The Walking Dead

For some reason or other, I haven't written about Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead yet. Maybe I've been way too consumed reading this comic book series to think about writing my opinions/feelings down - and you know, at times, it's certainly been an emotional roller coaster! The thing is, there is no other piece of serialized horror literature at the moment that tops The Walking Dead for existential drama and sheer adrenaline-pumping action. A television series covering the comic was announced to be in production on August 11, 2009, and for once it felt like a completely natural move compared to the tone and composition of the source work.

I know what some of you may be thinking: "The zombie survival plot has been way overdone, so this comic cannot be that good." Well, yeah, initially the plot does feel rather trite, but the story moves so fast that you will get hooked by the 22nd page and you well not notice the point at which The Walking Dead obliterates your expectations, be they high or low. The story simply grows and grows, getting progressively more thought-provoking and interesting with each new issue, reaching smaller arch-climaxes over every 6 issues or so and big ones somewhere around the 24 issue mark.


The story follows former police officer Rick Grimes in his valiant search for his wife and child. Along the way, he meets up with survivors and together they must stay sharp, savvy, and hard as roaming packs of undead look to feast on them. This being a zombie comic, it has plenty of gore thrown in every direction but more importantly, it hits every heavy note in just the right way, making you feel for the characters at all times. The chief villain known as the Governor is particularly effective here what with his disdain for the living and love for his undead daughter: there is no way on earth he will leave you cold!

Now I usually give out links for downloads at the bottom of the post but this time I will make an exception: buy the damn thing, not only are all of the full volumes released so far well worth the price, they are also the only way for the comic to survive in the years to come given that it's fully independent. 'Nuff said!

The House of Hammer

At one point in the 1970s, Hammer Productions released a string of 30-something magazine -format comics titled The House of Hammer. Since there is very little information online for this comics series, I'm morally obliged to tell you that the contents of each issue were rather simple retellings of Hammer's most famous movies - starting with Horror of Dracula - plus an interesting genre-related essay thrown in for good measure. Still, even as the magazine was only a continuation of a long-ish tradition of pulpy British comics, it was genuinely charming! To make things more dynamic, the subject matter often went beyond Hammer's stock characters and well into the territories of other popular monsters, which seems to have worked (although it's difficult to judge things from today's perspective, given the powerful nostalgia involved). So, let's cut things short: download the first 7 issues at The Manchester Morgue - it's the website that takes full credit for this rare find - and enjoy!

>>> Download issues 1-7, good man!

Twin Peaks Essay

As promised last Friday, here's an interesting Twin Peaks essay I found 'round the internet that question some of the most fundamental aspects of the series and film. Plus, here's a list of quirky items from the series that someone somewhere put together, and if that's not enough for you, check out the clip below or bow your head in shame!

Twin Peaks quirks:

Ben and Jerry Horne, ecstatically praising their baguettes, mouths full of bread and Brie (one of several scenes in which characters talk with their mouths full); a fish in a percolator; Lucy’s extremely convoluted phone transfers; Josie Packard’s malapropisms; the malfunctioning fluorescent light in the morgue as Cooper examines Laura Palmer’s body; Nadine’s quest for completely noiseless drape runners; Cooper’s announcement (not surprising, given his coffee consumption): “I really have to urinate”; the dental plugs stuck in Dr. Jacoby’s ears; Deputy Andy covered with post-it notes; the small figurine wearing an eye patch in Nadine Hurley’s mantelpiece collection; Cooper’s realization, immersed in a Double R dessert that “This must be where pies go when they die”; Albert’s insults (“Look! It’s trying to think!”); Cooper’s face-to-face with a llama in a veterinarian’s office; Ben Horne’s adjournment to the bathroom (during a tryst with Catherine Martell) to “wash little Elvis”; Cooper’s self-reflexive finger-snapping to Angelo Badalamenti’s non-diegetic theme music as he sits on his bed after awakening from his dream; Gordon Cole’s deaf incoherence; party-animal Icelanders; the Log Lady’s “sticky pitch gum”; doughnuts splattered with Waldo the Bird’s blood; Audrey’s abilities with a cherry; Dr. Jacoby’s collection of cocktail umbrellas; the Log Lady’s recognition that Major Briggs has “shiny objects on his chest”; Agent Cooper’s inquiry (while lying on the floor of his hotel room after having been shot) whether the bill he is asked to sign by the “world’s oldest bellhop” “includes a gratuity”; a wood tick impaled on a bullet; Leland Palmer’s singing (“Mares Eat Oats,” “Come On, Get Happy,” “Surrey with the Fringe on Top,” etc.); blows to Deputy Andy’s head (from a ricocheting rock thrown by Cooper and from a loose floor board at Leo’s); difficult readjustment of hospital stools; telekinetic removal of cream corn; seething, repulsive hospital food; Major Briggs’s version of Bobby’s future; Ben and Jerry toasting marshmallows (instead of a smoked cheese pig); Albert and Sheriff Truman’s collar-grabbing face off (“I love you Sheriff Truman); Dr. Jacoby’s golf-inspired mantra; Cooper’s cowlicks; Andy’s sperm count; Leo’s birthday party; the horse in Sarah Palmer’s vision; Leland’s living room golf; Ben and Jerry’s jailhouse bunk bed memories; a transvestite DEA agent who “puts his panties on one leg at a time”; the Pine Weasel’s attack on Dick Tremayne; Ben Horne’s rewriting of the Civil War; Nadine’s destruction of Hank Jennings…

