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And Jesus Came Back
Jesus Christ has returned. He sets to work right away healing the sick and infirm, but also returning youth to the aged. There are doubters, but one by one Jesus proves them wrong with the aid of his friend, farmer Joe MacDonald. There’s just one problem: Jesus isn’t who he says he is. He is actually an alien from a planet of ruthless killers, and he’s there to get everyone on earth to be in shape for slavery. John Bruni, the author of Dong of Frankenstein, Poor Bastards and Rich Fucks, and Tales of Questionable Taste returns to tell a tale of love, redemption, madness, loss, fear, faith and above all else, survival. Brian Keene, author of The Rising and The Complex, says, “John Bruni is a nice kid. He’s one of the next generation that I like. He’s actually one of the people I like in this genre, and I don’t like anybody.”
260 pages, Paperback
First published June 2, 2017
About the author
John Bruni
75 books84 followersJohn Bruni was born on July 25, 1978 in Elmhurst, Illinois. He attended local schools from kindergarten all the way through college, where he spent time as a journalist for the Elmhurst College Leader, writing comic book reviews, an occasional feature article, and a series of regular columns as THE STRAIGHT with his Primitive Underbelly partner, Jesse “GonZo” Russell (whose story, “Bear’s Tale, Abridged” appears serialized in all three issues of TABARD INN). He was also the poetry editor of the campus literary/art magazine, MIDDLEWESTERN VOICE, for a whole two weeks, during which time he chose none of the poems that were published.
He has worked several jobs, among them selling ad space for a local newspaper publisher. He was not very good at this (in fact, one might say he was dismal) and was quickly shown the door, but he managed to place a few stories with a couple of their publications (COLLEGE NEWS and CHICAGO COMMUTER) before he left. He also worked selling season tickets for the Drury Lane theater in Oakbrook, which he was much better at, and he toiled away at Sears, selling shoes for almost two miserable years. He was unjustly fired from the library featured in his "Tales from the Library" columns in issues one and two of TABARD INN. He worked as a teleconference operator and in tech support for about a decade, but the company fired him after they discovered his books. He now works in repair for a telecom company, where he is much happier.
He likes to think he’s a professional writer, and he is getting paid for his work more and more often these days. With two hundred publications to his name, his most recent outing is the novel, AND JESUS CAME BACK, from Rooster Republic. He also has collection of short stories called TALES OF QUESTIONABLE TASTE, published by StrangeHouse Books, who also published his novel, POOR BASTARDS AND RICH F*CKS. His novella, DONG OF FRANKENSTEIN, was published by New Kink. He has a novel, STRIP, which was originally published by Melpomene, the mystery and crime imprint of MUSA. It has been re-released by Riot Forge. His shorter work has also appeared in several anthologies, such as ZOMBIE, ZOMBIE, BRAIN BANG! from StrangeHouse, A HACKED-UP HOLIDAY MASSACRE from Pill Hill, and the critically acclaimed VILE THINGS from Comet Press. You can also read his work in issues of SHROUD, MORPHEUS TALES, CTHULHU SEX, OVER MY DEAD BODY!, THE REALM BEYOND, TALES OF THE TALISMAN, AOIFE'S KISS, LIQUID IMAGINATION, and a variety of other grand publications. He is also very proud of his first foray into comic books; thanks to Leo Perez and Jon Lennon of CheeseLord Comics, one of his real life stories was adapted into a one-page strip for the August 2011 issue of PRODUCT OF SOCIETY.
One of his poetry reviews has also been published in the Winter 2006 issue of BIBLIOPHILOS (vol. XII, no. 4), but his contributors copies got lost in the mail, and this issue has sold out. If anyone out there has a copy of this magazine, please get in contact with him at editor@talesofquestionabletaste.com. He is willing to pay top dollar for it.
Very briefly, he was the editor and publisher of TABARD INN: TALES OF QUESTIONABLE TASTE. He still has boxes and boxes of back issues cluttering up his house. If you're interested in taking some of them off his hands, he would greatly appreciate it, as he needs the space.
John Bruni is kind of creeped out by writing about himself in the third person, so he’s going to stop now. Besides, the screaming of kidnapped children in his cellar is distracting him . . and he must do something about this immediately. He can be followed on Twitter @tusitalabruni; on his blog, www.talesofunspeakabletaste.blogspot.... and he was also a horror movie reviewer at www.forcedviewing.com. If you are living in the past, you can also find him on MySpace at www.myspace.com/tabardinn, but be warned, he is never there.
He has worked several jobs, among them selling ad space for a local newspaper publisher. He was not very good at this (in fact, one might say he was dismal) and was quickly shown the door, but he managed to place a few stories with a couple of their publications (COLLEGE NEWS and CHICAGO COMMUTER) before he left. He also worked selling season tickets for the Drury Lane theater in Oakbrook, which he was much better at, and he toiled away at Sears, selling shoes for almost two miserable years. He was unjustly fired from the library featured in his "Tales from the Library" columns in issues one and two of TABARD INN. He worked as a teleconference operator and in tech support for about a decade, but the company fired him after they discovered his books. He now works in repair for a telecom company, where he is much happier.
