If this movie did not have actors in animatronic masks and stop motion sequences I would’ve not even recommended this thing at all. To me it would’ve been a medium temperature, racy, borderline S and M film but what took a mediocre script from “meh” to “FUCK YEAH”was the animal animatronic masks and stop motion sequences. This is just weird and messed up which means you need to see it. God damn the French are weird (in a good way).
This being a very loosely based story on the Marquis De Sade and his imprisonment in the Bastille, your gonna get a lot of messed up sex stuff. Marquis’ penis talks to him and he constantly argues with it, he fights his smaller head with his bigger head sometimes he succeeds sometimes he doesn’t which is saying a lot, most men, myself included, let the little guy downstairs make their decisions for them, especially when they are younger which normally leads to disaster.
Your gonna get S and M sequences with people in animal masks, whipping, a man in a pig mask cutting off his own leg, a rat masked man torturing a cow faced maid by milking her, whipping, walls having orgasms…your saying “Wait? Did I read that right?” Yes you fucking did and that is something I thought I’d never ever type.
The story is a mix of things, De Sade in the Bastille, revolutionaries wanting to blow the Bastille up, the authorities trying to blame Marquis for impregnating the girl King Louis raped, a French Revolutionary horse faced woman with a hot body who whips and tortures the rooster faced warden which he gets pleasure out of and the warden gives up info on guard movements in the prison etc. Not to mention there is stop motion claymation scenes in between, when Marquis tells one of his perverted stories, and when he has a dream.
CGI RANT ALERT! Its nice to see a movie that uses ACTUAL FUCKING PRACTICAL EFFECTS. There I said it and will continue to say it. I love foam rubber, latex, corn syrup blood etc. Any movie that has those elements overwhelmingly present goes in the good book, this movie is in my good book. “Marquis” is something you can’t miss, delectable white noise that will stroke that weird nerve so hard you’ll mentally cum.
“Marquis” was a project for cartoonist Roland Topor who did production design for the French cult animated film “Fantastic Planet” which I also will review sometime down the road, well that road is long, and its gonna be way, way, WAY down the road. Two of the characters, Juilette and Justine are named after two characters from De Sade’s books. This movie might piss some people off no doubt, its almost more creepier and perverted that people in animal masks acted this out as opposed to just straight up people. If you get nightmares easy don’t watch “Marquis” but if you want to be wonderfully disturbed then “Marquis” should be putting you on the rack, my friend.
If you want it hard and physical jump on over to the “Trash Palace” great site run by my buddy Brian, he has alot of movies you won’t find anywhere else hit him up here he’s got DVD copies of “Marquis” just scroll down: https://www.trashpalace.com/collectorsmovies/erotica2.htm
“Sure to become a solid favorite at after-seance parties and packing the dance floors at spiritualist conventions, this compilation of rank electrified filth brings together a body of work deeply rooted in the murkiest strains of underground noise music”. Couldn’t have said it better, this on the A5 booklet insert on the back, this is creepy seance music that is meant to be played by candle light.
Front cover of A5 booklet for tape.Page 2 with track listing.
This thing was put together by dark ambient group Goat Majesty, the front and back cover were done by Vladimir Vacovsky. What you got here is a who’s who of the blackened noise, dark ambient and drone scene. First off you got ZN with “Ingratitud Y Colera”, a tune with screeching feedback that sounds like a woman is screaming and deep drones that puts you on edge.
Page for ZN track.
Next up is Goat Majesty with their track “Cult Leaders” which comes roaring in like a demon possessed beast, with deep bubbling drones and muffled vocals, this is something that Abruptum in their experimental heyday would’ve done, feedback screech swirls in and out of the song and builds into a cacophony of blinding black noise and synths wailing. A very experimental black metal vibe on this one. No drugs required for this one kids.
Goat Majesty’s page for their track.
Windy dark ambience haunts Haare’s track “Inside the Black Mirror”, a lighter track, ghostly sounding with a few squeals of feed back here and there, this is like being stranded in a grey wasteland with stagnant pools. There is a kind of weird beauty to it.
Haare’s page for their track.
Fordell Research Unit’s track “Ilm (For Daniel Rutter and Sandy Milroy, Giallo buddies)” starts with light and haunting synths that wail in back of heavy drones, this track combines heavy weight lead and feather light sound, a combo that works in a strange way. A track that could be in a 1980’s dark fantasy film.
Page for Fordell Research Unit’s track. “Kolchak the Night Stalker”.
Vampyre’s track “02 SoV” starts out with squealing feedback then gives way to pulsing and swirling sound. Synths are bent, broken and tortured, the sounds of a violin being ripped apart. This is a rough track like a vampire’s bite and the track will suck you dry. Its dark ambient clouds laced with lightning bolts and a calm pulse.
Page to Vampyre’s track.
Black Mountain Transmitter starts their transmission, “Saturn in Retrograde”, with a rough and rolling crash of cymbals, roaring feed back and pulsing drones, all this mixes into a slow, plodding sludge of sound. Kids don’t try this at home. Wailing, bubbling and cascading sound brings to mind cyclopean dark and gray landscapes on some strange Lovecraftian planet.
Black Mountain Transmitters page for their track.
Husere Grav’s “Abandoned Instinct” starts off with a smooth, billowing sound that pulses in and out like a dying light bulb and increases in intensity and sound and then mellowing out on a strange. dark, drone loop. Hypnotic stuff.
Page for Husere Grav’s track.
Aderlating’s track “Eerste Pijniging” starts off with a low throb and crackling sound with echoes. Its as if one is trapped in a dank, haunted dungeon. Soft drones are the order of the day and creaking, howling sounds, make this track very creepy.
Page for Aderlating’s track.
The tape looked like it was professionally done unlike a majority of these limited run noise tapes that look like their recorded onto cheap blank tapes one gets in packs at Walmart here in America and Tesco in Europe. The A5 booklet and tape came in a plastic baggy.
So the question is should you get “Calling All Covens”? If you are a literal noise addict, want something different, if want music you can sacrifice somebody or something to (that was a joke), background for that dark video game you kids play, sound for the background of a role playing table top game etc. Than “Calling All Covens” will be right up your alley.
I randomly grab some type of newspaper on the toilet tank of my stoner buddy’s bathroom and I open it to the comics section, ahhh looks like “Mutts”, I’ll get a little chuckle or I’ll use this paper to wipe my butt with…wait a second! Is Mutts shooting up heroin? WTF is this? Oh…Its a comic called “Underworld” by Kaz and this paper I am reading is the local “alternative weekly”.
And the book has an introduction by the creator of “Mutts”, Patrick McDonnell who is friends with Kaz in real life. “Underworld” is like looking at demented funhouse mirror images of Mutt and Jeff, Mickey Mouse, Popeye and Ernie Bushmiller’s Nancy and Slugo.
