#it was so hard not to mention danzig but his first solo album came out the year this was set and since blair is a vagrant serial killer

[someotherdog]

another part of the ritual that he loved: watching their faces as they were thinking, entirely visible in their expression. it was almost as if he could literally see the cogs turning. how am i going to get out of this?, they were thinking. how could i hurt him before he hurts me?, they wondered. well, blair wanted to tell them, you won’t and you can’t. no matter how many times he had done this, no matter if the victim was a man or a woman, all their escape attempts failed, and they could rarely overpower him before he got them back. sometimes they’d be able to get a punch or kick in; one even stabbed him in the calf with his own knife, but he’d win in the end.

it was a game. he was a god. god always won.

it seemed noah came to the right conclusion. “good girl!” blair praised her teasingly, rubbing the tip of his nose against her hair. “now that we’ve got that squared away, i might trust you enough to take my hand off your knee… but not just yet.” to demonstrate that, he put more pressure down, increasing their speed just a little. he had to watch the speedometer, make sure she didn’t try to capture the attention of some roadside cop even if she said she wouldn’t. victims lied. blair lied, too. he lied when he said he’d let them go and lied when he said he wasn’t going to hurt them. he lied about whatever he wanted and laughed when they realized the truth of it.

“peter cetera?” blair repeated in disbelief, tone utterly mocking. “my god.” he cribbed most of his musical taste from his twin brother, darby, his hometown’s resident metalhead. typically, blair was the more dominant of the two, but he let his brother take the lead when it came to whatever they listened to. the local record store was run by the only two other people in town with similar tastes in music and fashion—of course, the good people of robichaux labeled them as satanists because they didn’t know any better and watched too much sally jessy raphael—and they imported records from out of the state and sometimes out of the country. until his brother suddenly changed in the seventh grade from the normal trailer trash kid that the twins had always been and delved into the metal scene, blair hadn’t given much of a thought about music. whatever guess who or beatles record his parents played or soft rock like air supply played on the radio was just background noise to him.

“you like chicago? that shit’s for old people, man.” his grip on his knife loosened just a little, head tilting as he started ranting. “you don’t know what’s up and coming then, i’m telling ya. surely you know of metallica, right? they’re not my favorite but ride the lightning is one of the best albums that’s come out in decades, you gotta check it out. my brother liked iron maiden and shit but if i wanted to listen to a bunch of nerds talk about dragons and swords, i’d just go to some dungeons and dragons meetup, y’know?” blair laughed, delighted he had a captive audience. “personally, i like this band called ministry. their first album was some synth-pop duran duran bullshit, but then they came out with twitch and it was so much better. darby said they were posers but…” he sighed, trailing off. it was hard to talk about his twin brother and hard not to talk about his brother.

he was getting distracted.

suddenly, blair shifted his body and pressed the knife against her skin again. “anyway! who cares about that shit right now? clever tactic, though, getting my mind on something else. you’re smarter than i gave you credit for.” he had to blame his distraction on anything but himself, so he decided that she was trying to manipulate him. “too bad i hate smart girls!”

Of course the bargaining wouldn't work. Hell, Noah should know better. It was a tale as old as time: From the movie scripts she read and the parts she auditioned for to the pulp fiction on her shelf at her apartment to the news channels she flipped through before having her TV dinner for the night, victims never survived. Just immortalized, their names and birthdays and maybe an epitaph on a gravestone left to gather dust and dirt in a cemetery. Her throat and chest tightened at the thought that she would become just another memorial.

This couldn't be it, could it?

(If she made it out of this, she'd grovel on those cobblestone steps she always heard her dad talking about when it came to repenting for your sins or wishing for a better life from God. Begging. Noah never saw herself as a beggar, but this would change her. If she got out of this alive, she would...)

Her brain buzzed as it sifted through the thousands of possible sequences of events. If she tried to crash the car, she could kill them both. Or she could get away. Or he could stab her just as she's swerving the car and they'll flip, but he'll somehow get away unscathed. She could cooperate and keep driving. Play his game for as long as he wanted 'til he was bored. But then he'd throw her away whenever he was satisfied and all her cooperation would be for nothing. No matter how she worked through it in the seconds between his last words and what would be her first ones, things seemed grim—fucking pitch black lights out—for Noah.

"You're—you're right," she stammered, any little hitched breath adding pressure to the way he held his knife against her neck. She tried to keep her voice relatively even and calm, feigning reasonability, despite the shuddering. "I'm sorry. I won't try anything. Won't drive off or speed or—or anything."

She kept her head straight, facing the road; her hands were firm on the wheel and her arms were growing stiff. But she darted her gaze toward him. Trying to burn the image of his face in her mind, anything she could see whenever the moonlight or a passing street lamp illuminated his face. Just in case she got out of this, she wanted this fucker caught. At the same time, she wanted him to trust her, or at least wanted to take a shot at him entrusting her in some way. Maybe he could see they weren't so different, that they could get along, and maybe he'd spare her. There was a chance he'd seen it all, heard it all. But not from Noah.

