"And, in the end, no one ever said anything ever again that could possibly offend anyone, so great was the fear of retribution. It was safer not to speak. No one felt oppressed or triggered ever again. Outrage and offense became a thing of the past, along with comedy and art, literature and casual conversation, film and, for that matter, sex. And there was peace and bland silence and a smothering grey stillness where once there had been a vibrant culture."
The
above quote from the award-winning fabulist Caitlin R. Kiernan could
easily have been the opening epigraph of my 2014 article "The War
Against the Imagination," which can be read right HERE.
By the way, Caitlín Kiernan's 2005 short story collection TO CHARLES FORT, WITH LOVE is a must read for Freaks, Forteans, Cryptoscatologists, and Lovers of High Weirdness Everywhere. Don't dare miss it! Click HERE to purchase a copy TODAY!
And Kiernan's online journal, Dear Sweet Filthy World, can be seen HERE.
OR Books is currently having a special summer sale! As a result, my book CHAMELEO: A STRANGE BUT TRUE STORY OF INVISIBLE SPIES, HEROIN ADDICTION, AND HOMELAND SECURITY is 40% off, so grab a copy while you still can! Click HERE to take advantage of this sale!
Back in 2013 Jon Rappoport released a limited edition chapbook of his exhilarating poem Visions of the Empire, which took him fifteen years to complete. I'm extremely pleased to report that Rappoport's poem is now available for all to read on his website. Five years ago, when the poem was originally published, I wrote,"Visions of the Empire deserves to be ranked alongside Pablo Neruda's legendary The Heights of Macchu Picchu. It is a rare and beautiful paradox that only a true magician could succeed in conjuring forth. It dissects the old, tired myths--political myths, religious myths, social myths--that threaten to swallow our minds while simultaneously creating new myths with which the human race might lift itself up out of spiritual darkness." Here's what Rappoport wrote about his poem earlier this month, on the 2nd of July:
"Over the course of the past 10-15 years, I wrote a 5000-word poem,
VISIONS OF THE EMPIRE. You could say that proves I believe in poetry. I
do believe in it.
"Here, for the first time, I’m publishing the whole poem in its final version.
"Poetry in the grand tradition of, say, Walt Whitman may seem to be
dead—and who cares about poetry anyway? But poems are life blood on the
page.
"I cast this one out like a wind across the landscape, with full
knowledge that reading anything, much less poetry, is a dying art in
many quarters. Frankly, that doesn’t stop me. I know, from 17 years of
writing at nomorefakenews, that there are untold numbers of people who
can still read and want to read. My articles have found them.
"Going against the grain doesn’t bother me. It motivates me. Every
day. The seemingly absurd proposition that a poem can have a
life-bearing effect—I hold that view and always will.
"The unbound, wide-ranging, free and electric spirit within us is
THERE. We can step on it and bury it and forget it, but it doesn’t die.
With that knowledge, and without apprehension, I freely give you this.
Do with it what you will. As with everything else I write, I stand on
the words."
To read the entirety of Visions of the Empire, click HERE.
From Ralph Ellis' 7-20-18 CNN.com article entitled "Heart Doctor for Former President George H.W. Bush Killed in Bicycle Drive-by shooting":
"A cardiologist who treated former President George H.W. Bush was killed Friday morning in a bicycle-to-bicycle drive-by shooting near Texas Medical Center in Houston, authorities said.
"Dr. Mark Hausknechtand the shooter were both riding bikes on South Main Street, near Texas Children's Pavilion for Women, shortly before 9 a.m. local time, Executive Assistant Police Chief Troy Finner said at a news conference.
"Hausknecht, 65, was biking north when he passed the shooter going in the other direction, Finner said. The shooter turned, fired two shots at Hausknecht and rode away on his bike, Finner said.
"Hausknecht was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, Finner said.
"Finner said investigators didn't know if the shooting was targeted, random or caused by road rage. He said a few people witnessed the shooting and video may become available."
From Andy Lewis and Aaron Couch's 7-6-18 Hollywood Reporter article entitled "Steve Ditko, Spider-Man Co-Creator and Legendary Comics Artist, Dies at 90":
"Artist Steve Ditko, who co-created Spider-Man and Doctor Strange with Stan Lee, has died. He was 90.
"The New York Police Department confirmed his death to The Hollywood Reporter.Ditko was found dead in his apartment on June 29; no cause of death has yet been announced."
To read the rest of Lewis and Couch's article, click HERE.
