Dethroned Under a NCBD Haze

As the wait for the next Perturbator album announcement languishes on into June, I find myself drawing even more inspiration from his previous albums than previously. Which is really saying something because since discovering James Kent's music circa 2015, thanks to Bloody Disgusting, Perturbator and all of his side projects have become integral to my own creative process. 

In particular, 2019's Lustful Sacraments continue to fascinate and inspire me. There's such an amazing evolution here; not content to remain defined by a genre he helped popularize the modern version of, Kent has moved away from the sound of his earlier records and really begun incorporating new elements into his compositions. My two favorites of Kent's records so far remain this one and his 2022 collaboration with Cult of Luna's Johannes Persson (Final Light). Where I'd consider Dangerous Days and The Uncanny Valley to be the two best examples of modern "Synthwave," I'd say Kent's newer work is unlike anything I've heard prior. Oh the places these records take me!

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NCBD:

Here's this week's pull, with a side note that I'll be stopping at my shop in Chicago to grab some stuff as well.

The final issue of the gloriously resurrected EC's Horror Anthology series Epitaphs From the Abyss doesn't sting so much now that I've read Blood Type and realize Oni will be continuing this brand with full-issue mini-series anthologies, as well as the new anthology Catacombs of Torment, out July 16th.

Life is good for Horror fans. It's good for comic fans. And it's especially good for Horror comic fans!!!

The first issue of James Tynion IV and Michael Walsh's Exquisite Corpses was kind of a cross between Rob Zombie's 31 and 

Judging by this cover, one of the plot points of this book that has kind of irked me may finally be resolved with this issue. 

"The Horror Men" has proven a fantastic arc for the overall Phantom Road mythology. I love seeing some of this world's history, especially because it feels like learning about the start of this weird in-between place will carry over to big things when we move back to the current timeline with Dom and Bev.

I should finally be picking up my Z-News backlog this weekend when I'm in Chicago. Can't wait!

Another new book from Oni Press, this one sounds as though it's modeled after Phillip K. Dick's life, so I'm definitely giving it a try. Here's the solicitation from League of Comic Geeks:

"More than just a writer, more than just a science-fiction icon, Benjamin J. Carp was a cultural revolutionary. Across 44 novels and hundreds of short stories-including the counterculture classic The Man They Couldn't Erase-Carp pushed the boundaries of literary respectability for the sci-fi genre and his readers' perception of reality itself . . . until decades of amphetamine abuse and Southern California excess finally ended a mind-bending career that always just escaped mainstream success. He died in 1982. Until 2025 . . . when Benjamin J. Carp awakens, alive, in a burned-out motel on the fringes of Los Angeles. He remembers dying. He knows he shouldn't exist. Is he a dream? A robot? A ghost? A clone? A simulation? In his own time, Carp pondered all of these scenarios intensely through his fiction-and, now, as he treks from Studio City to Venice Beach and onward into the paranoid sprawl of 21st-century Los Angeles, he will be called to investigate his greatest mystery yet: himself. In the tradition of Philip K. Dick's A Scanner Darkly and Thomas Pynchon's Inherent Vice comes a uniquely fascinating and hilariously deranged excursion into the metatextual nexus where existence and oblivion, past and future, genius and madness, and glitter and grim reality all meet just beyond Hollywood Boulevard . . ."

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Aaron Martin and Ian Carpenter's new series Hell Motel premiered on Shudder with two episodes yesterday and I have to say, so far, I love it! The setting, lighting and camera work are top-notch, as is the writing. There are some very intriguing plotting mechanisms at work here, and they made for a pretty thrilling two-episode premiere. We're going to be covering this weekly on The Horror Vision - first episode will drop next Monday, then every Wednesday thereafter (the show airs on Tuesdays). 

From what I've seen of the two creators' other series, the anthology Slasher, it appears to be a bit of a mixed bag. That said, I've only watched Flesh & Blood and two episodes of Ripper. I loved the former but did not care for the latter. I dig these guys' style overall, though; there's something of a Channel Zero-meets-AHS, with the influence of AHS being more dominant but little flourishes here and there that make me think of Zero. 

Top all this off with the fact that Adam MacDonald looks to be the series Director (he did the first two episodes but is listed as "Director" on the series' main IMDB page) and you've got a great schematic. And they deliver, big time. I watched episodes one and two TWICE today and found I liked it more the second time around. 

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Playlist:

Perturbator - The Uncanny Valley

Various - Learn to Relax: A Tribute to Jehu

Oranssi Pazuzu - Muuntautuja

Calderum - Mystical Fortress of Iberian Lands 

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments

John Harrison - Day of the Dead OST

Tangerine Dream - Sorceror OST

Greg Puciato - Mirrorcell

Hangman's Chair - Saddiction

Young Widows - Power Sucker

NIN - Pretty Hate Machine

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Card:

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

• Nine of Swords

• Ace of Pentacles

• Eight of Cups

The Nine of Cups can denote Cruelty, Bad Dreams and/or Violence. Ace of Pentacles is a breakthrough in Earthly concerns, nad Eight of Cups is poison. Sounds to me like the Earthly breakthrough - i.e. success - may be arrived at through violence or poison. That's a scary sentiment; I've long held people who use violence or hurtful machinations as a way to get what they want are the definition of evil. I realize while typing this that this Pull is a reminder to tread lightly with certain people at work, as I deal with a lot of "Corporate People" and those are often the people who operate in this capacity.

Clean Up that Street Trash on Planet Death!

 

I rewatched Ryan Kruger's Street Trash sequel this weekend, and it put ten Althone back on my radar. LOVE this track. You can support the band at any of the links on their Link Tree HERE.

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I'd been waiting for Writer/Director Joshua Erkman's debut, A Desert, since March. Co-written with Bossi Baker, these two gentlemen have indeed delivered what will no doubt be one of my favorite films of the year. Subtle, creepy, emotional and WEIRD in all the best ways. 

