I had no idea this existed until just now. Love it (even if I'm not interested in reading the series; I'd rather just re-read the novel for the fifth or sixth time). Still, I applaud Sumerian for using their record label chops to strengthen their publishing ventures.
Watch:
Two weeks ago, I watched Quentin Dupieux's Deerskin. This movie instantly became an all-time favorite film.
I'd not seen Rubber, even though I'd heard good things. I posted the trailer to Wrong back in 2013 but never ended up seeing it. Now, I'm kind of obsessed with seeing all Dupieux's films. We did an Elements of Horror episode that just went up, a deep-dive into Deerskin and talking about it just made me love it more. Unfortunately, there is no standard-issue U.S. Blu-Ray; however, if you have a region-free player, there's a Region B on Amazon right now for a little over $10. TOTALLY worth it.
Read:
After finishing Cassandra Khaw's Nothing But Blackened Teeth, I took a small detour from my next intended book and began re-reading the short stories in James Joyce's Dubliners.
I like the idea of having a book of short stories I can go to here and there, and this is perfect for that. I'd never read all of these; this is a picture I found online of the edition I've had since sometime in late HS or early College, when I'm fairly certain volume-closing "The Dead" was assigned reading. I've been picking at these over the last few days, and will no doubt set it down soon to read my final book of the year, but while I'm on it, I'm loving the elegant prose and snapshot style, especially in "Eveline."
Playlist:
Moderat - II
Steve Moore - Christmas Bloody Christmas OST
Perturbator (Feat. Kabbel) - Dangerous (single)
Carpenter Brut - Blood Machines OST
Amigo the Devil - Everything is Fine
Opeth - Deliverance
Cocteau Twins - Garlands
Baroness - Stone
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Five of Pentacles (Disks) - Earthly Conflict/Struggle
• Eight of Pentacles (Disks) - Earthly Transformation
• Ace of Swords - A breakthrough of intellect
This is one of the more mundane discussions I've had "with the cards," but I'm reading today's Pull as a definite nod to the conflict that always permeates our household between K's mother and myself. It's the age-old story of the mother-in-law syndrome, and I hate to fall into these kinds of "Life Tropes," however, the struggle is real, brothers and sisters. The message imparted here would seem to be "use your brain, not your anger," as I tend to steam for a while and then verbally lash out. Nothing too untoward, but arguments occur and maybe this year they don't have to.
Live on Conan O'Brien in 1995, shortly after MacGowan was sacked from The Pogues for 'alcohol-related' issues. I have no experience with The Popes, other than what I've heard at other people's houses. I guess I didn't realize the chronology. I will say, so far, I like this first record The Snake better than I like those later Pogues records. That might be a knee-jerk reaction, time will tell, but I thought this made a nice time capsule of MacGowan's first year away from the band that most people - myself included - know him from.
NCBD:
My pull for NCBD this week isn't a big one, but it's comprised entirely of things I am bubbling with excitement for.
I have to say, after taking a chance on last month's first issue of Szymon Kurdanski's Blood Commandment number one, I've been waiting for number two pretty impatiently. Kinda stoked about this book!
Here's one I know ZERO about - Andrew Krahnke's Bloodrick. I'm not sure what caught my eye here, however, in reading about it on League of Comic Geeks, I noticed a comment from someone who read this in its previously self-published iteration. This makes me happy, to see something go from self-publishing to being distributed by Image.
I loved the Stuff Of Nightmares Halloween special in October, and I'm assuming that, regardless of the fact that Christmas Horror is not my favorite niche in the genre, I will like this equally well. This is just such a great book. No contest who wins the Horror Anthology war this year, with The Silver Coin still on hiatus.
Soundwave's on the cover and I'm hoping like hell he's in the issue! So far, Daniel Warren Johnson's take on the Transformers has a complete hold on me.
Doom's X-Men? Huh. I'm getting a total "Oktober Guard" vibe here.
Watch:
Oh, that's why Bloodrik caught my eye!
I've been watching Genndy Tartakowsky's Primal on Max, and I am absolutely in love. For years, I've harbored ill will for any animation that isn't Cowboy Bebop or the original Transformers animated film. I have no idea where that came from, but it proved pretty all-encompassing, so a lot of shows/films friends recommended I passed on. This was a random find thanks to Walter and Ryan at Rick's Comic City and although the first episode grabbed me, it wasn't until two nights ago, when I couldn't sleep, that I became 100% completely invested.