Kaz, full name Kazimieras Gediminas Prapuolenis, comes from a Lithuanian family, he said his family fought and yelled a lot, he said he got his imagination from his mother who encouraged his artistic ventures. He said his influences as a kid that followed him into adulthood was “The Wizard of Oz”, “Peanuts”, “Bugs Bunny”, “Popeye”, “Lil’ Nancy”, “Dick Tracy” and “Krazy Kat” comics, the Marx Brothers, W.C. Fields, and Mark Twain. If you do pick up this “Underworld from Hoboken to Hollywood” compilation, you will see these influences stamped all over, albeit spit out in a twisted way that is Kaz’s own.
Kaz went to the School of Visual Arts in New York City, some of the instructors there were Art Spiegelman and Harvey Kurtzman, a lot of artists came out of there and went on to write for Spiegleman’s “RAW”, the large size underground comic magazine whose street level competition was Robert Crumb’s “Weirdo” I did an article on “Weirdo” here https://www.noisepuncher.net/2021/05/19/your-such-a-weirdo-underground-comix-magazine-1981-1993/, Kaz also wrote for them and another one time SVA student who moved from New York to Seattle, Peter Bagge, became editor of “Weirdo”.
Kaz was doing illustration work thinking about quitting comics because they took way too long to complete until New York Press asked him if he would do a strip for their paper, so he developed “Underworld”, he wanted to do a black humor strip full of addiction, murder, sex and despair, you know, all the finer things in life. He wanted it to be about two low rent hoods, one of them being a demented and drug addicted “Mickey Mouse” look alike. He took the name of the comic from the 1927 silent gangster movie by Josef Von Sternberg.
He pretty much said “I took the shapes and cartoon spare parts from comic history and rearranged them and subverted them. If it made me laugh I used it. I actually thought of “Underworld” as an underground comics parody of daily newspaper comics when I started.” He said he gets ideas from listening to people on the street, or reimagining other comic strips he’d read and twisting the humor, he also filters his feelings that day through his comics.
Kaz says “Underworld” is his escape and he feels like a kid again when he works on it. The strip appears in various alternative weeklies across the country, well, the ones that still print at least. Kaz has gone onto work as a writer for “SpongeBob SquarePants” (you can see Kaz’ absurdist humor in a lot of the episodes he wrote) and Disney’s “Phineas and Ferb”, Kaz actually got an Emmy nomination for an episode he wrote. “Underworld” is a strip that will either give you a chuckle or make you laugh so hard you shit your pants and you’ll want to go back and read the strip and show it to your friends. Some ideas work and some don’t, but one thing you’ll get is something different, absurd and weird in Kaz’s world than what you’d get in normal comic strips. There is some one off characters but the reoccurring ones are Snuff (a Popeye look alike) and Creep Rat (a twisted Mickey Mouse) two low rent crooks who are constantly getting into trouble, Nuzzle the Junkie always looking for a hit, Smoking Cat, Petit Mort, Newton the big man with the small head, Zoot Rumpus and Bunky the Weird Man Baby. Fantagraphics released this bad boy in hardcover it features the best of 23 years of the weekly comic, there is a few pages in color and its mostly in black and white. Another feature that pops up is “Kaz’s Girls”, a strip of different girls with, shall we say, “unique” qualities and features, “Kaz’s Sketchbook” a one panel strip of drawings from, what else, his sketchbook and “Lists” where Nuzzle just lists a bunch of weird and random shit in each panel. “Underworld” is a must have for anybody who loves twisted, different and weird comics.
Go visit Kaz’s web site, he’s got a lot of cool stuff on there as well as the newest weekly strips of “Underworld”, he’s got shirts, mugs etc. Get the fuck over there! https://kazunderworld.com/
Open this comic compilation and the smell of cheap gin, cigarettes and even cheaper perfume wafts right off the page. You know exactly where you are: “The Manly World of Lloyd Llewellyn”. Welcome to a world where the 1950’s to mid 1960’s pop culture is mixed together with no blurring lines, its a place where space travel and alien visitation is normal. A four eyed detective, Lloyd Llewellyn, hangs out in a bar “The Big White Dot” with his diminutive side kick, Ernie. Together they chase alien dames, beat up Ed Big Daddy Roth monster teenagers from Jupiter, battle man eating Beatniks etc. This was Daniel Clowes first foray into doing his own comic book.
Daniel says all up until the point of Lloyd Llewellyn he had only done 25 pages of actual comics and single illustrations until he sent an Lloyd Llewellyn page in color to Fantagraphics, Fantagraphics gave him his own comic, except it was in black and white, the cover and back being colored which fits the whole aesthetic of the magazine and the time period its paying homage to. Its like reading a black and white sci fi noir film.
Dan says he isn’t particularly proud of his work in “The Manly World of Lloyd Llewellyn” it was one of his first projects and he says he was working himself up to “Triple A Baseball”. He said writing Lloyd Llewellyn was a way of exorcising pop culture demons and trivia he’d gathered, pop culture from 1948-1966. He thought there was a market for comics that referenced “Dragnet” and Mickey Spillane novels, he said the target audience turned out to be ex hippies who thought it was a satire of the pre 1967 culture they hated and younger kids who were into “Hep Cat” culture and hated anything post 1966.
The series lasted from 1985 to 1994, in it he pays homage to various pop culture relics from the 1950-1966 period including Red Sovine and Burl Ives lyrics, DC comics of the early 1960’s, characters that are similar to Lee Hazlewood, Esquerita, Alfred E. Newman, Sylvester P. Smythe, Ed “Big Daddy” Roth monsters, 1950’s “Super Duck” and “Plastic Man”, movies like “Detour”, “Devil Thumbs A Ride”, “Touch of Evil”, “Brainac”, “Thrill Killers”, “Homicidal”, “Straight Jacket” and “Psycho” and TV shows like “Dragnet”. Despite what Clowes says (and his later stuff is better) I wasn’t bored one minute with this thing. I loved this world, I’ve read worse and won’t review those on here.
In this book is the foreword and afterward to the first version of this collection called simply “#$@&! Parts one and two”. This book is a must for Daniel Clowes fans, problem is this book is out of print and rare. While “Fantagraphics” is one of my favorite companies out there, their refusal to republish past stuff, even in limited quantities makes me insanely mad. The prices are utterly fucking ridiculous, I was lucky to get this copy for 150 bucks from Australia. Utterly ridiculous. From “Fantagraphics” point of view they probably wonder why they should reprint something barely anybody knows or cares about but the problem is they do it all the time. I wish they’d give Lloyd Llewellyn the same treatment as Dan’s other work like “Velvet Glove Cast In Iron” and “Eight Ball”. There is stuff released that is selling on ebay and various sites for insane amounts of money I would never pay, no matter how much I want it. Until I started searching I didn’t think I’d ever read “The Manly World of Lloyd Llewellyn” and I despaired of ever seeing this visual white noise. There is a lot out there I want to see but never will because of insane fucking collectors and sellers who drive the price of something way the fuck up, sure scarcity causes the costs to sky rocket but c’mon, some of these sellers are just ripping desperate schmucks off. (RANT OVER. LOL!)