Plus, pretty sure this is the biggest role The Jesus Lizard's frontman David Yow has had in a film, and he NAILS it. A Desert is currently a $6.99 rental on Prime, and it is worth every penny.

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Another book I picked up last week at the comic shop* was something I stumbled across on the racks from a while ago - April 30th, to be exact. Planet Death issue 0:

When I found this, the cover and interior art immediately made me think of 80s-era Dark Horse Comics. Don't let this pristine jpg I grabbed online fool you - Planet Death 0 was printed on a wonderfully sturdy newsprint stock. One that, according to the afterward by the publisher, they actually had to seek out and purchase the entire stock to procure it. This is a wonderfully tactile reading experience.

Seeing the "Bad Idea" imprint name, I assumed I was supporting a local or super-indie book, and while this is indie, it's not 100% indie. The creator is Derek Kolstad, the screenwriter behind John Wick. So yeah, there's some inertia here. Apparently, this was the largest order for an indie comic since Image's fabled launch, with this issue bringing in 655,000 copies ordered. So much for helping the underdog!

Seriously though, I'd still consider this an underdog. Everything that isn't the Big 2 kind of is, and if you want to expand that definition's net a bit further, Bad Idea and Planet Death are still largely unknown and have no name recognition beyond the John Wick DNA. Still, as popular as the Wick movies are, there are very few Screenwriters who achieve the kind of recognition that can help carry a small comic company into the black. 

But Planet Death is cool, super cool, and while a lot of why I feel that way may be linked to nostalgia, I still think its gritty Cyber-Punk space marine feel will appeal to a lot of comic fans. The first issue lands July 9th, and I'll definitely be grabbing that. From there, the afterward makes it clear the subsequent issues will be released when they are complete and perfect, and that sounds great to me. I'm looking forward to this, but I don't necessarily want another monthly book, nor do I feel like this will require a regular schedule. The story seems like it will work on it's own terms. Here's the solicitation from League of Comic Geeks

"Millions of miles from home, hundreds of ships descend into the stormy atmosphere of a hostile frozen world. On board, an army of resolute men and women brace for the coming assault. They are an invasion force, on an impossible mission — destroy the devastating enemy weapon garrisoned below. Corporal Scott and his battalion are in the vanguard but the human forces are no match for their brutal alien adversaries. Scott’s battalion is dead within moments. He is its lone survivor. The landing force annihilated, the battle is lost. Against overwhelming odds, Scott dares the unthinkable — cross behind enemy lines, survive the lethal landscape, evade capture by ruthless enemies, resist natural predators, face human deserters and finish the mission singlehandedly. Locked in his suit of full combat battle armor, sustained only by what he can carry, and driven by Earth’s wrath, Scott must do by himself what an entire army could not. Destroy the weapon. Return home."

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* See? All that and I still ended up needed two days to talk about it all. 

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Playlist:

Faith No More - Angel Dust

Mr. Bungle - Eponymous

Deafheaven - Lonely People With Power

GBH - City Baby Attacked By Rats

LARD - Pure Chewing Satisfaction

Mothers of Invention - Freak Out!

ten Athlone - Street Trash E.P.

ten Athlone - Travelator

Amigo the Devil - Born Against

The Cops - Free Electricity

Jenny Lewis - Acid Tongue

The Jeff Healey Band - Road House (The Lost Soundtrack)

Anthrax - Worship Music

Billy Idol - Rebel Yell

Judas Priest - Painkiller

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments

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Card:

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

• I: The Magician

• Ace of Swords

• Three of Cups

The Spark of Essence. A Breakthrough of Intellect. Solid Emotional Outcome.

Sounds a lot like a three-step plan to get my ass back in gear. I've been slowly dipping my toe back into Shadow Play, but I've had a lot of distractions. This coming weekend is a trip to Chicago, after that, I'm calling it now: Full Immersion!!!

Rebel Waltz Meet Imperial Predator

It occurred to me while watching Tony Hawk's "What's In My Bag" on the Amoeba music YouTube channel that it's been quite some time since I gave The Clash's Sandinista! a fair shake.

I had this on vinyl in a former life, and while I LOVE some of the songs on it, a double-double album or whatever it is just seems inherently ridiculous. Granted, London Calling is possibly the best double album ever (The Wall is better conceptually, but not necessarily when taken song-by-song), so if anyone was going to pull off an exponential attempt on the concept, The Clash was smart money.

However, Sandinista! always felt a bit too long, the 'sides' and even tracks often a bit too disparate. I mean, "The Magnificent Seven" to "Hitsville UK" to the idle reggae of "Junco Partner"? And that happens a couple of times, this kind of "reggae segue" that feels a bit forced. There are obviously reggae elements on London Calling, but it's all mixed into the songwriting in a way that those moments feel elegant and natural. They've always felt a bit ostentatious to me on Sandinista!.

My point here is it's been quite some time since I've actually listened to the record, and people change. So that's one of my current musical missions for the foreseeable future.

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I had successfully avoided the trailer for Predator: Killer of Killers before its release this weekend,  so going into it blind the other night was a super treat! I'm pretty hard on animation - unless it's Cowboy Bebop or Transformers '86 I don't generally take to it. This, however, blew me away.

I will say, I preferred the animation in the first two segments, but the third one had HEART, so I was still completely "in." I love that we've had to travel almost 40 years to finally get good entries into the cinematic Predator universe. Sure, there are things about several of the other movies I dig, but overall, every movie after the original film has always been a disappointment. Maybe that's just because the original was so damn good, or maybe it's because, as a sequel, Dark Horse's Concrete Jungle has always reigned supreme in my mind. 

