a sublimation of the Will to allow for Emotion. 

That's kind of a surface level, even shit reading, but it actually holds meaning for me at the moment. Really, that's all I'm looking for with these. 

Wednesday, November 5, 2025

New Music From Dreamkid

 
You know, Dreamkid's seriously 80s affectations prevented me from adding 2024's Daggers to my top ten list, but looking back on 2025, I've probably listened to that record way more than some of those that made the list. I really root for Dreamkid, and even if he sometimes leaves me a little cold at first, I overall really love his music. 

This track's gonna have to grow on me, but one thing that definitely made my ears perk up is the brief spoken word part near the end - total M83 influence there! Very cool. 



NCBD:

Big week. Let's go!

This one leads into big things, as issue 23 saw some crazy shit happen on the Great Ring, and 25 is due to kick off the Quintesson War. Huh - weird that, as we'll see below, this month's GI JOE kicks off the "Dreadnok War." Lots of war in Kirkman's Energon Universe these days, but that's to be expected with all the giant robots and laser weapons.
 

James Stokoe's second volume of Orphan and the Five Beasts promises more of Stokoe's insane art and probably even more insane martial arts action! Love this series. Just look at the cover art - how many hours could that have taken? The detail is insane, and when you figure that every page of the interior is of the same caliber, well, breathtaking. That's all I can say.


This entire issue is a Liam Sharpe opus, and I cannot wait! 


Planet Death! I almost forgot about this book. Still pumping out those old school, mid-80s Dark Horse vibes, for sure. 

Jeff Lemire's Minor Arcana returns and I have to confess - I'm considering stepping off this monthly and buying the Hardcovers when they come out. But then I'd have to wait and... I just don't know if I can do that. 

Talk about first-world problems. 


Here it is, folks - the aforementioned Dreadnok War! I love the Dreadnoks and can't wait to see how this is going to go down. Reading between the lines, I think they'll be a body count here. 


Okay, I know I pop in and out of Amazing Spider-Man, so this isn't that weird, right? I think I do it because I need one title that I engage with the way I did as a kid on an allowance, in and out, based on what interests me. This cover? This interests me because that looks an awful lot like Warlock from the New Mutants. I know it's not Warlock, but if it's a Phalanx, this could be very interesting (as long as it doesn't even remotely resemble Phalanx Covenant). 



Watch:

Saturday, November 1st, I kicked off Noirvember by watching something like nine hours of Nicolas Winding Refn and Ed Brubaker's 2019 series Too Old To Die Young. I finished it Sunday and now I have a great big Refn-sized hole in my life.


This is Refn's version of what David Lynch did with Twin Peaks: The Return, a 13-hour-long movie cut into episodes, or 'volumes' in this case. 

Total. 

Fucking. 

Masterpiece. 

Not going to be for everyone. Hell, it took me three attempts and six years to finally do the entire thing. 

Refn likes to create gorgeous images with ugly content (see Vol. 5: The Fool), and he really wants to punish his audience at times. This is nothing new; you see increments of this in Only God Forgives, Neon Demon and I'm sure some of his other work I'm not familiar with (Pusher alienated me within minutes and I've never gone back). That penchant for beautiful ugliness, combined with his “painting” style will test a lot of people’s patience. n my opinion? It’s 100% worth it. Especially if you’re a Lynch fan, because although his influence is always apparent in NWR’s work, this feels like a love letter to him.




Playlist:

Steve Moore - Jimmy and Stiggs OST
Perturbator - Age of Aquarius
Oranssi Pazuzu - Muuntautuja
Mastodon - Blood Mountain
Deafheaven - Lonely People With Power
The Cramps - Date with Elvis
Dreamkid - Apocalyptic Love Song (single)
The Leather Nun - Primemover/FFA (single)
Blut Aus Nord - Ethereal Horizons (pre-release singles)
Blut Aus Nord - 777: The Desanctification
Ritual Howls - Ruin
White Hex - Gold Nights
The Damned - Night of a Thousand Vampires
Opeth - Still Life
The Damned - Darkadelic
Testament - Para Bellum
Young Widows - Power Sucker
Slow Crush - Thirst



Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.