There is such an amazing heart to the relationship between the two characters - one a man, one a dinosaur - that when they are in peril I become invested to a degree a lot of live-action SciFi loses.
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Five of Wands
• Four of Wands
• VIII Strength
Not hard to read this one at all. Finally doing a bit of restructuring with Black Gloves & Broken Hearts, just to punch-up some of the relationships, and even though it's not a lot, it feels like a ton this close to the end. Apply Will and be Strong.
Before The Pogues, MacGowan fronted a band with Shanne Bradley called The Nipple Erectors (subsequently shortened to The Nips). I first discovered this group in the late '00s, thanks to my Drinking with Comics cohost Mike Shin. This was when my Pogues fervor was at its zenith. The album Bops, Babes, Booze & Bovver stayed in my old school iPod for a few years (I never had a physical copy), but disappeared somewhere along the way. Pretty cool to find them again now, on streaming, and be able to hear the record start to finish (I believe what I had was missing several tracks).
Watch:
Julien Temple made a Shane MacGowan documentary a few years back, and I'd kind of forgotten about it until Mr. Brown brought it up after the man's passing. Back on my radar, I fired Crock Of Gold up last night on HULU.
I liked this, but I do feel there's a lack of third-party, objective material. Maybe the point was to allow Shane the glory of self-mythologizing himself; why deny the man, he'd been in an awful state at the time this was made and it may have been Temple and Producer Johnny Depp's idea to just bask in the legends that already exist anyway, letting MacGowan grow them to whatever size he saw fit. Not a bad gift for a man trapped in a wheelchair at the end of his life, reaping the rewards of a life of debauchery. It's not like the film doesn't set this up in the first few moments - Crock Of Gold opens with an animated smattering of all Ireland's mythological creatures and folklore, from Leprechauns to Cú Chulainn to Children of Lir to... Shane being handpicked by god to be, "The man who would save Irish music." And, in a way, he totally did.
Anyway, if you're a fan or even just curious, this is a nice walk through the man, the myth, the legend.
Read:
Somehow, I forgot to mention the pre-order the good folks at Bad Hand Books have going for next year's new Laird Barron collection. Not a Speck of Light comes with a signed bookplate.
Sixteen new stories? Wow, and while it's not going to be easy to wait until Q3 next year, talk about arriving at the perfect time of year! Pre-order Not a Speck of Light from Bad Hand Books HERE.
Playlist:
Steve Moore - Christmas Bloody Christmas OST
Steve Moore - VFW OST
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Blood Lust
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Vol. 1
Dream Division - Beyond the Mirror's Image
Various - Joe Begos' Bliss Spotify Playlist
Electric Wizard - Wizard Bloody Wizard
Shane MacGowan and the Popes - The Snake
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Ten of Pentacles (Disks)
• I: The Magician
• XIV: Temperance (Art)
Trump One two days in a row, eh? I'm apparently missing something...
Ten of Pentacles indicates Earthly completion, and I'm betting that has to do with (again) my folks finally being into their place. The recurrence of the Magus, however, indicates something that will need adjustment or patience (not that there's not been call for quite a bit of that already).
I tend to remain hung up on the "Art" aspects of Trump XIV, however, there is an element of "Things falling into place." So again, the Magician is the missing piece of the puzzle.
Thanks to Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot's Sound Opinions podcast, I realized last night that I had completely missed the fact that Chicago Stalwart's The Effigies frontman John Kezdy passed away back in August. You can read an article about this at the Chicago Tribune HERE. While off my radar of late, The Effigies' 1989 album Remains Nonviewable was one of the records I encountered as a Junior in High School, a record that, like Fugazi's 13 Songs or Black Flag's Everything Went Black, altered my musical trajectory. Kezdy went on to become an attorney,
NCBD:
Here's my Pull for this week's NCBD:
I still wish the art inside had a little more 'tooth' to it - not the artist's fault, more a mis-pairing, in my opinion. That said, I still couldn't pass this one up. So far, pretty good backstory to the classic film, kind of "other stories from that day." This is the penultimate issue, and as it's the second NoTLD series from American Mythology, I'm curious if there are more on the horizon.
