Anything Declan Shalvey has a hand in I will read. I'm stoked that the artist of one of my favorite series (Injection) is also a kick-ass writer!
Thus far, this alternate "What If?" book has my attention. I adore the OG spidey black costume, even before it became Venom, so this is cool to see.
YES! Summer camp slasher - 'nuff said!
I almost forgot about this series; I feel like its release has been a touch sporadic. No matter, three issues left after this one. Aquatic Horror never felt so good.
This series is gorgeous. Really digging it, and if I can get my hands on this variant cover, all the better.
Loved issue #1, let's see how #2 is.
Marvel is really monetizing Spider-man these days, but I've become a sucker for Nick Spencer's take on the book, even if it is jam-packed with more plot than you can shoot a web at.
Playlist:
Prédateurs - Les Discrets
Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen
Zeal and Ardor - Wake of a Nation
Christopher Young and Lustmord - The Empty Man OST
I missed posting for the anniversary of Peter Steele's death back last month, but the Drab Four have been on my mind.
It's funny, over the last few years I've fallen into the habit of almost exclusively listening to Type O in the Autumn. Which is weird, because if I was forced to name a 'favorite band' it would probably be them (or Ozzy-era Sabbath). The reason for this weird confinement of their music is something I have been aware of, but not really analyzed.
Until yesterday.
In listening to Type O's final album, 2007's Dead Again, I realized the reason I largely reserve their music for Autumn is that out here in California, we do not have any of the recognizable features of my favorite season. October feels a lot like August, feels a lot like April, etc. After living the first thirty years of you life in the Midwest, the seasons become ingrained in you, in your thought processes and emotions and all kinds of other inner-working, hard-wired stuff. When I moved to the west coast about a year before Dead Again was released, I had to get used to the lack of burning leaves, thunderstorms, and a general sense of what I'll rather dramatically call 'the dying time.' Thus, I established early on a sort of "Internal Autumn" ideal, almost a mantra for my favorite time of year. This usually kicks in during the start of September and lasts through the first week of November. It's how I convince myself that I'm living in Autumn when I'm really not, an homage to the way I lived the years of my life that shaped me. This works, however, I think the inner autumn thing has become more difficult to sustain the longer I'm out here, that much further away from the experience of a real Autumn. Thus, I came up with this idea that if I reserved Type O - still the most Autumn band for my money - exclusively for that time of year, it would help sell this whole charade.
And as is often the case in psychoanalyzing yourself, now that I've picked this apartment, it feels freeing, because I WANT TO LISTEN TO TYPE O NEGATIVE ALL DAMN YEAR LONG.
So let's start here with Profit of Doom, the third - and possibly weirdest - track from Dead Again.
Damn, Pete. We fucking miss you.
Watch:
One of the movies I've been waiting for this year is Maximiliano Contenti's Red Screening, AKA The Last Matinee. I don't know a lot about this one, but check out this bee-oootiful trailer:
I've become quite a sucker for Neo-Giallo, and Horror flicks that take place in movie theatres always work good for me, so I'm jazzed for this one, which will be in theatres on August 6th and VOD August 24th.
Playlist:
Voyag3r - Doom Fortress
Lantlôs - Lake Fantasy (pre-release single)
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
Type O Negative - Dead Again
Anthrax - Among the Living
Card:
The 8 of Wands always feels like it's a premonition of good things to come, creatively. I need that right now; things have been slow and syrupy and I need to get myself moving again. The idea is in another week or so, since I am now fully vaxxed, I'll begin walking to my writing spot again. This should help me get back on track, so hopefully the card is a good omen.
A new show by the creators of Dark? I'd heard about this last year, but completely forgot about it.
READ:
You may know C. Robert Cargill's name best as the co-writer of 2012's brilliant Horror movie Sinister. He's also a novelist, and although I'm unfamiliar with most of his work, I began his new novel Sea of Rust recently and can tell you it is fantastic.
The novel takes place in a world devoid of humanity. It's our world after the AI war that wipes us out, after AI factions off into super mainframe intelligence - there are two and the denizens of the novel refer to them as OWIs, or One World Intelligences - and rogue robots who fight for the freedom not to succumb to the edict of trading their selfhood for the ease of becoming part of the hivemind. There are so many analogs to our world here that it's crazy; from the Corporatization of everything to individuality in the age of our own accelerated (social media), that the book has an uncanny ability to feel in harmony with our lives even during the, frankly, pretty damn well-written action sequences. I'm really digging this one, and am moving Mr. Cargill to my 'pay attention to everything he does' list.