This four-issue mini-series is a perfect follow-up to the original film, and while it's clear it was a kind of road map for the eventual Predator 2, the film leaves out many of the best parts. Regardless of all this now-ancient history, Dan Trachtenberg has really proved to be the savior the franchise needed, and I can't wait for Predator: Badlands, due out later this year.

I think the best thing that ever happened to Predator was moving to different timelines and now, even different worlds like the Dark Horse comics did long ago.

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I ended up picking up more than I was planning to at the comic shop last Wednesday, but when I saw Jonathan Hickman had turned his attention to the cosmic end of the Marvel Universe, I was instantly intrigued.

I am well aware this is a case of me still pining for Krakoa-era X-Men, but that's okay. The cosmic end of Marvel has never really been my forte. 

Like a lot of 80s comics readers, I read The Infinity Gauntlet as it came out and fell instantly under its sway. This led to dabbling with The Silver Surfer around the same time (I remember the 50th issue being a big deal, but I no longer have that or really remember why). However, trying to keep up with 1992's Gauntlet follow-up Operation Galactic Storm* - a weekly event that ran through pretty much all the Marvel titles I didn't read at the time kind of broke me on the cosmic end of Marvel. I think at the time, my 16-year-old self thought this series was going to be my road into the bigger Universe, only I really didn't connect with any of the titles or the event in general, and I largely stayed away from 'cosmic Marvel' ever since.

Until...

Part of Hickman's Krakoa-era was Al Ewing's S.W.O.R.D. - a cosmic X-Men title that I adored and led directly into the events of Planet-sized X-Men and X-Men: Red, still probably the best Marvel series I've read in decades, and which definitely played with the cosmic end of things. 

It's the little I picked up in these titles that has me most interested in modern cosmic Marvel continuity and the first issue of Imperial delivered. There's no shortage on political intrigue here, but played across the stars, Hickman makes the old 'game-of-thrones' concept feel fresh and thrilling. The story encompasses a myriad of cosmic empires I know (Sh'iar; Kree-Skrull) as well as many more I don't (who are those Horse-people???). We also get some familiar faces for a newbie like me; Hulk mourning a son I didn't know he had, Nova and Starlord trying to head whatever is happening off at the pass, as well as a lot of folks I'm completely unacquainted with. So many agendas, so many allegiances - secret or otherwise - and two mysterious chess players who are (apparently) controlling everything. Oh yeah, and Wakanda involved in a nefarious plot to derail peace in the universe?

It's a lot, and I'm really only treading water with the continuity, but it's Hickman and it has a certain charge to it and I'm in.

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* Cringe at that title!

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Playlist:

Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

Black Sabbath - Technical Ecstasy

Ozzie Osbourne - Patient No. 9

Turnstile - NEVER ENOUGH

Damone - From the Attic

Turnstile - GLOW ON

The Dillinger Escape Plan - One of Us is the Killer

Mastodon - Once More 'Round the Sun

Television - Marquee Moon

Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers - L.A.M.F.: The Lost '77 Mixes

The Clash - Sandinista!

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Card:

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

• Page of Wands

• VI: The Lovers

• Queen of Cups

Inexperience can be overcome with partnership.

Deadguy - Knife Sharpener

 

From their first album in 30 years, Near-Death Travel Services, out June 27th on Relapse Records. I pre-ordered my copy from the Relapse Store the second I saw the announcement last month. Love these guys, and I love this video! The False Metal asteroid made me laugh out loud!

It's difficult to put into words the joy seeing Deadguy reunite instills in me. These guys were one of the few bands from the old Victory Records that made a positive impact on me. In fact, Fixation on a Coworker became something of a legendary album for my friends and I at a time when there wasn't a lot of metal besides Ministry or Mike Patton projects that we cared for. I've carried the CD copy Subculture Magazine sent me to review with me since I received it blind back in '95, and seeing them reunite last year in Brooklyn and now having a new full-length on the way in just a few weeks... it feels great. 

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Despite an INSANE level of curiosity, I am abstaining from watching this trailer for now. I'm not sure I ever thought The Black Phone needed a sequel, but after reading a bit about this, I have to say, I'm in.        

I'm sure I'll see this a bunch of times at my local theatre, but for now, I'll push past it and hope I can just be surprised. I will say, in the little bit of the synopsis I read, they mention a "Winter Camp," and I thought that was an amazing twist on the Summer Camp trope. I'm curious if it's ever been done before. I brought it up at the comic shop and one of the guys mentioned The Lodge and The Shining, but while those are winter-based, they're not 'camps.' The more I think about this - and it will still require some research to confirm - this may be a one-of-a-kind concept here. 

Derrickson and Cargill - I really don't think this can go wrong.

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As K and I continue our rewatch of Daredevil, Season Two, my fascination with John Bernthal's rendition of Frank Castle has me jonesing to re-read some of the old 1980s Punisher comics I was obsessed with back in the day. So, Tuesday night after we finished Season Two, Episode 7, K retired for the night and I spent some time pulling out short boxes.

I'd forgotten that Stephen Grant wrote the original 1985 Punisher mini-series that served as the set-up for the ongoing one that kicked off in 1987. The ongoing was my introduction, but a large part of my catalyst for picking that up was seeing Mike Zeck's cover art on the wall behind the counter at my first comic ship, Worth, Illinois' Heroland (back when it was attached to the Post Office on Harlem and 111th). Mike Zeck is a criminally forgotten artist who did the art for two of my favorite series from the 80s - this Punisher mini-series and J.M. Dematteis' Kraven's Last Hunt, which I've waxed on about in these pages several times.

I eventually picked up all five issues of this mini at comic book shows scattered around Illinois - they used to host them at Knight's of Colombus Halls - and they quickly became prized possessions. It's been quite some time since I've read these, though, so it's great to go back to them now. 

