Easily now my favorite of the records I received from Relapse Records by way of randomly getting their 20th Anniversary's Golden Ticket back in 2020, Valkyrie's Fear is a work of art, and definitely shares more in common with the work of bands like Led Zeppelin than a lot of modern bands do. That doesn't make them better, it just makes them unique. At the moment, this is my favorite song on an album of favorite songs.
Read:
I finally went back and read Rick Remender and André Lima Araújo's A Righteous Thirst For Vengeance 1-4 in one sitting. I'd read issues one and two as they came out, then forgot about the book, picked up three and four and have basically had them sitting on my reading pile for a few weeks.
This book is fantastic; it's lean and has a velocity that pulls you page after page in short order, with a bunch of, "wait, did I miss something" moments that are all leading up to revelations that will no doubt draw the story into a cataclysmic conclusion. I can't wait to read more.
I also finished Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy by finally closing out volume three, The Amber Spyglass. Being that the HBO/BBC show's third and final season is soon to be upon us, and being that said show is such a spot-on adaptation of the books, I am very curious how this third installment will look. There are several very strange facets to this third chapter, including but not limited to the Mulefa and Gallivespians, and I can't wait to see how the show approaches them.
It's insane to think it's been nearly twenty years since the last time I read these books, and I was supremely baffled by how little I remembered of this one. If not for so vividly remember the scene where Lyra and Will release the aging god from his protective litter and watch him dissipate, I would be tempted to think after seeing the second half of the trilogy performed as theatre-in-the-round at the Royal National Theatre's Oliver Theatre in London back in 2003, I neglected to finish this third volume. That doesn't seem to be the case, though, so it's been good re-reading these, especially at a time when ignorance is so plentiful, it gives hope to remember there are intelligent forces at work in the world.
Playlist:
Steve Moore - VFW OST
The Raveonettes - Lust Lust Lust
Valkyrie - Fear
Odonis Odonis - Spectrums
Fleet Foxes - Shore
Cocksure - TVMALSV
Card:
I could not have drawn a more perfect card, as only moments before executing this pull, K and I booked 73 nights in Tennessee for Mid-April. This will be the hardest and yet most rewarding journey of my life, and we have just taken the first step on its path!
I haven't much time to hang out here lately, and since I've been away, David Lynch has started releasing daily Los Angeles weather reports, and now he's dropped a short, hand-drawn film!
**
NCBD is back! A light week for sure, however, it was murder waiting an extra two months for the final chapter in Bone Machine, the current storyline in Rick Remender's Deadly Class. It still bums me out the SyFy adaptation was cancelled, but the book remains one of the strongest titles I read on a monthly basis.
Now that Diamond is distributing again, I can't wait to watch Marcus and friends' lives splinter as he returns to King's Dominion and all hell breaks loose.
**
Playlist:
Stevie Wonder - Greatest Hits of the 70s
Megadeth - Rust in Peace
They Might Be Giants -Flood
The Darts - I Like You But Not Like That
Arpeggiators - Freedom of Expression 7"
Cybordelics - Adventures of Drama 7"
Metal Master - Spectrum 7"
White Lung - Paradise
White Lung - Sorry
Kensonlovers - Keep Rolling (Single)
Ween - GodWeenSatan Live New Hope, PA 9/14/01
Black Sabbath - Sabotage
Revocation - Deathless
Revocation - Teratogenesis
**
When driven by an intense sense of righteousness, beware of making foolish decisions.
I'd never really thought about which card I am, or even if there is one card that best represents me. I think this is the one. That said, I believe I drew this to remind myself of the slow slide away from my more compassionate qualities. This has been an ongoing recent insight, as the overflow of stupidity and selfishness that abound in the world at the moment drive me to sometimes frightening degrees of malevolent thought. Simply put, I very strongly dislike the human race as a whole. The last two months have made me slip closer to actively hating it. Maybe that's an oxymoron, considering how many individual humans I love and adore - there's A LOT - but it seems to be the case, and I find myself needing something spiritual to blanket my frustrations, even if it's just a more regular dose of marijuana, Stevie Wonder, and David Lynch. I'm tempted to start meditating again, however, that often leads to deep-level experiences that might not be so pleasant at the moment. Either way, I need something to mellow me out, before The King of Wands draws the Ten of Swords.