• XIX: The Sun
• Four of Cups
• Eight of Cups

The Triumphant of the Spirit. I like the sound of that. The cards on either side of XIX seem to be telling me to pick up both the bass and the guitar again, something I have ideas for throughout the week during my daily life, and then go blank at night when I have time to actually work on something. Four of Cups is an emotional powerbase, and Eight of Cups is a little bit like that pays off, so I'm thinking I might find it rewarding to put a period at the end of this sentence and then plug in a guitar for a little while, even if I don't have any ideas in my head at the moment. 

Wednesday, October 29, 2025

Bauhaus - King Volcano


A little Bauhaus as we close in on the most sacred day of the year. I once had a dream about this song that made me question everything I thought I knew about my own mind. Pure Magick, this one. From Burning from the Inside, their 1983 "final" album (until 2008's Go Away White, that is) and the first Bauhaus record to cross this human's path. Made me an instant fan. 




31 Days of Halloween:

Ken Russell's Gothic, a film that, although my recent rewatch taught me it doesn't quite hold up to the impression it made on me when I was younger, is still far and away a wild ride. 


I have Frankenstein on the brain, and this really hit the spot, even if it is kind of more Ken Russell than it is Horror or Historical. That's fine with me, though, as I'd imagine a night spent drinking laudanum in a castle with Lord Byron would definitely make me feel as though I were in one of Russell's films. 
..

1) Incident On and Off a Mountain Road///The Funhouse (theatrical viewing)
2) Tales From the Crypt Ssn 1 Ep 4, "Dig That Cat... He's Real Gone"///Cabin in the Woods
3) Satanic Hispanics
4) Creature From the Black Lagoon 3D///Lucky McKee's May
5) The Strangers
6) [REC]
7) The Autopsy - GDT Cabinet of Curiosities///[REC]2
8) Where the Devil Roams
9) The Roost
10) Good Boy///The Viewing - GDT Cabinet of Curiosities
11) Blood Moon (aka Wolf Girl)///All Hallows' Eve (The Last Drive-In Helloween)
12) The Shining///The Simpsons Ssn 6 Treehouse of Horror V
13) Stream (2024)
14) Creepshow (1982; theatrical viewing)
15) They Live in the Grey///John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness (theatrical viewing)
16) Black Phone 2
17) Scream 2///Mayhem (The Last Drive-In Blu-ray
18) The Exorcist
19) The Wolf of Snow Hollow/// The Taking of Deborah Logan
20) Tales From the Crypt: Demon Knight (theatrical screening)///Cellar Dweller
21) The Black Phone///"Dream Kill" (segment in V/H/S85
22) The Transfiguration///Black Phone 2
23) Shelby Oaks
24) Clown in a Cornfield/// Jack-O (The Last Drive-In Splatterween double feature)
25) Ken Russell's Gothic/// Inferno/// Lords of Salem
26) Night of the Living Dead 1990/// Night of the Demons
27) Final Destination 3/// Jimmy & Stiggs
28) Trick r' Treat




NCBD:

I never made it out to Rick's Comic City Clarksville last week for my pull, so I'm doing double duty today. Here's this week's books:


Like Imperial below, I'm not really sure this series has lived up to what it could have been, but it's been fun. Ten bucks says Noran Rad isn't actually going to die, that this is just the launching of a new female character a la She Hulk, who Marvel can play around with alongside the original surfer. 


I have no idea if I'll actually get a shot at picking this up—it wasn't in my shop's Shopify—but I'll try. Been meaning to watch the original Ghoulies all month, as it's one of K's favorites, but we just haven't gotten around to it. Maybe bringing this home will help make up for that. 


Imperial started a lot better than it's developed, but I'm still hoping to see some crazy cosmic WTF Marvel sh*t this month in the finale. 


Easily my most anticipated book each month at this point, I'm dying to see what is actually going on in this book. Zander Cannon has laid the groundwork for an epic, and based on what we've seen so far—the way everything has been plotted and slowly unraveled—Sleep is a Horror Mystery of a most singular nature. 




