#misfits fanzine

[misfitsfanzine]

Calling all Misfits fans! The fanzine application is now open! (Open from July 10th-23rd)

Welcome to the Misfits Fanzine sign-up. The theme is… For the love of Misfits! It will be a free-to-read e-zine that celebrates the 15th anniversary of the show and the fans' love for it.

We are looking for visual artists (fanart), fanfiction writers, writers (Think pieces, character analysis, plot deep dives, and mini-essays), and things in between (Cosplay, Character RPs, Playlists makers, etc)

This is a volunteer-based project - No profit will be made or given out. 

This will be a digital e-zine that is completely free to read.

You must be 16+ to participate in this project. Most collaborators will be over 18, so keep that in mind. Everyone is expected to act maturely.

Contributors can likely take on more than one piece, depending on the number of applicants. 

Only take on what you can. If you can no longer participate or need to drop a piece, let administration know as soon as possible so we can sort everything out.

No plagiarizing or uses of AI!

We want to keep the zine as PG-13 as possible, but due to the nature of the show, a lot of leeway will be possible, just no explicit sexual content and extreme gore/violence.

The primary way of communication will be through a Discord server. You will be expected to be kind and reasonable. This is technically a fan environment, and we want everyone to feel appreciated, included, and have fun, but this will be treated like a professional environment, so please keep that in mind.  

All finished work must be new and not currently posted anywhere online! Work can be posted to the collaborator's social media shortly after the zine is published.

All pieces must be submitted by November 3rd at the latest. 

Timeline Dates

• July 10th - 23rd (Sign-ups) • July 25th - 26th  (Acceptance emails sent out) • July 27th -August 4th (Workshopping *can be given more time) • August 5th - October 26th (Work on pieces) • October 27th- November 2nd (Deadline Week) • November 3rd - November 11th (Zine Construction) • November 12th (Publish Date)

Currently run by @fulfillingbineeds, if you want to be more than just a collaborator and work behind the scenes, let me know!

Any other questions? Ask away here!

[fulfillingbineeds]

Planning on going through with this. Please check out this blog for information! The sign-up forms will likely be posted tomorrow (July 10th)

@misfitsfanzine

The 15th year anniversary of Misfits is coming up this year. Would anyone be interested in participating in a fanzine?

I know at the moment, the fandom can feel like this

but it'd be nice to throw something together!

[cabotcomix]

Et voilà. Cabot Comix n° 17 avec les extraits.

Pour les intéressés voici le lien vers la liste des libraires (adresses et téléphones) où le fanzine est en dépôt vente : https://cabotcomicsmagazinebd.blogspot.com/.../les...

Encore merci aux auteurs, Remy Cattelain, Fred Dupont et aux libraires, le Kiosque au M° Nationale, le bouquiniste Paramètre BD, les librairies, Super Héros, Sanzot, Bulles en Tête rue Le Peltier et Le Monte en l'Air !

Et merci évidemment aux fans de BD errants sur FB qui m'ont acheté des Cabot dans le passé. Et pour les abonnés au clos Cabot Solo, vous recevrez ce numéro en remplacement. Vous y trouverez la suite de La Maison de Rohrer.

+ d'infos sur le site web du zine : https://cabotcomicsmagazinebd.blogspot.com/

Voilà voilà,

Bisous Bisous

[crystalclear97]

hi hi hi!!

Name your favourite artists who inspire you! Your arts are so cute

Other ship aside Armin/Annie?

Do you plan to draw more Aruani?

oh hiiii !!! 😊

1.

This is very difficult aaaaaa :_) obviously all the aruani related artists that I follow inspire me a lot, maybe we have very different art styles but I love seeing their art and they encourage me to embrace and enjoy the fandom as I am still a bit self-conscious about that "nerdy" part of myself.

I am kinda shy to mention specific people but let's see...... @nobluesea, @annawayne, @lidatan, @brbarou, @phyroblue, @ghostieking, @pepperjackets, @catfein ... aaand I have to mention @kalruani who I think is my fav aruani artist but I don't think they're on tumblr...... 👉👈 I don't wanna make anybody feel bad if I forget them, so if I follow you, consider yourself part of the list PLEASE :_)

some other non tumblr related people:

Ana Galvañ • Sara Soler • Gabriel Picolo • Bryan Lee O'Malley • alessandro barbucci • Núria Tamarit • Miguel Gallardo (RIP) • Maria Herreros • Laura Brouwers • Gretel Lusky • KAZLAND • Cristina Daura • So Lazo • Dakota Cates • Ingrid Arbiol • Paw Salcés • Xulia Vicente • Beatriz Fletes • LUCIA CUÑAT ORTEL • Paco Roca • Fran Riolobos • Ian • Sha'an d'Anthes • Lucy Zhang • David Ramírez • Julia Kaye • Alex Norris • AND some friends that are also great artists: [RAMUNE] - Alba Flores - Natalia Lucas - Joaquín Guirao

I'm forgetting people for sure aaaaaaaaa I tried my best.........

