Richard Stanley's The Color Out of Space gets a trailer!

I saw this at Beyondfest back in September. It's awesome. There are a few issues I had with Richard Stanley's Adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's The Colour Out of Space - for one the change in the title's spelling - but overall, I loved this film. The third act is like acid kicking in at the top of a very tall roller coaster, and it makes up for any other issues I had with the film.

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I've found it difficult to find the time to do these pages lately, but I'm not going anywhere. Since I've last checked in, there's a lot I've been into.

I finished my re-read of Rick Remender and Matteo Scalera's Black Science, which ended last month with issue forty-three. I'd been buying this one monthly since it began, but I'd fallen off actually reading it about five issues before the series finale, knowing full well I'd be doing a series re-read once the story was complete. I can't stress enough what a different experience that was, and what an altogether affecting series this is on me. The story - which is loaded with pulp Sci-Fi awesomeness that reminds me a bit of Clark Ashton Smith, a bit of Arthur C. Clark, and a lot of all those nameless pulp paperbacks I checked out of the library or acquired at the school book fair as a kid -  is really just a mask for Remender to expound on everything from Life, Relationships, Philosophy, Science, Meaning. The man is wise; if you got a hint of that from his more widely known Deadly Class, give this a try.

Fell back hard into Bill Hader and Alec Berg's Barry. K and I had started this near the end of September, only to shelve it for 31 Days of Horror. Well, three episodes away from the second season finale, and I haven't been this blown away by a show in quite some. Hader's tone nails life - it's funny, awkward, tragic, brutal... Barry will give you 'all the feels.'

The fifth episode of the second season is very close to the best episode of serialized, half-hour television I have ever seen, and it had me laughing so hard I literally almost choked. A good thing.



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This past Tuesday, the fourth and final volume of Warren Ellis and Jon Davis-Hunt's The Wild Storm. I picked up and plowed through the first two trades in Chicago last December, and since I acquired volume three but held out until I could read the entire series in a short burst. Following Black Science, that time is now.

The Wild Storm is, simply put, one of the greatest comics I've ever read. I'm sure when it's over I'm going to want to follow the spin-offs out into their own little orbits; that may or may not happen. This core title, however, is breathtaking.

Reading this in trade is the definitive reminder I needed to wait for the collections of Ellis and Hitch's Batman's Grave, which is on issue two right now, I believe. Seemingly contrarian to this, I've opted to tag back into Ellis and Jason Howard's Trees - which just started up again. The difference is, with Image titles, there are no internal ads disrupting the flow of the book, so the story is intact.

It's moving back into Winter (yeah, those of you in actual cold-climates can laugh at me), and I'm reading a lot of Warren Ellis, so I'm kind of being pulled into a cool re-contextualization with a lot of the music I listened to in the mid-to-late 00s, because a lot of what I did after moving to LA in 2006 was read Warren Ellis and listen to music. You'll see this begin to be reflected in the list below, near the end, as I try to assemble a playlist from the last week that shows my transition out of Halloween-mode and into Winter mode.

Playlist from the previous week or so:

The Obsessed - Lunar Womb
Type O Negative - Life is Killing Me
High on Fire - Blessed Black Wings
Brand New - God and the Devil Are Raging Inside Me...
David J, Federale, and Tim Newman - The Day That David Bowie Died
Chasms - On The Legs Of Love Purified...
Federale - Trouble (Pre-release single)
Duende and David J - Oracle of the Horizontal
Sunn O))) - Pyroclasts
Sunn O))) - Life Metal
Barry Adamson - As Above So Below
Jozef Van Wissem and Jim Jarmusch - An Attempt to Draw Aside the Veil
Isis - In the Absence of Truth
Opeth - Orchid
Opeth - Blackwater Park
Flatline - Pave the Way
Tyler Childers - Purgatory
Paolo Nutini - Caustic Love
Tyler Childers - Country Squire
Hank III - Straight to Hell
Timber Timbre - Eponymous
Canadian Rifle - Peaceful Death
Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen
Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta III Satur
Revocation - The Outer Ones
Revocation - Teratogenesis EP
Megadeth - Rust in Peace
Oh Baby - The Art of Sleeping
TV on the Radio - Nine Types of Light
Thievery Corporation - The Mirror Conspiracy

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No card today.

M83 - DSVII - Feelings

M83's new album Digital Shades Vol. II dropped today. It's gorgeous, and coincidentally makes a perfect soundtrack to my re-read of Rick Remender and Matteo Scalera's Black Science. I'm eleven issues in and th Telepathic Millipede death cult is one of the awesomest/creepiest lifeforms I've seen in a SciFi/Fantasy story like this. Check that - there are no SciFit/Fantasy stories like this. Pure, unraveling, multi-dimensional madness, and I'm loving it, especially with this lush, analog soundtrack. I fell out with M83 after HUWD, and I still want a non-instrumental record from them again, but in the meantime, DSVII is fantastic.