“The Manly World of Lloyd Llewellyn” was released in a limited print run of 2000 copies, wish they’d do another so all of you out there could experience Clowes’ strange noir, sci fi, retro world. If you want a copy I say do a search on your favorite internet search engine, the physical copies like I have are gonna straight up rape your wallet raw, and on amazon right now the cheapest available copy is 727 bucks! EEEEK!!! When I searched I could find no download links, if you want to search for a copy good luck to you and good luck hunting!
The spice of life: nude strippers, stop motion demons, buckets of fake blood and washed up B movie actors. Makes me weak in the knees so here you got “Debbie Does Damnation” by Eric Brummer, its pretty much an hour long version of his short “Joanna Died and Went to Hell”. Shot on Super 8 and in black and white, the scum and sleaziness just drips out of the screen. Its low budget, its stupid, its offensive and I love it.
So the plot, well, the sound is really shitty on the version I have but from what I could gather, the Devil had his head cut off by two of his lieutenants whom he taught his secrets to, then they betray him and detach his horns which gave him his power, each one has a horn. The Devil needs an uncorrupted soul to get his horns back and Debbie is that uncorrupted soul. One chick is tested out and found wanting, oh and all the souls in hell are naked. If you are found wanting you are eaten by a stop motion, demonic reptile.
Nude chicks with swords, I am sold. Stop motion monsters. SOLD! SOLD! SOLD! So at first the devil despairs of finding the right soul until Debbie shows up, at first her guardian angel tries to keep her from falling into hell but her sins are pulling her down. This cuts from live actors to Barbie dolls, one doll has wings carrying one without. The one without wings who is Debbie falls into hell and the devil’s emissary, a skull spider, leads her to the Devil’s head who gives his instructions and tells her he’ll let her leave hell if she gets his horns. She agrees.
“Debbie Does Damnation” has naked women running all over the place. Fine with me, an hour long tent pole is what this movie will give you. One of the producers is Slain Wayne, a porn producer and director, according to Eric, there is a rare X rated version where Slain put in hardcore close up shots. Looked all over for that one and it seems to be so rare it is nowhere. One of the lieutenants in the movie is played by B movie veteran William Smith who you’ve seen in everything, there is a huge ass battle near the end of the movie to get the devil’s horns, each lieutenant wants the other’s horn to have ultimate power. Yeah I know, pretty retarded but what do you expect from a movie called “Debbie Does Damnation?”
You want to know the ending to “Debbie Does Damnation”? Fuck up a tree and watch it for yourself down below, eat out that link. Give it an orgasm. When I first wrote my post on Eric Brummer’s insane shorts “Electric Flesh” and “Joanna Died and Went to Hell” which “Debbie Does Damnation” is an hour long version of, I had barely any info on Eric. The few points I could find were scattered here and there, that Eric went on to direct porn, which seemed like a natural evolution from this movie. But there was a “making of” that gave a shit load of info on this movie and Eric’s creative process.
Eric says he made this movie for less than 1,000 dollars, which is hard to believe, it seems chicks would want to be paid to run around nude and I mean paid good. I am just wondering how Eric got these women out of their underwear, not to mention he got William Smith, a B movie character actor in his film and I don’t think even somebody like Bill Smith would take peanuts. Maybe he meant it took under 1000 bucks to make the sets and film it, he says that he made his bricks and stones out of cardboard and paper mache, and the armor out of linoleum. He said that this was his last film on Super 8 and that he wanted to go out with a bang, he wanted the movie to cross the line and be super offensive, he also wanted it to be weird and different. He succeeded at the weird and different thing, part of that was the stop motion cut in with the live action, he said he liked the stop motion sequences the best because he was in complete control, and could take his time, he said its harder dealing with live actors who have schedules, gripes, problems etc. He said he lost interest near the end because he was going through a bad break up at the time, it didn’t show, this thing kept my interest through the whole thing.
You also get a lot of dumb dialogue, like this bit between the two lieutenants when their sword fighting each other “C’mon Jean Claude Van Damme Homo!” Speaking of dialogue, through the whole thing, the dialogue doesn’t sink up with the lips. Brummer claims this is on purpose or maybe its because Brummer is making excuses and had little money, he couldn’t go back and fix the dialogue situation. Nonetheless, an hour is a perfect running time for this movie, if it would’ve went any longer it would’ve dragged, another half n’ hour would’ve been way too long. One hour is short and sweet, this was Brummer’s swan song before he started his descent in to the wet Poon Tang rabbit hole. What a way to go!!!
Its always refreshing for me to see practical effects, I know when it comes to movies I sound like a broken record but I can’t stress enough how much I hate CGI over saturation, unless your doing a straight CGI animated movie, if I see your movie has too much CGI there goes my popcorn at the screen and there I am walking out the door. Now when a movie comes along and uses 50/50 practical/CGI or better yet mostly practical (I know CGI can’t really be avoided, my ideal modern movie would be one that uses practical and optical effects through the whole thing). “Baron Against the Demons” is one of those 50/50 movies that is low budget, uses practical and green screen effects. Its a “Heavy Metal” comic strip brought to life and “Heavy Metal” also had a majority of European artists working for it, “Baron Against the Demons” is from Spain, and its unlike anything I’ve seen. Its jaw dropping: scantily clad women, spurting blood, a maniac sword wielding albino, foam rubber puppets, and Catholic fanatics in space. Uh yes tickle that white noise funny bone.
“Baron Against the Demons” was written by Ricarod Ribelle and is a expansion of a short film he did “Exocorio Deus Machine: La Mision”. When watching the movie its kind of hard to figure out the plot, the thing is a bit of a mess, visually its jaw dropping, for a low budget b movie they do get the best for what little money they had. I guess back in the mid to early 2000’s it was still kind of cheaper to use practical effects. From what I gather this takes place at the end of the 21st when demons either from outer space or hell have taken over the world.
A Catholic religious organization called “Exocorio Deus Machine” fight them to gain back control of the earth. The Baron is an fanatical, albino whirlwind of righteous violence, one of the new Crusade’s best warriors, he gets taken prisoner by a witch queen named “Lady Pervertum” she has sex with the Baron unwillingly and tortures him until he gives up his semen to inseminate the Ragnarok beast to breath into existence the anti Christ. This movie is a Gwar concert and a Heavy Metal comic strip rolled up in one.
The creatures and costumes are really Tokusatsu like, this seems like a “Power Rangers” for adults. The funny thing is, the only real nudity shown in the movie is the sex slaves carrying mutant babies and all those sex slaves are big titted foam rubber chicks in leather S and M get ups. In fact “Baron Against the Demons” plays on the pleasure/pain thing a lot throughout the movie. Also there is clown androids who laugh constantly and work for Lady Pervertum, the androids start to evolve, becoming religious, burying each other and worshiping the Baron as their messiah. Yeah this fucking movie is insane.
