Main Enterprises' WHAT EVER! #3 hits the post-apocalyptic scene with a big bang, spotlighting Kamandi, Thundarr, "The Last Man on Earth", "The Omega Man" and more!
Will Murray supplies "Origins of Thundarr the Barbarian": a comprehensive article on Steve Gerber's enduring, New Earth hero (and the 1980 animated series that shot him toward Saturday morning stardom), embellished by the wondrous illustrations of John Lambert, George Lane III and Michael Neno.
From Buck Oviatt comes "Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth: A Review of the Series", a powerhouse article that covers the genesis and pop-cultural expansion of the DC/Jack Kirby/Earth A.D. saga, fueled by the gripping artwork of Verl Holt Bond and Steve Shipley.
The essay, "The Last Omega Men: A Comparison of Legends" springs from yours truly: a tit-for-tat based on the earliest film adaptations of Richard Matheson's terrifying novel, "I am Legend". There are vivid photos on display for each movie, and Kevin Duncan and Marc Haines grant awe-inspiring, full-page tributes that will leave folks drooling with mutating vim!
In addition to the above, there's Main's "This & That" column and comic-book reviews by Derek Bishop and Michael Waggoner, plus a colorful, front cover layout by Haines and a dynamic, Kamandi back cover by Lane.
To order this historic, 48-page issue, send $8.50 per copy via check ("postpaid in the USA") to Jim Main, PO Box 93, New Milford, CT 06776.
What Ever #3 is a full-fledged must-have for all post-apocalyptic fans!!!
There's no stopping the popularity of Ron Fortier's Undead Avenger, Brother Bones. It only goes to reason. The entity's grim qualities are contagious, as are those of his related characters.
In "Tales of Cape Noire", the fifth volume in the New Pulp series, not only does Fortier submit a segment, but so do such worthy writers as Fred Adams Jr, Andy Fix and Drew Meyer. And yes, a burst of friends and fiends manifest from their words, including Harry Beest, Sister Blood, Lt. Dan Rains and the insidious Alexis Wyld, Queen of Crime. Their intersecting adventures are enhanced by none other than Rob Davis, who supplies the volume's sizzling illustrations and spectacular front and back covers.
The enclosed exploits span such engrossing scenarios as Bones' melee with a rat-rustling witch queen in league with the wily Wyld; Sister Blood's encounter with possessing demons of unexpected emanation and cause; Harry Beest's reconstruction of Professor Bugosi's lab as he keeps envious adversary, Ace Bricker at bay; and Lt. Rains' urgency to snuff Cape Noire's suffocating gang war, but not before he solves a kidnapping caper involving a gangster's daughter (one with an ultimate catch, no less).
But that's not all, folks. These tales contain cameos, overlaps and tidbits galore (one still has me shaken from the guest-starring surprise), building the Brother Bones/Cape Noire mythology to the point to rival Batman's Gotham. That sure says something!
Fortier must be mighty proud of the level this new volume has taken his creepy concept, and with a live-action, web series on the horizon, the sky (albeit mad and menacing) is the limit.
For those who wish a taste of what the Undead Avenger entails, previous volumes are yet available for purchase, but one can't go wrong by delving first into the latest. It covers the essential ground for readers to comprehend Cape Noire's intricacies, while catapulting them to unparalleled heights of bewitching complexity, mystery and terror.
"Tales of Cape Noire" is available in paperback and Kindle at
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1946183857/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_image_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1.
Luca Mele is a noise maestro from West Liguria, Italy and the creator of Applez91: a project presented via the fledgling label, Musica Orizzontale (hosted by Bandcamp).
Applez91 now gives the industrial realm an album called Audacity Music (Vol 1). Its varied noises were filtered "with a mobile phone and the audio editing program Audacity." How simple and yet how clever. What ensues is unpretentious in intent, shaking the senses for no other cause than to do so.
For example, the paper-crinkling "unwrap", the bombing "wind", the feral "Outside" and the vacuumed "MECHA-WIND" allude to bursts of inner flight and voids that invite tensions among unpolished commonality.
In contrast, "Fried Chicken" (along with its "Harsh Noise" bonus track) performs as a simmering spell for relaxed feasting, where one's taste buds become flecked with the scrumptious taste of small-boned specimens: grotesque, when one considers the matter, but too damn delectable to deter.
"Triticarne" dances to a similar, sizzling (if not vibrating) beat, as does the foreign-tongued "CC", the flushing "L'Ora Del The" and the distant-traffic barking of "GodspeedYouWhiteHorns!". To be frank, I don't know what any of these particular tracks mean, but their formless frames do an excellent job of expanding the cerebral canvas, allowing one to pontificate weird whims upon them.
"DoomClean", on the other hand, is its own makeshift animal, scouring inside and out, up and down and all around: a smidgen of this and that from all the rest to establish a savage specialization.
"Sanremo, March 2020" stands thereafter as its arguable, audio antithesis, commemorating simple shouts of idyllic play, which plaster an amiable adios.
On the sublime whole, Audacity Music is the ideal wall of sound for any backdrop, but once one focuses on its intricacies, it induces a diverse, in-your-face hypnosis: beyond a doubt a stand-out premiere from an artist destined to reappear down the audacious, industrial line:
https://musicaorizzontale.bandcamp.com/album/mo2-audacity-music-vol-1.
It was an honor to have meet you at a Fangoria convention in the early '90s. You offered such fruitful and interesting stories, for which your adoring and avid audience was most grateful.
The fanfare only goes to reason, as your career was characterized by a varied cream of the crop.