Vampires in Macedonian Folklore

Aside from the corny pic above - it was either that or Tom Cruise against the map of the Balkans - this is a curious find. What we have here is an entire book of Macedonian folk tales about vampires collected and printed back in 1988. "Why is it so interesting?" you ask. Well: a) Folk tale collections in Macedonia are rather rare due to various failings of the collective subconscious, so to have one devoted entirely to such an obscure subject is unusual to say the least; and b) It seems that in Macedonian folklore, vampires are annoying pests who could strangle a chicken at best and serve as nothing more than a punching bag at worst. Honestly, the first time I read this thing I felt the Earth move! Plus, it's funny as hell, megatons better than Woody Allen's funniest Dracula rendering... if you understand Macedonian, that is. If you don't, then the next time you have a problem with a vampire you know who to call: an old Macedonian lady can obliterate a vampire on any given day! In any case, here's the download.

The Strange Adventures of H.P. Lovecraft

The blurb goes something like this:

"Toiling away as a timid and eccentric writer of pulp horror stories, H.P. Lovecraft, is powerless in the world... in love with a girl who doesn't love him back, mired in a profession that inspires no respect and frozen in the grip of a terrible writer's block. Until one day when everything changes. Lovecraft comes in contact with an ancient book that passes onto him an insidious curse: whenever he sleeps, his darkest nightmares come true and are loosed on the world. Suddenly, this shy and bumbling writer becomes both an unwitting god of destruction and the only man who can fight the wickedness he unleashes. It's a fantastical revision of the life and work of H.P. Lovecraft, a story in the mold of the classic Universal horror movies. A weird tale indeed."

If it looks like loads of fun, then it's because it is loads of fun, but please hurry and read it before Ron Howard gets to direct it and sterilize it to death.

Clive Barker - The Damnation Game (1985)

Many years ago, Stephen King was so fascinated with one up-and-coming writer that he bestowed upon his shoulders the weight of being "the future of horror". In the 20+ years since, that young author has become a household name with each of his books and films now carrying big fat capital letters just so you know who you're dealing with: it's Mr. Clive Barker for you, Sir. The unexpected thing, however, is that Clive Barker proved to be not only a fine master of the genre but an exquisitely imaginative literary mind, too, often going way beyond what can be considered horror or modern literature, into the timeless realms of the Word itself. By comparison, Stephen King is merely a craftsman who was caught up in the zeitgeist.

This turn of events was hinted at already in Barker's earliest works, namely the Lovecraftian horror collections Books of Blood and his first novel, the insular Faustian epic, The Damnation Game, something that Mr. King clearly recognized. Sadly, while the Books of Blood have achieved cult status since their first run in the mid-1980s, Barker's large format debut is nowadays mostly forgotten in favor of his later more polished works such as The Hellbound Heart, Imajica, Coldheart Canyon etc.; books for which the Game is the most important foundation, and none of which replicate its sheer raw power.