To say I have been waiting for this final chapter in SiKTC's current story arc would be an understatement. Shit went so pear-shaped at the end of issue thirty-four, I can't wait to see how this resolves (please let this resolve!).
After re-reading the last few issues in a burst, I'm totally back on the What's The Furthest Place From Here train. We stand at the foot of world-building revelations, but I'm really just here for the dialogue and insane antics of this cast.
Watch:
SyFy had a good run of original programming a few years ago. Deadly Class was excellent, and a total shame it didn't go longer than one season. Another comic adaptation they actually doubled down on was Grant Morrison and Darick Robertson's Happy!, about a down-and-out NY cop turned hitman whose daughter is abducted by a man in a Santa Claus suit. The daughter's imaginary friend, a cute-as-a-button blue unicorn, seeks out her father and together, the two attempt to save her.
When Happy! came to Netflix, I watched most of the first season and absolutely loved it. THIS is my definition of comedy. For some reason, I never finished the first season and completely missed or forgot there was a second. So I'm watching it again now and I have to say, this may be one of my favorite shows of all time.
This is one of the rare times when the adaptation far surpasses the source material. The book is pretty simple, but the lengths of violence and depravity that Morrison, Brian Taylor and their team put Christopher Meloni through in this show is insane and so utterly fun to watch; I find it impossible not to end an episode in a good mood.
Even if there's also some pitch-dark shit in here, too.
This is one of those shows I would buy physically if such an item were available, but alas, it is not.
Playlist:
Steve Moore - Christmas Bloody Christmas OST
Zombi - 2020
The Flesh Eaters - I Used to Be Pretty
Allegaeon - Apoptosis
Silent - Modern Hate
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• XIV - Temperance (Art)
• X - Wheel of Fortune
• Five of Pentacles (Disks)
Applying intuition and 'Art' can lead to conflict.
From Rodney Crowell's 2021 album Triage. Mr. Brown and I have been doing record swaps for the last year or so; I lend him six, and he fires back six. One of the best records to come of those exchanges is Rodney Crowell's 2021 album Triage. Something "Has to Change" is the Side A closer, and it's a powerhouse. Throughout the record, I hear a lot of 70s-era Stones and Chicago singer-songwriter stalwart Ike Reilly. Also, as Brown pointed out, a lot of Catholics-era Frank Black (my favorite Frank Black).
All that is not to say Mr. Crowell does not have his own sound. He does, and it's a sound grown from the same good Earth those others are - old-school Rock n' Roll, Rhythm and Blues and, well, just straight up Blues. The arranging on his albums continues to evolve, and you hear it best on this track. That trombone!!!
NCBD:
Here's the Pull for this week's NCBD:
The Penultimate issue of Immortal X-Men looks like it might just answer my complaints about the Jean Grey series and tie the end of that into the current story. Granted, they did start to do that in Jean #4, so maybe I jumped the gun. We'll see. Either way, my complaints are small; overall, this era of X-Men is still my favorite since Claremont's.
I feel like it's been longer than 30 days since our last issue of Tenement; however, that's likely because I love this book so much. I have a four-day weekend coming up; might be time to re-read the Bone Orchard Mythos to date.
Sadly, I won't get my hands on this until my next trip to Chicago, which is likely only a week away or so. Still, knowing another chapter of Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows' The Ribbon Queen is just out of reach may drive me mad. This one is escalating in a way that reminds me of Fincher's The Game; not sure anyone else is getting that, and I'm definitely not referring to the story itself. But as the pieces move into place, a bigger picture slowly emerges, the brief images of it we see suggesting Horrors beyond anything we've seen before. As the dread creeps in beneath the human dramas unfolding, page after page, we wait for awful things to happen. When they do, they are both a release and a harbinger of even worse, more cosmic monstrosities that await us. The feeling is... thrilling.
Time once again for my most-anticipated book of the month. Void Rivals has been a delight through and through, and having loved the experience of reading Kirkman's The Walking Dead month-to-month for most of its original run, I know what this man can do with a monthly.
Read:
Pat O'Malley, the Writer/Creator of one of my favorite comics of the year, Popscars, has a Kickstarter up for 12 more days. Jurassic Parkour 4 looks fun as hell.
