Doompunk Dispatch

Category: Non-fiction

  • Book Review: Sutter Cane’s In The Mouth Of Madness

    [Originally published on Psychopomp.com] The mind behind reality is insane. That’s the seed from which sprouts the fleshy jungle of Sutter Cane’s masterwork, In The Mouth of Madness, the culmination of his horror career. Is the mind behind reality your own consciousness, that hermit sea trapped behind the rocky shore of your skull? Or is this…

  • Word Begets Image

    [Originally published on I Have That On Vinyl] “Word Begets Image, and Image Is Virus.” I first heard those words on a CD called The Elvis of Letters, which I snatched for ten bucks from the old Amoeba Music on Sunset. I had made a habit of buying cheap discs in the hopes of jolting myself…

  • The Color of Hope in Furiosa: Black & Chrome

    [originally published in Exploits #86, an Unwinnable publication] The Black & Chrome edition of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is not entirely black and white. We see startling bursts of color that magnify the film’s thematic preoccupations. This begins with the story’s original sin: a bright peach plucked from the edge of the Green Place.…

  • The War of Body and Mind in Scorn

    [Originally published on psychopomp.com] You awake in an unfamiliar place, surrounded by the decayed ruin of a civilization insistent on propagating life for an occluded purpose. Naked and fragile, you shamble in the only direction afforded to you: forward. This is Scorn, a biomechanical nightmare of cosmic horror. The artistic influences of H.R. Giger and Zdzisław…

  • Interview with Joe Courtney and Jorge Peña

    For fans of comics, psyche rock, and comic adaptations of psyche rock: check out the fan-blog, newly minted “The King Gizzette” (my suggestion!), where I posted about my recent chat with the author and illustrator of Polygondwanaland, a graphic transmutation of the polyrhythmic album by sonic warlocks King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard. You can…

  • Beauty of Horror: Beyond the Black Rainbow II.

    [Check out Part I. — Picking up from 47:09] David Kane: I just wanna say that I love the opening of this movie, because I love dystopian propaganda as an aesthetic. Shockaholic: (laughs) It’s very good. DK: It’s the perfect paradox of, “You should feel fine,” and as a viewer, you’re like, “I’m gonna go…

  • Beauty of Horror: Beyond The Black Rainbow I.

    In 2020, Chandler Bullock a.k.a. Shockaholic was kind enough to host me on their podcast Beauty Of Horror. Our topic was Panos Cosmatos’ masterful film debut. You can listen here and follow along with this transcript of our conversation (I edited out some of my copious stammering): ANNOUNCER: This is the Anatomy of a Scream…

  • The Wound Takes Hold: Control In Cronenberg

    You see, control can never be a means to any practical end. It can never be a means to anything but more control. Like junk. ~ William S. Burroughs Feel your heartbeat. What is doing that? Squishy cogs in the soft machine circulate healthy blood to the bric-a-brac of your body. Since you don’t actively…

  • Graphic Novel Review: Polygondwanaland

    Check out my review of Hellmouth Comics‘ adaptation of the psychedelic rock album Polygondwanaland by King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard. It’s live on kglw.net. The author and illustrator were kind enough to answer questions for an interview, which will be posted later. Keep thy three eyes open wide. In the meantime, here’s a primer…

  • Anamnesis in the Gizzverse

    I wrote a philosophical essay for the illustrious kglw.net, a site dedicated to Australian psychedelic rock band King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard. I reference Taoism, Philip K. Dick, Gnosticism, and more. It was edited by the wonderful Boiler Rhapsody, who was kind enough to introduce me to the team. I’m extremely proud of the…