The alternative / punk / fanzine / local scene inspires me a lot, shows like Adventure Time, videogames like NITW or Omori with great art, and MUSIC!

2.

at this moment tbh I am super aruani focused... but I've shipped a lot through my life haha when I was a child I was obsessed with TK + Kari (digimon) and I usually shipped my fav character from anything, which usually was the misfit / weird / nerd one (I still do btw) 😅 Some ships that I also like at this moment could be zutara, bubbline, tomgreg from succession (in a fun way tbh), OBVIOUSLY tayley from paramore but they are real people so..... HAHA idk if you ask me what do I think of some specific ship I'll tell you my take!

3.

YES!! 🥰

thank you for asking!

[weneverlearn]

Aaron Lange, Peter Laughner, and the Terminal Town of Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland-based artist, Aaron Lange, tackles his first graphic novel, Ain't It Fun -- a deep dive into the oily depths of the Rust Belt's most influential music town, it's most mythological misfit, it's oft-forgotten artistic and political streaks, and beyond...

Aaron Lange and his book, 2023 (Photo by Jake Kelly)

--------------------------------------

There’s a recurring line in Aaron Lange’s remarkable new graphic novel, Ain’t It Fun (Stone Church Press, 2023), that states, “Say the words out loud. The River isn’t real.” The river Lange was speaking of is the Cuyahoga, that infamously flammable mass of muck that dumps out into Lake Erie.

Peter Laughner (the ostensible topic of Lange’s book) was an amazing artist who probably could’ve ditched the banks of the Cuyahoga for more amenably artistic areas back in his early 1970s heyday. Aside from his frequent pilgrimages to the burgeoning NYC Lower East Side scene (where he nearly joined Television) and a quickly ditched attempt to live in California though, he mostly stuck around northeast Ohio.

While desperately trying to find his sound and a workable band, Laughner smelted a post-hippie, pre-punk amoebic folk rock, and formed the influential embryonic punk band, Rocket from the Tombs, which later morphed into Pere Ubu. All of which – lumped up with other rust-belted oddballs like electric eels, Mirrors, DEVO, the Numbers Band, Chi-Pig, Tin Huey, Rubber City Rebels, and more – essentially helped formed the “proto-punk” template.

Laughner was also a rock writer of some regional renown, and contributed numerous amphetamine-fueled articles to regional mags like The Scene and Creem -- mostly concerning where Rock'n'Roll was going, colored as he was by the Velvet Underground, the Stooges, David Bowie, and Roxy Music playing in Cleveland a bunch of times around his formative years.

Sadly, in June 1977, Laughner died of acute pancreatitis at age 24. Aside from the first two seminal Pere Ubu 7-inch singles, the rest of Laughner’s recorded output was just one very limited self-released EP and, posthumously, a great double-LP comp of demo and live tracks, Take the Guitar Player for a Ride (1993, Tim Kerr Records). A surprisingly large batch of unreleased lost demos, radio shows, and live tapes appeared on the beautiful and essential box set, Peter Laughner (Smog Veil Records, 2019), that brought Laughner’s legend just a few blocks outside of Fringeville, as it received universally great reviews….

The Dead Boys became the most well-known act of that mid-70s Cleveland scene, though that only happened once they high-tailed it to NYC. Aside from DEVO, Chrissie Hynde, and the Waitresses (all of whom did their own versions of high-tailing it), nearly every other act in that fertile Cle-Akron proto-punk vortex soon dissipated, eventually getting the cult treatment at best.

Cleveland is indeed right there with NYC and London as punk ground zero, but Americans tend to equate buyable products as proof of import, so shockingly, the Pagans and The Styrenes just aren’t the household name they should be.

Decades of tape-trading stories, sub-indie label limited releases, and fanzine debates kept the mythology of those acts barely breathing underneath the end of the milennium’s increasingly loud R'n'R death knell. And as that mythology slowly grew, the fans and even the musicians of the scene itself still wonder what it all meant.     

Which, as you dig deeper into Ain’t It Fun, becomes the theme not just about the legendary rocker ghost of Peter Laughner, but of Cleveland itself. Ala Greil Marcus’ classic “hidden history” tome, Lipstick Traces, Lange interweaves Laughner’s self-immolating attempts at Beatnik-art-punk transcendence with a very detailed history of Cleveland, with its insane anti-legends and foot-shooting civic development.

