Inbetween States: The Magick of A Large Country

 

One of my favorite tracks on Ghost's Impera, an album where I love every track. Is it madness to say this is my second favorite of their records (behind Infestissumam)? I don't care. I love this record.

So, after packing all day last Saturday, and loading all day Sunday, my good friend Keller and made it from LaLaLand to Clarksville, TN in a day and a half! It was awesome. We left immediately after packing (he helped a bit near the end, but I wanted him crisp to drive first-shift, knowing I would be exhausted. My Horror Vision Brother King Butcher and our friends Maddie and Kenta really threw down with us on the move - no easy task when you realize that K's Mom pretty much had, once again, not packed much of anything before day-of). Keller drove from 11:00 PM Sunday, 7/31, until around 7:00 AM the following day. We stopped at a gas station in Flagstaff, AZ, and accidentally hit the skirt of the truck on the concrete bumper guarding the pumps.

Thank god for that bumper.

This is a 20-Foot uHaul truck, and as you might imagine, there's a learning curve. However, everything was ultimately fine because we paid $199 for uHaul's Safemove insurance. SO worth it, and honestly, we were already paying close to $7000 for the truck - it would have been half the price if we trekked over the border into Nevada, however, the monetary benefits would not have outweighed the sanity benefits of picking that truck up down the street from our house. 

So my first driving shift began about 7:40 AM (we hit a McDeath's near the gas station for a breakfast sandwich and COFFEE). I'd come to peace with going back to eating meat the week before - that's something I'll hopefully correct again soon, and while I try to avoid McDeath, you really have little choices on the roads between states, so again, I accepted the circumstances for what they were. That shift lasted fourteen hours - I was on fire! Seriously, I did not want to relinquish the vehicle. It was as though I had tapped into something. I've read and thought a lot about the hypnogogic states long drives induce, but this was something even more powerful. I've always thought there is Magick in this country, in the sheer size and what that does to our consciousness as we traverse it, and I think that's what Keller and I tapped into while driving. 

So shifts:

Keller: 11:00 PM-7:00 AM

Shawn: 7:40 AM-9:00 PM (time shift puts us at local time ~11:00 PM

Keller: 11:30 PM-3:00 PM

..

I-24 kind of divides Clarksville into two textures. Where we stayed last month with my parents was West of the 24, closer to Fort Campbell, and it has a bit more of a hodge-podge feel. Still nice, but it's a lot of strip malls with Vape stores and Payday loans shops. East of the Highway is decidedly crisper. It's mostly new developments, new stores, etc. When K and I rolled into town with my folks at the end of June, we entered the city through the West side and honestly, it knocked our expectations down a few pegs. After getting priced out of the Murfreesboro/Lavergne/Smyrna area by Angeleno homeowners, seeing this side of Clarksville felt a little like a defeat. When our Realtor eventually explained the divide and showed us around the East side, we felt a lot better, hence why we bought the house that we did. However, as the old saying goes, you never get a second chance to make a first impression, so I carried an almost unconscious, background anxiety around with me through the sale, inspections, packing, etc. When Keller and I drove in, Siri had us go a totally different way, using the 31, which is essentially a long, scenic surface street. A bit stressful with a 20-Foot truck, but it totally did the trick. All my low-level disappointment evaporated. I fucking LOVE it here.  K and I sat outside on our back porch last night and watched a lightning storm. 

---

---

---

Watch:

We haven't had the internet, and we haven't had any time to watch anything, but if all goes well, tonight we'll be digging into some of what we missed. Here's where I'm planning on starting:

 

And, of course:

 

While I've been fairly skeptical about what feels like the nearly impossible feat of adapting Neil Gaiman's The Sandman, I am hearing nothing but good things from people I know. Of course, it remains to be seen how I feel about it - as Sandman is one of my all-time favorite and most influential comics, but my mind is open.

---

---

---

Read:

Finally going to start reading James Tynion's Something Is Killing the Children, thanks to Gerald at the Comic Bug, who sold me a set of the first five issues with David Mack covers for half-price as a going-away gift. Look at these:

So far, I'm in. Issue One is a FANTASTIC set-up. 

I'm glad I waited to start this (although for investment purposes, I wish I had that first-printing #1). Tynion's 3-issue The Closet just wrapped this past week, and it cinched him as one of my favorite current writers in comics, so I have a nice big run of SIKTC ahead of me to look forward to.

