E14 - The Book of Blood (short stories and films)

Join me as I emBarker (get it?) on a journey down the highways of the dead, checking out Clive Barker's short stories "The Book of Blood" (1984) and "On Jerusalem Street (a postscript)" (1985)  and two accompanying films: Book of Blood (2009) and Books of Blood (2020). 

Also search for me on YouTube to see my face!

Transcript

Episode 14

The Book of Blood + On Jerusalem Street

Movies and Stories

Intro:

“At some time in its history a horror had been committed in that house. No-one knew when, or what. But even to the untrained observer the oppressive atmosphere of the house, particularly the top storey, was unmistakable. There was a memory and a promise of blood in the air of Number 65, a scent that lingered in its sinuses, and turned the strongest stomach. The building and its environs were shunned by vermin, by birds, even by flies. No woodlive crawled in its kitchen, no starling had nested in its attic. Whatever violence had been done there, it had opened the house up, as surely as a knife slits a fish’s belly; and through that cut, that wound in the world, the dead peered out and had their say.

That was the rumour anyway.”

Whaddup all you psychic skirts and bullshittin’ blokes and welcome to another sexually shaft-driven episode of The World is My Burrito AKA TWIMB. A podcast where I gaze forlorn down the intangible highways of immaterial matters to bring you the tales of its cadaverous carpoolers.

Guiding you today as always is me, your host with a Barker bigger than his Bite if you know what I’m saying, Kory T. Comin’ atcha from Tampa Florida.

Future me is really gonna hate how solid that intro was. These ain’t getting easier, let me tell ya.

Welcome to Episode 14 where we’re gonna talk a little more about a little somethin’-something’ called Clive Barker’s The Book of Blood! That is, the two films from 2009 and 2020, and their two originating short stories: The Book of Blood and On Jerusalem Street. 

This is going to be NSFW. Do with that information what you will.

Kitchenkeeping

Y’all, Hurricane Ian and Tropical Storm Nicole BOTH brought solid chunks of cold weather and for the first time in years that really got me feeling the spooky season not just in my brain but on my flesh. It’s great. 

And with great winds comes great podcastibility, or whatever Sam Raimi said. In October The ShortBox Podcast had me on their annual horror episode, #371, where we talk about our specific horrific pics of the year. NEATCAST with Zack and Mike also invited me on. That is a wildly different format where 3 dudes talk about dog beer, snake news, and kids from Hot Topic. You can find episode #102 anywhere you listen to podcasts.

Hopefully this episode lands better than the Buddha episode. A lot of time went into that and I can’t help but think it could have been better. I dunno. This is all supposed to be fun but that one just feels a bit uninspired and not as informative or energetic as I would have liked it to be.

In the TWIMBverse I have been hard at work with this and the next episode. Clearly neither was finished before October and for good personal reason. Also on the docket is another Podcasters Disassembled episode AND Neatcast episode, the topics of which I dare not spoil just yet. 

Onto the meatier bits of the episode!

In prep for SOME kind of horror episode I have consumed a ton of horror and dark fantasy content since the end of August and no matter how much any of it deserves an episode,-like Dorohedoro- Clive Barker’s Books of Blood were an almost daily recommendation between September and October. This was originally supposed to be an episode on the entire collection which changed after realizing there were not one but TWO movies based on just the first and final stories, “The Book of Blood” and “On Jerusalem Street”. Also, I suspected it would be hella quick to make an episode about so few topics. The irony is not lost on me.

Now, it is impossible to separate our short stories from their contained collections. They are intertwined from top to bottom, beginning to end. I’ve done my best to focus on the topics at hand and save all the extra juice for future content. So if you notice a lot more generic terminology than usual and a lot less specificity in History, it’s not because I don’t know, it’s because I’d like to finish this this year. Before we dive more than skin deep lemme hit you with some…

Personal History

Clive Barker’s Books of Blood is new-ish to me, having only read through them last year. I’m pretty sure Hellbound Heart, binging the entire Hellraiser franchise, the Hellraiser episode, and a few handpicked short stories came first before realizing I needed these collections in my life. The 2020 Hulu channel movie was a first watch on October 1st of this year, which motivated me to do an episode about the entire book series. Of course the very first search result turned up the previously unheard of 2009 film which took up the following Monday night. Then I thought, hey, if filmmakers felt these tiny pieces of literary history merited such attention, why not follow suit?