The story starts with Castle behind bars at Rikers. A run-in with Jigsaw and a failed assassination during a prison break put Castle in the debt of an organization called The Trust. The Trust says they just want Frank to keep doing what he's doing and they'll fund it - but Frank knows there's another shoe bound to drop, and he's packing enough ammo accordingly.

It wasn't until a couple of years ago that an off-hand comment in something I read made me realize how inherently 'Right Wing' the concept of the Punisher is. Although, I'd argue there's an element of Common Sense here as well - Common Sense being my political predisposition in comparison to the two parties of nonsense we currently adhere to in this country. Still, there's no denying that the origins of this character - and certainly the early comics - leaned that way. Yet, just like Marvel has done with Frank's current incarnation in Disney +'s Daredevil: Born Again, there's complexity here that undermines this interpretation. 

That Marvel was able to 'take back' the Punisher logo in Born Again after its unfortunate "Scared Blue Line" association since that infamous photo of a cop's lock screen as he waits outside the Uvalde school shooting while children die is nothing short of a fucking miracle. Not everyone will agree with me on this, but I thought the fact that Marvel addressed this head-on in Born Again was ballsy, poignant and honestly took a lot of guts. I'd be curious to know how many Police officers started the show with a sense of excitement and then bounced once they saw the turn it took with Fisk's private army of corrupt police. The distinction here is perfect - a truly thin blue line that, just as in our reality, takes care to separate the good cops from the bad ones. Anyone offended would seem to be taking the wrong side from the jump.

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Playlist:

The Henry Rollins Show - The Stooges (2007)

The Henry Rollins Show - Marilyn Manson & Peaches

Danzig - I Luciferi

Ghost - Skeletá

Black Sabbath - Vol. 4

Brand X - Morrocan Roll

Ministry - Box

Black Sabbath - Sabotage

Jóhann Jóhannsson - Mandy OST

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments

Deadguy - Knife Sharpener (pre-release single)

Greg Puciato - Mirrorcell

OOIOO - Gold & Green

Man Man - Life Fantastic

Butthole Surfers - Locust Abortion Technician

Murder Inc. - The Complete Murder Inc/Locate Subvert Terminate

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Card:

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

• Three of Cups

• IX: The Hermit

• Queen of Cups

The Strength of Two is equal to Three, especially after coming back from a lonely gestation period. Return to a realm of deep Love and Understanding.

Feast of Wire, NCBD

 

From Calexico's fourth studio album, Feast of Wire. This one is a masterpiece. Well, most of Calexico's records are, but as I listen to this track while typing these words, I remember exactly how I felt the first time Mr. Brown played it for me back in 2003. Which is fitting, as I'm listening to Mr. Brown's copy of the record, which he lent me during our previous record swap and I only just acquired a new turntable that easily plays 45 RPM. Now that I can play this, it won't be leaving my 'on deck' pile until we switch out again at the end of the month. 

Hot damn is this record fantastic!

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NCBD:

Last week I walked into Rick's Comic City in Clarksville and realized a kind of comic book apocalypse had come to pass: with Diamond now bankrupt and liquidated, their POS system, Comic Suite, is defunct. My Drinking with Comics co-host Mike Shinabarger had mentioned this was coming a while ago; however, I didn't fully understand the implications until last week. Stores now have no computerized way to assign books to customers' pulls, order specific books for customers, and a whole mess of other complications. So it's anybody's guess if I'll be able to pull down the books I flag each week, especially the upcoming new titles beginning over the next few weeks. Apparently, there's no good substitute for the software, either.

Here's what I'm hoping to bring home today:

Issue three of this creepy A.F. haunted house story that we now know is a lot more than just a haunted house story. 

This book is growing on me more and more. That said, I've just realized my copy of #1 is going for a pretty penny on eBay, and I have a rather gratuitous purchase on a loop in my head, so I may be parting with that.

The finale of this odd little book about the Jersey Devil, a subject I have long had a great deal of fascination for. I'm not entirely sure what the deal is with this book; i.e., is it based on actual historical figures that factored into the origin of the Jersey Devil myth, or if this is just James Tynion playing with history and folklore? Either way, I've enjoyed the book quite a bit. 

Mindbender's revenge. 'Nuff said! Love this cover. 

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I'm not sure how I discovered this Captain Beefheart interview on Lettermen, but for whatever reason, it just felt right today:

 

It's crazy how much he looks like my Uncle Phil. Also, this is 1983, and before I watched the old NBC show that I became such a fan of in the mid-to-late 80s, staying up, watching it with my Mom (always Magnum P.I, and this). 

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Playlist:

Emilie Leviensaise-Farrouch - Censor OST

Jim Williams - Possessor OST

Stereolab - Instant Holograms On Metal Film

John Corigliano - Altered States OST

Calexico - Feast of Wire

Sqürl - Third Man Records Sessions

Exhalants - Atonement

Federale - Reverb & Seduction

Decalius - Dehumanizing Loneliness

Black Pyramid - The Paths of Time are Vast

Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

Amoeba Music What's in My Bag? - Tony Hawk

Comic Tropes - The Worst X-Men Run

The Clash - Sandinista!

Black Sabbath - Sabotage

Led Zeppelin - In Through the Out Door

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Card:

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

• Two of Pentacles

• XXI: The World

• Knight of Wands

Collaboration opens up new opportunities that will reshape and reinvigorate the Will. 

Jesus Lizard LIVE!!!

Live from Birmingham, Alabama, courtesy of the Live from Birmingham YouTube channel. I have been meaning to head down to Birmingham since moving just over three hours from it. This would have been perfect! Drat! Oh well, 

Seeing a bearded Yow brings a smile to my face. Weird to have that opening drum hit on Seasick hit and not see him throw himself into the crowd. NOT a criticism - I stopped crowdsurfing a long time before he did. 

