Burial Day Books is Bringing 'Sixpenny Shockers' Back

". . . curious, devilish joys . . ."

-        From Cynthia (Cina) Pelayo’s forward

14 haunted stories edited from a tomb on the west side of Chicago, has cemented itself into published history with a new and first collection: Gothic Blue Book.  Throughout the collection you’ll be told off by death, meet a vengeful Poe fanatic, a sinister priest, get drenched in blood, desolated at a beach house, party with the dead at a shadowy cemetery, and of course there’s all the usual suspects of ghosts, murderers, monsters and paranormal events that lurk in such tales. Therefore, if that’s your bag, you might want to check this book out. Get introduced to some fresh slabs and venture the pages of seasoned horror-word mongers like John Everson. 

My personal fav is ‘Death and all His Friends’ by Abe Grace, a very short and humorous piece that had me laughing much after I read it. Still, I recommend flipping to any story and you’ll find something that’ll keep you reading. Editors: Cina & her hubby Gerardo Pelayo, along with their assistant editor P. Maxwell, made sure to score some of the finest Gothic stories and poems they could get there creepy little fingers on.  Next time you’re on the hunt to burn some change on some modern Goth, take a look at Goth Blue Book.

For more check out their site filled with stories, events, and of course Gothic Blue Book. They are interested in monthly submission for the web and the dead line for the second volume is July 13, 2012:                                                              

http://www.burialday.com/

For purchase, you can get this collection on Amazon. Oh, and did I mention the awesome cover art by Abigail Larson? Awesome!

If you have Kindle get it for a steal at 99 cents.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005UIQYHU

Or classic paper in your hands:

http://www.amazon.com/Gothic-Blue-Book-Cynthia-Pelayo/dp/1466422432/ref=tmm_pap_title_0/190-1660063-1574846

And of course my all time favorite link, like them of the book, the big book of faces.

http://www.facebook.com/burialday

Authors:
Helena Marie Carnes-Jeffries - The Beach House
John Everson - The Tapping
Abe Grace - Death and All His Friends
M. N. Hanson - The Squatter
K. Trap Jones - The Realtor
Ben McElroy- Emergence of the Hidden Things
Greg Mollin - Where the Fault Lies
Monica Nickolai - Doll
Cynthia (cina) Pelayo - The Gravedigger
Gerardo Pelayo - El Convento
Marc Ruvolo - The Ladies Escape
Jordan Scrivner - Attic
Courtney Sloan - Antidote for the Soul
Lisa Stock - The Wild Hunt

Editors:
Cynthia (cina) Pelayo
Gerardo Pelayo

Assistant Editor:
P Maxwell

Cover Art:
Abigail Larson

RHINOFEST 2012 is Setting the World on Fire

Intelligent, funny, and packed with a medley of pop-culture and literature, the current production of writer Megan Lang and director Cortney Philip’s sci-fi comedy about bad poetry “World on Fire” is at the Prop Theater and it’s setting the stage on fire.

The use of space and transitions between scenes was very groovy. One of the best 5-6 second scene in a play is a quarter in when introduced to The Captains Time Machine. The acting well executed and well suited for their roles, most notably The Captain played by Tommy Hefron. What’s most engaging though are the lines usually coming out of moments of static which somehow makes it the more funnier. “But who will edit Harry Putter?” was by far my favorite line which was pleasantly snuck between one of the more dramatic scenes of the play.

There’s one more show left Saturday, February 11 at 1 p.m. and at the price of 15 smackaroos or pay what you can this is easily a good way to spend your Saturday. Emphasis on ‘pay what you can': I paid with two Twizzlers and a Cliff bar wrapper.

For tickets, a synopsis, cast details and all that Jazz check out Rhinofests 2012 calendar or wherever tickets are sold.

http://www.curioustheatrebranch.com/rhinofest/shows/world_on_fire.php

Like ‘em on face book:

http://www.facebook.com/events/317119004995364/?ref=nf

World On Fire - RHINOFEST 2012

3502 North Elston Ave. Prop Thtr
Chicago, IL

Written by Megan Lang

Directed by Cortney Phillip

Featuring: Pavel Tabutov

                 Tommy Heffron 

                 Sam Valenti

                 Jordan Scrivner

                 Caitlin Tauer
Designed by Josh Kanto

(one of my illustrations at some point or other)

Lightness and Darkness (L & D): Print Media Mayhem

There's a new print project eclipsing the multidisciplinary art scene. It's headed by two of the grooviest chicks this side of the Milkyway: Nicki Yowell & Taleen Kalenderian.