Of course that meant re-reading the accompanying short stories -and then some- in between films to re-live the dark fantasy that first opened my eyes to something greater than just the rotting, metal-as-fuck descriptions of The Order of the Gash. 

Author Douglas E. Winter felt that the zenith of horror was in the early 80 and, by the mid 90s, horror had become commoditized. 

stated: “What the marketplace called ‘horror’ was a fiction that had, by 1995, lost its imagination, whose fundamental impulse was not subversive but reactionary; not expansionist but isolationist; not to explore but to exploit - to place unruly children and independent of sexually-active women in peril and thus to assert the right (or privilege) to rescue them…. Or to watch them die. The dialogue between mind and heart -opened in the late 1970s in the fiction of Stephen King and Peter Straub, among others- had become one between mind and gut and, inevitably, the lower organs. Too often ‘horror’ had become the new pornography: a ritualized depiction of acts dissociated from emotion, so intend on sensation that its readers were rendered numb.”

Horror literature in general is not my strong suite, let alone from the 70s-80s. Earlier this year I finished Steven King’s The Shining from 1977 and V. C. Andrews’ Flowers in the Attic from 79. While King’s work is mostly very strong, Andrews is the embodiment of sensationalism that many felt horror had become

I just finished The Shining from 1977 and thought that was a great psychological horror with a mostly great character dynamic and story until nearing the climax when he wouldn’t stop writing. That’s a free hot take for ya. But I still felt it presented horror in the best way by strongly tying it to reality. 

Scoot on over to V. C. Andrews’ “Flowers in the Attic” from ‘79. That is almost exclusively sensationalism. There are multiple moments where character 1 will say something, character 2 will respond dramatically, character 1 will respond to that, then character 2 will immediately contradict their prior statement because… it’s dramatic. 

If the climax of The Shining and the entirety of Flowers in the Attic are indicative of where horror was headed then I fully understand Winter’s viewpoint.

World History

As for world history, Imma do it but still keep it to a minimum. Author Douglas E. Winter felt that horror had reached its zenith in the early 80s, with horror being surmounted by little more than sensationalism. The best example I’ve experienced from this period was V. C. Andrews’ “Flowers in the Attic” from 1979 which relies almost exclusively on emotional jump scares.

These books were released only a few years before The Hellbound Heart and Hellraiser, so I will once again recommend that you check out episode 10 for more period history.

Creator History

As far as a little more history on Barker, he worked in theatre as an actor and, during the time of this topic, a playwright. This was a life-consuming job and my mans needed to express mental freedom.

Enter: The Books of Blood. The casualness of this effort allowed him to remain free from censorship to write whatever, however. These were never written to be published, just to express himself and entertain friends. 

Barker has expressed that his writings are not written to scare any reader, but if the reader gets scared, that’s on them. 

Hot take

They’re all great. 

“The Book of Blood”’s 11-pages are not life changing, but are a great intro to Barker. It reads very casual which is what did and does enamor me. Where Hellbound Heart comes in swangin’ with a jug of 7 days’ urine and plate of dove heads, The Book of Blood reads more like a documentary about a group of 3 people unknowingly on an inescapable track alongside ghouls on an exodus - which isn’t far from the content. It’s relaxing and makes me feel guilty for reading it as if it were supposed to be relaxing. If you’re one of those horror fans who starts watching low investment horror movies on the first day of fall, this is the read for you. 