Live from Birmingham's mission statement (from their YouTube page):

"LIVE FROM BIRMINGHAM is the home of Subcarrier, an Alabama Public Television production filmed and recorded at SATURN in Birmingham, AL, featuring performers from across the musical spectrum. Subcarrier is the continuation of WE HAVE SIGNAL, a project active from 2008 until 2015 when the world-famous venue BottleTree closed."

I've added Saturn to my venues to watch list. 

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I've been sick and largely offline, so I completely forgot that GDT's Frankenstein received a trailer the other day. My good friend Chris Saunders messaged me a reminder, though, and after watching it, well, I am speechless:

 

I will be shocked if this doesn't claim my best-of-the-year spot. That said, is this going straight to Netflix? Because that would be a goddamn shame. This needs to be seen in a theatre!

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I've been sick all weekend, and in that time I blew Preston Fassel's Beasts of 42nd Street.

After my recent re-read of Our Lady of the Inferno and now this, Fassel is easily in my top five favorite authors at the moment. These are so insanely compelling, even if dark A.F. Our Lady is dark, but not in the same way Beasts is. Man, this really took me some place not very nice, but it was a hell of a ride, and I'll definitely make the trip again. Here's the solicitation blurb from publisher Cemetary Dance's website. Important to note that while this is readily available to order from the bezos corp, Cemetary Dance lists it as Out of Print. So grab it now:

"In the kingdom of the damned that is 42nd Street, there’s no lowlier subject than Andy Lew. An unrepentant junkie, voyeur, and degenerate, he’s only tolerated by the more dangerous men around him because he keeps the projectors at the Colossus theater running on time, entertaining them with the most extreme horror cinema money can buy. 

"There’s something unique about Andy, though. He owns a movie. It’s the only one of its kind. No one knows who made it. Only he knows where it came from. The woman it stars is beautiful beyond imagination—and the images it depicts are more nightmarish than the darkest depths of Hell. The beasts of 42nd Street will do anything to possess it, but there’s something they don’t understand. Andy loves the woman in the movie—and he’ll go to any lengths to protect her… A savage love letter to 70s exploitation cinema and a biting satire of toxic fan culture, Beasts of 42nd Street makes horror dangerous again as it ventures into the mind of a psychopath like no other— one that will have readers recoiling even as they keep coming back for more."

I LOVED this novel. It plays with so many ideas from the 42nd street mythos - snuff, projection reel theft, Satanic Panic, Police conspiracy - bundles them all together in a brilliant, engaging story that takes you into the alleyways of late 70s Manhattan and plays with your sense of the world as we know it. Or think we know it. 

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Playlist:

Calderum - Mystical Fortress of Iberian Lands 

White Rune - The Spell of Eternal Fire

Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta I: Fathers Of The Icy Ages

Federale - Reverb & Seduction

Genghis Tron - Dead Mountain Mouth

Emilie Leviensaise-Farrouch - Censor OST

Blut Aus Nord - Ultima Thulée

Ruin - Plague Transmissions, Vol. 1

Tangerine Dream - In Search of Hades: The Virgin Recordings 1973 - 1979

Pink Floyd - Ummagumma

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Card:

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

• Ace of Swords

• IV: The Emperor

• Eight of Pentacles

A breakthrough of Will that successfully affects the "rules" of whatever the objective is will require intense concentration and dedication.

Another reminder for me to get back up on my horse and stop resting on my laurels. 

New Music from Year of No Light

 

After falling pretty hard for Year of No Light's 2021 album Consolamentum, these guys have been off my radar for a while. Last week I went deep-diving my Apple Music stores on my phone and ran into that album, spun it a couple times in one day, then this week realized they released a single-track E.P. recently. And let me say - Les Maîtres Fous does not disappoint. At just under 30 minutes, this track goes all over the place in the best possible way, building from literally nothing to some epic, bombastic heights. Out on The Ocean's Pelagic Records, you can order yourself a copy from the group's Bandcamp or the Pelagic webstore that suits you best.

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The trailer for Joe Begos' Jimmy and Stiggs finally came out and HOLY F**KING SH*T!!!

My most eagerly anticipated film of the year. I will drive to see this on the big screen in August if I have to, no problem. The great thing about seeing the "Eli Roth Presents" tag is that, about an hour after I saw this at home, I went to the theatre and saw a slightly shorter version of this trailer play before the Philippou Brothers' new film, Bring Her Back.

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Watch:

And let's talk about the Philippou Brothers' new film. While their first film, Talk to Me, is a banger in every sense of the term as I define it. Bring Her Back is not. 

This is drab, dour and dark in a way that will seep under your skin and play with your anxiety. This one burrows deep and really picks at some taboo terror. I have several friends who have compared it to Ari Aster's Midsommar, and I can't argue that. Difference between my comparison and theirs is part of theirs hinges on the "I don't think I will ever watch that again." 

I would see Bring Her Back again tomorrow if the opportunity of fancy arose. 

This is going to be in my top ten for sure, possibly top five. I'm further in awe of the Philippou Brothers and cannot wait to see what they do next. 

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Playlist:

John Carpenter w/ Alan Howarth - Big Trouble in Little China OST

Greg Puciato - Mirrorcell

Jóhann Jóhannsson - Mandy OST

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments

Deftones - Koi No Yokan

Comic Tropes - How Marvel Comics' Editors Ruined Hobgoblin

America - Sister Golden Hair (single)

Slow Crush - Aurora

Calderum - Mystical Fortress of Iberian Lands 

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Card:

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

• Page of Cups

• XIV: Temperance (ART)

• Nine of Swords

First, I love Grimm's portrayal of XIV, because even though I always associate this card with Thoth's Art instead of the classic Temperance, I can see how Crowley got to the change, and Grimm's illustration here embodies it. The Dark Arts - You must temper them. 