There was "Enter the Dragon"; "Queen of Blood" (aka "Planet of Blood"); "Battle Beyond the Stars": "Prisoners of the Lost Universe"; "Planet Earth"; "Strange New World"; "Aftershock"; "The Arrival '91"; "The Bees"; "Hands of Steel"; "Night Caller from Outer Space"; "Black Christmas '74"; "Blood Beach": "A Nightmare on Elm Street '84"; "A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors"; "Wes Craven's New Nightmare"; "Nightmare Beach"; "Hellmaster"; "War Wolves"; "My Mom's a Werewolf": "Zombie Death House" (which you directed); "Cannibal Holocaust": "The Scorpion with Two Tails"; "Tenebrae"; "The Girl Who Knew Too Much" (aka "The Evil Eye"); "From Dusk till Dawn"; "The Baby Doll Murders"; "Maximum Force"; "Strange Shadows in an Empty Room"; "The Plunderers"; "Winchester '73": "The Appaloosa"; "The Unforgiven"; "Jonathan of the Bears"; "Death of a Gunfighter"; "Joe Kidd"; "Posse From Hell"; "The Ravagers"; "Raid on Entebee"; "Violent Naples": "Running Wild": "Rock, Pretty Baby"; "The Restless Years"; "I Kiss the Hand"; "Portrait Black"; "War Hunt"; "Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation"; "Beverly Hills Cop III"; "Running Scared; "Genghis Khan"; "The Cardinal"; "The Big Fisherman"; "The Doomsday Flight"; "The Swiss Conspiracy"; "Moonshine County Express"; "Living in Fear"; "The Electric Horseman"; "Fast Company": "Shalimar"; and many more.
For television, you guest starred often, further impacting our lives with memorable moments on "The Six Million Dollar Man"; "The Bionic Woman"; "The Fantastic Journey"; "The Ray Bradbury Theater"; "Rod Serling's Night Gallery": "The Sixth Sense"; "Masters of Horror"; "Fantasy Island": "Gunsmoke"; "Bonanza"; "The Virginian"; "Cimmaron Strip": "Kung Fu"; "Kung Fu: the Legend Continues"; "The A-Team"; "Quincy"; "Dr. Kildare"; "Ironside"; "The Rockford Files"; "Vegas": "Magnum PI"; "Murder, She Wrote": "Hawaii 5-0"; "Starsky and Hutch" (in a tasty and fierce, vampire role); "The Streets of San Francisco"; "It Takes a Thief"; "Name of the Game": "Burke's Law"; "The Dick Powell Theatre": "Greatest Heroes of the Bible", to name but a few.
You're an icon to many and a friend to even those who never met you, Mr. Saxon. What you gave your fans will never perish, as is always the case with legends.
It's a "A Hard Day's Nightmare", as Mr. Lobo's Cinema Insomnia hosts an unbridled musical entry, wherein rock 'n' roll gyrations generate hilarious results.
With this Beatles/Monkees-spoofy release, fans are treated to director/writer Richard Something's 2011, dark comedy, wherein real-life rocker Roger Oddcock (aka Jamie Milliken) and his Clamhawk Manor bandmates (Frankie, Stu and Eight Track) trek to cozy Creepsville West. However, the boys must face an audience of monsters along the way, and monsters are rarely subdued (even when anchored by crazy clowns and animal-suited aggressors). In fact, this ravenous lot is dead set on devouring our irreverent artists to ensure they never play again!
Director Something (who co-wrote with Milliken and George Sukara) gives this venture plenty of pep, accentuated by Clamhawk's catchy compositions. (Really, each tune is polished, melodious and memorable.) The amusing costume and make-up effects (by Dave Haz-Baroque, Brit Zane and Traci Wrycza) are also neat.
Keeping with tradition, Mr. Lobo (who cameos in the film) layers his dry whimsy across the package, astutely comparing the production to Del Tenney's "The Horror of Party Beach" and Ray Dennis Steckler's "The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-up Zombies". (The movie also smacks of William J. Hole's "Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow", Roy Ward Baker's "Monster Club" and Jess Franco's Killer Barbys set.) In addition, our eager escort bridges the pic with a jam-full of swinging, sing-along inserts and fast, funny fillers, including "A Hard Day's Nightmare" drinking game and extra-special-guest interviews with the film's talented makers!
I'm ashamed to say that I hadn't heard of "A Hard Day's Nightmare" prior to this presentation, but I'm grateful to Mr. Lobo for tuning me into it (and of course, Oddcock and Clamhawk Manor). The movie is a greater-than-average, "misunderstood" gem and an apt addition to the ever growing Cinema Insomnia collection. (BTW: "Hard Day's Nightmare" spawned a companion piece called "Hell!" Say, maybe that's one for a future, Cinema Insomnia/Alpha DVD release. I suppose time will tell.)
Purchase "A Hard Day's Nightmare" at
https://www.oldies.com/product-view/1148D/c_TE02_eid_A97DBE9E68F11C8A.html?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=TE02&utm_source=oldies.
Main Enterprises has released the first in another bold series: The Gallery. The title's intent is to spotlight an artist each issue.
The Gallery (Summer 2020) focuses on Steve Shipley, a versatile creator who's contributed much to Main Enterprises publications over the years.
Inside one will find images of a grand and eclectic kind, including regal beasts, brave warriors, exotic vixens and legendary icons that include Superman, Wonder Woman, Adam West's Batman, Stargirl, Red Sonja, Boba Fett and Jesus Christ. There's even an insightful Shipley interview to accompany the illustrations.
Shipley's lines are graceful and his colors engaging. One is sure to come away from The Gallery an avid fan, if one isn't already.
To land this wonderful commemoration of this outstanding artist, contact Jim Main at mainjim23@gmail.com.
