#World Inferno Friendship Society

[rustbeltjessie]

the marriage of sulfur and mercury // Jessie Lynn McMains, March 2024

I've been working on this Peter Lorre/World Inferno inspired piece for ages, but yesterday, on the sixtieth anniversary of Peter's death, I finally finished it. (While listening to Addicted to Bad Ideas, natch.)

It's an altered book assemblage, featuring both collage elements (the book pages themselves, and some Weimar erotica) and my own drawing/handwriting (the image of Mr. Lorre—based on a promo image from Mad Love, the alchemical symbols, the W/IFS lyrics which inspired this entire thing, and the colorful scribbles). Materials used include: paper, glue, charcoal, graphite, ink, paint, and oil pastel.

[xiaolongbauhaus]

Modern punks never waltzed so good as when we waltzed to World Inferno

[misterpantstherabbit]

I miss you a lot, but I know you're not good for me. :(

[sesatapomang]

the world inferno friendship society

three years ago, I was bored! I wanted to play a new game. I wanted to play a game that:

had good reviews

had anthropomorphic animals

i had never seen game play of before (blind)

That is how I found out about Night in the Woods.

Night in the Woods was a 2d-platformer story game released in 2017 that-at the time-I had HEARD of but never got around to actually seeing anything about it.

So I played Night in the Woods, and it was

WONDERFUL

I can not stress how much that game impacted me. It instantly became one of-if not-my favorite story game of all time.

I started doodling NITW-style drawings in school. I dug into the history and learned about Scott Benson. I scoured through all of his art that I could find and saw some amazing stuff.

However one day, I found this comic Scott Benson had made and posted to itch.io. It was called the Bridgewater Astral League and apparently it was

"A short comic adaptation of an album by the World/Inferno Friendship Society."

What lured me in however were the preview images, which looked like this:

There was a link above but I will post the link here in all of its glory:

I read the comic, and I had no idea what was going on.

I felt confused? Confuzzled? but the art was pretty! But me being me, I wanted to know MORE.

So I looked them up, and then

began my three year long hyper-fixation of the coolest punk band in Brooklyn, New York.

The World Inferno/Friendship Society.

Now I will attempt to give factual information which I may very well get wrong because I am going off the top of my head. Whoops.

The WIFS was started by a man named Peter Ventantonio who would go on to have the stage name Jack Terricloth.

In 1987, before making the WIFS, he formed a punk rock band in New Jersey named Sticks and Stones.

In 1995 he adopted the stage name Jack Terricloth and started to make the songs that would become part of the WIFS. I heard in an interview that one of the Band's most recognizable songs Tattoos Fade (some would call it their "call to arms") was actually made while Jack was in Sticks and Stones but the song was rejected by the other members. I don't know how true this is, this isn't an essay, please take it with a grain of salt. IF however you want to learn more (maybe) accurate information, you can read their wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World/Inferno_Friendship_Society Anywho, yeah. It was a band for sure. Their style was unlike anything I had heard at the time, and it was a PUNK band! I think one person put it best when, in a review of one of their charity albums released this year, he said how Jack wanted to

"Write songs that made you cry like your heart was broken, but dance like you'd been brought back to life at the same time."

(SOURCE)

I will have to continue this later, i don't know if I will. I have final projects to tend to!!! also, I neglected to put this so I am editing it in. Peter (Jack Terricloth) passed away in May of 2021 at the age of 50. R.I.P Jack Terricloth

[soapkaars]

Would love to know y’alls thoughts on the album Addicted to Bad Ideas: Peter Lorre’s Twentieth Century by The World Inferno Friendship Society:

[thechillseekr]

An Infernite-centric World Inferno mini movie/documentary about the 2022 Hallowmas that kicked off this year's Hallowmas!

Look out for some dude in a green beanie 👀

[definitelynotlazav]

god I cannot get over the Hallowmas Live at North Six rendition of Tattoos Fade, specifically the part where a verse of Millicent Didn't Want To Wait For It To Get Better is slipped in right at the end

[witchofbonesandkeys]

Yesterday I lit the 10,000 dead fascists candle on my altar, then did a Halloween spread in my art grimoire inspired by Mischief Brew’s “A Liquor Never Brewed” and the World/Inferno Friendship Society’s “The Devil’s Ball,” while listening to a Mischief Brew + World/Inferno playlist.

[skullfacethermiehead]

this song is always a vibe for me. I'm always a sucker for some good klezmer music

[rustbeltjessie]

Reckless Chants #28.08: One Time I Went To Just the Best Party. A story about the first time I saw the World/Inferno Friendship Society live, plus a pocket inside the front cover which contains a poem titled “WWJTD?,” my tribute to Jack Terricloth.

[rustbeltjessie]

I’m only going to put one W/IFS song here—the one I most feel like hearing right now—because otherwise it would be impossible to narrow it down to two or three.

With dreams so strange and insistent it's no wonder I go around kicking things While I was drunk, I dreamt I could fly I never dreamt things would be bad between you and I

We burn joyfully and we give off light Unalloyed joy, at least for tonight

So take it on the chin! Spit teeth shut up and sing! Like the veins in my arms, like the tattoos on your skin Night upon night, blank cassettes and cigarettes! Like lilacs off the tongue! This was supposed to be fun! This was supposed to be fun

But really, you should just do yourself a favor and listen to my ultimate W/IFS playlist (which I may have to update soon because there’s nothing from Valhalla, Definitely.)

[whimsical-sonic]

i plan to outlive my enemies so i'll stick around till that's done

[razorsadness]

for years, I didn’t listen to Tom Waits or W/IFS as much as I used to. I still listened to them, but there were times when I just couldn’t because it hurt too much, & it hurt too much because of Maggie. see, when we first became besties, she got me into W/IFS & I got her into Tom. & the entirety of our friendship was threaded thru w/ their music. every time they came out w/ new albums we said they’re telling the story of our lives. we saw W/IFS together more times than I can count, & the one time we got to see Tom we were together, too. sometimes we communicated by sending texts or letters that were just lyrics from Tom Waits & World/Inferno songs. & you know how sometimes after a breakup, you can’t listen to your ex’s favorite music, or music that reminds you of them? it was like that, only worse than any romantic breakup I’ve ever had, because we were best friends for over a fucking decade.

[from a journal entry, December 19, 2018]

[luckylunatix]

Halloween costume ideas I had for Stro Bro and his gray elephant-legged lump of a brother

With some of the stuff Strong Sad likes canonically, and some of the characters he's dressed as in the Halloween toons, you can't tell me he wouldn't be a fan of Peter Lorre films. So I drew him as Ugarte from Casablanca. It was hard finding the right balance between his and Lorre's facial features, but at least the color scheme didn't take too much effort to figure out.

The Strong Bad as Chucky art is actually one I made last year (ironically after Halloween had already ended, but I didn't wanna wait for the next Halloween to draw it by the time I thought it up). But I'm still pretty proud of it, so I figured I'd dig it back up and also post it here.

[thechillseekr]

One conversation away from (potentially) joining the Jack Terricloth Foundation!!!!