2018: October 12th

Here's a track off one of my seasonal go-to's this time of year, The Final Cut's 1992 Consumed, which also happens to be my pick for today's edition of The Joup Friday Album, which you can read over HERE on Joup.co.

Continued 31 Days of Horror last night with Killer Klowns form Outer Space. Man, John Vernon is the shit, isn't he?

31 Days of Horror:

10/01) Summer of 84
10/02) Rope
10/03) Dreams in the Witch House
10/04) Crash
10/05) The Fly
10/06) Re-animator
10/07) Night of the Demons
10/08) Species
10/09) The Roost
10/10) The Convent
10/11) Killer Klowns from Outer Space

Tonight? I'm thinking either George A. Romero's Day of the Dead or Dario Argento's Phenomenon. But we'll see.

I didn't talk about NCBD yet this week, primarily because I've been too busy to stop in and pick up the one thing that came out on my pull. But oh what a 'one thing' it is:

This original Hardcover Graphic Novel from the creators of recent favorites of mine Fatale, The Fade Out, and Kill Or Be Killed, My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies ties into the Criminal Universe in a small way via that series' first arc, Coward. Interestingly enough, I just read Coward for the first time a few days ago. I couldn't have timed that better if I'd tried! Criminal is the only Brubaker/Phillips series I've yet to engage with, and this little serendipitous jaunt should catapult me further into it nicely. Thanks to my good friend Joe.Baxter for lending me his trades and getting me started!

Playlist from yesterday:

Monolord - Rust
The Black Queen - Infinite Games
In Solitude - Sister
Blut Aus Nord - Memorial Vetusta II - Dialogue with the Stars

No, that damn second part of the novel still isn't finished, but I did come up with the plot point I believe it has always been missing. The somewhat clunky elements that haunted a certain character's motivations have now been replaced with what I can joyously say is a new, elegant arc that puts everyone where I need them to be for the plot to resolve in part three. I spent a good deal of time yesterday re-writing chapters in part one in order to massage this element in and it sent me skyrocketing into the second half with renewed vigor. So here's to that!

Card of the day:

Mind distracted at times you say? Why yes! All that writing time yesterday was hard-earned in between being distracted by this and this and this.

Bastards!

2018: June 28th

My friend Anthony recently turned me on to these guys. Powerful stuff.

Final issue of Ed Brubaker and Sean Philips' Kill or Be Killed came out yesterday. Great series. I didn't LOVE the end, would have found it more fitting with the severity of the series if it had ended at the end of issue 19, HOWEVER, I didn't not like having 20 end the series, and I get why they did what they did. Brubaker and Phillips have proven themselves so I don't question their work, I just enjoy it.

Watched a really cool little movie on Shudder last night. Sweet Sweet Lonely Girl is an exercise in both atmosphere and restraint, and it is definitely worth your time if you like retro, slow-burn films bristling with soft dread you know is going to go tits up before the end.

The new Drinking, Fighting, F*&king, and Crying is up HERE.

Playlist from Wednesday, 6/27/18:

The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes are the Dark Horse
PLANETS - The Dark Woods
NIN - Bad Witch
FMLYBND - Letting Go
The Effigies - Remains Nonviewable
Protomartyr - Under Color of Official Right
Wrong - Feel Great
The Atlas Moth - The Ache of Distance
The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir

Card of the day:

Aim for the light and remain optimistic.

For The Love of Comic Books...

... is a new column I started on Joup. It's the replacement piece for Thee Comic Column and meant to be considerably more interactive with my fellow writers at Joup. In this inaugural edition I talk about Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips and Elizabeth Breitweiser's new series from Image, Kill or Be Killed. It's awesome. Read my thoughts here.