---

---

---

Playlist:

Orville Peck - Bronco

Ghost - Impera

Goatsnake - Black Age Blues

Zombi - 2020

Ozzy Osbourne - Diary of a Madman

Adia Victoria - A Southern Gothic

Calexico - The Black Light

Fleet Foxes - Shore

Ella Fitzgerald - Best of, Vol. II

The Bangles - Different Light

Anthrax - Worship Music

Cults - Static

ZZ Top - Eliminator

Billy Idol - The Roadside EP

Deafheaven - Ten Years Gone

The Contours & Dennis Edwards - Motown Rarities 1965-1968

SOD - Speak English or Die

Blut Aus Nord - Disharmonium

Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen

---

---

---

Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

The first pull here was done on Wednesday, August 3rd 2022. The second night in the new house. K didn't arrive until the following night, so this was Keller and I hanging out after a second hard day of unloading. I had procured some Mushrooms from a friend back in LaLaLand and saved them for this trip, so when we knocked off for the evening, we opened fresh beers and ate about 2 grams each.

First, yes. I shuffled.

The fact that I laid down 13, 12 and 11 is crazy to me. I read this as the sacrifices I endured (saving $, dealing with all the difficulties of moving your life across country) to perform a massive life-changing ritual (the drive), rewards me. And I'm feeling that reward. Everyone loves this house: Keller couldn't get over it, Kirsten loves it, her Mom loves it, and Sweetie loves it. Oh, and I love it. 

Never Hike Alone 2!

 

New music from Drug Church. Mr. Brown recommended these guys to me a few weeks back but they quickly fell off my radar before I ever got the chance to listen to them. When I sat down earlier today to start this post, something just clicked. There's a distinct 90s indie rock underpinning here - I hear a lot of Bob Mould, especially Sugar-era, only with a huge drum sound that really changes the dynamic of that comparison. Turns out, exactly as Mr. Brown had promised, the entire record is Fantastic; you can order it from Pure Noise Records HERE.

 

---

---

---

Watch:

The new episode of The Horror Vision Horror Podcast went up yesterday. We gathered this past Saturday to watch Mickey Keating's new movie Offseason, and in my book, it did not disappoint. You can hear our spoiler-free review if you click the little widget at the top right hand of this page, or on your favorite podcast streaming service.

Also, the IndieGoGo campaign for Friday the 13th Fan Film Never Hike Alone 2 is now live! While I'm not a very big fan of the actual Friday flicks, I quite like Vincent DiSanti's films and will definitely be throwing down on this one that brings the Thom Matthews back as Tommy Jarvis for an ultimate showdown with Mr. Voorhees.

Can't wait to get this one in my hands and then watch all three of DiSanti's F13 films in one sitting! Back the campaign HERE. 

---

---

---

Dollar Bin:

Last Tuesday, I introduced a new weekly feature called Dollar Bin. This is a place where I can talk about all the cool, nostalgic, or just plain awesome items I find while flipping through the dollar bins in the comic shops I frequent. That said, while this week's featured score was indeed found in a dollar bin,  it is most definitely not a comic. 

I'd never heard of Nyctalops magazine until I brought this one home last week. Nyctalops was a literary Horror magazine dedicated to H.P. Lovecraft and his contemporaries published independently in the 70s and 80s. It featured reviews and editorial pieces of contemporary and historic Horror and Weird Fiction and often included short stories by contributors that included Ramsey Campbell, Robert Bloch, and Thomas Ligotti, and many, many more. 

This issue is #18, published in 1983, and it features two essays on themes found in the works of Robert Aickman, as well as an essay by famed Lovecraft scholar S.T. Joshi, to name but a few of its treasures. Also, I found it particularly thrilling to note that in the forward to this issue, Editor Howard O. Morris excitedly mentions that the Magazine's printer, Silver Scarab Press, has plans to publish, "... tentatively, a collection of horror stories by Thomas Ligotti, Songs of a Dead Dreamer."

Today, Horror literature fans know ..Dead Dreamer to be one of Ligotti's most influential works, and I found it super cool to stumble across a reference to it before the polarizing author made his mark.