Playlist:

Various - Return of the Living Dead OST
Steve Moore - Jimmy & Stiggs OST
Various - Rocktober Blood OST
The Cramps - Flamejob
Ritual Howls - Ruin
My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult - Confessions of a Knife
Trust Obey - Fear And Bullets
The Body - I Shall Die Here
A Place to Bury Strangers - Exploding Head
Bauhaus - Mask
Eerie Von - Bad Dream No. 13
Bauhaus - Burning From the Inside




Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Three of Swords
• XX: Judgement
• VIII: Strength

Conflict and a reckoning will require strength, but that strength will also increase. 

Wednesday, October 22, 2025

New Music from Blut Aus Nord!!!

 

The second track released from the upcoming album Ethereal Horizons, out November 28th on Debemur Morti Records. Pre-order HERE.




31 Days of Halloween:

I was 100% unfamiliar with John Buechler's 1987 film Cellar Dweller before two nights ago. I'd heard of it, but knew nothing about it. After stumbling across it on Prime the other night, I'd have to say this fits right in there with 976-Evil and The Dead Pit as a lost 80s classic Video Store Horror gem!


Not a 'great' flick by any stretch, but FUN! I've grown to recognize seeing Buechler's name attached to a film as an exciting thing, and this only reinforces that assessment. 
...

1) Incident On and Off a Mountain Road///The Funhouse (theatrical viewing)
2) Tales From the Crypt Ssn 1 Ep 4, "Dig That Cat... He's Real Gone"///Cabin in the Woods
3) Satanic Hispanics
4) Creature From the Black Lagoon 3D///Lucky McKee's May
5) The Strangers
6) [REC]
7) The Autopsy - GDT Cabinet of Curiosities///[REC]2
8) Where the Devil Roams
9) The Roost
10) Good Boy///The Viewing - GDT Cabinet of Curiosities
11) Blood Moon (aka Wolf Girl)///All Hallows' Eve (The Last Drive-In Helloween)
12) The Shining///The Simpsons Ssn 6 Treehouse of Horror V
13) Stream (2024)
14) Creepshow (1982; theatrical viewing)
15) They Live in the Grey///John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness (theatrical viewing)
16) The Black Phone 2
17) Scream 2///Mayhem (The Last Drive-In Blu-ray
18) The Exorcist
19) The Wolf of Snow Hollow///The Taking of Deborah Logan
20) Tales From the Crypt: Demon Knight (theatrical screening)///Cellar Dweller
21) The Black Phone///"Dream Kill" (segment in V/H/S85





NCBD:

Just four titles this week (I think), so let's talk about the big one first.


Jason Aaron's run is already over? Weird - I don't feel like this book really did what I thought it would do. That's not good or bad, just... I don't even know. Maybe it's the bi-monthly thing that has me feeling so removed from it. Certainly there appear to have been some big changes on the surface, and I did really enjoy the way Aaron took the brothers apart and reintroduced them as a team that is more dysfunctional than we've ever seen before. We'll see how this transitions to the new creative team starting with issue 13.


After finally catching up and reading the first four issues of Chris Condone and Jeffrey Alan Love's News From the Fall Out recently, I have to say, this is the first book I've contemplated dumping before it finishes in quite some time, There was one whole issue spent with people arguing in a diner. I mean, if felt like that "Put on the glasses" scene in They Live, and while I love that film and that scene is hysterically iconic, it's best left not repeating it, because it still tests my patience when Carpenter did it! I don't know - I'm feeling like there's not enough of the story here to go a full six issues so things got stretched out in a way that really killed the momentum, but we'll see. I'm sticking it out until it wraps with issue six. Condone has never disappointed me before, so I owe the man the benefit of the doubt. 


At a glance, this cover gives me all kinds of Uncanny Valley weirdness. 


I've had this book on my mind after watching the 2024 film Stream recently, which was enjoyable, but didn't quite have the scope Walsh and Tynion present in Exquisite Corpses. 