Playlist:
Turquoise Moon - The Sunset City
Myrkur - Folkesange
DJ Muggs the Black Goat - Dies Occidendum
Ennio Morricone - The Thing OST
Judas Priest - Painkiller
Kate Bush - The Dreaming
Zeal and Ardor - Devil is Fine
Waxwork Records - House of Waxwork Issue #1 OST
Led Zeppelin - Eponymous
Card:
Ah, restraint. Thank you for the reminder. Here's the mantra for when I'm scouring ebay for things I do not need: I WANT A HOUSE.
Goddamnit, does it feel like forever since Stranger Things Season 3? It sure does to me. The good news is, when Season 4 gets closer, K and I have a full rewatch of the entire series planned.
Started the day yesterday with some Effigies. Been a minute, almost forgot how much I love these guys. Old school Chicago punk rock - still hits as hard as it does now as it did when I first heard it in the early 90s.
Read:
Everyone in my house had their second shot yesterday, and just like the first one three weeks ago, it's rendered me nearly immobile. That's a bit of an overstatement, however, I took a nap afterward and woke up feeling like chewed-up dog biscuits, so I'm off work again today. The morning marine layer is pretty intense outside, so the air is cool and charged with the Ocean. Windows are open, I'm breathing fresh air, and from somewhere nearby Cindy Lauper's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" is playing. If I felt up to going to get some eggs and corned beef hash this would be a perfect morning.
While sitting in bed this morning, I'm doing some reading, going back and reading the afterward sections on two graphic novels I've read in the last month and absolutely loved:
Eibon Press's Bottomfeeder is a heartfelt work of sleazy Grindhouse Horror and I could not have loved it more. There are moments I can only call, "Stark raving terror" that are unlike anything I've seen in a comic (or a film) before. That said, it's also a class act; this is exploitation for exploitation's sake, however, it's clear to me that Stephano Romano, Shawn Lewis, Patrick Carbajal and everyone involved weren't just out to fill the pages with hateful dissonance, but to tell a fucking awesome story, as well. There's a lot of love for late actor Joe Pilato, who was originally attached when this was a screenplay, and who gave his blessings for the use of his likeness as the main character, Detective Joe Angell. You read this gnarly romp through tits, blood, and guts and then turn to those final pages and read Lewis and Romano extolling their love of Pilato as a friend and mentor and you get a little teary-eyed. Because Bottomfeeder is something unlike anything else, and that uniqueness makes for a special experience when you consume it. The Horror is real, meaningful, and executed masterfully.
Pun intended.
You can hear Chris Saunders and I interview Jay Fotos about his fantastic Rising Rebels graphic novel over on the A Most Horrible Library podcast. I read the book three weeks ago, after my first dose of the vaccine, but I had yet to go back to finish reading the extensive afterward section. There are author's notes that trace everything from the original impetus for Rising Rebels to the monster designing process but there's also a collection of Danny Marianino's 80s Once Upon A Time column, which is among the finest retrospective romps through the era of my childhood I've read.
My opinion is any diehard Horror fan would love both of these books, so if that's you, you can pick up Bottomfeeder over on Eibon Press's website HERE, and Rising Rebels is probably most readily available from Jay Fotos's eBay Store HERE.
Playlist:
The Effigies - Remains Nonviewable
Prince and the Revolution - Purple Rain
Neurosis - Given to the Rising
SURVIVE - Mnq026
Genesis - Invisible Touch
Ice-T - Power
Card:
Exactly what I will need to get through the next two days and hit the ground running on Monday. My mantra: Keep your eyes on the prize: two weeks from yesterday I will be sitting on the patio at a local brewhouse drinking a pint of beer.
This one's been in my head since I broke out Ice-T's sophomore record Power a few days ago. Interesting how something that, technologically speaking, sounds so archaic, could be so catchy. Is there hope for those old-school 80s sounds yet? You know, the ones that came preloaded on consumer-grade Casio keyboards by the time we hit the mid-90s? The Night Court bass, Pan Pipes and the like? Maybe. I believe that's what a contingent of artists that hovered around the moniker Hypnogogic Pop attempted in the 00s, but in many cases, that attempt failed. IMO. Hearing this track now though, perhaps the time is ripe for someone new to come along and reclaim some of these weird 80s textures.
Watch:
Having read the two comic series as they came out, the first in 2014, the second a year or two ago, I enjoyed Cullen Bunn's The Empty Man, so when I saw there was a movie, I became both excited and hesitant. Then I saw Lustmord did the OST, and I knew I had to watch it.
I dug this one. The ending fell a bit flat for me, but overall, Director David Prior really conveys a heavy sense of forbidding that was a blast to experience. There's a great sense of dread - made palpable at times by Lustmord's brand of creepy cosmic textures. The funny thing is, in watching this, I don't believe it felt so much like an adaptation of the material from the comic, as much as it did the comic if it had been a novel by Laird Barron.
