DC PRIDE: A CELEBRATION OF RACHEL POLLACK

In celebration of Pride Month, DC Comics has just released a special comic book honoring the memory of Rachel Pollack, one of my writing instructors at Clarion West '96. When Rachel passed away last year, I wrote this blog post about the significance of her work and its impact on me. If you've never read her fiction, I highly recommend starting off with the Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning novel UNQUENCHABLE FIRE (1988), the Nebula Award-nominated novel TEMPORARY AGENCY (1994), and BURNING SKY (1998), a masterful collection of twenty-seven numinous short stories originally published between 1971 and 1993. 

Her work in the comic book medium was no less impressive. Among my favorites is her peculiar, metaphysical reinterpretation of Joe Simon's short-lived, late-sixties comic book BROTHER POWER THE GEEK (one of the most unusual comic books to ever bear the DC logo). Simon's original series followed the misadventures of a mannequin who is brought to life by an errant bolt of lightning and transformed into a super-powered hippie. Published in 1993, Rachel's version of THE GEEK is a nonlinear, surreal psychodrama that traces the Geek's somnambulant, tragedy-filled journey from 1960s America to the dawn of the 1990s at which point he awakens to the decades of torture he has experienced at the hands of a madman named Dr. Abuse (an obvious play on Norbert Jacques' villainous Dr. Mabuse, the subject of three Fritz Lang films). Pollack's intense script benefits from the always stunning artwork of Michael and Laura Allred. Fortunately, THE GEEK one-shot is included in DC PRIDE: A CELEBRATION OF RACHEL POLLACK, which is well worth the $9.99 price tag. It was released last week, so you should pick up a copy asap.

COMING SOON: THE UNDERDOGS RISE VOL. 2

My latest short story, "Roratorio" (8,200 words), will be included in THE UNDERDOGS RISE VOL. 2, an all-new anthology of underdog-centric tales coming this September and available for pre-order right now!!!

GUT & GHOST

I recommend buying a copy of Jason Schoonover's debut comic book, GUT & GHOST #1! Get in on the ground floor of a very weird thing! What do you have to lose? It's only half a sawbuck! Here's Schoonover talking about the comic in his own words:

"I have a new comic out about a pile of guts and a ghost who embark on a perilous journey to change their burnt out light bulb in their apartment. A gross out comedy about the mind-body connection--or disconnection--where our heroes encounter road blocks and non-solutions in their quest to turn the light back on. If you'd like a copy, I have them available for $5 in my shopify."

Click HERE to order your copy of GUT & GHOST today!!!

 

JADOO 2024

During the past few weeks, I've been revisiting the works of John A. Keel. I first read Keel's debut nonfiction book, JADOO (1957), in 1996 or 1997. I recently purchased the 2013 Anomalist Books edition of JADOO. If you've already read the first edition, I recommend picking up this later version, as it restores valuable material unwisely excised by the original publisher back in the 1950s. Over the years, I had forgotten about this passage in Chapter Three (p. 36) when the "Wizard of Cairo" makes a dire prediction regarding 2024...

 

The United States of Agony: A Review of Wrath James White's THE ECSTASY OF AGONY

Earlier this morning, PUNK NOIR MAGAZINE published my review of Wrath James White's latest short story collection, THE ECSTASY OF AGONY (Clash Books, 2023).  The first paragraph follows:

Wrath James White’s The Ecstasy of Agony is a dark and valuable reflection of the ugly realities and paradoxical hypocrisies that have become so much a part of American life during the past eight years. Filtered through the violent phantasmagoria of ten brutal short stories and seven epic poems, we see average (and not-so average) people attempting to survive the unrelenting vagaries of life in the face of unstoppable pandemics, random apocalypses, drug-induced riots, and religious-fueled crimes of violence....

To read the entire book review, click HERE. 

DEAD MONKEY RUM IN FORTEAN TIMES!

My latest novel, DEAD MONKEY RUM, just received a very positive review from FORTEAN TIMES (the May 2024 issue), which has been one of my favorite magazines since I was a teenager. I've posted the review so you can read it for yourself. Coincidentally, right above the review of DEAD MONKEY RUM, you'll also see a review of Geoff Ryman's latest novel, HIM. Geoff was one of my writing instructors at the Clarion Writers Workshop in Seattle way back in the dim dark past of 1996.

BUSINESS INSIDER on Rewriting Ancient Human History

From Jenny McGrath's 5-29-24 BUSINESS INSIDER article entitled "22,000-year-old Artifacts Could Rewrite Ancient Human History in North America":

North and South America were the last inhabited continents that modern humans settled thousands of years ago, but when and how they reached the Americas remains a mystery.

"We don't know who these first peoples were," Todd Braje, executive director of the University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History, told Business Insider. We don't know "where they came from, when they arrived, the technologies that they had available," he added.

For many years, archaeologists thought the first humans to set foot in the Americas did so around 13,000 years ago. But more recently, new findings have challenged that theory, pushing the timeline back even further.

Now, a recent series of discoveries on Parsons Island, Maryland, could wind back the clock yet again. And it raises some difficult questions about early human migration across North America...

To read the entire article, click HERE.