Hal Johnson's Blog, page 16

Truly Wordless Comic Panels

Pssssst! Books!

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Dario Brizuela!

A garland of quotations LXXXVIII

(Upcoming appearances: Oct. 12, 1 pm, Breakwater Books, Guilford, CT | Oct. 25, 8 pm, Rocktober Bloodbath, Milford CT | Nov 2, 10 am, Norwalk Public Library Book & Author Festival, Norwalk, CT.)

Could this whole page be nothing but

a crummy commercial?

…deafening crash, shook lowermost sea, unfathomable earthquakes alarm antipodes; a pause unknown terrestrial, save chaos of old, when Deity on creative morn, roused the eternal stillness…
•Albion: In Twelve Books (1822).

I am the beginning of the world...

Movie Explainer: What is Stand by Me about?

(This substack is about books and maybe history, but I thought I’d extend the self-indulgence of my birthday week to writing two or three explainers about movies, and WHAT ARE THEY ALL ABOUT? This is the first.)

Books are better than movies, right?

Everyone knows what Stand by Me is about. It’s a bildungsroman, a coming-of-age story. Young Gordie LaChance undergoes a harrowing and even Campbellian journey into the wilderness towards death, and comes out of it on if not a man then at least well on...

Truly Wordless Comic Panels

[Check it out! I’m on the Your Favorite Bad Movie podcast, talking about The Atomic Brain!]

My birthday's tomorrow! Celebrate

with a book by me!

Thanks for reading Hal Johnson Books! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

PMS/Wiacek!

A garland of quotations LXXXVII

Had you heard? My books make great gifts

•Jacob Steinhardt, The Evil (1950).

•Doré, “Little Tom Thumb” (c. 1863).

•Bil Keane, The Family Circus (1980s).

•Tenniel, “Imperium et Libertas!” (1880).

•Harold DeLay(?), Blue Circle Comics #5 (1944).

•Batman (1966).

•Fletcher Hanks, Jungle Comics #4 (1940).

•E.C. Segar, Thimble Theatre (1929).

•“Three Little Bops” (1959)

•Sam Gross, citation conveniently lost.

Thanks for reading Hal Johnson Books! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

I prom...

Borges, Uqbar, Cannonball Blues

[Seven-and-a-half years ago I wrote (in another venue) an essay about folk music that much to my surprise has turned out to be about Chat GPT (et al.). As part of the self-indulgence that I will be wallowing in these upcoming weeks, I thought I’d reproduce the essay, only slightly edited, and let the other shoe hang there, Damoclesistically. What have I prophesied?]

Your Favorite Bad Movie podcast

starring me! & the Atomic Brain!

Here’s a 1936 recording of the Carter Family singing “Cannonball Blu...

A garland of quotations LXXXVI

[Oops, I published this instead of saving as a draft. Oh, well. Consider it a bonus. Come see me tomorrow at Westport Story Fest if you get a chance!]

Hal writes books

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedLately thumbing the pages of Works and Days,I saw my Pyrrhê coming. Goodbye book!“Why in the world should I cobweb my days,” I cried,“With the works of Old Man Hesiod?”•Marcus Argentarius, from the Greek Anthology (ca....

Truly Wordless Comic Panels

My latest book! Knights of legend!

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Al Wiseman!

A garland of quotations LXXXV

Follow me on Goodreads!

I am surrounded by creepy murderous pedants! the Dead Father shouted. Unbearable!
•Barthelme, The Dead Father (1975).

I’m bein’ held for th’ murder of Jack Kennedy. But I didn’t do it…
•Jerry Siegel, Superman #1 (1939).

Swaim! Can’t you stop this? Oh, Swaim!
•James A. Garfield, last words (1881).

The photonic blood of bleeding night,
Stabbed by the assassin sun.
•Philip José Farmer, “Riders of the Purple Wage” (1967).

Sexual pleasure is two living bodies hugging a corpse. The corps...

Anatomy of a dungeon

[My urban fantasy novel Immortal Lycanthropes , the one Cory Doctorow called “perfectly wonderful and wonderfully perfect,” is available starting now for 99¢ on (shudder) Kindle! You can get the regular or a special sanitized version with all references to sex or drugs excised so you can show it to your mom. I’m proud of this one! Please check it out!]

Anatomy of a dungeon

I’ve spent a lot of my life playing Dungeons & Dragons, and a lot more of my life thinking about the dungeons thereof. When I s...