He likes to think he’s a professional writer, and he is getting paid for his work more and more often these days. With two hundred publications to his name, his most recent outing is the novel, AND JESUS CAME BACK, from Rooster Republic. He also has collection of short stories called TALES OF QUESTIONABLE TASTE, published by StrangeHouse Books, who also published his novel, POOR BASTARDS AND RICH F*CKS. His novella, DONG OF FRANKENSTEIN, was published by New Kink. He has a novel, STRIP, which was originally published by Melpomene, the mystery and crime imprint of MUSA. It has been re-released by Riot Forge. His shorter work has also appeared in several anthologies, such as ZOMBIE, ZOMBIE, BRAIN BANG! from StrangeHouse, A HACKED-UP HOLIDAY MASSACRE from Pill Hill, and the critically acclaimed VILE THINGS from Comet Press. You can also read his work in issues of SHROUD, MORPHEUS TALES, CTHULHU SEX, OVER MY DEAD BODY!, THE REALM BEYOND, TALES OF THE TALISMAN, AOIFE'S KISS, LIQUID IMAGINATION, and a variety of other grand publications. He is also very proud of his first foray into comic books; thanks to Leo Perez and Jon Lennon of CheeseLord Comics, one of his real life stories was adapted into a one-page strip for the August 2011 issue of PRODUCT OF SOCIETY.
One of his poetry reviews has also been published in the Winter 2006 issue of BIBLIOPHILOS (vol. XII, no. 4), but his contributors copies got lost in the mail, and this issue has sold out. If anyone out there has a copy of this magazine, please get in contact with him at editor@talesofquestionabletaste.com. He is willing to pay top dollar for it.
Very briefly, he was the editor and publisher of TABARD INN: TALES OF QUESTIONABLE TASTE. He still has boxes and boxes of back issues cluttering up his house. If you're interested in taking some of them off his hands, he would greatly appreciate it, as he needs the space.
John Bruni is kind of creeped out by writing about himself in the third person, so he’s going to stop now. Besides, the screaming of kidnapped children in his cellar is distracting him . . and he must do something about this immediately. He can be followed on Twitter @tusitalabruni; on his blog, www.talesofunspeakabletaste.blogspot.... and he was also a horror movie reviewer at www.forcedviewing.com. If you are living in the past, you can also find him on MySpace at www.myspace.com/tabardinn, but be warned, he is never there.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 18, 2018
This is about as over-the-top as a book can get: schlocky and violent and sexual and a lot of I-can’t-believe-I’m-reading-this fun. And then there’s even a moral to the madness! Wow!
November 29, 2022
“You gotta be one of the good guys, son: ‘cause there’s way too many of the bad.” -Garth Ennis, Preacher #9
Jesus arrives back on Earth with a BANG! He preaches love, heals the sick, and unites all people.
HOWEVER…. Behind the scenes are some unearthly beings with malicious intentions. Will Jesus keep up the act or become a true savior of humankind?
I really wasn’t sure what to expect from this book. What I got was an interesting plot, characters I enjoyed reading about, and a story of human resilience. There were some funny, bizarre, and explicit moments, but they weren’t crazily over the top (mostly)!
““So you want me to shoot Thor in the eyes so you can run over and cut his brain out?” the former president asked.”
The space battle and earth battle were completely epic!! The epilogue/ending was kinda disappointing…
Jesus arrives back on Earth with a BANG! He preaches love, heals the sick, and unites all people.
HOWEVER…. Behind the scenes are some unearthly beings with malicious intentions. Will Jesus keep up the act or become a true savior of humankind?
I really wasn’t sure what to expect from this book. What I got was an interesting plot, characters I enjoyed reading about, and a story of human resilience. There were some funny, bizarre, and explicit moments, but they weren’t crazily over the top (mostly)!
““So you want me to shoot Thor in the eyes so you can run over and cut his brain out?” the former president asked.”
The space battle and earth battle were completely epic!! The epilogue/ending was kinda disappointing…
July 26, 2018
While some might see the title and think a book like this would be rife with over the top blasphemy just for the sake of it, and while they would not be completely wrong this isn't that kind of book. Believe me I expected it too, and I'm really into blasphemy. This is a superbly crafted story set within the context of 'bizarro', but the message is not hampered by silliness, nor does it get lost or murky. I don't believe in god or jesus or santa, but I do believe in treating people as I would like to be treated. In this story Jesus comes back, does all these great things, and everyone adores him until he reveals he's really an alien, which of course turns everyone against him yet it doesn't change the fact he still loves and cares for these people. I don't think we need a zombie savior to return from the dead to fix us, but if we all applied the idea of this Jesus and love to our daily lives we could take care of ourselves just fine. This is an excellent book from an awesome writer, and I recommend it highly!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews