“Now I know what a ghost is. Unfinished business, that’s what.” ― Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses When I was once again cornered into producing a Hallowe’en-adjacent post, I naturall…

« Modern technology has tripled the life expectancy of the professional insulter » It was forty-eight years ago today, which is to say Thursday, April the 20th, 1970, when a certain short, dumpy, c…

Wasting the wide range of my xeno-tech training on a home office job was like putting a carpenter in charge of the psycho-ward. Like any fish out of water, I didn’t fit in. Bureaucracy said I…

« Hocus, pocus, witching stick! Stand and stare, obey me, chick! » — Engelbert Humperdinck, Hänsel und Gretel Here we are back in October already. I’m afraid there won’t be a full…

« In almost every picture, Batman looks as if he has spent the day greasing the Batmobile and didn’t bother to clean up afterwards. There is a difference between shadowing and what looks like…

« Rockets, canoes, bagpipes, fish, good old chaps with patches on their elbows and jokes about Derrida: Glen Baxter’s world is always instantly recognisable. » — Harriet Lane As our mor…

« Calm down, Harris… this is no teleportational phenomenon we’re dealing with… » — Hawkman, “Yo-Yo Hangup in the Sky!”. In 1968, though DC was still handily outselling…

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« Y’gotta develop an annoying compulsion if y’wanta get anywhere in this world! » — Dan Clowes’ Willy Willions (Eightball No. 5, Feb. 1991) Dorothy Polka, known to the world…

« And with that awakening, an insane sovereignonce again asserts his rightful dominion overa night of madness — as the Halloween God! » For years after Bernie Wrightson’s career path took him away …

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« I know you are, but what am I? » — Pee Wee Herman And they said it couldn’t happen! Today, Paul Reubens (born Paul Rubenfeld on Aug. 27, 1952) celebrates (in the coolest style, to be sure) …

Hello all — I write this post under duress and internal protest. Given all the shit going on in the world, and the online omnipresence of larcenous AI, I readily admit that my desire to share…

« Neither of us had seen a ghost, but I knew what he meant. » I had planned to feature quite another tale this week, but seeing as we are in the torrid grip of quite the heat wave, I opted in the e…

« Carefully, the old man utters a cacophonous incantation… then lets his mind go blank. » — Stephen Skeates We recently (last March 30) lost a fine fellow and writer in Steve Skeates (1943-20…

« Denmark is like a secret little place with its own special language. » — Helena Christensen Here’s a post that has been a looong time coming. To wit: back on May 14th, 2015, I wrote: …

« Man’s constitution is so peculiar that his health is purely a negative matter. No sooner is the rage of hunger appeased than it becomes difficult to comprehend the meaning of starvation. It…

« I think the most gruesome thing in life is people — if they let themselves go. I’ve been letting myself go for years, and I’m beginning to feel gruesome. I want to entertain and…

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« Don’t you know there ain’t no devil, it’s just god when he’s drunk. » — Tom Waits, Heartattack and Vine (1980) Another week, another heat wave… I had something…

« Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them. » — George Orwell For its July 4, 1949 issue, Life Magazine pulled…

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« Sunny down snuff » — Van Dyke Parks While I’m painfully aware that such things are inevitable, the past couple of weeks have been pretty brutal to the ranks of my musical heroes. Firs…

« I know what romance is, I’ve written more romance probably than anyone alive. » — noted feminist Bob Kanigher* Ready for another foray into that most neglected, dismissed and maligned of co…