The next story, “On Jerusalem Street”, is truly short. Like REAL short. It just rounds out where we started with The Book of Blood, following up on a story we didn’t think would actually go anywhere further. It literally bookends the entire collected works in yet another very oddly relaxing, albeit graphic tale.

I like both films equally, but for very different reasons. 2009 both adheres more to the story, but feels the need to add more scenes and a generic tropes just to keep you spooked and fill time. 2020 is an anthology of mostly new stories which is much more contextually accurate but the actual Book of Blood story leaves much to be desired. Not gonna lie, I think the special effects in the 2009 film are much better than the new one.

This is a man with a silver tongue -or at least silver fingers- who loves horror in a non-platonic way and expresses it with such unrelenting reverence of the medium. And not as some type of paragon of the medium, but as a regular citizen. His writing style often flirts with sex and sexuality and gives no regard for imprisonment of societal norms. 

Spoiler Warning

If you don’t want to suddenly awaken on the floor covered in heterogeneous writing wearing nothing but your birthday suit, maybe store this burrito in a cabin in the woods. But if you wanna fake it til ya make it then let’s chow right on down into this burrito.

Stories

The Book of Blood

Clive Barker’s Books of Blood Volumes 1-3 were penned between 1981-82. The contract with Sphere Books began in 82 and they were released simultaneously in the UK on January 1st 1984.

Neither Barker nor his assistants had any idea how to get published, so this contract was gained through a wild series of avenues which incidentally resulted in certain people he didn’t even know vouching for him. I’m still keeping the deets down but know that this was a weird time for an unknown author to be writing and producing an anthology of short stories. This was the a popular era for horror but only if your last name was something like King, Straub, or Andrews. Sphere Books was understandably hesitant to publish, but they did under the stipulation that the first 3 volumes must be published simultaneously. So, 3 independent volumes all released side-by-side on the same day in the UK.

The American volumes saw a release in April of 1985

“It's only gratuitous if the violence is all there is” - Barker 

I appreciate The Book of Blood for its handling of language and, more importantly, characters. It’s not complex, characters are quick to accept their fate and the fates of others even if said fate disagrees with their desires, a lot of backstory and character motivations are effortlessly provided in a short amount of time -sometimes in one or two sentences- and any mystery is quickly debunked. And that is what surprises me when reading. The mystery isn't in the mystery, but in how far this stretches. The shock isn't in the shock, but in the quick acceptance.

Within 3 pages of this 11-page story, we know the entire game: Florescu has felt defeat both professionally and sexually for some time, but the boy shows promise in both areas that finally gets her excited.

She, like the reader, is surprised to discover her own psychic powers. And it’s a little ambiguous whether she had latent powers all along or was gifted the ability with her spiritual involvement as the catalyst. But she barely reacts to this, because she immediately understands the supernatural flow that comes with this responsibility. There is this quick kickback from the flesh in the form of her desire for his body. But that immediately fades away into an understanding: she's the one who's privy to the stories of the dead and McNeal -for his deeds- must become their fleshy tablet. 

McNeal is introduced as a cheat who thinks he’s won the game. And because this is his introduction there’s no Sherlockian reveal.

Yet he’s only ever mentioned as having any kind of value, but described very much as a loser. From Dr. Florescu’s perspective he’s described as such: “His face came easily, so very easily, splashing into her consciousness with his smile and his unremarkable physique, still unmanly. Like a girl really—the roundness of him, the sweet clarity of his skin—the innocence.”

Despite his lies and their entirely opportunistic relationship, she still has some care for him. She’s not inhuman and her actions to save him from his destiny are almost motherly which is still kind of a slap in the face.

A small character I haven’t mentioned yet is Reg Fuller, the tech guy. He doesn’t have a grand role by any means but does have a nice death. Amidst all the weirdness happening in the house - namely Dr. Florescu staring straight up into the ceiling seemingly speaking to herself while McNeal screams upstairs- Reg opens a door that now leads to the highways of the dead, killing him instantly. It’s tropey. But it’s a fun, small display of the weight of things by means of unimportant character. Dr. Florescu is a psychic who can handle this, McNeal may as well be dead from shock and is only saved by Dr. Florescu’s efforts, then ol’ Reg just dies from not being able to comprehend what’s before him.