Playlist:

Type O Negative - Bloody Kisses (Suspended in Dusk edition)
John Harrison - Day of the Dead OST
Testament - Para Bellum
Misfits - Earth A.D. 
Saigon Blue Rain - Oko
Black Tape for a Blue Girl - Remnants of a Deeper Purity
Various - Lords of Salem OST
Count Gorgann - Corpse Eater: Satanic Misery Live for the Dead
77s - All Fall Down
Pilot Priest and Electric Youth - Come True OST




Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

And Grimm's Kickstarter for The Eldritch Lace Tarot deck is now live! You can go check it out and support it HERE.


• Six of Cups
• Queen of Pentacles
• Nine of Cups

The ache of memory can cloud the mind, emotion overwhelming the faculties that make the day-to-day decisions. This is how I feel I live sometimes. Is this a good thing? It can be, but here's an instance where I'll actually use the specific image on Grimm's card to help understand what the cards are saying: intoxication. I'm overflowing with emotional bias and it probably is responsible for regularly made bad decisions. Not like, hookers and blow bad decision, but like, I don't need to buy everything that looks like it will make me happy. 

Wednesday, October 8, 2025

Mark Ronson & RAYE


It is rare to find music that you instantly bond with. That turns a Saturday night at 12:30 AM at age 49 into an event you cannot turn off. That makes you open another bottle of beer. That makes your heart pump like you've suddenly, unexpectedly fallen in love. That is RAYE. A chance encounter on KCRW on the way home from a great night out in L.A. that turns into an hours-long exploration of an artist's catalogue and yields a new obsession.

While the song above is the one that got me, I've been listening to Raye's 2023 album, My 21st Century Blues, for the last three days and it is stuck. In. Me. Head!!! Flashes of Hip-Hop and R&B, slick production and layered vocals really make this record stand out. Also exciting is the fact that Raye has a new album releasing next year. The pre-order is up HERE.




31 Days of Halloween:

After rewatching Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza's 2007 film [REC] this past Monday night, I feel I can definitively say that I think this is the single best use of the found footage Horror trope/genre out there. In fact, the only thing that might top it is [REC]2.

 
[REC] gets you to drop your guard early on, and then, when shit goes down, quickly becomes increasingly savage. If you haven't seen these but ever wondered what a demonic possession movie would look like with the contagion mechanics of a zombie film, these first two [REC] flicks are for you.

1) Incident On and Off a Mountain Road///The Funhouse
2) Tales From the Crypt Ssn 1 Ep 4, "Dig That Cat... He's Real Gone"///Cabin in the Woods
3) Satanic Hispanics
4) Creature From the Black Lagoon 3D///May
5) The Strangers
6) [REC]
7) The Autopsy - GDT Cabinet of Curiosities///[REC]2




NCBD:

This week's pull list over at Rick's Comic City, Clarksville:


One more issue of Batman: Dark Patterns to go after this. One of the best Bat-series I've read, and while I'll be sorry to see it go, with a character that is strip-mined as much as Bats, I'm glad Watters and Sherman are leaving us wanting more instead of overstaying their welcome. 


While I recall enjoying the first issue of this Event Horizon prequel mini-series, I don't remember it. I'm not the biggest fan of the flick - I dig it, but each subsequent viewing since my first has diminished it a bit. That's not to say there's a lot of mythology contained in that film that I'd like to see explored - hence my interest in this series. Like probably everyone else who has seen the film, I want more Hell dimension! This book promises to give it to us. 


Things are heating up in Springfield and beyond. Curious to see where the various threads are going to coalesce. I've been into G.I.Joe again in general, as evidenced by the fact that, earlier this evening, I spent 20 minutes lost in a rabbit hole about the character Sci Fi, a character I never owned or knew anything about. 


A new Horror comic from Spectrevision? Sign. Me. Up! Here's the solicitation, culled from League of Comic Geeks:

"Chicago, 1967. Magazine writer Harry Kean is dispatched to rural Indiana to investigate the sudden disappearance of Becky Plume, a local teenager who stepped into the national spotlight with staggering photographic evidence of a recent UFO sighting. Frustrated to leave his developing stories in Chicago—and the wife he’s hoping to win back—Harry sets off to expose a hoax but instead finds himself in a labyrinth of high strangeness involving a missing girl, her boyfriend, a UFO, and some mysterious black-clad visitors circling at the perimeter of a mystery more vast than Harry could possibly imagine."