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Larry Fessenden's modern take on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is fantastic, and if you're in Hollywood and get a chance to see that - or any of the other goodies playing there - you should definitely drop in at Arena Cinelounge. Fantastic venue for short run/obscure flicks. I posted the trailer for Depraved yesterday, so today, here's a super cool behind the scenes shot I found online, along with a LINK to a cool article by Fessenden on why he makes movies.

For my money, Mr. Fessenden is the closest thing to a John Carpenter-level talent who isn't wearing his JC influence on his sleeve (not always a bad thing, the point here is LF is as original in his approach now as JC was to his back in the day), toiling away in partial obscurity, making original, solid flicks that are as interesting to the philosophical mind as they are to the eye. Support this man's work!

My full, short review of Depraved is up on Letterbxd HERE.

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Playlist from 9/19:

Tomahawk - Eponymous
Pixies - Beneath the Eyrie
Sleep - Sleep's Holy Mountain
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Mind Control
Rob Zombie - Hellbilly Deluxe

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Card of the day:

Wow, talk about the cards talking directly, clearly, right to me! Two days of the 4 of Disks, Power while I recharge my mental and physical batteries, directly followed by the 3 of Disks, Work, telling me to get my ass back in gear and get to work. Time to wrap Black Science for the day and head out to write!

Blood Machines Official Trailer

SO happy I helped kickstart this one! There are two slots for this year's Beyondfest still to be announced - I'm hoping one of them is Blood Machines. My hope for the other slot is either Babak Anvari's Nathan Ballingrud adaptation Wounds or the Soska Sisters' Rabid.

Speaking of Beyondfest 2019, I was able to get tickets to almost everything I wanted:

Joe Bob Brigs - How Rednecks Saved Hollywood
Tammy and the T-Rex
Joe Begos Double Feature: Bliss and VFW, with Begos and crew in person
Tom Atkins Triple Feature with Mr. Atkins attending: Halloween III Season of the Witch, Night of the Creeps and John Carpenter's The Fog

The only flick I missed out on is Richard Stanley's adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's The Color Out of Space with Stanley in person, but I'm cool with what I was able to score. There's also tickets available for a bunch of other films I'm toying with, but I'll probably decide some of those last minute since most are during the week.

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NCBD - so weird. Third NCBD in a row with no books, and I'm not particularly bothered. In fact, probably to sub the weekly comic experience, I chomped down hard on my re-read of Rick Remender and Matteo Scalera's Black Science, which I erroneously reported ended last month, but actually ends next week with issue forty-three. As of last night, I am eight issues into the re-read, and having an absolute blast with it. Such great world building, both story wise and with Scalera's incomparable art.

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I've been doing a lot of digital reading. So much so, that it's becoming a bit of a problem. Kindle books are so cheap it's insane. Case in point, this was $0.99:

Forty freakin' stories by a variety of different authors. Some of those, like the Lovecraft and the Howard I already have, but there's a ton of stuff I do not. In fact, what led me to this one was researching T.E.D. Klein, whose OOP paperback Dark Gods keeps coming up in conversation as essential reading to further Lovecraft's mythos, but which runs for about $50+ on eBay. Klein's story The Events at Poroth Farm is included in this one, and it also comes recommended as a great place to start with his work. Instead of that one though, I started with a Clark Ashton Smith, whose SciFi/Fantasy work I adore, but whose entries in the mythos I've never read before. I'm about a quarter of the way through The Return of the Sorcerer, and it is, as I suspected, fantastic. Smith's handling of Lovecraft's work actually reminds me a lot Howard's, whose Lovecraft-related work I actually probably like better than Lovecraft's. Sacrilege, I know, but the man can write. And so can Smith.

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Well, I went and saw Rob Zombie's 3 From Hell two nights ago. I didn't like it. My short review is up on Letterbxd HERE. I'll add that I am happy RZ made the movie he wanted to, it just wasn't to my tastes or what I wanted from a sequel to two movies I adore. Despite of my negative take, I'll still go see the next one when it comes out (there will be a next one).

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Playlist of late:

Danzig - Danzig 1
Sepultura - Chaos A.D.
Mark Korven - The Witch OST
Slipknot - We Are Not Your Kind
Marilyn Manson - Antichrist Superstar
David Bowie - Aladdin Sane
Flipper - Generic Flipper
Various - Under Frustration, Vol. 2
Brass Hearse - Eponymous EP
Rob Zombie - Apple Essentials
Brass Hearse - In Death (I'll Love You More) single

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Card of the day:

To me, this card always indicates a solid foundation, or re-gathering thereof. And that's what I've been doing of late - a lot of rest. I've felt out of sorts, stressed out, and my wrist in probably badly sprained. I may continue to rest today, even if I am neglecting my writing. We'll see. The reading - of comics, The Queen's Conjuror, and now some Cthulhu Mythos, is also an attempt at re-cementing my foundation, and that combined with the added rest is helping put me back together a bit after traveling and a grueling return to work last week.