Anyways, the most important character of this story is Simon McNeal because his body becomes the 6 volumes of Books of Blood. The books you’re reading are copied from his flesh. D’ya get it? 

On Jerusalem Street

The bookend of this story -pun intended- ends with On Jerusalem Street (a postscript), published in 1985. It is the final story of the final volume of Books of Blood, not only ending this series but also ending the introductory story. And all in like 3 or 4 pages.

And ya gotta love the very first sentence: “Wyburd looked at the book, and the book looked back.” 

Wyburd being an assassin sent to gather the book -that is, the literal flesh of Simon McNeal- for a job. So maybe we shouldn’t limit him to “assassin” so much as a handyman with a very unique set of skills. The single interaction in this story is once again very odd. The Book only speaks of himself in third person. Wyburd is openly preparing to skin The Book which doesn’t seem concerned at all. It’s as if the end result was always known and could only ever be this way.

The most intriguing line in here is in reference to McNeal: Four years or more since the ghosts came for him. As we learned earlier, Barker’s works were first penned in 1981, so between pen hitting paper and production it has been four years since McNeal met his fate, though only 1 year since the public knew of him. It ain’t much but is worth 

Wyburd was planning to retire much as the gangster was in 2020. We’ll see some similarities in the future.

Takes place in an apartment with working lighting as opposed to a cabin in the woods or abandoned house

Combine this with inspiration discovered in a bookstore and some very convenient timing and you get the impossible: a collection of short stories that was not only seen, wasn’t a monetary loss to a publisher, AND gave him an amazing rapport.

The Dark Fantastic frequently states that the zenith of horror was the early Short story collections were already not seen as popular, and the zenith of horror short stories was in the early 1980s. 

Talk about how horror was only now genre-fied because it was marketable

The first 3 volumes were released in 1984

After the aftermath of Books of Blood author Douglas E. Winter “proposes the term anti-horror to distinguish the work of Clive Barker and other conscientious writers from the puerile pablum that the market sought to define as horror” p190

Clive Barker writes from the firm belief that we live in a moribund society, one that is in different, and it's better moments, callouts at its worst, and that desperately needs awakening from the banality that governs our lives through so many sources: television, politics, organized religion– and, indeed, genre. P191

2009 film

Onto the first film!

Titled “BOOK OF BLOOD” Premiered on March 7, 2009 at the Hamburg Fantasy Filmfest Nights, with a wide released that following September 28th.

Run time of 1 hr 40 minutes

Starring:

• Clive Russel as The Stranger
• Jonas Armstrong as Simon McNeil
• Sophie Ward as Dr. Mary Florescu
• Paul Blair as Fuller
• Doug Bradley, Pinhead himself, as Tollington

It was produced by John Harrison who worked on the Dune and Children of Dune mini-series, Tales from the Crypt, and plenty more horror-related content.

The executive producer was Anthony DiBlasi who also executive produced Midnight Meat Train. 

There isn’t much recorded backstory here. John Harrison and Barker began working together on an adaptation of the ABARAT stories that never seemed to make it to ANY screen. But they were previously familiar with each other and excited to work on this new adaptation. It began filming in Scotland in late 2007, finished in 2008 and that’s kinda all there is.

This time around, On Jerusalem Street is the sandwich with “The Book of Blood” being a flashback occupying around 2/3rd of the film.

I’m absolutely using the Wiki synopsis for extra entertainment value: 

A hooded, disfigured young man is eating at a diner, being watched by a stranger. The stranger is Wyburd, who has been stalking the young man, Simon. Wyburd convinces Simon to join him in his truck, where Simon passes out and awakens strapped to a table. Wyburd offers him a choice: a slow death, or a quick and clean death by telling the story of the Book of Blood, a series of scars and inscriptions carved on Simon from head to toe. Opting for a clean death, Simon reveals his story.

