Friday Links: Bigfoot vs. Zombies, Devilday, and Nevballs Murray Shows Off

Weird stuff’s been happening this week. Can you feel it? No? Well, even if you can’t feel it, you can at least read about it. That’s where the Friday Links come in: serving up links to the weird, the bizarre, even the horrific for your reading pleasure. Let’s see what’s up:

Nev “Nevballs” Murray showed off his copy of Iain Rob Wright’s Hot Zone at Confessions of a Reviewer!! : “I’m so pleased to be able to call Mr Wright a friend, even though he does constantly insult me on social media and address his emails to me to “knob end” or “Nevballs” instead of Nev. I will get him back one day.”
On the isle of Reunion, near Mauritius, a number of children at school were apparently  possessed by demons : “An emergency meeting was called on Monday after reports that students eyes were rolling into the back of their heads as their bodies spasmed uncontrollably. Despite an ongoing investigation, parents believe the chilling incidents at Jean Lafosse College in the French Indian Ocean Island of Reunion were caused by “spirits”, local media reported. And a disturbing video of an Imam “cleansing” one of the girls emerged on the web.”
Monster Magazine World brought us part two of the 1972 magazine Psycho Annual #1. Worth it for the Blind Fate feature alone!
I don’t want to know the person who didn’t like the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. I definitely don’t want to know the person who won’t take some time to look at what fell out of Zombos’ Closet : the massive pressbook for the film, which includes an advertisement for official Monolith jewelry!
Anything Horror lived up to its name by reviewing the bizarre genre flick Bigfoot Vs. Zombies: “A small army of flesh-eating zombies. And by “small army”, they mean four. And by “flesh-eating”, they mean “doing the mime grab without actually showing anything approaching flesh eating”. And by “zombies”, they mean some are painted grey, some have Halloween masks on, some just stand there, some do the magical thing where they appear out of nowhere when a character turns around despite being out in the open and there’s no way they could sneak up on them”.”
It seems as though ghosts continue to haunt the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado: “[Henry Yau] said he doesn’t usually like people in his shots, so that’s why he took the photo when he did. “When I took it, I didn’t notice anything,” Yau said. Now here comes the spooky part of the story. When he looked at the photo the next morning, he noticed a figure at the top of the stairs.”
Sean Eaton discussed Shub-Niggurath in all of her(?) dubious glory at his always-fascinating R’lyeh Tribune : “Ognjanović suggests that female authors need not ascribe to Lovecraft’s “eugenic fear”, nor reiterate his issues with “monster mothers and monstrous births”.  Rather, his concept of cosmic horror, of an infinite, malevolent universe unconcerned with puny humanity, provides ample basis for all kinds of explorations of the terrifying unknown.  Furthermore, Ognjanović offers the pragmatic advice that female characters in Lovecraftian adventures need not be symbols of good or evil, or symbols at all—they can be ordinary people.”
I’ve never seen an action rap musical from Japan, but Mondo Bizarro has: “Weird, weird stuff.  The Film is all sorts of bizarre for a number of reasons.  First off, it is a Rap-based Musical.  Is that a common thing over in Japan that I’ve just somehow missed over the years?  Mind you, the Japanese Band I know the most- Maximum the Hormone- does have/had a Rapper in it, but still.”
If you do nothing else this week, you have to look at what came out of Monster Brains : bizarre engravings from Arent van Bolten. They have to be seen to be believed.
At The Slaughtered Bird , Kriss Pickering reviewed the horror film The Boy: “The acting in The Boy is one to the biggest positives in the film, with Lauren Cohan’s performance in particular standing out. She does a great job at conveying the sense of dread she is feeling towards the start of the film, and the contrast in emotions she is feeling as the film goes along deserve a lot of praise. Also, the chemistry between Rupert Evans Malcolm and herself is evident. Jim Norton and Diana Hardcastle’s portrayals of Mr & Mrs Heelshire, Brahm’s snooty and mentally unstable parents also deserve a mention.”
Ruined Head discussed the 1969 horror novel Devilday by Angus Hall: “Told from Barry’s perspective, the book functions best as a character study, with Toombs’ bombastic presence looming over the entire proceedings. His sinister persona and dubious philosophy–providing a guilt-free pass for all behavior to a chosen few—are watched over by Barry, whose own sense of morality is limited by his drive for success in the television industry. Toombs’ ex-wife and the young president of the Dr. Dis fan club are other characters that fall into orbit around the former horror star, motivated by their own personal desires.”
For a first for this site, Breakfast in the Ruins talked about a beat novel by Thom Keyes: “I don’t suppose young Thom Keyes had any aspirations to become the next Hemingway, but he must at least have thought he’d made a solid early entry in the inevitable paisley shirt / groupie rampage “rise and fall of a rock group” paperback sub-genre… and as such, we can only imagine the sheer level of face-palm he must have experienced when he saw what the design team at Mayflower/Dell did to it.”
A review of a documentary on the famous UK comic 2000AD titled, Future Shock! The Story of 2000AD bubbled up From the Depths of DVD Hell : “By the time we leave this golden period in the second half of the documentary entering into David Bishop’s time as editor which saw the comic not only lose focus as its once sharp satirical eye began to wonder to easy targets like Tony Blair (B.L.A.I.R. 1) and the Spice Girls (The Space girls), while at the time Bishop had to battle against less than PC advertising which seemingly was designed to embrace the lad culture of the 90’s but at the same time eliminate any female readership they had. Honestly it really has to be seen to believed that they could ever have been considered a good idea.”
Here, I talked about the newest front in the Culture War: bathrooms . On a related note, I understand that the current events/political posts may alienate potential readers. What I’ve found is that writers on the left side of the aisle never have this concern, judging from their social media offerings. As someone concerned about the direction of our common culture, am I supposed to void the field of ideas out of fear that somebody will get upset? Absolutely not. What differentiates me from many other artists is that I don’t put litmus tests on my audience. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to read my books, no matter what they believe. Black/white, left/right, gay/straight, rich/poor: all I care about is your money er, your interest in my fiction.

Illustration taken from Call of Cthulhu’s Arkham Unveiled supplement.