2019: July 30th - The Lighthouse Trailer

I know a lot of folks hated Robert Eggers debut film The Witch. I love it, and I am very much looking forward to Egger's follow-up The Lighthouse. And after what feels like forever, we now have a trailer. With a New York and Los Angeles release date of October 18/19th, I'm expecting this to be at this year's Beyondfest, and it will definitely be one of the major screenings I attempt to get tickets for.

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Rick Remender's Black Science is ending in September with issue #43, and that means it's time for me to re-read this reality-shattering opus from the beginning. I've loved this series, however at some point I coasted a few months without reading a few issues and when I came back, I realized I was lost. It happens when you have a story with so many different dimensions. Thus, I figured I'd wait until we were a month or two out from the end, and then re-read. Starting from the beginning again really re-triggered everything I love about the series: Matteo Scalera and Dean White's art; Grant McKay's narration and dialogue; and the 70s-ish deep fantasy overtones. The creatures/world building in this one are INSANE. Case in point:

Black Science is available from Rick Remender's Giant Generator via Image Comics in a variety of formats. If you love deep, non-Tolkien derivative fantasy, give it a try.

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Playlist from the last few days:

Zeal and Ardor - Stranger Fruit
The Streets - Original Pirate Material
Ministy - Psalm 69
Shellac - The End of Radio
Lightning Born - Eponymous
Golden - Eponymous
TV on the Radio - Staring at the Sun EP
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Damn the Torpedoes
Revolting Cocks - Big Sexy Land
Revolting Cocks - Cocked and Loaded
Gibby Haynes and His Problem - Eponymous
Tamaryn - The Waves

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No card today.

2019: March 26th

Let's go back a few years. Circa 2014. Via Blood Disgusting, I found and fell in love with a podcast called Double Murder. A kind of 'celebrity death match' of horror movies, our hosts Danny and Tim take two horror movies and weigh them for ranking against one another. The criteria is learned and often sophisticated understanding and discussion of content and craft, so it makes for a fantastic listen if you're into Horror as an aesthetic as well as a good time.

Double Murder is a deceivingly intellectual discussion of horror (see their episode Videodrome vs. eXistenz); one of those deep dive shows where you really get to know your hosts in regard to how they approach something you probably also love if you're listening, i.e. horror movies. As with life, over the last few years episodes have dwindled as the hosts' lives have presumably done what all our lives do - run all the fuck over us, stealing our moments and bludgeoning our wills. That's a beating you have to actively work against, and brother, it ain't easy. I mean, some days it can be difficult enough to motivate yourself to do something you love, let alone line up two or more schedules to work on a project. Anyway, due to the dwindle, I'd fallen out of habit checking for new episodes. Then, last week I noticed there was one from last October, a fantastic juxtaposing of Halloween H20 and Halloween 2018. Yay!

Now, here's the thing. Danny! and Tim are from my home town, and that further endears these guys to me. I don't know them, but I'm double rooting for them, in whatever they do. So when Danny! asks Tim for news on his band, Canadian Rifle, I remember that yes! I can look these guys up on Apple Music, a service I didn't have whenever the last time they might have mentioned the band on the podcast and I was listening. I did just that, and was pretty much immediately blown away by Canadian Rifle's 2018 album Peaceful Death. I played this fucker for about a dozen rotations that first day, and it has remained in heavy rotation since. Canadian Rifle's bandcamp is HERE - I'm so ordering some vinyl to support these fellas - and there's a ton of tracks on youtube, Apple Music, wherever fine paperbacks are sold.

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According to Comic List, it's another light week for NCDB. It can be depressing waiting for new issues of A Walk Through Hell and Gideon Falls. However, of note this week is Rick Remender and Matteo Scalera's Black Science begins its final arc with this week's issue #39. Consulting Image Comics, looks like this last arc will culminate in June with Issue #42. What a great book; looking forward to a deep-dive re-read as soon as Black Science is over.

I'm behind on Punks Not Dead. Issue One of the second arc, London Calling, is still sitting on my desk, waiting for me to re-read the final issue of the first arc before diving into this new one.

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Playlist from 3/25:

Talking Heads - Remain in Light
PJ Harvey - Uh Huh Her
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - The Good Son
Nabihah Iqbal - Weighing of the Heart
Throwing Shade - House of Silk EP
Windhand - Eternal Return

Card of the day:

Another nod toward a new beginning, and a fulfilling one to boot. As I begin to make a list of ideas and scenes for Shadow Play Book Two: The Absence of Light (Tentative title), I'm about to begin actually writing my second collaboration with Jonathan Grimm, a Depression-era, dustbowl circus zombie story called Ciazarn. Not a comic, this is more a prose novella with pictures by Grimm, and judging by what I've already seen, it will be gorgeous.

The Return of Rick Remender & Matteo Scalera's Black Science...

... is the topic of discussion this week in Thee Comic Column, over there on Joup!