A young girl is violently raped and beaten in her bed while her parents stand outside screaming her name. An unseen force rips her face off, killing her. Several months later, paranormal professor Mary Florescu and her partner Reg Fuller investigate the house to unlock its mysteriously murderous past. Mary encounters Simon McNeal, a seemingly clairvoyant young man to whom she develops an attraction. Simon reluctantly signs on to assist, and the three of them move in. Reg spots a terrifying ghost and dies from a fall. Mary sees Simon is attacked twice by ghosts; the second time, the ghosts carve into Simon's flesh with nails and glass shards, and Mary understands: she is the key to opening the way for the ghosts; her powers were what awakened them. She swears to the ghosts that she will tell all of their stories. The ghosts heed her words and depart, allowing Simon to survive the ordeal.

Simon reveals to Wyburd that he was from then on cursed to be the book on which the dead write while Mary wrote books and made millions off of the stories portrayed on him. As she aged, he remained the same youthful appearance, only more scarred with new stories for her to write. He admitted he couldn't take it anymore, so he fled, hence the reason Wyburd was hired to remove his skin. Wyburd, unmoved, lives up to his end of the bargain and kills Simon quickly. After placing his skin neatly into a suitcase, he waits for his payment. Blood suddenly starts pouring from the case, slowly filling the building that Wyburd is trapped in, and he drowns. Mary arrives, and is unfazed by Wyburd's body. She opens the suitcase, pulls out Simon's intact skin, and smiles as she begins to read the stories still being written upon the flesh.

Isn’t that just a good time? I think so. 

This time around we get to experience a little more at what happened inside Tollington Place. In the beginning a girl gets her face ripped off. Like, forcefully ripped off. On screen. 

This film would be much closer to the short story if they just removed a ton of it. 

There is nothing amiss about Wyburd’s body or the shack. Everything looks totally normal.

2020 anthology film

Titled “BOOKS OF BLOOD” running 1hr 36min 

first aired October 6 2020 at SCREAMFEST at the Calamigos Ranch in Malibu, CA, then aired to the public on Hulu the following day.

Starring

• Britt Robertson as Jenna
• Anna Friel as Mary Floresky
• Rafi Gavron as Simon McNeal
• Yul Vazquez as Bennett
• Freda Foh Shen as Ellie

Okay there are a lot more but these are the main players.

It was produced by Brannon Braga, who once pitched a script for Freddy vs. Jason and helped in the production of popular shows such as: Cosmos: a spacetime odyssey, Star Trek: Generations, The Orville, 24, and Salem.

Braga also wrote some of this alongside Adam Simon, who worked on films like Brain Dead and Carnosaur, and also produced and wrote for Salem.

Braga met Clive Barker in 1987 after standing in line for 2 hours at a bookstore just to get his autograph. Nothing became of that moment, but years down the line they were on the phone talking about a series. Around 2017 they began meeting every Tuesday around 3 o’clock for 18 months, mostly getting to know each other by recommending films back and forth. Many of which were anthology films. They both realized this possible TV series would be better off as an anthology movie with intent of connecting the stories.

Many ideas were tossed around but Pulp Fiction is what they were hoping to achieve: Individual stories that are angled just so.

Started filming nova scotia 2019

Barker stated the bodies were based on a serial killer over 20 years ago, but I couldn’t find anything in the 90s. HOWEVER, I did find 1940s-50s English serial killer John Reginald Halliday Christie. The bodies in the anthology were in the wall, under floorboards, and under the back porch. Ol’ Reg Christi hid his victim’s bodies in a wallpaper’d kitchen alcove, under the floorboards, and under the back porch. Seriously though, go check out the first 2 paragraphs of Christie’s wiki page. That is a very fast rollercoaster. Then maybe read the rest.

A small point worth mentioning: this film begins in a book store. Barker’s inspiration for publishing his writings came to him while in a bookstore.