What follow are the first three paragraphs of Graeme McMillan's 7-6-18 Hollywood Reporter article (aptly) entitled "Steve Ditko Was a Creator Ahead of His Time":
"For most people, Steve Ditko will be remembered for co-creating one of Marvel Entertainment’s most iconic characters, Spider-Man. He was the artist who not only illustrated (and, increasingly, plotted) the first years of the wall-crawler’s existence, but co-created most of his iconic rogues’ gallery, including the Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, the Sandman, the Lizard and many, many more. For anyone, that would be an impressive creative legacy, but for Ditko, whose death the comics world is reeling from, it was just the beginning.
"Like his Marvel contemporary Jack Kirby, Ditko was a creative powerhouse who continued to create fascinating characters even after splitting with Marvel and Stan Lee. With Lee, he also co-created Doctor Strange and the majority of that character’s mythology and, more importantly, iconography; it’s literally impossible to separate Strange from Ditko, in the same way that the Fantastic Four remain permanently wedded to Kirby. Ditko actually jumped ship from Marvel almost five years before Kirby left, for reasons that neither he nor Stan Lee ever fully explained, but have been assumed to be related to creative freedom and differences in approach between the two men in charge of Spider-Man’s story.
"What this meant was that one of the two men behind one of Marvel’s biggest hits, still on a creative and commercial peak, was suddenly on the market at a time when superheroes were big business — something that made Ditko attractive to Marvel’s competitors, who were generally willing to let him follow his muse no matter where it was going. The result was a number of comic creations that, while not as famous as Peter Parker or Stephen Strange, were just as individual, just as fascinating, and just as full of possibility."
To read the rest of McMillan's article, click HERE.
Here's what I wrote about Ditko's most recent creations in my 12-16-15 Cryptoscatology post:
It’s very strange to me that the common “wisdom” of comicdom seems to suggest that Steve Ditko’s greatest efforts were the works he produced for Marvel Comics in the early 1960s. Putting the lie to that theory is his most recent series, which is so unconventional that it changes its title every issue. This series is sometimes referred to by its readers as A Ditko. Ditko and his partner, Robin Snyder, have been publishing this comic book regularly since 2007. Some comics fans claim that Ditko's technique has declined in quality over the years, the implication being that his artistic skill deteriorated somehow after he turned his back on his earliest successes at Marvel Comics in the 1960s. This is tantamount to claiming that Picasso's artistic technique deteriorated when he first experimented with cubism in 1909 with such paintings as The Reservoir, Horta de Ebro, or that Miles Davis' artistic technique began to deteriorate when he first experimented with electronic music in 1969 with his groundbreaking album In a Silent Way. Similar to both Picasso and Davis, Ditko's most recent contributions to his chosen medium represent bold experiments in extreme minimalism, attempts to drag the medium back to an embryonic state when almost anything was possible because the medium had not yet been locked down, concretized, frozen in stasis. In his latest work Ditko has reduced human figures to their most basic possible forms in order to emphasize the ideas behind the figures. Looking at the voluminous artwork Ditko has created in his late eighties reminds me of listening to the songs of an aging blues singer, a ragged voice aged to perfection.
A Ditko plays with the anthology form that was so prevalent in the earliest days of the comics medium (e.g., Famous Funnies, Tales from the Crypt,Young Romance, etc.) and transforms it into something altogether strange and new. The way the various stories, such as “The Madman,” “!?,” and “Miss Eerie,” overlap with one another in terms of locale and theme and tone is mind-boggingly impressive. I particularly appreciate the enigmatic quality of the stories featuring “The Cape” and “The Distorter." The truth is that Ditko's artwork in these stories is as engaging and eye-catching and unique as it’s ever been. Beginning comic book artists often don’t understand that’s it more challenging to do less than more. Ditko's minimalist style (on full display here) is very effective in portraying the stories he wants to tell, unburdened of all the unnecessary accoutrements I sometimes see younger artists layer onto their work for no real reason. A Ditko is, without a doubt, my favorite comic book series being published today.
To watch Harlan Ellison introducing Steve Ditko in Ken Viola's excellent 1987 documentary, The Masters of Comic Book Art, proceed to 19:28 (and hear Ditko discussing his work in his very own words at 20:53):
Digital editions of my latest book, UNTIL THE LAST DOG DIES, are on sale today for only $1.99 (part of the Kindle Monthly Deals). Get your copy right away by clicking HERE!
Take a few moments out of your day to observe Harlan Ellison at the peak of his irascibilityon a trio of episodes from Tom Snyder's Tomorrow Show in which Harlan discusses the aftermath of winning his legendary plagiarism suit against ABC, the dangers of Ronald Reagan and the Moral Majority, and the transcendental joys of road rage.
Harlan Ellison On Tomorrow - Plagiarism and Hollywood
Harlan Ellison On Tomorrow - Why Television Is Made For Morons
Harlan Ellison On Tomorrow - Random
Also, check out John Scalzi's 6-28-18 Los Angeles Times article about Harlan HERE.
