My best friend, Robert, has an online gallery with selections of his work available.  I'm crazy about just about everything he does, primarily the black and white work.  He's wonderful at atmospheric cartoon-y figuring, as well as realistic, haunting sketches.  I'd love to see hundreds more pieces like his boy in the chair, or the Goldie Fish piece... I can't fathom how someone can evoke emotion and captivate spirit with just a few strokes of a pencil.

Necro  released Skins of Youth, Dangerous Red, and Damned: an Anthology of the Lost.  Other Necro authors include Ed Lee, Charlee Jacob, Gerard Hoaurner, and Joe R. Landsdale his ownsself.  Necro is The Home of Hardcore Horror, and you can always rely on Dave to present a beautiful product that's going to fuck you up.

Erik Wilson's my favorite Necro illustrator, and I'm too fortunate in that he illustrated "Growing Out of It" in SKINS OF YOUTH and did all the work for DANGEROUS RED.  He's an excellent artist, of course, but more importantly, he's the kind of illustrator who actually reads the stories on which he'll work.  His pieces supplement the fiction without directing the reader's interpretation of the story, which is of paramount importance to me.  His work stands alone, expressing its own story in each piece, but when viewed alongside the illustrated story, it is a seamless complement.  (He also plays banjo.  I couldn't be happier.)

"Geoff Cooper, 'up and coming horror writer,' my ass.  He's come, he's up - now.  His fiction is difficult to categorize, and there you have it: there's hardly a higher compliment, is there?  I love his work.  He's also an incredible person, and a great friend.  I'm allowed to say this because you can find out for yourself easily - check out his blog, or his essays in the weekly horror mailer, Jobs in Hell.  He smokes almost as much as I do, has never called me 'goth,' and abducts me for coffee on sight.  He's also the most accident-prone motherfucker I've ever met.  (Well, Dave Schow runs a close second.)  I'm a clumsy bitch, and therefore move very slowly and with great care (people think it's grace, but it's self-preservation) - but these guys put me to shame.  Most recently, Geoff bisected his hand on an active engine belt.  Yet he forewent his pain meds and bled on the keyboard, then resorted to typing with only his left hand, to finish a story.  There ya go.  Enough said."
 

I can count my favorite people on one hand.  Can't you?  Anyway, one of them is in this here band, Arab on Radar.  Strange thing is, two of the others have this band's records.  That makes my hand some sort of incestuous fist.

(Skin Graft Records sells AoR stuff. Hie thee hence.)

You know that trick, where you tell someone to bite down really hard on their pinkie fingernails and count to sixty (they will drool, but that's part of the fun) while promising them that it's going to be really cool, and then you have them take their fingers out of their mouths really fast and link them together and pull really hard?  And they scream in fucking agony?  And you say, "The lesson here is, don't chew on your damn fingers just because someone tells you it's cool.  It's cool for ME, but not for you.  Dumbass."  Well.  Perhaps you fear my motives now in asking you to steep yourself in Arab on Radar.  Perhaps you should.  Perhaps you should always be wary and fear all motives.  Arab on Radar sounds an awful lot like what happens when you link your bitten fingers together and pull : lots of screams, lots of thudding (like the pound of blood rushing back under your nails), lots of entertaining pain.  Deal.

[Note: AOR has broken up.  Mourn with us.)

Well, now you know why I write so little fiction, and why I wear scuzzy clothes.  I own more DVDs/vcds featuring Sam Lee than I do English-language discs.  I'm semi-obsessed with the band in which he was involved, Lazymuthafuckaz, the only (so far) hardcore rap band in Hong Kong.  This page is a wee introduction to Sam Lee - it is not updated frequently, but contains a roundup of all his films (though they come out so quickly I'm always a couple behind, sorry), a little bit of info, and I'm slowly adding reviews of the films.  Slowly.  I spend too much money on this cat's ouvre.  LOVE HIM.  LOVE HIM.

"And please don't berate me for being behind in updating this area.  I'm fucking BROKE, kittens."
 

Go to this site to meet Don Marquis' wonderful characters, and experience his delightful word ways. Webmaster John Batteiger introduces you to the poetic cockroach Archy and his delusional but addictive alley-cat friend Mehitabel (no relation.) 

I warn you: one reading of this poetry will infect your brain with the word patterns, and nobody will be able to understand you for a while.  I spent hours one summer in the Cornell University library, hiding from the heat and the librarians, my mascara running from laughter-induced tears (either that, or from sneezing at the glue-dust floating up from the old bindings in my hands.)  On top of being fabulous wordplay, Marquis' social satire is exquisite.

Well, now.  This chap flirted with the eventuality of being Mr. Prizewinning Investigative Journalist Man, Hardhitting, A Rock, an Island - but car shows, monsters, and flicks really do give more bone-deep pleasure.  

Cable didn't reach as far as my childhood home; no cable in college; post-college spending money went for books, books, books.  Cable and I - well, let's say I've heard of it, but it ain't heard of me.  But I'd heard of Joe Bob because I read him.  Behind the times, that's me.  When I discovered "MonsterVision," I sprained myself.  Then folks at TNT fucked everything up & started running ridiculous movies.  That's not what made Drive-In Theater and the good presentations of Monstervision interesting: it was, instead, the enthusiasm our host had for these movies.  Who on earth is going to be enthusiastic about Twins?  Ugh, geddit offme.
He's written books.  Go get them.

These people keep taking my money.  I'm picky with my toys: I only buy the ones I want, heh. These things are amazing, the sculpts really couldn't be any better, the paint jobs are far finer than you'd expect... and the prices for these things are excellent.  Their staff is hella rad, too.  These folks have their shit together.