I had Pat on The Horror Vision a few months ago; it was a great time, two Horror fans just geeking out on the stuff we love. Parkour 4 looks a lot more like - well, kind of like what if the Triceratons from TMNT were the lead characters. Being a TMNT fan, I gotta see what that looks like.
Playlist:
The Cure - Disintegration
David Bowie - Black Star
Donny McCaslin - Beyond Now
PJ Harvey - Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea
Frank Black and the Catholics - Snake Oil
Willie Nelson - First Rose of Spring
Depeche Mode - Violator
U2 - One (single)
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Ten of Pentacles
•XIV - Temperance (Art)
• Page of Swords
The Ten of Pentacles/Disks again. Hmm...
Closure is dictated by the Creative solution to an upcoming problem. I'm hoping this refers to yesterday when our Realtor and I had to use some last-minute finesse to solve a problem with earnest money. Barring that, I could also see this as a reminder to not let the chaos in my life at the moment distract me from my writing goals, which is absolutely another facet of what transpired yesterday.
I've been on a bit of a Smiths kick lately, and it was cool to see David Fincher's new film The Killer pretty much use their greatest hits as the soundtrack for the titular character (to say nothing of the brilliant Rezner/Ross score). Now, let's talk about that movie...
Watch:
I had somehow missed that a new David Fincher movie was on the horizon until just a week or two ago. I knew nothing about The Killer going in except it was Fincher directing from a graphic novel I am unfamiliar with and that Michael Fassbender would star.
Everything about this flick worked for me, from how Fassbender's character dressed like Raoul Duke to the pop culture references on his IDs. The lighting was to die for, and Erik Messerschmidt's cinematography was soft and fluid, even during the brutal scenes (Messerschmidt also shot Mank for Fincher and, more memorable to me, The Empty Man back in 2020). The Killer was a total homerun for me - possibly my favorite non-horror flick of the year.
Read:
After hitting Amazing Fantasy in Frankfort, IL for my secondary pull there (mainly consisting of stuff I had trouble finding here in Clarksville for whatever reason), I was able to catch up on Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows' The Ribbon Queen.
This book is super gnarly as far as the kills, and that's part of what makes The Ribbon Queen feel right in line with all the books Avatar pu that company published in the mid-to-late 00s. This one's a Horror story on the surface, with underlining themes that touch on a host of modern issues, particularly those surrounding Police. As usual, Garth knows how to cut the shit and exploit the fallacies of both sides of the argument.
Playlist:
Blackbraid - Blackbraid II
Frankie and the Witch Fingers - Data Doom
BABADNOTGOOD - IV
Jamiroquai - Return of the Space Cowboy
Jamiroquai - Canned Heat (single)
The Smiths - Louder Than Bombs
Danko Jones - We Sweat Blood
David Bowie - Outside
Type O Negative - Life is Killing Me
Screaming Females - Desire Pathway
Concrete Blonde - Bloodletting
NIN - With Teeth
Goatsnake - Black Age Blues
Seatbelts - Cowboy Bebop OST
Hexis - Aeternum
Code Orange - The Above
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Six of Swords - Greater objectivity required
• Three of Cups - Family. Together
• Six of Cups - Emotional Balance
I love seeing these spreads that are so exactly the hammer on the head of a pin currently sticking out of my life. Moving my parents almost feels bleak right now; there's a level of having to accept that they won't be out on time (this Friday) and will need to pay the extension to stay. They are inbound to us now, coming down for another round of house hunting. The spread tells me to shove all my defeatist bullshit into the corner, remain objective and balanced, and that will eventually create stability.
One of the best covers I know and perfect for this rainy lead-up to Halloween.
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
18) When Evil Lurks
19) Barbarian
20) Demons 2/All Hallows Eve (w/ Joe Bob)
21) May
22) Let's Scare Jessica To Death
23) The Birds/30 Coins Ssn 1 Ep 1
24) 30 Coins Ssn 1 Ep 2/The Church
25) Elvira Mistress of the Dark
26) To Kako (Evil)/To Kako: Stin Epohi Ton Iroon
27) Tourist Trap (w/ Joe Bob)/Totally Killer
28) Amusement
29) The Rocky Horror Picture Show/There's Nothing Out There
Read:
I finally started reading the collected Mike Baron/Kelley Jones Deadman I picked up a few years ago after Chris and I interviewed Mr. Jones on A Most Horrible Library.