The story of the novel goes something like this: "Marty Strauss, an 'inocent' gambling addict released on parole from prison is hired to be the personal bodyguard of Joseph Whitehead, one of the wealthiest men in the world. The job proves more complicated and dangerous than he thought, as Marty soon gets caught up in a series of supernatural events involving Whitehead, his heroin-addict daughter, and a mysterious centuires-old man named Mamoulian, to whom Whitehead essentially sold his soul during World War II..." In practice, this basic plot is much messier, dirtier and schizoid than it initially seems but Barker's deviant prose works almost all the way through, creating intriguing characters and locations, as well as often brilliant dialogues.

The centerpiece of the story is, of course, Mamoulian, an extra-powerful being that in many ways is predecessor to Pinhead only much more human and tied to a broader set of ideas. It is the mystery of who Mamoulian is and what he intends to do with Whitehead that really pushes the story forward even while other characters are stuck in a rut, trying to figure out how to get mentally from point A to point B. The aura of Mamoulian is so strong, in fact, that even the tedious resolution of his past doesn't dissipate the tension that he creates every single time he appears on the page.

Certainly, Mamoulian is not the only character worth reading the novel through: the top 4 characters are all fun in a disturbed way and the things they do to each other will certainly make you squirm on several occasions. In any case, don't take my word for it, and instead, download, borrow or buy the book and read it! Clive Barker may have gone a bit soft since the year it was published, but it still remains as a perfect monument to his skills as the master of the macabre.

>>> Download The Damnation Game torrent!

Pride and Prejudice... and Zombies?!

Say what? I'm getting this puppy ASAP!

Clive Barker Interview

Clive Barker + Craig Ferguson = Fun! Nothing special is revealed in this 6-minute clip but it is funny enough to kick off a great Friday night :)

The End Is Nigh

Have you ever had the desire to know how it's all going to end? Have you been secretly looking for that obscure holy grail of printed publishing? Well, now...

...The End Is Nigh is an annual British fanzine edited by Michael Molcher. You don't know who he is? Don't worry. The fanzine has been coming out every year since 2005 at the Bristol Comic Expo in 2005. As the tagline suggests, it's The Official Magazine of the Apocalypse, each issue dealing with differently themed Apocalypses (e.g. the first one was about those cute and cuddly creatures we call zombies). The contents go all across the board, ranging from articles to sequential art, with contributors drawn from both comics and magazines. Also, it's got rather strong (if not superstrong) recommendations from authority figures. Here's one:

"Truly a book of revelations... although judging from the energy and enthusiasm crackling around this ambitious independent, the end is far from nigh. Highly recommended", Alan Moore.

And yeah, the fanzine has its own site and blog where you can get a bucketload of info on how everything you hold dear will die eventually. What else are you waiting for? It's not like you have a lot longer to live... :)

Hack/Slash

Just when I was thinking there were no good horror comics anymore, Hack/Slash appeared out of nowhere. The funny thing is, I shouldn't like it at all - the drawing is as generic as it comes and the story is a pure derivative of your buddy's favorite slashers - yet I find it a compelling reading. What really works for the comic is the warm interaction between Tim Seeley's lead characters, the victim-cum-avenger Cassie and her partner, the Jason-like-monstrosity Vlad. The series shoves this odd couple through the entire catalogue of slasher villains from the last two decades yet the focus on their own personal problems and issues never wavers. Another big point for the series is its tone, which subtly echoes the awareness of the genre displayed in the fantastic mockumentary Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon. In short, I highly recommend it to anyone looking for quick no-brainer fun!

>>> Check out torrents for Hack/Slash

Iain Banks - Wasp Factory

The Wasp Factory is one of those novels with the soul intention of literally hitting you in the gut.

"What do you mean literally, oh you exceedingly bald man?"

Well, literally in the sense that the book can actually cause you pain by the sheer power of its dense prose. Author Iain Banks makes absolutely no apologies about it - in fact, he seems to revel in every single one of his words.

"Oh... OK. Any other books that might want to hit me in the gut?"

Well, there are plenty but only few succeed at the level where Mr. Banks does. Clive Barker's early novels are a good example, and, of course, there is Chuck Palahniuk (whose short story Guts is something I will go back to in future posts) but that's about it. What makes The Wasp Factory particularly amazing is that it was Banks' debut, a fact that seems bizarre in face of the masterful confidence displayed throughout the novel.