---

---

---

Playlist:

Ghost - Impera

The Devil's Blood - The Thousandfold Epicentre

Mark Lanegan - Bubblegum

Tones on Tail - Everything!

Ghost - Opus Eponymous

Danzig - Thrall- Demonsweat Live

The Twilight Singers - Powder Burns

Orville Peck - Bronco (Chapter 1)

David Bowie - A Reality Tour

Motörhead - Ace of Spades

Pike Vs. The Automaton - Eponymous

Mad Season - Above

Mutterlein - Orphans of the Black Sun

Jim Williams - Possessor OST

Young Widows - Settle Down City

Revocation - The Outer Ones

Code Orange - Underneath

Deafheaven - Sunbather

---

---

---

Card:

Past = 7 of Cups: Debauch - taken here to mean I'm poisoning 

Present = 5 of Wands: Strife

Future = 0: The Fool

I'm not entirely certain how to read this one. I'm tempted to interpret the 7 of Cups as an inverted victory; a good thing that goes too long and turns sour, but I'm not entirely sure how that... wait. Maybe. I'll have to report back on this one. Sometimes it's best to follow flashes of inspiration without thinking about them too much.

Batman and the Dead Boys

 

From the Dead Boys 1978 album, We Have Come For Your Children. Classic album, classic song. Also, talk about close to the bone - this was released less than a year after Berkowitz was arrested in August of 1978, and the fact that by '77 the Dead Boys had moved from Ohio to New York, this is a New York punk band singing about Son of Sam pretty much while it was happening.

---

---

---

Watch:

Saturday night, K and I were invited to what will probably be our last screening with the crew from the Comic Bug. Owner Jun rents out a theatre for all the major comic book movies and invites a small cadre of family, friends and favorite customers. I have always felt deeply honored to be among the latter. What did we see? Why, Matt Reeves' The Batman, of course.

I would almost definitely not have seen this if not for this invite. I just feel so burned out on Batman in general. When I saw the trailer on the big screen a few months back, I had to admit the movie looked fantastic, but the thought of actually watching it held exactly zero joy for me, so I wrote it off. Was I wrong?

Well, there was more about The Batman that I liked than I disliked, so I'm glad I saw it. The film is visually arresting; it has a strong tone reinforced by a somewhat defining color palette that just works. Everything is dark AF, with lots of fluorescent red lighting thrown in to beautiful effect. There are also patches of neon throughout, and a certain embedded opulence that really serves to define the more upscale elements of Reeves' Gotham. Oh yeah, and I can honestly say this is the first Batmobile I didn't roll my eyes at (despite my adoration of Christopher Nolan's franchise, that one was pretty ridiculous).

Robert Pattison also turns in a fantastic performance. His is a perfected Batman and Bruce Wayne - despite the too-perfect bangs - that clearly had the benefit of observing and correcting what didn't work from Christian Bale's version, which I'm not knocking at all. But the newest version should learn from the previous, and Pattinson definitely owes at least a passing thanks to Bale. John Turturro was an absolutely inspired choice for Carmine Falcone, and it wasn't until after the movie when someone mentioned Colin Farrell had played the Penguin that I realized it. As tired as I find all of Batman's classic rogue's gallery, these reinventions are all great. Paul Dano went a bit overboard in some of his screen time as the Riddler - mostly in the declaration videos he baits the police with - but overall he's great, and I'm happy to report that there's not a "?" to be seen on his costume.

So what didn't I like? Well, it's just shy of three hours long, and absolutely shouldn't be. Oh, the story they ran with needs all of that time to work itself out (well, not ALL of it), but that's the thing. The story's not very good. Sure, parts of it are great, but it's written in a way that incorporated all kinds of elements it just didn't need. The script has some issues as well. There are three scenes with two people talking that go on way too long and border on irrelevant or not needed, as does some of the delivery of the lines in those scenes. Chewing the scenery, as they say.

My biggest problem? The third act. Well, felt more like the fucking tenth act by the time we got to it, and it takes the movie off the rails. What I LOVE about Reeves' The Batman is he gave us what he promised - a stripped-down, Detective story. Awesome, let's leave the semi-flips and city-wide destruction aside and see the detective side of Bats. Except - when you get to the final set-piece, it goes so big with its swathe of destruction that at times, it became laughable. 