While my entry in the grimoire for Princess or Page of Cups leads off with "Dreams can become reality," it's really all about focus. This is Malkuth, and to transcend it, focus is important. Certainly the dark arts are a form of focus and an expression of Will, and with them, the climax of the Nine of Swords can be achieved.

All of this is really a fancy, Yungian way to say focus and work hard - hard enough for the work to be mistaken/categorized as Magick, and you can accomplish your Earthly goals.

I'm sure it will come as a surprise to no one who reads these pages that I immediately equate this with my writing, as with BG&BH finished, I find myself wondering if I should proceed with publishing it through my Horror Vision imprint, or possibly shop it to agents/publishers. 

The World Is So Good That Who Made It Doesn't Live Here

I finally had a chance to sit down and watch my copy of last year's Criterion Collection Gummo. Still one of the ugliest yet also most beautiful films I've seen, and the upgrade was just in time. I believe my previous viewing was somewhere circa 2019, at L.A.'s Egyptian Theatre, when Beyondfest brought Writer/Director Harmony Korine in to discuss the film afterward. I wrote about that experience HERE. My old DVD copy was just not going to cut it any longer.

One of Gummo's many joyful characteristics is its soundtrack, and while it led me to several fantastic artists in the early days of my infatuation with the film - I first saw it somewhere around 1999, I think - Mystifier is a band I'd previously not explored. 

Hailing from Brazil, these guys have a pretty interesting history. The song "Give the Human Devil His Due" comes from their 1996 album The World Is So Good That Who Made It Doesn't Live Here. How's that for a title, eh? The entire record is good, but so far this track is still the highlight (although that's very likely due to my identifying it with one of my favorite films).

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Watch:

A Butthole Surfers documentary???? Yes: The Hole Truth and Nothing Butt began select screenings in April!

Director Tom Stern has apparently been documenting the band since 1986, so this should be chock full O' historical moments that help cement this band's ironically insane tenure. I'm not sure where to see it at the moment, but I've subscribed to the film's YouTube channel, so hopefully, there will be some news soon. In the meantime, you can read more about the film on its official website HERE.

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Read:

Finally began tapping into the Weird Walk collection released last year:

This is a beautiful hardback book that compiles essays from the 'zine I've talked about here before. The authors cite everything from Jacques Derrida's writings on Hauntology to Julian Cope's The Modern Antiquarian as they set about discussing pre-history, deep time and their theory that to save the future, we must look back at the past. 

This won't be a 'straight-through' read for me. More likely, I will do an essay or two a week while I read other things on a daily basis.

You can check out more from Weird Walk on their website HERE.

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Playlist:

Pelican - Flickering Resonance

Rollins Band - The End of Silence

Rollins Band - Human (The End of Silence 1991 Demo)

TAD - Inhaler

White Lung - Paradise

Helmet - Meantime

The Ocean - Heliocentric

Young Widows - Old Wounds

Various - Learn to Relax: A Tribute to Jehu

Kamasi Washington - Lazarus OST

King Khan & The Shrines - What Is?!

Federale - No Justice

Idles - Joy As An Act of Rebellion

Anthrax - Among the Living

Mystifier - The World Is So Good That Who Made It Doesn't Live Here

David Bowie - Black Star

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments

Jóhann Jóhannsson - Mandy OST

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Card:

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

• Five of Pentacles

• Queen of Swords

• Page of Swords

Intellect over Earthly concerns, or perhaps this is better interpreted as Intellect to hone Earthly concerns.

New Pelican Album out Today!

 

Post-Metal - remember when that term was everywhere? Hydra Head Records (RIP) introduced me to a lot of great bands in the late '00s, and one of those was Chicago's instrumental tour de force Pelican. They've been off my radar for some time, but it feels good to rediscover them through a new release this morning!

You can order Flickering Resonance directly from Pelican's Bandcamp HERE.

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Watch:

I've become increasingly into Asian Horror over the last few years, and one of my recent explorations therein is the Netflix adaptation of Haro Aso's Alice in Borderland Manga. 

I'm completely unfamiliar with the source material, but more than a few friends have recommended this to me, so I finally gave it a go and might be hooked. 

Ostensibly another entry into the Battle Royale subgenre, this one also has major Cube vibes right from the jump. I'm a big fan of deserted major cities on film, partly because it must be so hard to pull off, partly because the imagery is often gorgeous and prophetic, and this one opens with a fantastic example. I'm not attached to any of the characters yet, but the opening episode's "Rooms Countdown" sequence is very well done and insanely engaging. Did I actually bite my nails? I might have.

There are currently two seasons of Alice in Borderland on Netflix, with a third on the horizon. Apparently that's a bit of a concern for fans of the book, as Aso's work is completely covered in the first two seasons, but we'll burn that bridge when we get to it.

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Cast:

At some point I fell out of the habit of posting the new episodes of Drinking with Comics here, and I realized recently that's just dumb. Mike Shin and I did a new episode this week and it was a lot of fun, so here you go!

We talk this year's Energon Universe FCBD special, Daredevil: Born Again, and finish off our reading and discussion of Grant Morrison's Multiversity, which I still don't like, but at least found a way to stop hating. 

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Playlist:

Swans - The Glowing Man

PJ Harvey - Uh Huh Her

Cartoonist Kayefabe - Jim Lee's Love Letter to Frank Miller

Cartoonist Kayefabe - First Appearance of Deadpool

Eitrin - Eponymous

Turnstile - GLOW ON

Black Flag - Everything Went Black

Black Flag - My War

Blut Aus Nord - Disharmonium: Undreamable Abysses

Blut Aus Nord - The Work Which Transforms God

The Untold Story of Transformers The Movie

Various - Learn to Relax: A Tribute to Jesu

The Damage Manual - Limited Edition

The Coffinshakers - We Are the Undead

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Card:

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

• Four of Wands

• Queen of Pentacles

• V: The Hierophant

Completion can, in and of itself, be a weakness. That's exactly where I'm at. After finishing Black Gloves & Broken Hearts, I was quick to jump back into Shadow Play Book Two and really made some progress for about a week, but now I'm just kind of living off the high of finishing a novel and having a super positive response from my first beta reader. I'm just so fucking happy with how this one turned out; I'm actually considering shopping it to Agents and Publishers. We'll see. In the meantime, The Hierophant completes the consideration by reminding that tapping back into something bigger than myself might help with the creative output. Or, it could be reminding me of the importance of the dogma of ritual, i.e. GO FUCKING WRITE!!!