Deadman is one of the DC characters I don't hate, but I also don't really care about all that much. UNLESS Kelley Jones is drawing him. And Mike Baron has been a favorite since his run on the original ongoing Punisher series circa... 1987? Either way, I blew through this in a little over a day and absolutely loved its ghoulish flair.
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• King of Cups
• Four of Cups
• Seven of Pentacles
Lots of emotion will threaten Victory in Earthly matters. I know this has to do with the house hunt for my folks, which just makes me not want to go any further in-depth with this.
From the live album RockinnReelininAucklandNewZealandXXX (Live). A stellar example of how awesome and bizarre The Cramps were.
31 Days of Halloween:
One of the things I'm trying to do for this year's 31 Days of Halloween is watch all the movies I have on DVD that I pull out every year and then never end up getting around to. I nailed one with Michele Soavi's The Church a few nights ago, and I got another yesterday with Yorgos Noussias's 2005 oddity, To Kako, or Evil as it was known here in the States. Here's a trailer:
I refer to this film as an oddity because, despite being a fairly low-budget Rage Virus/Zombie flick, Noussias leans into a tone that is severe yet also often subtly comedic. I'd never go as far as to call Evil a Horror Comedy, but there are moments that make me laugh out loud. The editing is super original on this one, too. Lots of double, triple and even quadruple split-screen stuff, none of it ostentatious enough to detract. In fact, the split screen really enhances the fast-paced narrative and adds a severity that makes this one a keeper.
In watching this yesterday, it came to my attention there was actually a sequel released in 2009! I had no idea To Kako: Stin epohi ton iroon or Evil: In the Time of Heroes existed, but to my good fortune, this film is actively streaming on Tubi at the moment. While I'm not a super fan of any streaming site that by default includes commercials, in 2023 Tubi seems to be a safe harbor for a lot of films that would otherwise be impossible to find - see The Horror Vision's recent episode on La Horde - so for that, I'm grateful.
Turns out, Evil: In the Time of Heroes is even better than its predecessor! There's a considerably larger budget, so much so, Billy Zane appears in this film! Seeing both of these inside of twenty-four hours, I must say, it's a shame that Noussias did not keep making films. He has such an original voice, I would have loved to see more from him.
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
18) When Evil Lurks
19) Barbarian
20) Demons 2/All Hallows Eve
21) May
22) Let's Scare Jessica To Death
23) The Birds/30 Coins Ssn 1 Ep 1
24) 30 Coins Ssn 1 Ep 2/The Church
25) Elvira Mistress of the Dark
26) To Kako (Evil)/To Kako: Stin epohi ton iroon
Read:
I finally finished reading Clive Barker's The Scarlet Gospels. Take it from me, if you're a fan of Mr. Barker, skip this one. My current working theory is he actually did not write the book but conceptualized and outlined it before passing it to another writer to build the prose. That's all I'll say on that because Barker remains one of my all-time favorite authors.
I've moved on to the much-recommended Greener Pastures, the first short story collection by Weird Horror writer Michael Wehunt.
One story in, and I adore this man's writing. I feel a similar "Stark Lushness" to Laird Barron's early short stories, never mind that the two adjectives I've just employed would seem to contradict one another. There is a manner in which prose can offer a staunch worldview that in itself decorates the fiction in an expansive manner, and that's the vibe I picked up from opening story "Beside Me Singing In The Wilderness," which applies a very satisfying Southern Gothic spin to a classic monster module, all in a lush Appalachian or Southern realm that I felt I could "step into" at any moment.