Overall, if you brace yourself for a long three hours, this one is worth seeing on the big screen. And if you get the chance, do like I did and re-watch David Fincher's Se7en beforehand. There's a massive influence Fincher's seminal serial killer film had on Reeves' film, for the best.

---

---

---

Playlist:

Firebreather - Dwell in the Fog

sElf - Breakfast with Girls

The Afghan Whigs - I'll Make You See God (single)

Sade - Apple Music Essentials

Allegaeon - Apoptosis

Beliefs - Habitat

Drab Majesty - Careless

The Ronettes - Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Now I Got Worry

The Ocean - Anthropocentric

Mark Lanegan - Bubblegum

Ghost - Impera (pre-release singles)

The Ocean - Mesoarchaean (single)

The Ocean - Heliocentric

The Devil's Blood - The Thousandfold Epicentre

Blanck Mass - In Ferneaux

Dead Boys - We Have Come For Your Children

Deafheaven - Infinite Granite

---

---

---

Card:

Listening to inner dialogue, harmonizing renewal, which is funny consider "renewal" is a word used A LOT in The Batman. Anyway, I have felt pretty good of late, and my ideas are flowing again. 

Arab Strap - I Still Miss You

 

As we come upon the end of the year and I prepare to commit my ten favorite albums to print, I realized that I completely forgot Arab Strap put out a record earlier in the year. This is, I think because when the album came out I was simply not in the headspace for the band. Yesterday, however, I fell headlong into an Arab Strap Vortex that lasted the entire day. 

The song above was originally published on the OST for the cinematic adaptation to Irvine Welsh's The Acid House, which, if memory serves, was the first Welsh book I ever read. I'm way overdue on a Welsh catch-up jag, but that's a post for a different time (I used to buy every book he published the day it came out, however, being that his writing influences my own, and the projects I've been working on for the last few years are not necessarily compatible with that particular voice, I've eschewed the last four novels the man has published). Anyway, "I Still Miss You" is available on all streaming platforms via the 2016 eponymous compilation put out by record label Chemikal Underground. I own the Acid House flick on DVD, and this prompts me to dig it out and put it at the top of the pile for rewatching after I mop up the rest of my year-end viewing for 2021. 

---

---

---

Watch:

Thanks to my friend Jun and The Comic Bug, I attended a private screening of Spider-Man: No Way Home over the weekend and was BLOWN AWAY.

 

This is everything a Spider-man fan could want and more.

 

---

---

---

Playlist:

Dance with the Dead - Into the Abyss

Arab Strap - As Days Get Dark

Arab Strap - The Red Thread

Arab Strap - Mondays at the Hug and Pint

Arab Strap - Arab Strap

Arab Strap - The Week Never Starts Round Here

---

---

---

Card:

Directly referencing my experiments in the world of NFTs. 

New Boy Harsher

@BoyHarsher I don’t know if you planned it this way, but driving to work at 5 this morning in thick-ass L.A. fog was the PERFECT scenario to hear #givemeareason from #therunnerost. Well played!

— Shawn C. Baker (@OpiniontdBastrd) December 1, 2021

 It was a perfect morning here in LaLaLand, thanks to Boy Harsher. Can't wait for the full OST, and really can't wait for the film The Runner!

---

---

---

NCBD (Addendum)

Jesus. I can't seem to walk into The Comic Bug these days without dropping double or triple what I was planning on spending. Yesterday, Gerald, Jeff and Eddie clued me in on a couple things I had forgotten about, had not heard of, and needed to have the moment I saw. Here's what's what:

If you had told me I would be buying a Wonder Woman-related book this week - or ever - I would have told you that you'd had too much to drink. But here we are. Why? I love Kelley Sue DeConnick, but not even Grant Morrison in his heyday could get me to read WW. Why now? Well, look at this fucking art, and that's your answer.

Next, and because I compared Phil Jimenez and Hi-Fi's art in WW Historia: The Amazons to JH Williams III's art in Alan Moore's Promethea, I had totally forgotten about JHWIII's new book Echolands. Again, look at what this man puts on the page:

Finally, readers of these pages may remember how I fell head over heels in love with Daniel Warren Johnson's writing and art on the five-issue Beta Ray Bill mini from Marvel that came out earlier this year. Because of this, DWJ's Murder Falcon was recommended to me, and today, the Bug happened to have it back in stock..