Like much of the dank, rusted, and mysterious edges of the one-time “Sixth City,” the Cuyahoga has been cleaned up since, though I still wouldn’t suggest slurping up a swallow if you’re hanging on the banks of the Flats. I grew up in Cleveland and visit as often as I can because it’s an awesome place, no matter what they tell you. Or maybe, because of what they tell you.

If you are keen to swim down through the muck and mire of Cleveland’s charms, you don’t just get used to it, you like it. As for the “Cleveland” that the City Fathers have always tried so vainly to hype, us hopelessly romantic proto-punk fanatics say to those who would erase Cleveland’s fucked-up past and replace it with that weird fake greenspace underneath the Terminal Tower: “The City isn’t real.”

-------------------------------------

Give us a quick bio.

Born in Cleveland, 1981. We moved to the west side suburbs when I was six. My parents didn’t listen to much music, and I don’t have older siblings. So I didn’t really listen to music at all until I was in high school, and I didn’t listen to any of the grunge or ‘90s stuff that was popular. I got real into the Beatles when I was in ninth grade, and at some point I got the Velvet Underground’s first album from the library because I saw Andy Warhol’s name on the cover. I didn’t know anything about them, so that was a real shock. I probably first heard Iggy Pop via the Trainspotting soundtrack, and pretty soon after I started getting into punk and generally more obscure stuff. Now I listen to more electronic stuff, ambient stuff. I also like most anything that falls under the broad “post-punk” umbrella. I really hate “rama-lama ding-dong” rock and roll.

What came first – music or drawing interest?

Drawing. I was always drawing… I’ve been a semi-regular contributor to Mineshaft for many years, which is a small zine/journal that features a lot of underground comix related stuff, but also has a beatnik vibe and includes poetry and writing. I’ve done the odd thing here and there for other zines, but I don’t really fit in anywhere.

Don’t really fit it – I feel that phrase describes a lot of the best / more influential Ohio musicians / bands. Did you feel that kind of feeling about Peter as you researched and wrote the book?

Peter was well liked, and he knew a vast array of people. If anything, he fit in in too many situations. He was spread thin.

When you lived in Philly, did you get a sense of any kind of similar proto-punk scene / era in that town? I sometimes, perhaps jingoistically, think this particular kind of music is almost exclusively confined to the Rust Belt.

I lived in Philly for nearly 11 years. As far as the old scene there, they had Pure Hell. But back then, anybody who really wanted to do something like that would just move to NYC.

So, is there a moment in time that started you on a path towards wanting to dig into Cleveland’s proto-punk past like this?

It was just something I had a vague interest in, going back to when I first heard Pere Ubu. And then later learning about the electric eels, and starting to get a feeling that Cleveland had a lot more to offer than just the Dead Boys. The Rocket from the Tombs reunion got things going, and that’s when I first started to hear Laughner’s name. A few years later, a friend sent me a burned CD of the Take the Guitar Player for a Ride collection, and I started to get more interested in Peter specifically.

Despite any first wave punk fan’s excitement about a Laughner bio, this book is moreso a history of Cleveland, and trying to connect those odd underground, counterculture, or mythological connections that the Chamber of Commerce tends to ignor as the town’s import. Was there a moment where you realized this book needed to go a little wider than only telling the tales of Laughner and the bands of that era? (Not that there’s anything wrong with that!)

Very early on I realized that none of this would make sense or have any true meaning without the appropriate context. The activities of the early Cle punk scene need to be viewed in relation to what was going on in the city. I think this is just as true with NYC or London – these were very specific contexts, all tangled up in politics, crime, rent, television, and also the specifics of the more hippie-ish local countercultures that preceded each region. You’ve got Bowie and Warhol and all that, but in Cleveland you’ve also got Ghoulardi and d.a. levy. Mix that up with deindustrialization and a picture starts to form.

So when did you decide on doing this book? You’ve mentioned this was your first attempt at doing a full graphic novel – and boy, you went epic on it!

I did a short version of Peter’s story back when I was living in Philadelphia. But upon completing that version – which I now think of as a sketch – it became clear that there was a lot more to say and to investigate. I spent about a year just thinking about it, forming contacts with some people, and tracking down various reference materials like records, zines, books, etc. Then my wife got a new job at Cleveland State University, so we left Philly. Once I landed back in Cleveland I started working on the book in earnest.

Page from Ain't It Fun -- all book images courtesy of the author.

By any chance was Greil Marcus’ book, Lipstick Traces (1989), an inspiration, as far as the “hidden history” factor, the trying to connect seemingly unconnected and lost historical footnotes into a path towards the culture’s future?