The Baron is bad ass, after being shot at, beaten, and tortured he still fights like a banshee not caring if he literally bleeds to death until all evil is exterminated off the face of the earth. He is a fanatical Catholic neo crusader but he finds out that there is much more going on with himself than just serving his Catholic war organization. Maybe its a language barrier but again this movie is all over the place, there is so many different elements, creatures and characters just thrown in a huge blender. Depending on what your tastes are like this movie will be the best thing you ever tasted (me) or you’ll spit it out and rinse your mouth out with salt water.
In “Baron Against the Demons” Satan shows up as a giant, red eyed worm waiting for the anti Christ to be born, it looks like a practical effect creature filmed and put into a computer to make it see through. One thing this movie really excels at is the various costumes and creatures in this movie, really the whole look and aesthetic of the movie overpowers the scattershot story, again this really reminds me of a “Heavy Metal” magazine comic strip. Its European, its erotic, its violent and it makes no sense.
So would I recommend this? Hell yes I will, this is one I wish more people watched and talked about. I’ve looked for more info on this movie and it was very bare bones when it came to finding info. The cast is all Spanish, there is supposedly a region 2 DVD out there with English overdubbed that was released, it isn’t streaming anywhere on any platform. Damn shame, this would be up Prime’s and/or Tubi’s dark, b movie alley.
This movie can’t make up its mind if its a weird S and M movie, a sci fi movie, a post apocalyptic movie, a horror movie etc. Its all those god dammit!!! “Baron Against the Demons” is a experience you won’t yet forget. Guaranteed, even if you hate it. So where do you experience…uh this thing on a physical plane? Well try here: In non existent.
“Rotting Forest Edition” is an apt title for this tape. It seems at any moment that the music itself is gonna fall apart like a rotting tree, while you have tremolo picking throughout there is strange bells and noises in the background, mixed in with odd time signatures and shouted, pitch shifted vocals, not your normal black metal shrieks, in fact, the vocals more resemble a blackened crust punk band than a black metal one. “Occulted Death Stance” is one of those bands that is for lack of a better term “odd” they do black metal their way and I would have it no other way.
I got this tape off of “Analogue Worship” and ASKE (Anti Social Kultur England) records released it in limited copies of course. My tape came in a bag with briar thorns. It was tricky trying to get the tape out without getting pricked and to some people, listening to this white noise would be like getting pricked with thorns audio wise, trying to listen to this whirling cacophony of musical destruction without having your ear drums pricked.
Back of bag and tape.Tape shell with sticker.The tape which is a regular recordable tape.The insert with artwork and lyrics sheet.Back of tape insert.
The tape you get is the recordable type which is typical with most of these releases. These things are literally made by hand, this is the raw deal, my friends. Lo Fi experimental black metal that bludgeons for some nineteen minutes plus and makes no arrogant bones about itself. Occulted Death Stance’s albums vary in sound, this one is more straight forward black metal, well, as “straight forward” as a band like them can get, its still bizarre but some of their other releases are more off the wall and I will post some of those in the future. So if you want something different this tape will be up your weird and twisted alley.
When I was a youngster, I remember looking at the comics rack in our local liquor store, “George’s Liquor”. Old man George was a curmudgeonly old man who smoked a big cigar, this was before there was laws to ban indoor smoking. George’s store had two pieces, the back, separated by a huge black curtain had all the booze, and porno mags, the front of the store had all the soda, 5 cents to 25 cent candy, regular magazines and the comics. George would get annoyed at us and grunt “You kids just gonna stand there and read those picture books are you gonna buy summin’?” Was his common refrain, what George didn’t know was he threw all the comics in one section, the DC, the Marvel and the underground ones. As a kid I would gravitate towards the weirder comics, I still read the super hero ones but I was more interested in the “Conan the Barbarian” comics than the Superman and Spider-man comics, the “Conan” comics were pretty racy and as a young boy I felt funny looking at Conan laying on top of the scantly clad women in the issue. I promptly bought two issues before my mom caught me reading them and threw them away. One day, browsing the comics I came across a cover that was completely different from all the comics populating the rack, it said “Weirdo” and the cover was creepy, I picked it up, after thumbing through it I knew it was something my mom would throw away if I bought it and then recommend I see a psychiatrist. There was weird people having sex, indiscriminate violence and creepiness that sprang up and hit me between my nine year old eyes. I felt like it was something I shouldn’t be reading and through the years it sat in the back of my subconscious growing like a poisonous mushroom in the dark basement of my mind until it came full grown.
So after buying the “Zap Comix” box set, and reading the supplemental material the poisonous mushroom reared its ugly head in the basement. Robert Crumb, of “Fritz the Cat”, “Keep on Truckin'” fame founded “Zap” and invited his artist friends to make “Zap Comix”, the first underground comic to spurn on the movement, not the first underground comic but the one to spread independent comics to more widespread notoriety. Robert wanted to bring in more blood to “Zap” newer artists besides Spain, Robert Williams, S. Clay Wilson, Rick Griffin, Gilbert Shelton and Victor Moscoso. They put it to a vote and Robert got outvoted, undeterred, Robert decided he was gonna start another magazine featuring new up and comers, as well as the old masters of the underground comics called “Weirdo”. In fact most of the “Zap” crew would contribute to “Weirdo”.
“The whole idea for “Weirdo” magazine came to me in a flash in the fall of 1980. I was performing my daily meditation exercise one day when the vision of this kooky, screwball magazine erupted in all its tacky, low-life, dumb-ass essence, a style-mix of the old 1940’s and 1950’s girlie-and-cartoon ‘joke books,’ Harvey Kurtzman’s early MAD and Humbug, their sleazy imitator, and the self published ‘punk zines’ of the period. I got very excited. I became obsessed,” Crumb wrote.
Spain’s (from “Zap”) contribution among others in the 2nd issue of “Weirdo”Robert Williams (from “Zap”) contribution to issue 7.Crumb would reprint ads from the old men’s magazines. This being one of them in issue 2.
Crumb took his idea to Ron “Baba” Turner of “Last Gasp Eco Funny Comix” who’d published both Crumb and his wife before. Ron said Crumb had a deal if Crumb did the covers and had artwork in each issue which Crumb agreed to. Crumb’s covers mimicked the old “Humbug” and “MAD” magazine covers with small illustrations populating the borders. Crumb also had a lively letter section, most of the letters coming from artists who would go on to do more things in the future, people like Craig Yoe, etc., future filmmaker Terry Zwigoff, who would go on to do the “Crumb” documentary, “Ghost World”, “Bad Santa” etc. who was friends with the Crumbs took photos for the infamous fumettis for “Weirdo” hosted a love and relationship advice column that was humorous in the letters section.
Crumb was inspired by the “photo funnies” from the men’s magazines of the 1940’s and 1950’s, magazines like “Titter” and “Wink” not to mention the ones Kurtzman made for “Humbug”.
Where Crumb got inspiration for the “photo funnies”. He featured this in issue 7.