Nicki (Lightness), creator of the "Za: The Pizza Zine" and "Flush: An Epically Shitty Zine" is on the Midwest/Chicago side of this project. 

Taleen (Darkness), founder of "Dum Dum Zine" and virtual photojunkie at "Photomaton" is on the Westcoast/Los Angeles side.

Together they raised enough greenbacks to get this thing into the light and into the shadows of the subterranean art world--making this a worthwhile project to mention here.

You can still make a pledge at Kickstarter:

Check 'em out on there Tumblr!

http://lightness-and-darkness.tumblr.com/

You're probably thinking, do they have a facebook? Flipping yes they do, and they'd love it if you liked them!

http://www.facebook.com/lightness.and.darkness/
 

Get your zine knowledge on with Nicki:

http://www.quimbys.com/store/nicki-yowell

Check out Taleen at:

http://dumdumzine.com/

http://photomatonic.tumblr.com/

and look for her zine at Quimby's

http://www.quimbys.com/store/1546

"Jerks in Cyber Space" A Response

Jerks in Space  by John J. Karnes - I picked up this book at Quimby's about five months ago and I have to admit this is currently my favorite mini-comic. What pulled me in was the title, Jerks in Space: Latest Mini-Comic, (Science Edition) and my favorite issue of this publication, Jerks in Space: Manifesto. What I read was pure comic pleasure (no pun intended), the foot notes and self-awareness draw one into Karnes with delightful recognition that this is a comic book. It's really refreshing since many 'self-aware' works seem lazy or juvenile. Jerks, becomes a somewhat dialog with the reader, which I appreciate and love the juxtaposition of self-recognition, both of a fantasy world and our actual world that exists outside the comic. One may be wondering what the plot is, of course they would. If that is you, dear reader, if you are wondering what the plot is, brace yourself for space serpents who appreciate art on Earth and their attempt to keep humans producing good art, sometimes by tragic, political tactics, and the use of robots.

What follows next is my response to Karnes' work. Untitled, by David Scheier, drawn in the style of Jerks in Space mini-comic.

Jerks in Space Response by David Scheier

Checkout John Karnes stuff at:

• Isotope Comic Lounge, San Francisco, CA, Comix Experience, San Francisco, CA, Lucky's Comics, Vancouver, BC, Rx Comics, Vancouver, BC, Elfsar Collection, Vancouver, BC, Chicago Comics, Chicago, IL, Quimby's Comics, Chicago, IL, Challenger's Comics and Conversation, Chicago, IL, Rocketship, Brooklyn, NY, Jim Hanley's Universe, NYC, NY
• 
  

Cover art by John J. Karnes

Check out and buy his comics:
http://www.jerksinspace.com/comics.html


Also, I highly recommend checking out Karnes' blog here on blogspot.com:
http://jerksinspace.blogspot.com/


My favorite of his blog posts (Chopsicka):
http://jerksinspace.blogspot.com/2011/09/choppa-sticka.html

Pixalated Sapiens: Bright Primate and Their Chip Tune Riffs

My friend Matt, a.k.a. Nom Star introduced me to the world of chiptunes
sometime last year. To a wannabe cool guy like me, it sounded
intellectually lame. I’ve been exposed to some glitch art and other
videogame based art for awhile (that's right, I've lumped all 
other glitch art into viddy game art) and was thinking Cory Arcangel with
midi-files—stuff you could get into if you saw the world
pixelated or thought you leveled up every time you ate or drank. I
thought, this would be the sounds of nerds-ville. . . and it is—I’m not
going to lie, it’s pretty nerdy, in a good way.

For those who are unfamiliar with Chiptunes or Chipmusic, here’s wiki’s
description:
      Chiptunes: . . . synthesized electronic music often produced with the
      sound chips of vintage computers and video game consoles, as well as
      with other methods such as emulation,” (Wikipedia).

My opinion on it was rather crude, and then this happened:

Sunday, July 17th, 2011, I temporarily broke my birthday anniversary of 
weekend-solo-drinking to see Nom Star at The Elbo Room in Chicago. I thank him for the chipped out happy
birthday song. I came in drunk and not so much in the mood for music.
Thus, I spent most of my time there checking out the very few girls and
having shots and beer. Then this attractive duo enter the stage and
what I got was a face full of MIDI jive, served by Boston-based sound
artists, BR1GHT PR1MATE: Lydia Marsala and James Therrien, using a
Gameboy as a beat maker and with Lydia’s lush vocals it’s hard not to get
your body moving to 8bit sound clouds swirling around your cerebellum.
Soundwaves grow like quartz from digital harmonics and synthesized
guitar tones. Yeah, these guys are like, “Wow!”