Yes. I read Lipstick Traces when I was around 19 or 20, and I’d never seen anything like it before. It really blew my mind, all the stuff about the Situationists and Dadaists and all that. Later on, I read Nick Tosches’ Dean Martin biography, Dino, and that was another mind blower. Another major influence is Iain Sinclair.

Ah Dino, another Ohio native. So, Laughner’s one-time partner, Charlotte Pressler’s book is mentioned, and I’ve seen it referenced and talked about for years – any inside word on if/when she might have that published?

Charlotte never wrote a book, though she did co-edit a book that collected the work of local poets. As far as her own writing, she’s done all manner of essays and poetry, and probably some academic writing that I’m not familiar with. As far as her completing “Those Were Different Times”— which was intended as a total of three essays— I’ve got some thoughts on that, but it’s not really my place to comment on it.

Pressler sounds like a very serious person in your book, as you say, she was kind of older than her years. But how was she to talk to?

Charlotte is serious, but she’s not dour. She’s got a sense of humor and she’s very curious about the world, always looking to learn new things. She’s an intellectual, and has a wide array of interests. We get along, we’re friends.

The fact that the town’s namesake, Moses Cleveland, left soon after his “discovery” and never came back – that’s like a template for how people envision a town like Cleveland: nice place to grow up, but you want to get out as soon as you’re legal. Even the musicians of the area might’ve agreed with that sentiment, even if many never left.  Do you think that has changed?

I’m glad I left Cleveland, but I’m also glad I came back. First off, my family is here. Second, the cost of living is still reasonable. I don’t know how people live in New York. I never have any money. I’d make more money if I had a full-time job at McDonald’s. That’s not a joke, or me being self-deprecating. How do artists live in New York? How do they afford rent and 20 dollar packs of cigarettes? I’m just totally confused by the basic mechanics of this. So yeah, I’m in Cleveland. It’s not great, but what are my options? I can’t just go to Paris and fuck around like a bohemian. I would if I could.

In Ain't It Fun, you reveal that one of the seminal Cleveland scene dives, Pirate's Cove, was once a Rockerfeller warehouse  – these kind of enlightening, almost comically perfect metaphors pop up every few pages. Not unlike the mythology that can sometimes arise in musician fandom, I wonder if these are metaphors we can mine, or just an obvious facts that the town drifted down from a center of industry to relative poverty.

“Metaphor” might be at too much of a remove. These facts, these landmarks — they create a complex of semiotics, a map, a framework. The city talks through its symbols and its landscape. If you submit to it and listen, it will tell you secrets. There is nothing metaphorical about this.

Is it a sign of privilege to look on destitution as inspiration? I’m guessing the sick drunks at Pirate’s Cove in 1975 weren’t thinking they were living in a rusty Paris of the ‘30s. Though I will say a thing I really loved about your book was that, for all its yearning and historical weaving, you still stick to facts and don’t seem to over-mythologize or put any gauze on the smog, like “Isn’t that so cool, man.” You capture the quiet and damp desperation of that era and Laughner’s milieu.

Poverty, decline, decay, entropy – these things are real. By aestheticizing them we are able to gain some control over them. And once you have control, you have the power to change things. This is not “slumming.” “Privilege” has nothing to do with it.

Page from Ain't It Fun

Do you know why the Terminal Tower (once the second tallest building in the world when it opened in 1928) was named that? It seems somewhat fatalistic, given the usual futurist positivism of the deco design era.

Terminal as in train terminal. It really pisses me off that there was once a time where you could go there and catch a train to Chicago or New York. It’s infuriating how this country dismantled its rail systems. And the Terminal Tower isn’t deco, but I think it is often confused with that style just by virtue of not being a gigantic rectangle. In that sense it does have more in common with a deco structure like the Chrysler building. Honestly, if you are looking for deco you might find more notable examples in Akron than you would Cleveland.

I notice a kind of – and bear with my lesser abilities to describe illustrative art – swirly style in your work that kind of aligns with art deco curves, maybe some Gustav Klimt…? In general, who were some illustrative inspirations for you early on?

That “swirly” style you describe is art nouveau. Deco came after that, and is more angular and clean. Additionally, a lot of underground comix guys were also poster artists, and there was often a nouveau influence in that psychedelic work – so there’s a bit of a thread there. As far as Klimt, I came to him kinda late, but I love him now.