The Italian magazines called them “fumetti” and they were really popular in Mexico but called “Fotonovelas”. Crumb put his own fetish like spin on it, his fumettis normally featured women with muscular legs and big asses, sometimes Crumb took the photos himself and sometimes he employed outside photographers but didn’t like how they turned out. Zwigoff was one who did some of the photography. These were widely unpopular with the “Weirdo” readership who wanted more comics, in fact, they were widely panned through out the letter’s section. Crumb didn’t care, until almost the end of his editorship he kept on featuring them, personally I think they added something different to an otherwise straight comic magazine, also some of the chicks Crumb picked are pretty hot.
Crumb also featured comics from people who weren’t practicing artists, people like prisoners, the insane and amateurs if he found the content interesting. One prisoner sent Crumb comics from his experiences in prison and Crumb put them in the magazine. Macedonio was a cartoonist who went to prison for assault. His work featured in issue 5.
Not to mention he put on the back cover of an issue a rambling, paranoid schizo screed from Francis E Dec, Dec was a disbarred lawyer who warned about the “Communist Computer God” he thought the CIA was always after him. Dec would send his ranting to random people whose addresses he found in the phone book and he would send them to heads of companies and the government. Crumb published this stuff along with the address to Dec’s house to get even more rants.
Francis Dec’s rant on the back of issue 8.
He would also re publish found pieces, 1950’s era post cards from a backwoods artist named Norman Pettingill whose cartoons featured insanity in numerous backwoods settings, forests, rough and tumble bars etc. He also reprinted cartoons from 1940’s-50’s era specialty magazines.
Norman Pettingill, Backwoods artist, retro post cards featured in issue 2.Norman Pettingill post card from issue 2.Reprints from the 1940’s jazz magazine “Record Collector” cartoons by future animator Gene Deitch, from issue 3.Old humorist pieces from different eras, re-published in issue 5.A re printing from the African American magazine “Hep” from the 1950’s in issue 6.
And comics from such obscure places as self published underground black newspapers. “A xerox of a xerox” from an elderly black man by the name of Eugene Teal that featured frogs in various, strange situations. Nobody else outside of Crumb would republish stuff so raw and illiterate. Stuff like this is what made Crumb’s editorship one of the best.
Eugene Teal’s “Frog funnies” from issue 3
B.N. Duncan headed “Teletimes” where he published poems, writings and drawings from the down and out and homeless of the Berkley area. Through him Crumb found some of the material that would be featured in “Weirdo”.
BN Duncan’s controversial comic in issue 1.
He featured work from the nutso, underground satire religion “Church of the Sub Genius” (Anybody want SLACK?! PRAISE BOB) whose messiah is con artist, insane, pipe smoking, salesman named J.R. “Bob Dobbs”. Some call them a cult and I agree because I know first hand. I am part of it, and so should you. WE ACCEPT HIM WE ACCEPT ONE OF US ONE OF US. FROP FOR ALL.
Church of the Sub Genius “religious” tract from issue 1.Article on the Church of Sub Genius “Devival Meeting” by underground cartoonist Jay Kinney who is a fellow cult member. From issue 4.
“Weirdo” also lampooned and made fun of the then current pop culture of the time. Various artists attacked sacred cows like traditional Sunday comic strips, famous ads of the time and so called “good causes” that sent some people in a tizzy over in the letters section. Not only that, gender, sex, age, race etc. would be lampooned, again people in the letters section would get in a tizzy and if a lot of this stuff was published these days, the artist and the publisher would get “cancelled” and have their personal lives destroyed. But “Weirdo” was published when people could take a joke and realize what satire was.
Crumb’s back cover on issue 1 mocking the Calvin Klein Jeans ads of the day featuring a young Brooke Shields.Ace Backwards comic strip mocking traditional Sunday strips.Future “Ren and Stimpy” creator John Kricfalusi’s comic mocking “The Flintstones” made while working at Hanna Barbera, which he posted all around the office getting it yanked down. Bill Wray inked it and fellow cartoonist Jeff John sent it to “Weirdo”. Issue 9.Tom Bertino’s comic satirizing racist stereotypes and attitudes. Tom Bertino went on to do animation and special effects for “Back to the Future” and “Terminator” among other things. He is one of the head guys at Industrial Light and Magic. This strip got a lot of hate letters from people who didn’t understand the satire, Crumb told them to fuck off. From issue 4.
Causing more controversy Crumb put insane/genius Stanislav Szukalski master sculptor and painter who also had a theory called “Zermatism”, he believed all communists, fascists, bullies, criminals and thugs are descended from yetis who raped humans after the Great Global Flood. He wrote thousands of pages on his theory and sculpted and painted based on it, of course, the problem was some of Szukalski’s theories lead to obvious racist ends. Crumb didn’t care about that, if a person was crazy and different enough their work got published in “Weirdo”. As well as pieces by Oisif Egaux “explaining” sexuality and control in a scattershot way.
Stanislav’s “Zermatism” biological theory in Weirdo issue 1.Oisif Equax’s “essay” on sexuality and societal control. Issue 5.
During Crumb’s tenure the underground “Mini Comix” movement was alive and well and were appearing everywhere, Crumb promoted these in his magazine.
As well as promoting work from his street dwelling, slightly crazy younger brother Max.
Crumb’s brother Max’s gallery in issue 3.
The magazine featured a lot of artists that would go on to do bigger things, like John K. of “Ren and Stimpy” fame, Drew Friedman, Kaz (who went on to work for “Sponge Bob Square Pants), Daniel Clowes etc.
Jeff John, later animation supervisor at Hanna Barbera and future editor and chief of Guns n’ Ammo magazine. Weirdo issue 6.Kaz, who went on to do his own weekly strip “Underworld” and then went on to work on “Sponge Bob Squarepants”.Drew Friedman who has done numerous portraits and strips of older movie stars, TV stars and musicians.Ace Backwards one pager. Issue 4.From underground cartoonist Robert Armstrong’s sketchbook, issue 4.Dori Seda’s first contribution to underground comics. “Bloods in Space” about gang bangers in outer space.John Holmstrom of “Punk” magazine, Peter Bagge (who becomes the future editor of “Weirdo” and JD King (future famous illustrator) issue 3.Elinore Norflus’ “Helen Hippo, the Trippy Hippy” Norflus got a lot of grief in the letters section for her artwork which was really rough but story wise she had it. Crumb would publish stuff like this all the time. From issue 7.
Apparently, any artist who appeared in “Weirdo” got 50 bucks a page. However, according to Crumb getting those checks was like squeezing water from a stone. Crumb claimed that he had to stand over publisher Ron Turner’s back to make sure Ron made out those checks and he claimed Ron would drag his feet, get distracted, order lunch and do other things. Robert would badger Ron until he got all those checks for the artist. However, Ron claims that it wasn’t that easy, that the names, Social Security numbers for tax purposes and other things had to be hashed out before a check was written and sent out. Whatever the case Robert got burned out in 1983 on being a editor for “Weirdo”, he was sick of dealing with artist’s and reader’s complaints and just wanted to draw. So he passed the torch to Peter Bagge of “Hate” and “Comical Funnies” fame, after submitting stuff Crumb straight up asked him if he wanted to take over “Weirdo”. At first Bagge didn’t think he was serious, but Robert insisted. Bagge was moving from New York to Seattle because his wife was co owning a deli business with her sister whose husband was a Seattle Seahawks football player. Peter Bagge was more punk rock, New York, than Crumb who was ex hippie and more into pre 1940’s music and from laid back Berkley. Bagge was considered the “smart ass” and brought along his smart ass friends from New York and Seattle to help put material in “Weirdo”. Starting with issue 10 Bagge came on ragin’. “Weirdo” was in good hands.