"Anything else to add?"

Well, The Wasp Factory is a first-person narrative coming from the heart and soul of one 17-year old Frank Cauldhame who seems to be a bit bonkers, behaving like the king of an island with all the shamanistic rituals that come with the title. As the novel develops, his brother's escape from a mental hospital and impending return lead on to a violent ending and a twist that casts a long shadow over Frank's visions of life as such. Looks a bit too simple? Well, let's just say that despite his young age Frank has already gathered quite a few skeletons in his closet...

Download the audio version here. You won't regret it!

The Sandman

By now, introducing Neil Gaiman's Sandman should be as completely superfluous as introducing the Batman, but it isn't. People that don't read comics on regular basis are generally unaware of Gaiman's achievements in literature. Blame the mainstream media, and blame Pavlov: they are responsible for conditioning the public to take notice only if something is adapted as a blockbuster motion picture. Then again, maybe it is better this way. The Sandman should feel very personal and shared only with the chosen few. But don't take my word. Just read the first book and decide for yourself. Or, if you have already read it, pat yourself on the back. In any case, I don't feel up to the task to give proper introduction to one of the most profound characters in comics, and I will instead provide you with this link and that link. Enjoy, and sweet dreams!

Robert Louis Stevenson - Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

I know what you're thinking. "Why did he post this? It's a classic! There's no need in pointing out the obvious..." Well, yeah, Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is indeed a classic and everyone capable of reading a novel should have already read it by now.

The problem is, very few people have really read it, choosing to watch one of the billion movie versions instead, which is a pity given that: a) the book is much more interesting than any of those movies; b) in comparison to other classics of the genre, such as Dracula or Frankenstein, it has aged remarkably well; and c) it is by far the best werewolf novel in existence!

Now I know this last statement does not ring true but it is completely and utterly faithful to the truth. The rational Dr. Jekyll may never turn into a proper wolf-like creature - he doesn't even grow hair - but his transformation into the wild Mr. Hyde is 100% werewolf-like. Think about it, and let it sink. The novel also boasts curious dualistic imagery with each side of the main character represented by appropriate surroundings; Dr. Jekyll by polished house and well-respected friends, and Mr. Hyde by dirty streets and shady by-standers. This sense of dualism placed in the hearts of all men is most certainly the basis for the werewolf myth, and all good werewolf stories essentially go back to it.

So, why don't we cut the chase? If you'd like to read the novel, you can get it HERE... or you can simply go out and buy it in the nearest bookshop for less than 2 bucks :)

Update: On May 8th Universal announced a "modern retelling" of Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde with Keanu Reeves attached to star in it. Was my post foreshadowing future events? :)

Stephen King - Danse Macabre (1982)

Early on in his career as a mega-successful novelist, Stephen King got bored of constantly answering the question, "Why do you write horror stories?" and so he used his lectures on the subject of Gothic literature at the University of Maine to draw up a non-fiction book about the horror genre.  The resulting work - Danse Macabre - covered horror fiction in print, radio, film and comics, and the genre's influence on U.S. popular culture in the period from 1950 to 1980.  The book came out in 1982, and immediately caught the attention of the public, first by shining some light on King's personal attachment to horror comics and films in his youth - all told in the casual style typical for his fiction - and then by exploring common archetypes such as the Vampire-Werewolf-Thing trinity, and the Apollonian-Dionysian nature of horror. The book serves particularly well as a document of American radio programs, B-movies and TV productions made during the period covered, although King does get a bit stuck in the mud on few occasions such as the original Kolchak: The Night Stalker TV series of which he is very critical.

All in all, Danse Macabre is the best starting point for anybody who has passed the stage of mere curiosity about the genre and has acquired proper interest for scary movies and books. Given King's masterful storytelling, I'd even say that anybody with taste for non-fiction would enjoy this book for what it is. Simply put, Danse Macabre is one of the most important books ever published on the horror genre, along with H.P. Lovecraft's own Supernatural Horror in Literature (1927) and Carol J. Clover's Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film (1992). 

Download Danse Macabre, and have fun while reading it, or go on and buy it - it's a book worth reading a couple of times.