Moving along,  Jenna and Ellie’s tale is the most Barker of the bunch in my opinion. Moreso than Barker’s actual tale in this film. 

Jenna is struggling with life. She can hear everything with great clarity. Like, a fly buzzing around or bug crawling in the wall is around the volume of normal speech to us. She suffers some other mental problems that she’s normally medicated for but -of course- gets off the meds. She has a very fatalist view of existence and genuinely wants to die but lacks the courage to do so. 

Balancing her out is Ellie, a retired nurse, and her husband who is fantastic at working with his hands, building tons of furniture and additions to the house that seconds as a bed and breakfast. Both are very composed and make every decision with great consideration. Then we learn Ellie’s story: for years she has been sedating people -family and visitors-, sewing their eyes and ears shut, then storing them within the walls and floors inside and outside the house where she maintains them. This is where the husband’s skills come in. He’s been expanding the house but not for those staying in beds. They obviously seem kind of batchit crazy, particularly once they attempt to force Jenna into the same fate.

But by the end of the story Jenna returns willingly, knowing that’s the only place she can rest. She won’t die, she won’t hear anything, she won’t have the mental capacity to be bothered by life. She can rest. Ellie knew what Jenna needed all along -though Jenna wasn’t ready- and accepts her so calmly and motherly. And we now get the impression that the others buried there had similar motivations albeit with less fighting. 

I love that these actions so evidently disturbing and unhinged to any human were the exact resolutions needed by some. The couple do nothing to lure people in. They’re just advertised on a B&B website. Yet those who need it are drawn to it.

Reading synopses of the film state that Jenna led her boyfriend to commit suicide which is why she’s being chased around by his father. But I think it was evident enough that they both wanted it. She was nothing more than a coward who couldn’t follow through. Which is the other thing I love. She’s no hero in this tale. She’s not even a victim. She couldn’t even adhere to her own life view and took the easy way out. 

There is some manipulation between Ellie and Jenna though I think it’s in comparison to the manipulation between Jenna and her ex. She convinced the ex to do what he wanted and Ellie tried to convince to do the same

Bennett’s tale is the bookend and the most fun because it’s a little zany. He’s a hired gun sent to collect money from a bookseller then ends up on a journey of self liberation. Bennett and his henchman literally drive through the stories on the way to their destination: Tollington Place.

Where the bookseller owes money, Bennett owes his livelihood. Both wanted freedom. But the bookseller’s liberation comes in the form of a slit throat within the first few minutes.

We get the usual tropes of the car dying in the spooky town for no apparent reason. Then his partner, after hearing the voice of his dead mother -and in an act of repentance- kills himself. After which the car starts attacking Bennett until he reaches the dilapidated Tollington Place where he meets Mary, Simon, and Mary’s creepy son Miles.

Miles’ tale is the weakest in here. He is Dr. Florescu’s son who died at a very young age. She’s single only because the father was a POS who didn’t want to raise the son. Instead of visiting a haunted house, this IS her house.

Simon comes along claiming to be able to speak with the dead and somehow knows private details about her son. Obviously this is used as leverage to get in her bed and her studies.

We learn he was in AA with the doctor’s ex which is how he learned so much about her and how he was able to prepare his deceptions.

Dislikes

I don’t actually like Miles or his involvement in the new 2020 movie. The new take and motivation isn’t a problem but this doesn’t seem to add in any way and I never feel that as a motivator despite the scenes created to back it up. It feels more rushed with all the angles that come from it. Maybe if the 2009 film were in this anthology and the anthology were a full film I’d like both more. One has too much horror-trope filler and misses the beauty while the other has too little time to cover a lot of ground.

Tacking onto 2009, I don’t like that Simon is always a person and never “the book”. The third person speech from On Jerusalem Street hits much better.

As far as what others disliked: The Tomatometer has the 2020 film at 21% with the audience score at 31%. iMDB has it at 5.6/10. People really did not like that movie.