A zine from kids living in Dallas, Texas in the early 1930’s found my artist Mark Newgarden. Published in Issue 10.Ed “Big Daddy” Roth gallery in issue 11.More Ed “Big Daddy” Roth. Issue 11.Ray Pettibon gallery. Issue 13.Robert Williams painting gallery. Issue 13.Illustrations of musical instruments from Arne. In Issue 13
There was also an “Ugly Madonna” art contest and as well as a “Ugly Art” contest where people submitted their ugliest art. A lot of the contributions came from future famous cartoonists and animators as well as underground cartoonists.
Ugly Madonna contest winners and runner ups. From issue 13.Winners of the “Ugly Art” Contest. Issue 15.
As per his agreement with the publisher, Last Gasp, Crumb continued to do covers and comics, even though he wasn’t a editor. Some of his best work was during Bagge’s tenure as editor in my opinion.
Crumb does his comic version of “Pyschopathia Sexualis” by Kraft Ebbing. Issue 13.Another page from Crumb’s interpretation of Kraft-Ebbing’s fetish classic. Issue 13.Crumb does Philip K. Dick’s “religious revelation” in issue 17, some of his best work in my opinion.
Bagge’s tenure also brought about more biographical pieces, like Bagge’s experience as a kid dealing with an actual “Weirdo”. He also encouraged other cartoonists and letter writers to submit their experiences on dealing with actual rejects and they all complied. Another example is Bruce Carleton’s (Bruce did work for “Punk” and “Screw” magazine) illustrated diary of being in the Malay archipelago and his sexscapades.
Editor Bagge’s “The Reject” on his experiences dealing with a actual reject as a kid in school. Issue 10.B. Carleton’s sexual journal of his stay in Malay. Issue 11.B. Carleton’s sexual journal of his stay in Malay. (That rhymed!) Issue 11.
Various work got featured during Bagge’s tenure from his fellow School of Visual Arts peers. SVA had as teachers Will Eisner (The Spirit), Harvey Kurtzman (as mentioned “Humbug” and “Mad” magazine), and Art Spiegelman (of “Maus”, “RAW magazine” and “Garbage Pail Kids” fame, more about him later). As well as artist Rory Hayes whom artist Bill Griffith (Zippy the Pinhead) does a introduction for. There is something wrong with Rory’s comics, the man is deeply disturbed but he is also a genius, Rory died at 34 years old from a drug overdose when Crumb published him in “Snatch Comics”, Janis Joplin (yes that one) came over and read Crumb the riot act Crumb wrote “She said “Look, I have to talk to you this is serious, you know I think you guys are making a big mistake putting this Rory Hayes guy in your comics. The rest of you guys are doing this kind of funny stuff about sex and all that, but this guy is just sick, he’s a psycho.” Some of the “Zap” crew returns, mainly Spain and S. Clay Wilson with his “Checkered Demon” character, Wilson’s “Checkered Demon” would drive this easily offended generation into the nuthouse.
Rory Hayes with an introduction comic by Bill Griffith, from issue 12.J.D. King mocks perennial drunk, murdering senator Teddy “Chappy” Kennedy on the back of issue 14.Mark Zingarelli in issue 16 Mark was a real prolific contributor to “Weirdo” during Bagge’s tenure.Robert and Aline (The Bunch) Crumb’s collaboration, one of many they do throughout “Weirdo”s run.Contribution from Kim Deitch, son of Gene who did cartoon work in the “Record Collector” which I posted. Issue 16.Dennis Worden’s dirty and hilarious comic from issue 16.S. Clay Wilson’s “Checkered Demon” makes one of his numerous reappearances in issue 17.
Bagge also being tight with the “Punk Magazine” crew republished some stuff from the than defunct magazine in “Weirdo”, again I love this reprinted material. It was one of the more interesting features of “Weirdo” exposing people to something they hadn’t read or seen yet.
Spread from John Holmstrom’s “Punk Magazine” from issue 16.
Bagge started getting “Weirdo” burn out like Crumb (he put “Weirdo” together on his kitchen table and would drive down to Berkley!) he got burned out dealing with pissy artists and apparently Ron Turner, the publisher didn’t think too much of Bagge. Bagge was wanting to just do his own art and wanted to do his own “Hate Comix” and “Neat Comix”. The reins went over to “The Bunch”, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, Robert’s wife who have previously got worked published in “Wimmen Comix”, “Power Pak”, “Twisted Sisters” etc. among other publications. She came on board on issue 18 in 1987. She was called “The Bunch” because Crumb had a a fussy, female character drawn like his future wife called “The Bunch” people called her that and it stuck. From the beginning of the magazine, the Crumb’s daughter, Sophie, had been born and living. Some of her art is in these issues, Aline’s issues lean more towards the biographical end of things, and depending on the story they can be interesting, hilarious or boring. Aline also brought to light more female artists, however, there was less found items and less galleries which were high lights for me. Aline’s run is my least favorite, it isn’t bad, I just like Crumb and Bagge’s insane editorship, Aline’s is more “professional” well, as professional as you can get editing a magazine like “Weirdo”. Bagge did a guest editorship on issue 25 while Aline had a holiday in France.
Justin Green does a autobiographical piece with illustrations. The autobiographical bent would be more prominent throughout the Bunch’s editorship. From issue 18.Terry Zwigoff’s story on the Valmor company, a company that marketed products to black people. Terry talks of his obsession of collecting as much ads and labels from the defunct company as he can. Issue 18.Robert Armstrong’s “Mickey Rat” character makes an appearance in issue 21.A memorial for Dori Seda, who had done work for “Weirdo”, dying of complications of pneumonia and black lung. Harvey Pekar of “American Splendor” does a column, while I am a fan of Pekar, his column is a little up its ass and takes itself too seriously. Insisting comics shouldn’t be escapist and address serious matters. Issue 22.Lisa Lee, a friend of Aline who she met in her aerobics class, reviews zines. Zines were a huge part of the 1980’s to 1990’s underground culture. Issue 23.One of many of Ted Jouflas’ contributions to “Weirdo”. Issue 23.Bill Griffith appears in issue 24, talking about his struggle of straddling the “straight” world of Sunday funnies with his “Zippy the Pin Head” strip and the “underground” comics world.Robert Crumb’s parody of the then famous “Omaha The Cat Dancer” a comic Crumb admired. From issue 24.A compilation illustration of different artists who did work for “Weirdo”. Colin Turner, son of publisher Ron, said George and Leonardo DiCaprio (yes that one) were over for Thanksgiving. Him and Leo being bored added their own strange contributions at the bottom of the illustration. From issue 24.Bagge’s guest issue, him and Daniel Clowes of “Eight Ball”, “Ghost World” among others fame do a collaboration. Bagge writes and Clowes illustrates. Issue 25.