Other than just being awesome because this is DWJ, Murder Falcon is the most METAL book EVER! They even based the big bad off the cover art of Sepultura's Arise - a painting by Michael Whelan. 

I may be stretching this here, but really - you can't tell me this isn't related! And I have always loved the Arise cover. It's... the image that flashes in my head when I first read HP Lovecraft talk about "Madness" and "Non-Euclidean Geometry."

---

---

---

Playlist:

CCR - Eponymous

Boy Harsher - The Runner (pre-release singles)

Boy Harsher - Careful

Boy Harsher - Country Girl

The Soft Moon - Burn (single)

Caveman - Smash

David Bowie - Scary Monsters (and Super Freaks)

FFS - Eponymous

Sparks - Kimono My House

Nirvana - Bleach

Windhand - Eternal Return

---

---

---

Things won't go exactly as I planned? Well, at least that's some consistency.

Conjuring Lustful Sacraments

 

LOVING the new album from James Kent, AKA Perturbator. Apparently, there are those out there who find his new direction uncool, but I say you can't make the same album over and over forever. Here's a current favorite selection.

---

---

---

Watch:

 

Well, after hating part two, I went into The Conjuring 3: The Devil Made Me Do It with probably as low of expectations as possible. Turns out, I dug it. Not as good as the first, and Hollywood Horror is almost always going to take a backseat to the indie stuff, but this one was good. The lighting and camera work especially stand out, and I really dig Vera Farmiga in everything, even if these movies are starting to treat her a bit like Jean Grey with her psychic ability.

You can hear more of my thoughts on The Conjuring 3, as well as that of my cohosts, on the newest episode of The Horror Vision.

Interesting side note, I wandered into the Comic Bug this afternoon and found out this had come out:

Two stories, both cool. The second a stand-alone and penned by Scott Snyder, the first the opening installment in a larger tale. The Warrens are not on hand, but I'm assuming they will be eventually. 

---

---

---

Playlist:

Perturbator

Lindsey Buckingham - Gift of Screws EP

Harakiri for the Sky - Maere

Blur - Parklife

QOTSA - ... Like Clockwork

QOTSA - Villains

Goatsnake - Black Age Blues 

Various - Twin Peaks: Music from the Limited Event Series

Calexico - The Black Light 

---

---

---

Card:

 Yes, this is exactly the right card at the moment. Solitary introspection that nearly drives me mad. 

The View from a Sightless Pit

 

How I missed this record's release a few months back, I have no idea. A collaboration between Lee Buford of The Body, Kristin Hayter of Lingua Ignota, and Dylan Walker of Full of Hell? This record is, as you'd expect, unlike anything else I've ever heard. 

---

---

---

Read:

It's not NCBD yet, but I wanted to post about a couple of books I ended up with last week that I hadn't planned on buying, but my friends at both Atomic Basement and The Comic Bug know me pretty damn well and they often pull extra titles for me if they think I'll dig them. No obligation, of course, but more often than not, they're right on the money. I haven't read these yet, but I'm chomping at the bit to for sure:

This last one was my own discovery, and while I'm not really in the market for any Marvel or Mutant books, this stand-alone (I think) book is kind of a throwback to the old Marvel Comics Presents series in the 80s, except it's in Black and White and Red. And it's glorious.

 

---

---

---

Playlist:

Daniel Pemberton - Motherless Brooklyn OST 

Sightless Pit - Grave of a Dog

I spent almost all day yesterday plowing through The Black Tapes podcast. MAN! So f*&king good! 

---

---

---

Card:

This has been a key concept for 2020 and most likely one that will echo out into the new year. I take this pull, on December Eve (yeah, I just made that up), as a reminder that things are not really all that likely to get better just because we flip a calendar and get rid of a jackass. Not pessimism, just realism.

Isolation - Day 58 Death Dies

Friday nights have been a thing of beauty and comfort ever since Shudder brought Joe Bob Briggs' The Last Drive-In back. This week, JBB did Frank Henelotter's bat-shit crazy Brain Dead and Dario Argento's Profundo Rosso (Deep Red). What a line up!

Watching Deep Red, I'd forgotten how much I love this score, and I'm kicking myself for not buying it when Waxwork Records put it out a few years ago. That said, finding the original version on Apple Music this morning, I realized that there's so much music on this one overall, I find myself wondering if the WW edition only has the Goblin stuff, which while iconic and amazing, would miss what might be my favorite track on the soundtrack altogether.