She licked her lips and focused for a moment on the song playing.

You bring out the best in me With love and understanding Anytime I need some understanding You are always there ♫

"I love Peter Cetera," she said, chuckling softly, attempting to conceal her nervousness. "Chicago didn't—didn't know what they had when they booted him and they were never really the same after he left." // @someotherdog

[thecollectorsector]

Did you know...

That Danzig’s classic logo:

Was originally designed and created for a Marvel comic book cover?

Crystar

Today, not many comic book fans remember the Marvel character Crystar. This relatively obscure 80s character was originally created and developed for a line of toys. Crystar was a crystalline warrior who came from the world known as Crystallium-where everything was made of crystal and most characters had bad, rock-themed pun names like Ogeode, Feldspar or Stalax. Marvel Comics later created a Crystar comic book to accompany and promote Remco’s Crystar toyline. This is one of Michael Golden’s many classic comic book covers and is probably recognizable to any die-hard Danzig fan. I doubt Michael Golden imagined when he first created this cover, that someday one aspect of this image would be the identifying symbol of a major band. I’ve always wondered if Michael Golden receives any kind of compensation or recognition for creating the original comic cover that formed the basis of that now famous and highly-merchandised Danzig logo.

Marvel partnered with the now-defunct toy company Remco to produce a comic book series to expand the Crystar line of action figures and playsets. This was a common practice in the 70s and 80s. Marvel had also found success with such toy/comic crossovers like the Shogun Warriors, Micronauts and ROM: Spaceknight line of toys. Since the storytelling abilities of the toy industry were so limited, many toy companies benefited by having a comic book expand upon the characters and universe of a limited toy line. Companies like Marvel benefitted by having a large captive audience of kids who were familiar with the toys but would never have bought a comic book otherwise. This would not be the last time Marvel would create a comic series to promote a line of toys. G.I. Joe, He-Man, Transformers and even the beloved Secret Wars line of toys were all popular toy lines that Marvel published comic books to accompanying and promote. He-Man actually had the rare distinction of being one of the only toy lines to have a promotional comic book published by both Marvel and D.C. Toy companies like Remco used to view comic books as an advertising mechanism to draw in new kids while also being a cheap, easy way to create new characters that could eventually become new toys.

The Punk Connection

I’ve always loved the Misfits and by extension Glenn Danzig. Back in my punk days, The Misfits were always my favorite band, usually tied with the Dead Kennedys and the Germs (but I also loved T.S.O.L, the Buzzcocks, The Adicts, Crass and Minor Threat). As a fan of classic horror, sci-fi, and monster movies, I always appreciated The Misfits’ and Danzig’s use of horror and sci-fi imagery in their lyrics and album art. That was actually one of the things that I loved about the Misfits above all other bands; the imagery. All that Vincent Price and Plan 9 imagery really appealed to a kid like me. When I was a punk, comic books were the last thing on my mind. I hadn’t read or collected comics in years by that point. So I never made the connection between Danzig and comic books, despite being aware of Crystar as a character. I remember owning several issues of the Crystar Marvel series as a kid. After all, I am a child of the late 80s and early 90s who grew up owning many toys from some of the most iconic toy lines of the 80s. I was initially surprised that Glenn Danzig would show an interest in comics and co-opt the cover of a Marvel comic book series that targeted kids and was designed to promote a corresponding toy line. That fact is even more surprising looking at some of his later, solo-era imagery and lyrics.

Looking at that kind of album art, I don’t know why anyone would be surprised Danzig digs comics. As it turns out, Glenn Danzig has been into comics for years. This is why he used so much of that sci-fi/horror imagery in his early days in the Misfits and borrowed themes and concepts from comic books like Crystar and Conan. The misfits often used a comic book/Lichtenstein-esque pop-art art style as evidenced in their Bullet imagery with JFK and their Horror Business album art. Danzig also chose an HR Giger painting as one of his later albums. When you compare Frazetta-era “barbarian/warrior” artwork with Danzig’s comics or album art, you can see the obvious inspiration. In the 90s, Danzig actually began publishing his own line of comic books, Verotik comics (Verotik was a portmanteau of the words “violent” and “erotic”). It would be easy to looks at some of the comic books he’s published and dismiss them as immature or sophomoric. After all, they do feature most of the things pubescent boys are into-big pecs, bigger boobs and the biggest swords. It would also be easy to view Danzig’s foray into the medium of comics as a cash grab. This was the era that outsiders and speculators were coming into the comic book field en masse. Many people who had zero interest in producing quality comics came into the field with delusions of making a fortune based on the newfound popularity of comic books.