Meanwhile the 2009 movie has an 80% on the Tomatometer with an audience score of 30%. iMBD has this at 5.2.

I’m in agreement with both iMBD ratings. Neither are terrible, but both needed a little something extra.

Likes

I’ve gushed over the short story enough but here’s one final, great scene. This is from Dr. Florescu’s perspective: “Ahead she could see through the door of the room where her little liar was sprawled, surrounded by his attackers. His briefs were around his ankles: the scene looked like a kind of rape. He screamed no longer, but his eyes were wild with terror and pain. At least he was still alive. The natural resilience of this young mind half accepted the spectacle that had opened in front of him.” Right after that the scene fades away to the street outside quote: “echoing with the clamor of children”. C’mon. This horrifying scene juxtaposed against children playing in the street. C’mon.

All of the Special and Visual FX in the 2009 film are surprisingly great. Again, I watched the 2020 movie first. So, dropping back 11 years and watching Jenny get her actual face ripped off absolutely floored me. Not all of the visual effects are good but they mostly hit better than 2020.

My final like is that Simon kinda looks like EMINEM at the beginning of the 2009 film. He’s like the first thing you see and it trips up the brain a little bit.

Trivia

Clive Barker prefers the second 3 volumes over the first. Which makes sense. He was more confident as an author and came in with plans for rounds 4-6.

There’s not a ton of trivia here. Apparently, some 30 “Books of Blood” narrative outlines were made for TV so we’ll see if anything ever happens with those.

I guess this is more of anti-trivia, but I couldn’t find any reasoning behind why they changed the House address from one story to the next. 

Accolades

In Autumn 1985 Barker was presented with the British Fantasy Award AND World Fantasy Award, each honoring Clive Barker’s Books of Blood as the ‘Best Collection’ of 1984

What better accolade for the 2020 film to receive than praise from Barker himself, who said: “The whole idea in a sense, is to shock people, and at the same time, and Brannon does this beautifully, seduce people. Part of it’s seduction, and part of it’s a slap, and that’s a good combination. He achieves that beautifully.”

Reference materials

CliveBarker.info was a great resource for leads

DailyDead.com for some great interviews

MorbidlyBeautiful.com

Inspirations

My Analog Journal

Toshiki Soejima

Blue Note Japan

That’s enough of that. Now it’s time for

Nacho Business

Where I talk about my business, because it’s nacho business.

I’ve recently read The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Year One by Frank Miller. Both great reads. TDKR has some solid concepts but I think Year One is the overall superior execution.

I also had the chance to read one of Satoshi Kon’s 1990 manga, Tropic of the Sea. It’s a fun read but could certainly use a modern approach to the translation and especially text layout. This is an official Kodansha production but looks like a fan job.

There was a ton more on my list, there IS a ton more on my list, so we’ll leave it at that.

For this last bit we’ll quickly cover some

Announcements and plugs

My next episode will be on Junji Ito’s GYO. What I hope is the biggest part of it is already recorded with the remaining informative bits already started. Really hoping to keep that one shorter just to get it out. Not sure what’s next after that. I still have some very big ideas that have been started but I don’t feel like I’m ready to tackle them just yet. Gotta get some more structure up in here, knaw mean?

As always you can find me over on Podcasters Assemble which has been understandably slow-moving this year but still moving nonetheless. We’re doing an episode in December that I’m hype for and researching which is an ADDITIONAL part of the reason why this episode took so long. Too much non-TWIMB stuff going on that directly affects TWIMB. But hey, I’m still enjoying this.

If you like smut go check out Damsels Never Finish anywhere you listen to podcasts. They’re also on YouTube which is more than I can say.

As always you can find me on social media but I am almost exclusively active on Twitter and e-mail. I don’t have a prompt. I don’t have any questions. I don’t care if you read the material this time. It’s like a combined 15 pages and the 2 movies not being life changing. Shit or get off the pot, yo.

As always, I don’t have an outro. But that may change in a few episodes… We shall see.