I have no idea what this new SIKTC one-shot is, but, of course, I'm here for it!


And finally, Robert Kirkman takes over writing Transformers with issue #25. Looks like a potentially significant change in the book's tone, so I'm curious to see how this unfolds. 




Playlist:

Dreamkid - Daggers
YUNGBLUD - Idols
Burial - Untrue
Telefon Tel Aviv - Immolate Yourself
Drab Majesty - Careless
Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
RAYE - My 21st Century Blues
Type O Negative - Life Is Killing Me
Faetooth - Labyrinthine
Type O Negative - October Rust
Tones on Tail - Everything!
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Blood Lust
Spotlights - Love and Decay
Loathe - I Let It in and It Took Everything




Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

And Grimm's Kickstarter for The Eldritch Lace Tarot deck is now live! You can go check it out and support it HERE.


• Queen of Cups
• Knight of Pentacles
• XI: Justice

Strong emotional responses can lead to Willful advances in compensation. 

That's pretty weak, fortune-teller vague, but I'm tired, so that's all I have at the moment. 

Wednesday, October 1, 2025

New Music From The Subways!


Holy smokes, has it been a minute since we had some new music from The Subways! I was initially going to post this last Friday, but then I realized it wouldn't debut until Friday afternoon, and I completely forgot about it. Seeing it in my drafts, I became excited all over again. I mean, NEW music from The Subways?!? Sure, this song doesn't herald a new album, just a comp, but STILL! Hearing this band again, I remember how much I love their first album. 
 
That new compilation is called When I'm With You, and you can pre-order it HERE.




NCBD:

Pretty cool NCBD this week, as I've added a few outliers to my pull. 


I'm not sure I'll be buying Matt Fraction's Batman title in perpetuity, but I definitely had to grab this second issue just for the way the cover complements issue #1. Also, I did really dig that first issue, so who knows? Dan Watters' Dark Patterns is ending soon, and I've kind of grown attached to having a monthly bat-book. We'll see. 

I don't know much about Spider-Man Noir, but I dug the character in Across the Spider-Verse, and I love the design and concept, so I'm giving this a shot. Also, Erik Larsen returns to a derivation of the character that made him famous, so that feels like something I want to be here for. 


It just dawned on me now that we're six issues from SIKTC #50. I can feel this title building toward something, as it has gone backward into the past to propel us into the future. I don't know if I've said it here before, but I've carried a distinct idea for a while now that this book isn't going to go past 75 issues, so we may be closing in on a whole new world here. 


Like Spider-Man Noir, I don't know a helluva lot about Zatana, although I've probably read a skosh more with her than our Cage-voiced web-head up there. How could I not buy a one-shot with this title on the first day of Halloween? 



Watch:

Puppet Combo made a movie!


Okay, yeah, this isn't going to win any awards. It also might ultimately prove a bit of a chore to get through. But hit damn if I'm not psyched to A) Support Puppet Combo's first film and, B) see some of their game imagery come to life on the big screen. If this goes well... imagine a Nun Massacre film? 




Playlist:

NIN - The Downward Spiral
David Bowie and Nine Inch Nails - Back in Anger 1995
David Bowie - No Plan EP
NIN - The Fragile (Disc 1)
Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
Blackbraid - Blackbraid III
Trust Obey - Fear and Bullets (1998 Edition)
Odonis Odonis - Post Plague
Type O Negative - Dead Again
Mitch & Ira Yuspeh - Seven Doors of Death OST
At the Drive-In - Relationship of Command
Slow Dive - Thirst
Fabio Frizzi - The Beyond OST
lords. - Bleeding Out (single)
lords. - Singles playlist
Cryo Chamber - Echoes of the Hollow Earth




Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

And Grimm's Kickstarter for The Eldritch Lace Tarot deck is now live! You can go check it out and support it HERE.