Playlist:
Christopher Young and Lustmord - The Empty Man
High On Fire - Blessed Black Wings
John Carpenter and Alan Howarth - Halloween III: Season of the Witch OST
ILSA - Preyer
Roy Ayers - Ubiquity
Card:
I'll be paying special attention to Big Ideas today.
I stumbled across the record by the band Vreid two days ago and quickly went from being impressed by their ability to conjure and own a lot of old school metal tropes to completely blowing my mind by moving through a network of decidedly non-metal elements to flesh their sound out into a pretty unique beast. Listen to the track above, then go on and hit play on this.
I kept thinking the Apple Music algorithm had moved me onto another band. The album does that, slowly incorporating other, decidedly non-metal ideas into its progression in a way that makes it a journey, which is very cool, and apparently exactly what I needed.
NCBD:
Okay, so I actually went and bought every back issue The Comic Bug had on the shelf for this newest Amazing Spider-man series, which means I have now read issues 49-64. I say this, because despite the storyline feeling a bit weighed down by plot threads - I mean, there are a f*&king LOT of them - I've kind of fallen for this book. There's a very Uncanny-Xmen-Chris-Claremont feeling at how writer Nick Spencer sets up future plots/reveals via one and two-page asides. This creates some serious Gottasees that build over the course of, in some cases, a lot of issues. Case in point, who was the extra corpse that Carli Cooper found among the bodies Kindred exhumed? They drop this with a two-page scene in issue 57, and we still don't know, going on 8 issues later! It's stuff like this, and a mounting idea that Spencer seems like he might be setting up to undo the "Brand New Day" stuff from back in 2008 that pushed all the old-school, Peter-and-Mary-Jane stuff aside in favor of streamlining Spidey for younger readers. Either way, I'm super intrigued at where this is all going.
One issue left after this. Love this series, and love its covers, especially this one.
The first two issues were so much fun, how can I not come back for more? I'm still not jumping on the Carnage train, however, the stories in the second issue of the titular symbiote's Black, White & Blood book felt like horror films, which is super cool to see a major "Fan Favorite" like this treated that way.
Another penultimate issue for a mini-series that I'm currently following. Short and sweet, and even if we don't hear from Pendermills, this and 4 Kids Walk Into a Bank have cemented Tyler Boss as someone whose work I will follow.
If you didn't know Larry Hama is writing an Iron Fist comic, don't feel bad, neither did I. I'm new to the character, however, I jumped at the chance to pick up a new, finite Hama project and so far, so good.
This book definitely skews a little more "classic Image" than I normally like. That said, I'm digging it and will follow it for the time being.
Playlist:
Deftones - Ohms
Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love
Vreid - Wild North West
Boy Harsher - Careful
Black Sabbath - Sabotage
Card:
Death is just the beginning, right? It's funny, yesterday my interpretation of the Queen of Disks was so on the nose that I'd used the words "Responsibility" and "Culpability" in discussion probably five times by 9:00 AM. I'm curious if my standard reading for Death as Change or Metamophasis will be as on the nose.
Sampa the Great is new to me (see below), but I am digging on this entire record.
Watch:
A couple weeks ago my Drinking with Comics cohost Mike Wellman sent me this interview with Mike Patton. Fantastic discussion, but of special interest here is his mention of Sampa the Great, who I'd never heard of before and whose 2019, award-winning record The Return is currently blowing my mind. Here's my favorite track (so far) on an album where there are a lot of tracks and all of them are good.
What I love best here is the fact that, if you go to the All-Music entry on The Return and check the credits, almost all of the instrumentation is real, very little in the way of samples. Plus, all of it hits that 70s Soul/ R&B sweet spot I love so much. You know, back before people considered crap like beyonce R&B.
Playlist:
Death Valley Girls - Under the Spell of Joy
Perturbator - Excess (Single)
Perturbator/Author & Punisher - Excess n (Single Remix)
Vreid - Wild North West
Sampa the Great - The Return
Deftones - Ohms
Ice-T - Power
Card:
The Queen of Disks always feels like a bit of an indictment to me. Kind of the spiritual or theoretical equivalent of Dante's change experiment in Clerks (yeah, I know that's an odd reference to tie into Tarot). While your better self (or Star self as I always imagine Crowley called it and didn't) is looking the other way, are you participating in something you shouldn't? The goat up front staring at us, essentially breaking the fourth wall, is a reminder you should always be aware, because others are whether you realize it or not.
There's a reminder of culpability here that I like, and whenever I see it, I try and run a mental checklist to see if all my ducks are indeed in a row. Interestingly, I feel like there's an element of that in The Return, as the record is peppered with dialogue snippets - mostly third party phone messages by Sampa's friends - that seem bent on making her understand something the world around her expects of her, but that she herself has left behind. And that's part of culpability, too, making sure that just because the world expects something of you, if it doesn't align with who you actually are inside, you're not falling in line. Keep your ducks in a row, not theirs.