With issue 27 the Crumb’s were ready to hang it up, Aline wanted to really move to France. Winters, CA was getting over run with Mc Mansions, and Aline didn’t like her daughter using words like “duh” and they said “the Christian right were taking over the country” so they moved to France. They had a lot of money and bought a chateau Ron Turner was going to reprint all of the “Weirdo” issues and wanted the Crumb’s to do one more to promote the reprints. They obliged with the last issue, 28. The issue was an “International Issue” and the title was in French “Verre D’eau” which means “glass of water” they called it that because “Weirdo” phonetically to the french sounds close to “Verre D’eau”. On the cover was just as a lone glass of water. In my opinion “Weirdo” goes out not with a bang but a whimper. In my opinion this was the weakest issue, its still good and features art from not only America but Europe too. However, my problems aren’t with the art, its the message, when it comes to politics or religion I don’t like to be preached at. I admire when people can get their point across in a intelligent and original manner, even if I disagree with their point of view. Convince me, don’t yell in my face and yell in my face this issue does. I am not going to tell you where I line up politically, this blog isn’t about that and it is nobody’s business, hell, I might even agree with everything politically in this issue but think the execution is bad. Too much of this in the issue.
Charles Burns and Art Spiegelman do back page art for “Weirdo” which was really “weird” since Art and Robert had a friendly rivalry going. Art’s “Raw” was more artistic and European, “Weirdo” was more gutter and lower level American. In fact, Art said he thought “Weirdo” was trash. Apparently he thought Robert’s idea of releasing a phone book size “Weirdo” and publishing every submission he got was an interesting and new idea and thought he should’ve gone in that direction. From issue 27.Spain’s contribution to the last issue, while Spain’s socialist criticisms of society in his previous comics were smart and didn’t hit you over the head. This time he used the hammer and I just rolled my eyes. Issue 28.
In the last issue there was a lot of controversy, especially with Crumb’s parodies of racist and anti-Semitic views and attitudes. Again he used satire to expose this but for a lot of stupid people it flew over their heads. In fact, a white nationalist zine called “Race and Reality” republished the two comics thinking them serious which shows how far it flew over their heads, that shouldn’t surprise anybody, any person who goose steps, wears a brown uniform and lives in their mother’s basement with no job isn’t too smart of a person. Art Spiegelman pointed out to Crumb how satire can be misinterpreted and he shouldn’t have ever published the comics. Crumb dismissed this and said it wasn’t his responsibility if some idiots took satire seriously and I agree, if everybody went around worried that some idiot was gonna take their creative work out of context and get some bad influence out of it nothing would be created. In my mind, that line of reasoning can be used to censor works and is a dangerous line of thinking, Spiegelman, a life long artist himself should know better. So Trigger Warning, if you get offended scroll down the page, kids this is what we call “SATIRE” its meant to shed light on something that is very dark in a humorous or over the top way, you’ve been warned.
A satire on racist attitudes. From issue 28.A satire of anti-Semitic attitudes. Issue 28.
If you end up being convinced you need to dive into the cesspool that is “Weirdo” and come up smelling like shit, you should get the recently released “The Book of Weirdo” by Jon B. Cooke, Drew Friedman does the cover, the book goes into way more detail than I did in this post, the guy searches every nook and cranny of the “Weirdo” universe and anybody even tangentially connected to the magazine. Released by Last Gasp and highly recommended. So many artists were showcased in “Weirdo” that I left out, Savage Pencil, R.L. Crabb, Phoebe Gloeckner, Carel Moiseiwitsch etc. If you want a good picture of the underground culture of the 1980’s and early 1990’s there is no better place to look than “Weirdo”.
“The Book of Weirdo” by Jon B. Cooke released by Last Gasp. Cover by Drew Friedman.
So where do you become a “Weirdo”? Well, try looking on ebay or amazon, cheap physical copies are still available. I am one of those old crusty guys that prefers the physical copy but if your one of these young whippersnappers that like to see things on these new fangled thingamajigs you can go here: https://getcomics.info/other-comics/weirdo-1-28/
And I highly recommend the book “The Book of Weirdo” after you peruse or read all the issues, it goes more in depth than I ever could. The book is very comprehensive and every person having anything to do with “Weirdo” is interviewed. Get it here: https://www.amazon.com/Book-Weirdo-Retrospective-Legendary-Anthology/dp/0867198753
If “Bleeding Skull” was an archeologist, they’d be the type who specialize in digging up something nobody really cares about. They’d be that weird archeologist who doesn’t go looking and digging for rare dinosaur bones, treasure laden tombs and forgotten cities that would wow the world and get them a show on “The History Channel”, instead they go looking for dinosaur dung and broken shards of pottery from a tribe nobody gives a shit about. But you see, they serve a purpose, sometimes that dung is the dung of a dinosaur that hasn’t been discovered yet and that pottery might have veins of gold in it, though thats very rare. “Bleeding Skull” serves that purpose in the world, they dig up these movies that some crazy high school student or dad who wanted to be a film maker made using a cheap camcorder. The “Shot-On-Video” i.e. “SOV” movies, no budget travesties that are white noise to the nth degree, visual white noise that will have your eyes popping out of your head. Some of these movies actually saw distribution and ended up on the racks of video rental stores and some, like “Boarding House”, were actually fucking released to theaters. In other words, movies nobody gives a shit about. They also dig up really low budget movies with has been actors or wannabe actors. I prefer these weird archeologists, God speed their mission!!!
I discovered this web site through their first book “Bleeding Skull: A 1980’s Trash Odyssey”, it was a recommended book on Amazon because of my likes. I was automatically interested, to be honest the first SOV movie I saw was “Black Devil Doll From Hell” because it was in the “Psychotronic Film Guide”. “Black Devil Doll” rended my consciousness, and I couldn’t get it out of my head, it was like a black, carnivorous slug that bored its self into my brain and started to suck. It was a train wreck, it was offensive, dirty, nasty, no budget sleaze I wanted to hate it but couldn’t. I needed to find more like this, and “Bleeding Skull” ran to the rescue.