Stand Back, Derry!

I heard this at some point last weekend, and it struck me that I've never posted it here. I have loved this song as far back as I can remember. A lot of 80s 'hits' became essentially ubiquitous decades ago, however, this one never fails to grab my attention for its duration.

From Stevie Nick's second solo album, The Wild Heart, released in 1983. That would have been when I first heard this, too. I didn't have MTV, but a friend did, and this one was all over 80s radio. 

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NCB:

Short week this week. Wheww! After last week, I'm definitely up for a short pull:

A new Image book I thought I'd give a try. Sounds cool. Here's the solicitation blurb, straight from League of Comic Geeks:

"When Jonathan Reason falls asleep, he becomes... something else. Every night, it stalks his quiet town, killing (seemingly) indiscriminately. When he wakes, covered in blood, our story begins. This new horror mystery from ZANDER CANNON (Heck, Top 10, Kaijumax) shows us the horrifying waking hours of an unwilling part-time killer."

I'm unfamiliar with Cannon's work, however, I really dig books where the creator writes and draws, and sleep has always fascinated me, so I'm looking forward to where this may take me.

The second volume of Zac Thompson's Body Fantasy/Horror Into the Unbeing comes to a close. Will there be a third? Can't wait to find out!

One more after this one. I have loved this book, loved every cover, but none more than this one. Majestic, 

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Watch:

While I am not the biggest fan of Andy Muschietti's IT movies - they're good, for sure, but also definitely have their issues - I am very excited to get out from under the time constraints of a theatrical release run-time and revisit Derry in a premium television format.

If HBO's Welcome to Derry can even be half what Castle Rock was, I will be happy. There's a full article over on Bloody Disgusting for more information. No release date yet.

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Playlist:

Swans - Glowing Man

Godflesh - Decline and Fall E.P.

Windhand - Eponymous

Hot Ones w/ Henry Rollins

The Coffineshakers - Eponymous

Horse the Band - A Natural Death

Saigon Blue Rain - Oko

Year of No Light - Consolamentum

Telekinetic Yeti - Primordial

John Carpenter - Lost Themes IV: Noir

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - East Hastings

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Card:

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

• Two of Swords

• VIII: Strength (Adjustment)

• XVII: The Star

Peace is won through routine and commitment. These form the path to Enlightenment.

More about ritual, which I have been sorely lacking the last week or so. Time to hunker down and reestablish my routines/rituals.

The Weird Tale of Helmet Live on KEXP!!!

 

Helmet on KEXP! Thank you to Mr. Brown for sending this my way. Fantastic seeing Hamilton and his current band slice through a nice, tight set.

 

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Read:

Yesterday was K's birthday, so I planned for us to stay a night at the historic Belle Air Mansion, which was originally built in 1790 as a private residence and eventually opened to the public in its current restored state in 2019. Since moving to Tennessee in August of 2022, we haven't made it out to Nashville more than a dozen times. It's a city thriving with the wrong kind of consumerism, and other than pockets we've found here and there, not a place either one of us is very eager to frequent. One of those pockets is the area around Dashwood Vintage Market, a BOHO Vintage and Flora shop that captured her heart immediately upon entering. Nearby are several other Vintage shops, one that has a great Vinyl area (Jimbo's) and one (Rivival) that serves as the closest thing to an independent bookstore I've seen since moving here. There were places all over Nashville like this when I was first here in 2005, but in the long corridor between then and now, "Nash Vegas" became the call of the city, and strip malls, franchises and country-star-owned multiplex drinking venues have replaced a lot of the charm. Think of it as kind of a Microcosm/Macrocosm of our society - vulgarity replaced intellectualism long ago, and our current fearless leader seems intent on ensuring that is the only way forward for the States.

Anyway...

Belle Air Mansion is gorgeous. Pricey but located close to the aforementioned Vintage markets, we arrived at 3:00 PM and relaxed into our room, the rustic 1790 Hideaway. After a brief respite, we headed out to Dashwood, only to realize we missed its operating hours by about ten minutes. 

Drat! 

Upon entering Revival, I quickly located the Sci-Fi/Horror section and nearly keeled over when I saw original copies of Weird Tales 291 - 302, with a few missing in there. This is from the late 80s/early 90s period revival of the magazine, and while I only grabbed two of them that first night, we returned the next morning so I could correct that mistake and procure the rest. 

As a Lovecraft and Derleth fan from my early teenage years, I of course know what Weird Tales was, but while I inherently assumed there had been some revival iterations of the literary periodical, I had never seen any edition of the magazine in the wild. Seeing these, holding them in my hands and eventually reading through several stories and columns ("The Eyrie" - essentially the letters column; "The Den" - the review column), I was instantly strengthened by finding an item so intrinsically in tune with my nature, yet also completely crestfallen. Just typing the words 'literary periodical' above thrills me that such a thing ever could have existed. I have a mental and tactile record in my history of a world where a magazine like this could exist, where inside its pages you find multiple ads for other, completely independently run literary magazines available by subscription - the addresses listed for contact clearly the progenitor's home address - but we are so far past this in 2025, anyone who doesn't have the experiential knowledge of this era would surely never know or perhaps even believe it ever existed.

