Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine have a new record out this fall on Biafra's Alternative Tentacles label, and if We Created Putin is any indication, Tea Party Revenge Porn will be the musical reaction of the trump years I have been waiting for.
NCBD: It is a very good thing I went in and picked up the three weeks worth of books in my Pull last week, because this week's NCBD has the biggest haul in a while. Let's start with the return of one of my all-time favorite books:
It's been a minute since Stray Bullets: Sunshine and Roses #41, but I do not begrudge David Lapham the time off. On the contrary, this is one of the hardest working men in comics, so I'm one hundred percent behind the occasional hiatuses he takes. That said, it's good to have Beth, Orson, and the crew back!
New Locke and Key, you say? Yes, I only just read the entire original series at the end of last year/beginning of this one, but I'm definitely in on this two-issue series, especially because it leads to a Locke and Key/Sandman crossover later this year. Can't wait for that!
I'm still a bit on the fence with That Texas Blood, however, I plan on going back and re-reading issue one before plowing into two and now three.
Bliss number one made a pretty big splash with me, and I'm anxious as hell to see how the story continues.
The Plot returns with issue six this week. I love this return to the Ancestral Horror genre, so much so that I penned the first installment of my new "A Most Horrible Library" column on TheHorrorVision.com. Read it HERE, and watch for future installments to go back to a video format similar to my 2017 Evolution of the Arm series. I don't really have the time to write a regular column at the moment, but with a Video Column, I get to work with K again - she shoots and helps design the look of the show - so that'll alleviate me putting another project solely on myself.
The best thing about picking up all your books after they've been out for a few weeks is that, such as is the case with TMNT, I literally just read last month's issue a few days ago, so the story is still fresh in my mind. This series has been a consistent succession of awesome evolutionary moments for a lot of the characters in the TMNT universe that might have gone stagnant in a lesser series. Case in point, last month we got this:
I don't know if that makes anyone else out there as happy it does me, but I'm excited as hell to see more of "Leatherkrang!"
See what I mean? That's A LOT of books for one Wednesday! Feels good.
Playlist:
Thou - Heathen
A Place to Bury Strangers - Exploding Head
Santogold - Eponymous
Drab Majesty - The Demonstration
Card:
This one keeps coming up of late, and as I surmised on 8/20 when the Princess of Disks came up last, a signpost on the logic/emotion tug of war it's been reentering the Shadow Play world. Big breakthrough two days ago, not much since. But I've been a bit lost in my head, and reluctant to dig into the dirt and really start laying the foundation in prose. Time to pony up.
Wow. It has been a minute since I dug into Stereophonics. So long, in fact, that I'd forgotten how great this band is. And this particular track comes from a great album, too, although one that can be difficult for me to engage with, since it mentally and emotionally ties my thoughts back into The Yellow House, a band I was in that I loved, but that ended abruptly. That's tough; bands breaking up are a lot like couples breaking up. There becomes an entire subset of people and music and corridors of thought that you end up having to put to the side to avoid those messy little nerve triggers. With Stereophonics - and more specifically the album Just Enough Education to Perform, which I'm listening to for the first time in at least ten years as I type this - those triggers kick in on the second track, Lying in the Sun. I remember hearing this song for the first time after The Yellow House was already really up and running, playing shows and getting our name out there. I remember hearing this track and thinking, "Hey, that's a lot like what we're doing. Cool." It meant a lot at the time, to have a band that was successful in a way that we wanted to be, that had a similar aesthetic. Stereophonics weren't really all that big in this country, but at the time almost nothing worth hearing was. They had a solid fan base probably everywhere else in the world, and they were cool. That's what was largely missing from the 00s. Not many people were cool anymore; that aesthetic - which granted can go sideways real fast and make you look like a douche - was replaced mainly in the 00s with people yelling and screaming about their prozac, how messed up they were, and the like. Bands like Stereophonics and BRMC were cool.
My introduction to Stereophonics also dovetailed with my first trip abroad: I remember walking into the first hostel in Dublin in January 2002, and this video was playing on the tele. The track has always had the particular ability to spin me back in time to that exact moment, the way the air tasted, the electricity of being somewhere new. Which is always something to be experienced sparingly, so as not to wear out the Magick.
Hearing these tracks this morning, I'm blown away; the songs and my responses to them are a reminder that I am a completely different person today than I was during The Yellow House. Which is precisely how it should be, but it's interesting to step back every now again and remember.
**
NCBD! Very excited for these, especially The Walking Dead. If you're reading it, you know why!
Found out recently this series ends with a double-sized issue #30 in July, so this is the penultimate chapter! Expect even more insanity than we've had, which is really going to be saying something when all is said and done:
Despite initial confusion, I ended up loving the Lapham's Lodger series for IDW's Black Crown. And now, I'm excited to be back with the old gang again in Stray Bullets:
The start of a new, and apparently longer, arc. This book is aces. Read it:
**
About the time I posted yesterday's blog I realized I was sick as fuck and not going to work, so I spent June 4th confined to bed, where I finished Gemma Files' Experimental Film. A powerhouse; such a great novel. Creepy, well-written, and almost clinical in its plotting. I wondered if the climax would go as large as the plot teased, and if so how that would work. There's that moment where, depending on how supernatural or numinous a novel's plot has teased, Speculative or Weird Fiction has to make a decision to either go full-bore, bringing the 'monster' on camera or not. Ms. Files goes all the way with it, and she does such a fantastic job with it. Nothing seems ridiculous. That's the trick. You have to give the reader something they've never seen before and make them believe in it. And Experimental Film does that very well indeed.
**
Watchlist yesterday was another episode and a half of Doom Patrol. SO fun watching Cliff Steele kick nazi ass while Dead Kennedy's blare on the soundtrack. I can't recommend this show enough.