Playlist:
Chelsea Wolfe - Spun
Graham Parsons - The Avalon Tapes (Live Flying Burrito Brothers)
The Cramps - RockinnReelininAucklandNewZealandXXX (Live)
Misfits - Collection 1
Jeff Grace - House of the Devil OST
Ritual Howls - Turkish Leather
Ozzy Osbourne - Ordinary Man
Deftones - Ohms
Snake Eats Boy - Occupado (single)
Perturbator - Nocturne City
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Five of Cups
• VII: The Chariot
• Knight of Cups
Lots of emotions tied up in the cards again today. This is on the nose, as the reality of my parents' impending move and the forfeiture of my childhood home has begun to sink in and stir up weird mortality anxieties. Of course, I recognize that I've been lucky enough to have my parents and that home in my life for as long as I have, so I'm not complaining. Five of Cups appearing at the center of this pull suggests emotional conflict, and while The Chariot often suggests more upbeat things, I'm reading it as a warning to think things through as we proceed. This also fits, as we are trying to ensure that, in their rush to exit the house by the closing date and find a new one to move into, my folks don't settle on a house just to have one. This then introduces the third phase of the pull, Knight of Cups, where Force of Will is applied to Emtion, hopefully for the benefit of everyone involved.
Wow. Taking another page from a recent post by Heaven Is An Incubator, I dove into Sexores, a Quito, Ecuador two-piece that skews toward Darkwave but always ends up injecting a healthy dose of sheer beauty into its albums. Really great band and their new Mar del Sur EP is a great place to start with them. If you dig, head over to their Bandcamp and throw down some support.
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
18) When Evil Lurks
19) Barbarian
20) Demons 2/All Hallows Eve
21) May
22) Let's Scare Jessica To Death
23) The Birds/30 Coins Ssn 1 Ep 1
24) 30 Coins Ssn 1 Ep 2/The Church
NCBD:
Here are my picks for this week's NCBD:
This series has been a mixed bag, but I'm curious where it's going to go.
Street-level crime at its finest. Newburn puts me in mind of Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder novels, and as each individual storyline plays out, I'm really feeling the first edges of something epic. How long will Newburn's position as a fixer for all the New York crime families, the Yakuza, and the NYPD last? More importantly, who will the inevitable fall take down with him when it happens? These are the questions that keep me anticipating this book.
Looks like the current New Mexico arc of SIKTC ends with issue #35, so whatever the outcome, it probably starts here.
I have a Chicago trip coming up early next month, so I'll be stopping by Amazing Fantasy Books and Comics for the books in the pull I set up there. Ribbon Queen issues Three and four will be waiting for me. This book is a very welcome return to the crazy violent Horror Fiction Garth Ennis flexes every couple years, and it's made me want to jump back into a re-read of
Who's that running around disguised as Captain Krakoa in Uncanny Avengers? Pretty sure issue two answered that with a flashback, but we'll see. Really glad I took a chance on this one.
In just four issues, Robert Kirkman once again has my most anticipated book each month. Last month's Void Rivals #4 raised the bar for the series yet again, with some major revelations that, when all is said and done, I'm pretty sure will constitute the very tip of a proverbial iceberg.
Having just read issue fourteen late last week, I'm pretty pumped for this one. I still think I need a full series re-read to bolster the stakes, however, Boss and Rosenberg's fucked up little world is always a fun romp with or without all the context.
Playlist:
Wytch Finger - The Dance EP
Fvnerals - Let the Earth Be Silent
Spotlights - Seance EP
Sexores - Mar del Sur EP
Trevor Something - Trevor Something Does Not Exist
Trevor Something - Deep Wave Data Dark Web Daemons
Bauhaus - Burning from the Inside
Joy Division - Substance 1977-1980
Chasms - On The Legs Of Love Purified
Feuerbahn - The Fire Dance EP
Chelsea Wolfe - She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She (pre-release singles)
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.
From the forthcoming album God is a Woman, out November 30th. You can pre-order the album from Rein's Bandcamp HERE.
I first discovered Rein at 2022's Cold Waves, and was pretty blown away by her performance. Since then, REINCARNATED has been in regular rotation, so I was happy to see this new track and subsequent announcement of the follow-up.
31 Days of Halloween:
The next chapter in Womp Stomp Films's Friday the 13th sequel series, Never Hike Alone dropped today! I backed this on Indiegogo a couple years ago and can't wait to receive my Blu-Ray copy. Until then, it's free for everyone on YouTube. Give these folks some love! Not only are Director Vincent Disanti's films better than, oh, probably 98% of F13's actual studio-produced films, but he managed to entice Thom Matthews back to play Tommy Jarvis in the ultimate rematch. Here's the trailer:
Pretty sure I'll be rewatching Never Hike Alone and Never Hike in the Snow tonight right before this 'final chapter' drops.