Originally, I'd mistaken this track for Goblin, however, Italian Jazz musician Giorgio Gaslini is the actual author. I love all the music in Deep Red, but this one... this gives the iconic theme from the film a run for it's money.

**

TKO Studios is creating major waves with an amazing business model. This is a new comic publisher, with exclusive, new titles by established creators, who sell online AND give 50% of the price to any comic book store you choose. I just placed an order for Jeff Lemire and Gabriel Walta's Sentient and sent half of the $19.99 for the trade paperback to Atomic Basement Comics in the LBC. Next up, probably Joshua Dysart and Alberto Ponticelli's Murder Mystery Goodnight Paradise, so I can send half to The Comic Bug.

This is the kind of business ingenuity that will see our beloved Comics Industry through the current crisis, and I'm proud to help out. I've been trying to patronize both my shops when I can, but with their limited, by appointment hours, it's been tough to balance it with my schedule. TKO is definitely going to help with that.

**

Playlist:

Blut Aus Nord - Memorial Vista III (Saturnian Poetry)
X- Under the Big Black Sun
Blut Aus Nord - MoRT
Blut Aus Nord - Deus Salutis Meae
Blut Aus Nord - What Once Was... Liver III EP
White Ward - Love Exchange Failure
Chelsea Wolfe - Hiss Spun
Blut Aus Nord - Odinist: Destruction of Reason By Illumination
Crystal Castles - (II)
Ministry - The Mind is a Terrible Thing To Taste
Barry Adamson - Oedipus Schmoedipus
Hall and Oats - Essentials
M83 - Saturdays = Youth
Roachpowder - Atomic Church
Ministry - From Beer to Eternity
Ministry - Alert Level (Quarantine Mix) Single
White Lung - Paradise
The Neighbourhood - Wiped Out
The Neighbourhood - I Love You.
X- Alphabetland
Lead Into Gold - The Sun Behind the Sun
Revocation - Teratogenesis EP
Revocation - Deathless
Various - A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night
Goblin/Giorgio Gaslini - Profundo Rosso

Card:

Time to saddle up and finish this fucking book!

The Art of Sleeping Alone at The Lighthouse

Recently picked this up from Burning Witches Records, which is distributed via Mondo/Death Waltz. Super cool electro album. With all the metal I've been listening to lately, I needed a new album like this.

**

K and I saw The Lighthouse yesterday. Hmm. A lot to unpack. I'll link to my Letterbxd review HERE, and go on to say I've heard quite a few movies described as "a descent into madness" before, but this might be the most descending of any of those. Beautifully filmed. I mean beautifully. Looks like a movie from the 30s, even right down to the aspect ratio. If you're interested, see it in the theatre. Just for the shots of the waves breaking against the rocks.

31 Days of Horror:

10/01: House of 1000 Corpses/31

10/02: Lords of Chaos

10/03: Creepshow Ep 2/Tales from the Crypt Ssn 1, Ep 1

10/04: IT Chapter 2, AHS 1984 Ep. 3

10/05: Bliss/VFW

10/06: Halloween III: Season of the Witch/Night of the Creeps/The Fog

10/07: Halloween 2018

10/08: Hell House, LLC

10/09: Dance of the Dead (Tobe Hooper; Masters of Horror Ssn 1 Ep 3)

10/10: Creepshow Episode 3

10/11: Jenifer (Dario Argento; Masters of Horror Ssn 1 Ep 4)

10/12: Poltergeist/Phenomena

10/13: AHS 1984 Ep 4/In the Tall Grass
10/14: Invasion of the Body Snatchers ('78)
10/15: Rabid (2019)
10/16: Wounds
10/17: Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon
10/18: Creepshow Episode 4
10/19: Ed Wood/AHS 1984 Ep. 5
10/20: Sinister/Sinister 2
10/21: Uncanny Annie
10/22: Scream
10/23: Simpsons 666: Treehouse of Horror
10/24: Jennifer's Body
10/25: Belzebuth/The Lighthouse/Halloween

**

This past Wednesday I did another signing/release party for Shadow Play Book One: Kim and Jessie at The Comic Bug in Manhattan Beach, and it went very well! I sold almost every copy of both Kim and Jessie and my first book, A Collection of Desires: 7 Tales of Modern Horror. I also moved quite a few Kindle copies of the new book, which was by design; trying to hit the new and noteworthy chart. Special thanks to Mike, Jun, Ben, Gerald, Luis, and all those awesome Comic Bug people, not to mention everyone that came out to support me.