“Bleeding Skull” was founded by Joseph A Ziemba in 2004, to review these movies barely anybody knew existed. Again the archeologist digging deep in the ground for dinosaur poo hoping to find a new species. Dan Budnik was also involved in the beginning, reading his old reviews and articles in the book and web site always kept me in stitches, hope he is writing jokes for some show now. I love “Bleeding Skull”, however, the site is what I call a “wallet emptier”, they find movies all the time that I have to see. Most of them are impossible to find on youtube or as a torrent. The chase is actually better than the catch most of the time, when I see some of these movies I am kind of like “Ehhhh” but then I will find that new species of dinosaur and gold veins in that broken pottery and I’ll slap myself silly thinking, “why didn’t I find out about this earlier?!” Joe is a pretty cool guy too, when he reviewed “The Book of Bloody Stories Trilogy” I looked all over for it to no avail, in desperation I messaged him not expecting a response but I got one, he directed me to where it could be found all if which I document here: https://www.noisepuncher.net/2020/11/24/das-buch-der-blutigen-geschichten-translated-the-book-of-bloody-stories-aka-bloddy-curse-1987-1991/
“Bleeding Skull” also teamed up with Mondo Video, a branch of the Alamo Drafthouse to release a few of these hard to find movies, I recommend “Blonde Death” and “Night Feeder” all of which I will review at a later date. Now they’ve teamed up with AGFA and re released even more of these impossible to find movies. All of this is on their web site, reviews, features (some of which dig into new loads of visual white noise), where to buy copies of their first book, the second one “Bleeding Skull: A 1990’s Trash Odyssey” is set to come out this summer and I’ve already pre ordered it. So if movies with titles like “Satan’s Blade”, “Black Devil Doll From Hell”, “Alien Predator”, “Cards of Death” etc. than go right fucking now to this web site: http://bleedingskull.com/
So what to say about this piece of visual white noise? Its a horror movie…about killer “Shrunken Heads”. Who would make such a movie you ask? Richard Elfman (director), Danny’s brother and Charles Band (producer) of Full Moon infamy of course. You think any major studio would touch a movie called “Shrunken Heads” about killer shrunken heads? Well they make shit like “Avatar” and “Captain Marvel” so its possible they would make something like this but it wouldn’t be executed the same way this was, that is weird and creepy. A gang of 30 year olds harass 12 year old boys and the gang leader’s girl looks like she is 12…uh yeah this movie is off to a rip roarin’ start.
The three boys are Tommy (Aeryk Egan), Freddy (Darris Love who has been in a whole bunch of stuff like “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) and Billy (Bo Sharon) who sit around, read comic books and in Tommy’s case, work in his dad’s grocery store. The creepy adult gang called “the Vipers” picks on them and is led by Vinnie (A.J. Damato) whose 12 year old girlfriend Sally (Rebecca Herbst who you’ve seen in every 1990’s sitcom when one of the major characters needed a love interest for that episode) has a crush on Tommy, somebody actually her own age. The boys are also friends with a Haitian Voodoo priest who runs a comic book stand in their neighborhood, Mr. Sumatra (played by the late great Julius Harris who you’ve seen in everything). Tommy intent on getting revenge on Vinnie, kisses Sally and films his gang ripping off a car, he hands the tape over to the cops and the gang gets arrested. Vinnie gets away and goes to the local mob boss Moe (played by Meg Foster in male drag, love this actress, she is in so many low budget, B movies it isn’t even funny) to tell her and get money to bail out his buds. Moe also wants Vinnie to kidnap the boys, after getting out of prison the Vipers do just that but the boys get loose and steal bags of gambling slips to hand over to the cops, Moe orders Vinnie to kill them.
Yep kids get iced in this movie, this early in the movie you get an underage girl dating a 30 year old grease ball, a transgender mob leader and kids getting killed for gambling slips. Wooo. Damn but things are about to get hotter because Mr. Sumatra knows what really happened and he slips into the funeral home to get the murdered kid’s heads, he shrinks them and revives them with a voodoo ritual to get revenge. Each one has a different power, Tommy can shock people, Freddy can get people with a switch blade he carries in his mouth and Billy has vampire teeth that sucks people dry. Mr. Sumatra teaches them how to use their powers and did I mention these Shrunken Heads can fly? He then sends them out to get revenge.
They first practice on other criminals before moving up to the Viper gang and Moe. Sally still has the hots for Tommy and has a picture of him by her bed which later leads to some uh hum uncomfortable and laughable scenes. Whoever wrote this was a fucking genius…the person probably did too much coke and drank too much cheap vodka. Out this popped and the only person they could get to direct something this insane was Richard Elfman, who directed the awesome disasterpiece “Forbidden Zone”, then he gets his brother, Danny Elfman, who did music for Tim Burton’s “Batman” and was the lead singer of Oingo Boingo to do the music for his movie, and not only that the Oingo Boingo song “No One Lives Forever” in the movie. They only spent a million (and it shows) on this thing, practicing nepotism, Richard puts his son Bodhi in as the Viper gang member, Booger and this was Full Moon’s first theatrical release since most of all of Band and company’s releases were straight to video or cable. I couldn’t find the box office take on this thing, I imagine it wasn’t that big of take.
I don’t want to spoil too much but the people who get killed by the “Shrunken Heads” become zombies who don’t kill and eat people, they pick up litter, clean graffiti off walls and help old ladies across the street. Yep this visual white noise is insane, some are gonna see this as a mess, this is damn beautiful mess son and I enjoyed every damn minute of it. I wasn’t bored like I was at Marvel’s “Endgame”, I kept looking down at my phone wondering when this bloated, overripe, CGI enhanced piece of shit was gonna end so I could go to the taco shop outside the mall. Flying, killer, “Shrunken Heads”, what more can you ask for?
He pretty much said “I took the shapes and cartoon spare parts from comic history and rearranged them and subverted them. If it made me laugh I used it. I actually thought of “Underworld” as an underground comics parody of daily newspaper comics when I started.” He said he gets ideas from listening to people on the street, or reimagining other comic strips he’d read and twisting the humor, he also filters his feelings that day through his comics.
Kaz says “Underworld” is his escape and he feels like a kid again when he works on it. The strip appears in various alternative weeklies across the country, well, the ones that still print at least. Kaz has gone onto work as a writer for “SpongeBob SquarePants” (you can see Kaz’ absurdist humor in a lot of the episodes he wrote) and Disney’s “Phineas and Ferb”, Kaz actually got an Emmy nomination for an episode he wrote. “Underworld” is a strip that will either give you a chuckle or make you laugh so hard you shit your pants and you’ll want to go back and read the strip and show it to your friends. Some ideas work and some don’t, but one thing you’ll get is something different, absurd and weird in Kaz’s world than what you’d get in normal comic strips. There is some one off characters but the reoccurring ones are Snuff (a Popeye look alike) and Creep Rat (a twisted Mickey Mouse) two low rent crooks who are constantly getting into trouble, Nuzzle the Junkie always looking for a hit, Smoking Cat, Petit Mort, Newton the big man with the small head, Zoot Rumpus and Bunky the Weird Man Baby. Fantagraphics released this bad boy in hardcover it features the best of 23 years of the weekly comic, there is a few pages in color and its mostly in black and white. Another feature that pops up is “Kaz’s Girls”, a strip of different girls with, shall we say, “unique” qualities and features, “Kaz’s Sketchbook” a one panel strip of drawings from, what else, his sketchbook and “Lists” where Nuzzle just lists a bunch of weird and random shit in each panel. “Underworld” is a must have for anybody who loves twisted, different and weird comics.