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.
**
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.
**
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
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.
**
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.
**
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
**
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!
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.
**
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.
**
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
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.
**
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.
**
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.
Rick Remender's Deadly Class on SyFy continues to blow me away. I seriously think this might be my favorite and possibly even what I would now consider the best comic book adaptation yet. And I love the way they do the flashback sequences for the characters in Wes Craig's animation. Here's Maria's story from last week's episode #6, aptly titled after one of my favorite Bauhaus songs, Stigmata Martyr.
Playlist from 2/27:
Glass Candy - B/E/A/T/B/O/X
Chromatics - Camera
Ghost - Opus Eponymous
Daughters - You Won't Get What You Want
Ghost - Infestissumam
Card of the day:
Breakthrough! This refers to two events: One, that I've begun using the Zoom H4N Pro that I record The Horror Vision with to record myself reading the finished product of Shadow Play, so I can add it to my iPod and listen to it. I can't express enough how reading my writing out loud helps me make it better. It's a 100% game changer. Previously, I've read everything out loud to K and my close friend Keller, but now, reading it for myself, it's even more profound. Especially since I can go over it on my headphones the next day. Breakthrough indeed!
Two, I found out I'm going to Spokane, WA for a week in mid April for work. Nothing like a couple of lonely nights in a hotel room to kickstart new short stories! Breakthrough!
Currently in love with Louisville, KY band Jaye Jayle's 2018 record No Trail and Other Unholy Paths. This was produced by David Lynch's long-time music supervisor/collaborator Dean Hurley, and pretty much blew me away from first spin. Think Mark Lanegan/PJ Harvey vibe, but with some dirgey Doom goodness thrown into the mix, I can't wait to go through the band's back catalogue, available on their bandcamp HERE.
Jaye Jayle's music - or at least on this album - totally fits in with my visual life at the moment, because tonight K and I are scheduled to finish Season 3 of Deadwood. I've watched the series before, although I haven't seen Season 3 but the one time, back in the aughts. This viewing has kind of been like seeing it for the first time again. I'm amazed at the pot boiler the show is building out of the Hearst/Swearengen-Bullock skirmish, and I can't wait to finish this out and then keep my fingers crossed 24/7 that the movie we have now actually seen pictures of in EW really does come to pass. Seems impossible at this point that it wouldn't, but you never know...
NCBD: Not a whole lot today, but a new issue of Seven to Eternity is always a reason to celebrate, and D.J. Kirkbride's Errand Boys comes to a rip-snortin' finish with issue #5!
Playlist from 2/19:
Pink Floyd - Works
Young Widows - Old Wounds
Jaye Jayle - No Trail and Other Unholy Paths
Alice in Chains - Rainier Fog
Algiers - Eponymous
The Body - I Have Fought Against It, But I
Chris Connelly - Artificial Madness
Beck - Odelay
To say I have been waiting for an adaptation of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter Witch for a long time is an understatement. Mr. Brown and I read this back in the mid-90s and I've been a fan since (though I could definitely use a re-read). I remember Terry Gilliam was attached for a while, and Johnny Depp and Robin Williams were set to play the Angel Aziraphale and the Demon Crowley, though which was set for which I can't remember anymore. Regardless, the fact that we're finally getting Good Omens, and as a series no less, makes me very happy. The title sequence was revealed recently and watching it, I feel anticipation unlike any in a while. I just wish this could have come to fruition while Mr. Pratchett was still alive.
Playlist from 2/18 was non-existent.