**
Playlist from 6/04:
Cat Rapes Dog - Maximum Overdrive
Tears for Fears - Songs From the Big Chair
**
Card of the day:
Remain open to the influence of the Universe. Pretty sure unexpectedly digging into old Brit rock and staying home from work (and feeling guilty about it) for the second day in a row are the direct manifestation of this draw. I've been sick or not feeling well (read: exhausted) since the 19th of May, and the recurrences from what seems a tiny bug are due, I think, to a lack of rest. So yesterday I didn't leave bed, save for about an hour where I sat in the living room and listened to two records while reading. Also, I didn't allow myself to write at all. I put all the anxiety and expectations and frustrations of this final edit under the bed for a day and just did nothing but read Gemma Files. Today, while once again planning to stay in bed, perhaps I will work on reading the book.
New Le Butcherettes! Very 90s sounding, not in a bad way. New album comes out February 1st.
New episode of The Horror Vision went up on Sunday. You can find it on Apple, Spotify, and Google Play, as well as at TheHorrorVision.com. This episode is our reaction/interpretation of Luca Guadagnino's Suspiria remake. Other topics include The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Shudder's Dead Wax (which I LOVE), and the Indiegogo for The Barn II, which is fully funded as of 11/21 and now Indemand, which apparently means you can still contribute and secure cool rewards. I still haven't seen the first Barn yet - it's been on the list for at least a year if not two now, so what the hell am I waiting for, right?
NCBD this week isn't as light as last week, but it's light. Check out this gorgeous cover for TMNT 88:
Die! Die! Die! has been hit or miss with me so far, but the opening discussion between two high level US government officials in issue #4 may have permanently endeared this book to me. It's kind of a more violent, more philosophical approach to GIJOE and I find myself wondering if that was the goal. The real shocker here is that Stray Bullets Sunshine and Roses is on issue #40. Where the hell does the time go? It wasn't that long ago that David Lapham's brilliant B&W crime comic had been on hiatus for 9 years and we were jumping at joy with the announcement of its return via Image. Now we're 40 issues in on the second or third volume of this new series. And you know, it's still awesome.
Playlist from 11/27:
Monolord - Rust
Mastodon - Once More 'Round the Sun
Mastodon - Emperor of Sand
The Knife - Silent Shout
Mudhoney - Digital Garbage
Gogol Bordello - Gypsy Punks Unite
Ghost - Infestissumam
Godflesh - Post Self
Card of the day:
Gonna be an emotional day? Doesn't feel that way. There's a passivity here when it's water on water, however the passivity acts as a perfect transformer for other energies, maybe some that lack emotion.
This week's Thee Comic Column over on Joupis the 100th edition! To celebrate I'vecompiled this list - it's not necessarily a list of my favorite five - though it's probably close - but the suggestions I would give to anyone - my mom, your sister, Sister Ray, Billy Joel - whoever on how to break in to comics. Because honestly, I feel these books transcend whatever anyone could expect of them and could all shatter whatever misconceptions keep people from giving the comics/GN's a fair shake.
So this is what I was staring at when I momentarily titled the previous post "New Young Liars Track Streams" by accident. The fifth issue of Drinking with Comics - which we shot three weeks ago but have not been able to align our schedules to edit yet - will feature our Sierra Nevada-ingesting interview with Young Liars/Stray Bullets creator David Lapham that took place when he signed recently at the best comic shop in Southern California, Manhattan Beach's The Comic Bug.
Now granted, I don't even think we mention Young Liars in what we recorded, as the return of Stray Bullets was practically all I could think about for most of March. However, Young Liars is a fantastic story in its own right and this particular art is one of my all time favorite comic book covers and it was one of the three books I brought to the event to have Mr. Lapham graciously sign.
As an interesting side bar, you'll see the image is a play on David Bowie's classic Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars record and the moment after Mr. Lapham signed my books that exact song began to jam from the Comic Bug's stereo!
...is up! Inside Mike and I display our ignorance on the topic of historical figures before tastefully segueing into talk about Larime Taylor's A Voice in the Dark, the return of David Lapham's Stray Bullets, IDW's reissuing of Sam Keith's The Maxx (as well as reissues we'd like to see down the line) and Sam Adams' Winter Lager and a host of other things. Oh, and Joe.Baxter continues to scheme behind the scenes...
So I'm not entirely sure how I missed this. Obviously, if you drop by here at least once in a while you'll see my output is waaay down. So busy. It's work, and it's reaching 412 usable pages in my novel and still going strong (probably about double that when you add exploratory/what's getting tossed or re-worked). Then there's Drinking with Comics. Then there's comics. Today was the return - after 8 years - of David Lapham's Stray Bullets. I woke up at 4:30 AM, got to work by 5:41 AM, left work at about 2:45 PM, drove to The Comic Bug, picked up my pull list, which included the looooooong awaited Stray Bullets #41, which finally gave closure to an 8 year cliffhanger and wrapped up the Hi-Jinks and Derring-Doo phase of the book and saw, also today, the launch of Stray Bullets: Killers #1. Lapham promises it gets better from here. I believe him. I'm really sorry to say good bye to Virginia Applejack though, even if only for an issue. Anyway, more about SB in Thee Comic Column this week on Saturday. For now I brought it up to say I gave myself a day off, came home from the shop, smoked and read my comics. It was nice, oh so nice.
In the interim my friend Chester from Joup sent me this link and I was just blown away. I'm very close to a re-watching of Twin Peaks and this might just be the thing that puts me over the edge.
...is the topic of discussion in this week's Thee Comic Column on Joup. I am very excited for one of my all-time favorite books to be coming back in March!!!