.......Illustration to come..... by week-end....

Check them out:
BR1GHT PR1MATE:
http://brightprimate.tk/

Also, check out my first taste of chiptunes, hence a bit of ear magic, Nom Star:
https://8bc.org/members/NOM+STAR/

This event was held at:
The Elbo Room, 2871 N Lincoln Ave. 60657 Chicago, IL, 07-17-2011.
 

The awesome line-up that was:
Bright Primate
Nom Star
Saskrotch
Evironmental Sound Collapse

TCHEM: TELEVISION

Tim Michel: As a word-smith and jam-maker, one wonders where he gets the time to dish out prolific and tasty sound sauce so often. This is TELEVISION:

"Long Nights by David Scheier. Ink on Paper, 2011, response to TCHEM's song of the same title."

Synth child TCHEM channel surfs some high fructose sound to deliver a space cruising soundtrack.  Fittingly electric acid shoe-gaze guitar riffs sinking into the sponge of your ears: “Self Image” and “Going Inside.” While other beats are minimal lucid day dreams, “Close is Far,” and “Television.” TCHEM serves a plate of two minute comets, and digital star dust—futuristic and delightfully simple.

Check Timothy Michel's site out for free downloads, up coming events, writing's, and all that other stuff.

http://timothymichel.com/

How Yellow Daisies Ended Up on My Book Case

 Comic/Zine: Amara Leipzig’s Yizkor 

Before I “blurb” about Amara Leipzig’s Yizkor I feel I should start off with how this comic came into my hands. The second paragraph is the direct musing on Amara Leipzig’s book.

During The Hand-Made Library at the Archer Ballroom, Feb 24, 2011 south Chicago. I stumbled in, holding a six pack of King Cobra’s, pockets filled with loose change and my own hand-made comic. My agenda for the evening was to pass out what few copies I had of my eight page zine, get slightly toasted, and perhaps get some interesting "do it yourself" (DIY) books in return. I was expecting to get a bunch of zines, or Cd’s in exchange for my little comic. At the end of the night, before the performances and readings submerged into the mesh of King Cobra’s, boxed wine, watery chitchat with people I’d never meet again and some I’d like to, I found myself sitting at a long foldout table sewing pages of poems by the featured readers in a glittery book. These cats had me doing all the work, which was fun, and a great way to meet some of the other people there. Amara Leipzig was one of those people binding the “Hand-Made Library” book, someone whom I had heard briefly about before the event, a fellow comic book maker and so there was already a motive to speak with Amara and perhaps get a copy of her zine. Having had exhausted the three comics I brought, I had nothing to give her in exchange except for a promise to someday soon give her a copy of my work and to read her comic/zine.

Yizkor

Skimming over a random page (maybe page 8) I thought, oh another comic about WWII. Not that there’s anything wrong with writing about the second great war, but that horrific event has become a stylized genre and those wishing to tell stories about it walk on well treaded territory, thanks to archetypes previous films and books have giving us. But that’s a rant for another blog. Yizkor in a nutshell is a story on storytelling, which the title Yizkor (remembrance) ties into. Along with this framework are themes of identity, family, loss, displacement, and womanhood. The story arch of Yizkor jumps smoothly to and from time, and at the core are yellow daisies which link the various scenes together. Whenever daisies are present in the book so is the color yellow—hinting to the significance of the image. A tactic used in many black and white comics, and is well executed here. As a result one finds a moving story that spans three generations merging time and characters into a single moment that could be told in less than 26 pages. The artwork is simple and well suited for the subject matter, not allowing needless details to unbalance the story. The panels themselves read with such delicate pacing that one can’t help notice that this comic must have meant more than just a side project or classroom assignment, but rather a lingering shadow of a story that screamed to become tangible in someone’s hands.

I walked away from The Hand Made Library with more than just a future hangover and stain-glass memories of performances and faces. I walked away with Yizkor—

Yizkor, by Amara Leipzig, printed and published in 2010 in Chicago, Il. Available at Quimby’s. For more information contact amara.leipzig@gmail.com

The Hand-Made Library, presented by Dear Navigator, a reading and performance event with Joni Murphy, Ben Clark, Kitty Huffman, and Anthony Romero. Thursday, February 24, 7pm at the Archer Ballroom 3012 Archer Ave.

(All images posted here belong to Amara Leipzig)