The penultimate episode of True Detective, Season 3 aired last night and it was HUGE!!! I won't spoil anything here, but this season has been masterful.
Also, Episode 5 of Rick Remender's Deadly Class aired on SyFy and it pretty much left me speechless. This has been such an amazing adaptation of a comic, probably the best one I've ever seen, and all the glory is owed to Mr. Remender. In the back matter of the most recent issue of the Deadly Class comic, Remender talked on how he surrendered sleep and freedom to be the show runner on Deadly Class, and he's filled out the story in the comics with much love. Nothing has been added that doesn't expand the source material organically, and the actual ratio of straight adaptation to screen has been fantastic. Episode 5 was the Vegas episode, and the use of animation here was amazing. Reminded me of The Wall, a bit. SO freaking good.
Card of the day:
Okay, many will say I probably should remove this card from my mini Thoth deck, but I left it in and drew it, so I'm stuck interpreting it. Hmmm... I've said this before recently and not followed through, but perhaps I should pull some Crowley off the bookshelf in my room and peruse for inspiration?
Cold Showers is a band I discovered a few years ago via KXLU. They fell off my radar shortly after, but I've rediscovered them recently. Matter of Choice is a solid album that lines right up with Drab Majesty's sound, a modern example of that wonderful spot where Post Punk and New Wave meet.
NCBD - this week, nothing I have in my pull comes out, so my intention is to catch up on the newest Marvel Venom series.
Yep. A Marvel series.
A few weeks ago when my friend John was out visiting, we stopped in the comic shop. John is a huge comics fan, and I tend to get more excited about comics in general when I'm around him, so I ended up looking at a lot of the stuff I normally ignore, i.e. the Big 2 section at the Comic Bug. I'm not about to go see the Venom movie, but I have a soft spot for the character, especially after Rick Remender's brilliant run on the book back circa 2012-2013. A lot of this newest series - which predictably puts Eddie Brock back in the Symbiote suit to coincide with the movie - feels heavily inspired by Remender's run. The art by Ryan Stegman is gorgeous, and both it and the character designs pick right up on where I left off with the characters, especially Jack O'Lantern, a D-lister Mr. Remender permanently endeared me to. I've only read two issues, but it's kind of insane, with the Symbiote speaking in an alien language (is this the first time we've heard its native tongue?), and prophesizing that its race's 'god' is coming.
Playlist from September 24th:
White Lung - Eponymous
White Lung - Sorry
Drab Majesty - Careless
Cold Showers - Matter of Choice
Motley Crue - Shout at the Devil
Sunn O))) - Kanon
Bauhaus - In the Flat Field
Card of the day:
From the Grimoire: "Denotes a situation to know yourself, what you want, and throw your self doubt and fear away." This may be telling me to rethink submitting Please Believe Me.
Had a great time doing this one! Jessica was truly gracious, the Lost Coast Brewery Downtown Brown has replaced every other Brown Ale as my favorite and the Rick Remender drinking game is officially retired!
image courtesy of http://soulkiller-rebel-rogue.blogspot.com/
I really mean it about those spoilers, as in this week's edition of Thee Comic Column (here) I candidly discuss not only the events of Uncanny Avengers #14 but what Rick Remender's run on the book thus far may mean for the Marvel Universe going forward.
What an AMAZING week for comics - and I didn't even get everything in my damn box at the Comic Bug! The Walking Dead #117 was fantastic, TMNT #28 wrapped up the City Fall storyline in amazing fashion and I still have Transformers Regeneration #96 and Rick Remender, Matteo Scalera and Dean White's Black Science #1 to read (and OH! have I been waiting for that!). And speaking of Mr. Remender - the best and most shocking mind-fuck of the week was the above Uncanny Avengers #14. It will definitely be the subject of this week's Comic Column on Joup, but in the meantime I'll just say... that if this book wasn't already epic on Chris Claremont's Uncanny X-Men proportions it is now.