• Four of Cups
• II: High Priestess
• Six of Cups

There's that apathy again. So weird how certain cards in this deck just stick to me. I've never had this with any other deck. So we're looking at that disinterest I'm showing the digital world, and we see it undercut by cloudy logic; am I missing something? Am I mixing nostalgia with reason? 

Wednesday, September 24, 2025

Young Widows - Call Bullshit


My friend Chris is in town and we're heading to Nashville's Eastside Bowl tonight to see Young Widows and Russian Circles. Here's a track from the Widows' new album, Power Sucker, which is currently on my best of list for the year. 

You can check out more tour dates and merch for Young Widows on their Bandcamp HERE.

Also, Russian Circles' Bandcamp can be found HERE.

I'm relatively new to Russian Circles, but Young Widows I've been digging on since back when their debut Settle Down City landed in my mailbox. 



NCBD:

I'm off today so I'll be heading into Rick's earlier than usual to pick up my books. Here's what's coming home with me for NCBD, September 24, 2025:


One issue remains after this month's Void Rivals before we are catapulted into the eagerly anticipated Quintesson War. Crossovers and Events are generally not my thing, but being that the entire Energon Universe is kind of one big crossover, I'm hoping Kirkman and company show the big two how to do these correctly. I've expressed my love of the Quintessons here before, so to have them up front for six issues is going to (hopefully) be a dream come true.


Now one of my most anticipated books each month, Zander Cannon's Sleep continues to keep me hanging on every issue. 


I was just talking about this on a recent episode of The Horror Vision, so I'm overjoyed to see the second chapter of James Stokoe's Orphan and the Five Beasts finally hitting the stands. The art in Stokoe's pages must take an insane amount of time, so I'll be reading this one slowly, with a keen eye on all the details that make Stokoe's work so rewarding. 


I'm behind on Condon and Alan Love's News From the Fall Out, but the first issue left quite the impression, so I'm looking forward to catching up this week and getting current. 


Regarding this cover: As a life-long fan of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow with virtually no good adaptations of the source material or even just jaunts with the Headless Horseman, you have my attention, Mr. Spears. Please - the floor is yours. 


As I mentioned in Monday's "Card" section of this page, I'm still putting off my Lazarus reread that is meant to be a welcome refresher before jumping into this final Lazarus series. This series just hits too close to home these days. 


I started buying this Death of the Silver Surfer series for the covers, but the story is turning out to be pretty good, even if we all know there are no real stakes here. Still, even though I don't have much interest in most of what Marvel is doing at the moment, I always keep my eye out for mini-series, as there have been quite a few over the last five years or so that I really liked. The Death of Doctor Strange was incredibly good, and while this isn't that, it's keeping me hanging on from issue to issue. 




Watch:

Last Saturday night I sat down and watched Brandon Christensen's latest flick, Night of the Reaper. Here's a trailer that won't spoil anything:


This one is a bit of style over substance, but not intentionally so, and it's pretty fun. That said, the "twist" did not feel earned at all, and I'm still a little bit confused as to whether the logistics actually work. Still, this would make a fun Friday night beer bottle flick for sure. 




Playlist:

Young Widows - Power Sucker
Zeal & Ardor - Eponymous
Hellbender - Hellbender OST
Ozzy Osbourne - No More Tears
Young Widows - Settle Down City
Opeth - Blackwater Park
Drug Church - Prude
Led Zeppelin - Live EP
Roy Ayers - Ubiquity
Frank Black and the Catholics - One More Road for the Hit
Pastor T.L. Barrett and the Youth For Christ Choir - Like a Ship Without a Sail
Butthole Surfers - Rembrandt Pussyhorse
Joy Division - Still
Butthole Surfers - Locust Abortion Technician




Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

Also, if you head over to Grimm's Kickstarter HERE you'll see his upcoming The Eldritch Lace Tarot Deck, you can hit the "notify upon launch" button and then you can get on this seriously unbelievably awesome deck. 


• Queen of Cups
• Queen of Pentacles
• Nine of Swords

An abundance of feminine energy is never a bad thing; Coupled with the Nine of Swords, I take this as a "pay attention to what the women in your life are saying" connotation.