The Bubble Goes Burst

When the comic book speculator bubble burst in the mid-to-late-90s, many of these new imprints and comic lines went under; never to return to publication. Verotik has managed to outlive Homage, Wildstorm, Continuity, Legend, Malibu, Chaos!, Caliber, Comico, Defiant, Kitchen Sink Press and Eclipse (to name a few). It’s important to remember that those were among the most acclaimed indie comic companies during the 90s comic boom. All of those companies were either bought, closed or are otherwise now defunct. While it is true Verotik published way fewer comics than most of those other companies, Verotik still publishes comics today. Glenn Danzig outlasted them all. Surprisingly, Danzig’s line of Verotik comics have been continuously published since 1994, with Glenn Danzig himself still involved. While other, more mainstream comics have been adapted into the Hollywood Blockbusters we all know, Danzig adapted one of his comics, Grub Girl, into a porno that came out in 2006. Say what you will about adapting a comic book into pornography... it shows that Danzig has found a way to maintain an almost entirely adult audience while simultaneously promoting his line of comics and spinning those characters off into another medium (film).

Mainstream comic readers have not spoken kindly about some of Verotik’s offerings. I certainly don’t like everything that Dark Horse, or Marvel, or Image publish. Many comic fans have dismissed Danzig’s line of comic books for their perceived “low quality.” However, if you go back and examine some of his earliest works, you’d be surprised by some of the names you’d recognize. Many well known, popular writers and artists of today had work published in one of Verotik’s comic books. Grant Morrison actually had a story published in the first issue of Verotika, something he never mentions. Simon Bisley contributed some really solid artwork on many Verotik comics, as did Frank Frazetta.

Some of the most iconic Frazetta artwork (beyond his legendary Conan art of course) appeared in Verotik comics. The “Death Dealer” image has come to typify the classic Frazetta “barbarian” style. The Frank Frazetta style of heavily painted Barbarian/Warrior art has almost completely disappeared from the today’s modern comics. In my opinion, Danzig and his line of Verotik comics are almost solely responsible for the preservation of that kind of 80’s barbarian/sword-and-sorcery/heavy metal comic book aesthetic. By the 90s, that genre of comic and it’s associated art style had fallen out of favor with the general public and was considered dated by many critics and fans alike. This kind of hyper-masculine Barbarian imagery existed only on the fringes of pop culture and is virtually nonexistent today. What had been an industry staple was now relegated to a tiny niche audience. Fantasy artwork like that is sorely absent from today’s comic book marketplace. Rafa Garres, Eric Canete, Liam Sharp, Arthur Suydam, Dave Stevens and Kent Williams all contributed artwork to at least one of Verotik’s many comic books. When you re-examine some of the covers to Verotik titles like Jaguar God, Valkyrie or Weird Voodoo, they still look pretty damn good even by modern standards. Painted covers like these have withstood the test of time; good writing and artwork often endures and stays relevant for years.

Legacy of Brutality (and Comic Books)

It‘s a shame that Danzig doesn’t get more recognition for his contribution to comic books from the modern comic book community. I’ve never heard anyone mention Danzig and comics in the same sentence. For a guy who’s written songs for Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison, owns his own label (Plan 9), had a long history with the Misfits, found renewed success with Samhain and again with his solo project Danzig...the guy has quite a resume. Even many punks don’t know that Samhain was essentially a punk supergroup, since their debut album featured former members of Minor Threat, Rosemary’s Babies and Reagan Youth. To switch gears entirely and begin writing and publishing comics shows how seriously he took his interest in comic books. He never compromised his artistic integrity and made exactly the kind of comics and music he wanted. Whether you personally like the results or not, you should respect that kind of commitment and discipline. It’s unfortunate for Danzig since many people in the punk/metal community would mock his comic book pursuits, and the comic industry often resents outsiders coming into the field from another medium, he rarely gets recognition from either community.

His contribution to music cannot be understated and his foray into comics cannot be dismissed as a mere cash grab or way to stay relevant. He put his money where his mouth was and was willing to invest his own money and time into his life-long love of comics. I honestly wish more people would do that. Danzig teamed with some of the best fantasy comic artists in the field at the time and wrote many of Verotik’s comics himself. He is also a graphic artist in his own right who is known to do sketches at signings and conventions. Danzig has created music for over 41 years and for 24 years he has also been involved in the production of comic books. That alone makes you a pretty cool guy in my book. His comics are about as “creator owned” as it gets and in that 24 years he has made the kinds of comics that he wants to make. You can’t dismiss that kind of artistic determination. For a guy who has always been known as the “Heavy Elvis” of punk music, his artistic portfolio is surprisingly diverse. Danzig should be accepted by the comic book community as being every bit as worthy of inclusion as any other, more accepted comic book creators.

Don’t sleep on @therealglenndanzig-blog, the dude might just surprise you.

-AG