Thanks to K for the picture!

**

Playlist from the last few days:

John Carpenter/Alan Howarth - Halloween III: Season of the Witch OST
Tones on Tail - Everything
Oh Baby - The Art of Sleeping Alone
Ulver - Teachings in Silence
Ritual Howls - Their Body EP
Ritual Howls - Rendered Armor
The Veils - Total Depravity
Sleep - The Sciences
The Sword - Age of Winters
Ministry - Filth Pig
1000 Homo DJs - Hey Asshole
Ozzy Osbourne - The Ultimate Sin
The Nukes - Why Things Burn
Bauhaus - The Skys Gone Out

**

Card of the day:

Both a reminder to listen to Sisters of Mercy today, and, despite having work today and the best Halloween party of the year tonight, a reminder to indulge a little of my creative energy today.

2019: May 3rd: Veronica Mars Teaser

I've been wanting to post this for a few days, but I haven't had a chance to even step foot on blogger due to crazy work hours and constant exhaustion. I'm a HUGE fan of the original Veronica Mars series - especially the first season - so I'm excited as hell for the new series and an impetus to re-watch those old episodes.

**

This weekend it's Free Comic Book Day! Not sure if I'll be heading out to my beloved Comic Bug's annual gala, but if you're in Southern California and looking for something to do, Mike and Jun always have the best FCBD shindig. More info HERE.

Speaking of comics, this week was a light NCBD, but here's what I picked up:

And this one was HUGE. No spoilers here, but if you read The Walking Dead and haven't read issue 191 yet, stop what you're doing and go do that now!

Also, last weekend Jonathan Grimm got me hooked on the idea of reading comics on a Kindle. I'd read a few digital books before, but always on my laptop, and was never really a fan of it. With a Kindle or tablet however, it's pretty awesome. What else is pretty awesome is the fact that digital comics go on sale regularly. I'm not about to stop reading physical comics for my month-to-month titles, but for $3-$5 bucks a trade, I'm very much in the middle of a deep dive on stuff I've missed, am curious about, or that's out of print. First up was Grant Morrison's Animal Man trades; I read this title originally back in High School, circa '94, and it was one of the first books that blew my head wide open and transitioned me out of the superhero quagmire and into the Vertigo stuff. At some point I'm not sure what happened to the trades I had, and they are now well OOP, but on Kindle they're $4.99, so I picked up Vol. 1 and fell right back into this amazing book.

Next, for $2.99 I scored Cosmic Ghost Rider: Baby Thanos Must Die. My good friend Mike Shin talked this character up on the DwC we did at his shop Amazing Fantasy in Chicago last December, and I'd been meaning to pick something up. For $3 I had no excuse. And, I mean, Frank Castle as the flame-headed spirit of Vengeance? In space? Former Herald of Galactus and associate of the Mad Titan?

Clearly, I'm still riding high off Avengers: Endgame, and it's reignited my love for Marvel. And for that price - how could you go wrong? If I'd paid $15-20 for this I'd probably not have dug it so much, but for what I paid I had a really fun time with it. Especially with Juggerduck...

**

Last Saturday, an extended cast of The Horror Vision watched Jordan Downey's new film The Head Hunter. It's awesome! Here the trailer and links to our new episode:



The Horror Vision on Apple
The Horror Vision on Spotify
The Horror Vision on Google Play
The Horror Vision.com

**
Playlist from 4/30:

Deftones - Koi No Yokan
Silversun Pickups - Better Nature
Best Coast - Crazy for You
Kevin Morby - Oh My God

Playlist from 5/01

Deftones - Koi No Yokan
Kevin Morby - Oh My God
Ghost - Meliora
Ghost Cop - One Weird Trick
King Khan and the Shrines - What Is?!
Prince and the Revolution - Purple Rain

Playlist from 5/02:

Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Talking Heads - Fear of Music
Jesus & The Brides of Dracula - Turning Teeth (Single)
Rob Zombie - Apple Music Essential Playlist
Rob Zombie - The Electric Warlock Acid Witch Satanic Orgy Celebration...
Rob Zombie - Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor

**

Card of the day:

From the Grimoire: "Can be a bit of a cunt in matters pertaining to money or stability."

