Saturday, May 24, 2014

True Detective Titles Peaked!



Admittedly this circulated back when True Detective's first season was in airing. I watched it through half-closed eyes then, not wanting to know ANYTHING about the new HBO show until I was able to actually watch it. However, as with anything pertaining to Twin Peaks, I was unable to completely look away. Now that I've begun my second viewing of Detectives Rust Cohle and Marty Hart's slow descent into a southern gothic hell, I'm re-watching this and really appreciating it.

Ray Wise Wants Twin Peaks Rumors!



I LOVE Ray Wise. And hot damn if Welcome to Twin Peaks isn't just about the best Twin Peaks-related site ever.

Just sayin'.

Bernie Wrightson & Steve Niles' Frankenstein Alive, Alive!

image courtesy of comixology.com
Issue #3 of the sequel to Bernie Wrightson's original visual adaptation of Mary Shelley's classic novel hit the stands this past week and as such is the topic of discussion in this week's edition of Thee Comic Column, over on Joup!

Thursday, May 22, 2014

The H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast

image courtesy of miskatonicbooks.wordpress.com
Along with all the writing I have been doing lately I've been reading a lot. Thanks to my friend Missi's guidance I went through several old Stephen King novels I'd never read before - Cujo and Pet Sematary. Then I binged HBO's True Detective and came out the other side of it needing something else. I found a few pretty good podcasts that critically discussed the show and once I'd burned through them I ended up falling head over heels back into Lovecraft. From here I found the H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast and kind of became obsessed with it. Hosts Chris Lackey and Chad Fifer are an absolute pleasure to listen to as they and some occasional guests discuss every Lovecraft story in its own episode - or in many cases several episodes. If you love Lovecraft, please do yourself a favor and dig into this - it has enhanced my appreciation of a writer I've been into for well over twenty years and that my friends, is just not easy to do!

The Walking Dead issue #127

image courtesy of thewalkingdead.com

See, this is why I gave up on the show. The Walking Dead has been consistently the best comic I've read monthly for almost ten years now. And it just keeps getting better. I won't venture into spoiler territory, which I guess is why this is going here and I'm not writing this week's Thee Comic Column about TWD #127, but when Kirkman said he was changing the landscape of the book, he was not bloody kidding!

My personal feeling after reading this issue and acclimating to the new status quo is the end game of the book begins here. I don't think the series will end any time soon, but I think there's more behind it at this point than ahead of it. Of course once the core book wraps I'd bet Rick's hand that Kirkman will "Executive Produce" at the very least one spin off written by someone else and following other characters in this world he has created. But for now, things have definitely changed and I for one am 100% on board.

New Blut Aus Nord



Via Brooklyn Vegan, who has all the pertinent information on this split BaN is doing with another French group, P.H.O.B.O.S. And I will say it right now, as big a fan of Nord as I have become in the last three years or so I ended up not really loving their last effort What Once Was... Liber III. Perhaps I did not give this record a fair enough shake but despite my anticipation, when I really had the time to sit down and listen to it I just didn't feel as though it was very much more than re-hashing some of their other material around that time. Granted, Vindsval and company had just done something like five releases in a year and a half, so it seemed only natural that not all of it would clear the high water mark - when a band as prolific as Nord releases something I consider a misstep I certainly do not hold it against my opinion of them. These guys consistently delivery amazing and ground-breaking music, and at a fairly rapid-fire rate. So if I don't personally care for something they do, I can basically just wait for the next release and bam, there's the genius moment again.