Was supposed to take K to see When Evil Lurks last night at the local Regal, but our 7:30 PM show was canceled last minute, so I'm hoping we'll have a chance before it leaves the theatre next week. I know it hits Shudder on the 27th, but I really wanted her to see it on the big screen and to send the message to the theatre that YES! There are people here who want to see crazy Argentinian Horror at the movies!!! Due to the cancellation, we went with Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers. This is one I never thought I'd watch, however, I was editing the first episode of the new Drinking with Comics when this came on Shudder TV in the background. I got sucked in, then realized Joe Bob had done this film (and part 5) a few years ago in his "Halloween Hootnanny," so I promptly restarted it with Joe Bob. Truth be told? I don't care much for any of the original Halloween films that feature MM (love part 3; Atkins forever!), so this was... whatever.
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)
Watch:
Holy cow, guess what? Drinking with Comics is back! The impetus for this is simply, I read a lot of comics I'd like to talk about, but many of them do not fit into either The Horror Vision or A Most Horrible Library, so here we go!
This was a lot of fun to do, so much so that I even gave it a few tweaks and threw it up on the new Drinking with Comics TikTok page. Yeah, that's right - DwC is on TkTk, and now I feel like I need a shower.
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Page or Princess of Pentacles (Disks)
• Justice (Lust)
• XVII - The Star
Creative force alone is not enough; Passion must be tempered against the Lust of Result by rigorous manifestation of idea through Will.
Okay, that's oblique, to say the least. To properly read this, I need to go back to Crowley and Harris's version of the Seventeenth Trump:
This card shows Nuith, Cosmic Mother, manifesting personified. This is not a concept; this is a PERSON. That's the clue here. You take the Earthly "go-get-em!" of the Page or Princess of Pentacles, literally the Earth of Earth, and when you begin mixing it with the creative process and achieve any degree of success, you get excited. I finished the second draft of Black Gloves and Broken Hearts the other day, and I felt like I could punch a planet in half. However, as soon as that charge comes in, so does the lust of result, which any Magickian worth his salt will tell you is exactly how you fuck things up. So, draw inspiration from Nuith, the personification of Night, of space, of turning the ineffable into the tangible. It takes work! Look at her; here's a goddess and she's bailing water, scooping up source material and turning it to crystals or glass or whatever the hell that is the pool around her feet is becoming. Becoming - that's the word.
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.
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.
It's unclear at this point if this new single is a harbinger for a new full-length Chelsea Wolfe album, but any new Chelsea Wolfe is fine by me.
Watch:
One of the features my friends and I scored tickets to for this year's Beyondfest is V/H/S/85. Here's the trailer:
While I've made no bones about the fact that I find these anthology series a mixed bag at best, to quote Nick Chaney from the Projexploitation Podcast, "Like it or not, I'm on its side." I love that these exist, and I actually became fairly excited for this entry when I saw that Gigi Saul Guerrero, David Bruckner and Scott Derrickson are among the Directors attached.
Playlist:
Ritual Howls - Virtue Falters
Baroness - Stone
bunsenburner - Rituals
Bluekarma - The Friction, the Pain
Stuck - Freak Frequency
Zeal and Ardor - Eponymous
Godflesh - Purge
Angelo Badalamenti & David Lynch - Twin Peaks: Season Two
Angelo Badalmenti - Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me OST
Various - Twin Peaks: Limited Event Series OST
Various - Twin Peaks (Music from the Limited Event Series)
Joseph LoDuca - Evil Dead 2 OST
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE. Just a reminder that Grimm's new Tarot Deck, The Hand of Doom Tarot, is both gorgeous and live on Kickstarter right now. Here's the LINK.
• Knight of Cups
• Nine of Swords
• Ace of Cups
Pretty straightforward this morning: quite your bellyaching, toughen up and get on with it. I'm feeling a bit morose about heading out this afternoon for two-and-a-half weeks away from home. I'll be working in LaLaLand for most of that time, and despite being able to see my friends there and attending Beyondfest, a large part of me just doesn't want to go. I'll miss K, I'll miss our two cats and I'll miss our home. The cards remind me instantly that Pattern Interrupts are always good things, and I will return stronger than when I left.