On. The. Nose.

2018: July 3rd

How about a little Ted Leo and the Pharmacists to kick off the mid-week holiday?



Get you feeling good? Me too. There is so much Thin Lizzy in that song it's awesome!

The Comic Bug recently bought at massive collection and that means there are about a dozen long boxes (at least) of comics out for $1.00 right now, set up in the middle of their shop. A couple weeks I did some light digging and, as I always am when digging through back issue long boxes like this, I was in the mood for grabbing a few 80s/early 90s copies of Newsprint Marvels. I went with a few issues of The Avengers, specifically #352, 353, and 354. Why? Well, I never really read Avengers growing up, however I did pick up a few issues around this time back in the day and I've always been subsequently intrigued by the way the team - much like Chris Claremont's Uncanny X-Men, often cycled out the 'Big Names' and operated with a cast of C, D, and maybe even E level characters. And you know, that didn't make the stories bad, it actually made them more interesting than just having status quo re-achieved after every arc or crossover.

Also of note in these three particular issues, penned by Len Kaminski and drawn by M.C. Wyman, is the heavy influence of the original Evil Dead movies. You see it a bit in the covers to 353 and 354, but there's a lot of little stuff lovingly cribbed from the ED2 and Army of Darkness. This fits, as these were published right about the time AoD was released.

Great covers, right? I am especially fond of 353.

Playlist from 7/02:

John Frusciante - Niandra LaDes and Usually Just a T-Shirt
Zeal and Ardor - Stranger Fruit
Jane's Addiction - Kettle Whistle
Nirvana - Incesticide
Cocksure - Corporate_Sting
Deafheaven - New Bermuda
The Casket Lottery - Smoke and Mirrors E.P.
Fever Ray - Plunge
White Hex - Gold Nights
Jeff Grace - House of the Devil OST

Card of the day:

Pressure has eased. Yes - perfect. Yesterday was the first day after I handed over the 76k+ second draft of T12 to Keller. Immediate relief, although I didn't come until I walked to my writing spot, fired up the laptop and closed the T12 Scrivener doc, then opened up my short story one and started something new. So yes, the pressure has eased.

Saturday, Oct 28th DwC Invades Stan Lee's LACC!!!

Drinking with Comics - Giant-Sized Con Edition!

Saturday, October 28th we will be invading Stan Lee's Los Angeles Comic Con and coming at you live to talk comics while knocking back some sweet suds courtesy of King Harbor Brewing Company. It's going down at 2:00 PM in room 306 A/B. More info HERE.

Food For Thought - Election Comic Kickstarter

Back in the early episodes of Drinking with Comics we had an episode that overlapped with one of the many local creator meetings that take place at Manhattan Beach's The Comic Bug and brought one Cassidy James up to speak on behalf of a comic he was kickstarting, Gun Up Paintball. I hadn't seen Cassidy in a while and ran into him a month or so ago during an event at the shop. He told me about a new comic he had waiting in the wings called Food For Thought and it sounded like a lot of fun to me; I'm so disgusted by the entire election but can't seem to stop following it (for the record I don't consider myself a liberal or a conservative - I don't want any of 'em in office, btw) and a book that poked fun at any of the candidates sounded right like it might be just what a lot of us need to blow off some steam at the seemingly endless campaign trail shenanigans that we've been choking on for months now. If this sounds good to you too give the video above a watch and contribute to the Kickstarter HERE if you can. I'd really like to see this book get up off the ground. With Cassidy's words and Livan Ivan Cornejo's art I think this could be a truly entertaining and timely book.

Faith No More/Mr. Bungle Comic Book!

Mike Wellman, my good friend and co-host on Drinking with Comics, along with artist extraordinaire Matt Jacobs have a Faith No More/Mr. Bungle comic coming out in June. It's the history of the bands written from a "fan's eye view" and from what I've seen so far, this is a must for any Patton fan!

Lying about Widows

image courtesy of dc.wikia

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!

David Lynch - Twin Peaks 25 Years Later...

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.