Issue 291 (Summer 1988) was the first I dove into. Featuring a spotlight on Tannith Lee (2 whole Novellas, or "Novelettes" as the editors refer to them) alongside stories by Ronald Anthony Cross, Morgan Llyewelyn, Nancy Springer, Brian Lumley, Harry Turtledove and Ken Wisman, this magazine is a veritable Feast of genre literature. Illustrated entirely by Stephen Fabian with verse by a wide range of authors, I'm absolutely in love with Weird Tales. 

Looking into the history of this revival, it seems the magazine continued unchanged until 1994 when it lost the use of the Weird Tales moniker and became Worlds of Fantasy & Horror - a fantastic name in its own right, but one that was ultimately lacking the, ugh, 'brand recognition' to continue forward with any real momentum. There have been subsequent iterations as well, but I'm limiting my focus - for the time being at least - to what I have, perfect when you consider the years of operation for this revival match up perfectly to when I would have read my first Lovecraft-related work, August Derleth's The Lurker on the Threshold.*

Something I never knew but discovered on the Weird Tales Wikipedia page is that in 1995, HBO licensed the name with the intention of producing a Tales From the Crypt-style anthology show that unfortunately never happened. With Directors like Tim Burton, Francis Ford Coppola and Oliver Stone attached, it really is a shame this did not line up with the revival because that might have sealed the deal insofar as cementing an audience.

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* Motivated by Metallica and Iron Maiden's references to HPL, I found a copy of this in the old Record Swap that used to rule the Southwestern corner of Harlem and 159th in Tinley Park, IL. This was at a time before Borders had moved into Chicago's south suburbs, before the stand-alone mega structure B&N, when mall-based bookshops like Kroch's and Brentano's were really all I knew, and HPL was not carried there or in my local library. The edition, Carroll & Graff's 1988 mass market paperback, features HPL's name in text almost as large as the title, but nowhere on the cover does it mention the actual author, August Derleth, so for years I went on thinking this was Lovecraft's work. 

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Playlist:

Butthole Surfers - Live at the Leather Fly

Henry Rollins and Mother Superior - Get Some Go Again Sessions

The Obsessed - Lunar Womb

Jóhann Jóhannsson - Mandy OST

The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza - Danza III: The Alpha - The Omega

Deth Crux - Mutant Flesh

Soft Kill - An Open Door

Battle Tapes - Sweatshop Boys EP

SOD - Speak Spanish or Die

The Jeff Healey Band - Road House (The Lost Soundtrack)

Tangerine Dream - In Seach of Hades: The Virgin Recordings 1973 - 1979

Interpol - Antics

Helmet - Betty

The Thirsty Crows - Hangman's Noose

The Bengals - All Over the Place

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Card:

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

• Queen of Wands

• Page of Cups

• Ace of Wands

Female-inspired energy - "she can help you"- massive outpouring of power.

Spending K's birthday weekend with her, a lot of unfettered time that we don't normally get, and I'm feeling recharged. Also: "Dreams can become reality," as a notation in the grimoire, as well as, "Pay attention to your dreams." K and I both had a very early night last night and super strong dreams after our second sleep interval. Let's see what I dream tonight. Perhaps I can go back to writing them down. Always a power boost, that.

Set Adrift on NCBD Bliss

P.M. Dawn's 1991 album Of the Body, Of the Soul and the Cross: The Utopian Experience is now available on streamers! 

I talked a lot about this one back in January of 2021 - basically, this is a song and now an album that, while I wasn't overtly into at the time of its release (I would have been fifteen), has become a huge nostalgia trigger for me. Very cool to finally listen to the entire record.

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NCBD:

A solid week of books. Let's get into it:

Plague House's first issue sold me on two things: 1) I am all-in on Michael W. Conrad and Dave Chisholm's Haunted House book, and 2) Oni Press has already captured 2025 as their year, in my opinion.

James Tynion IV and Steve Foxe's Jersey Devil bio has had some pretty crazy moments in it so far, so although I'm kind of looking for books to cut at the moment, I'm definitely going to hang with this one until it ends with issue four. Piotr Kowalski's art, in particular, has really added an ominous sense of momentum to this story.

The cover alone sells the F_CK out of this book.

I completely forgot about this Black Metal-infused, supernatural Folk Horror revenge book by Brian Azzarello, Vanesa Del Rey and Hilary Jenkins. I dug the first two issues, so my forgetfulness is caused by this one's bi-monthly release schedule more than disinterest.

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Watch:

The full trailer for Together dropped a few days ago, and while I'll leave it right here for posterity's sake, not watching this one.

Written and Directed by Michael Shanks and starring Dave Franco, Alison Brie, and one of my favorite actors, Damon Herriman, Together carries with it an unstated implication that this will be this year's big Body Horror movie. I find such an unquantifiable thrill in having this sub-genre on its way to becoming a household word. Blows me away. 

Together is slated to hit theatres August 1st, and I will be there opening day!

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Playlist:

Drab Majesty - Careless

Various - Learn to Relax: A Tribute to Jehu

The Birthday Party - Mutiny/The Bad Seed EP

Godflesh - Decline and Fall EP

Antibalas - Where The Gods Are In Peace

P.M. Dawn - Of the Heart, Of the Soul and the Cross: The Utopian Experience

Matt Cameron - Gory Scorch Cretins EP

Soundgarden - Super Unknown

Steve Moore - Christmas, Bloody Christmas OST

Zombi - Shape Shift

Walter Rizzati - House By the Cemetery OST

Zeal & Ardor - Eponymous

Black Sabbath - Sabotage

The Dillinger Escape Plan - Ire Works

OLD - The Musical Dimensions of Sleastak

Zombi - Direct Inject

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Card:

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

• Four of Swords

• Queen of Pentacles

• King of Cups

Stability in the Will as applied to Earthly matters is entangled with Emotion and thus, leads to conflict. Nearly a perfect summation of my last few days of work.