The music of many northeast Ohio bands of that era has been generally tagged as “industrial” (the pre-dance industrial style, of course), cranky like the machinery of the sputtering factories in the Flats, etc… My guess is maybe the musicians were already finding used R'n'R instruments in thrift stores by that time, which would add a kind of layer of revision, turning old things into new sounds. Did you hear about of any of that? Or were there enough music stores around town? I know DEVO was already taking used instruments and refitting them; or electric eels using sheet metal and such to bang on…

I’m not a musician, so I don’t know anything about gear or stuff like that. I do know that Allen Ravenstine made field recordings in the Flats, and utilized them via his synthesizer. Frankly, I wish more of the Northeast Ohio bands had taken cues from Ubu and early Devo, because an “industrial” subculture definitely could have formed, like it did in England and San Francisco. But that never really happened here.

That kind of music was pretty popular on college radio and in a few clubs in Cleveland, though not many original bands with that sound arrived, aside from Nine Inch Nails who quickly took his act elsewhere… So in the book you mention local newsman, Dick Fealger. My memories of him are as a curmudgeon whose shtick was getting a little old by the time I was seeing him on the news, or his later opinion columns. Kinda your classic “Hey you kids, get off my lawn” style. You rightly paint him as a somewhat prescient reporter of the odd in his earlier days, though. I once had to go to a friend’s mother’s funeral, and in the next room in the funeral home was Dick Feagler’s funeral. I always regret not sneaking over and taking a peak into it to see who was there.

I like Feagler in the same way that I liked Andy Rooney on 60 Minutes. These were people that my grandparents liked. So I suppose my appreciation for Feagler is half nostalgia, half irony. I like cranks, grumps, letter-writers, street prophets. I like black coffee, donuts, diners, and blue plate specials – that’s Feagler’s world, the old newspaper world. Get up at 6 am and put your pants on, that kinda thing.

Yeah, I still found Feagler kinda funny, but like Jane Scott, while respect was always there, by the later ‘80s/’90s, both were set into almost caricatures  who were kind of resting on their laurels. 

Yeah, I remember seeing Jane at some random Grog Shop show back in the ‘90s, and I was kinda impressed. But no, she was never really cool. Jane was pure Cleveland, her career couldn't have happened anywhere else.

I remember seeing her sit right next to a huge house amp at the old Variety Theater for the entire duration of a Dead Kennedys show, taking notes for her review. Pretty impressive given her age at that point.

You also make a point of carving out an important space for The Damnation of Adam Blessing, a band that seems to get forgotten when discussing Cleveland’s pre-punk band gaggle. I find that interesting because in a way, they are the template for the way many Ohio bands don’t fit into any exact genre, and so often people don’t “get” them, or they’re forgotten later.

Damnation worked as a good local example for that whole psychedelic thing. They were very ‘60s. While the James Gang on the other hand, was more ‘70s— the cracks were starting to show with the ‘70s bands, they were harder and less utopian. Damnation feels more “Woodstock,” so they were useful to me in that regard.

I must add – for years I thought it was pronounced Laugh-ner, as in to laugh, ha ha, not knowing the Gaelic roots. Once I learned I was pronouncing it wrong, I still wanted to pronounce it like laughing, as it seemed to fit so darkly correct with how his life went, and Cleveland musicians’ love of bad puns and cheap comedians and such… Of course when I learned that it was an “ethnic” name, it made it that much more Cleveland.

Yeah, everybody says his name wrong. I used to too, and had to really force myself to start saying it as Lochner. But everybody says Pere Ubu wrong as well – it’s Pear Ubu.

I hate any desecration of any artwork, but I always loved the blowing up The Thinker statue story, as it seemed such a powerful metaphor of the strength of art, and Cleveland itself – the fact that The Thinker himself still sits there, right on top of the sliced-up and sweeping shards from the blast. It’s still there, right? And isn’t it true that there are like three more “official” Thinker statues in the world?

Yeah, I don’t condone what happened, but it is kinda cool. As a kid, the mutilated Thinker had a strong effect on me — I couldn’t have put it into words at the time, but I think it gave me a sense of the weight of history. It’s almost like a post-war artifact in Europe, something that is scarred. And yes, it’s still there outside the museum. And it’s a cast. I think there might be five official ones, but I’d have to look that up. If you are ever in Philadelphia, swing by the Rodin museum and check out The Gates of Hell.

I have only become a bigger fan of Laughner’s as the years pass. But there is something to the critique that perhaps he never really found his singular sound; that he was copping bits from Lou Reed and Dylan, and couldn’t keep a band together to save his life. And there was supposedly a feeling among some in the NYC scene that he was a bit of a carpetbagger.

Everybody has their influences, so Peter wasn’t in any way unique in that sense. I know he has a reputation for doing a lot of cover songs — which is true — but he also wrote a lot of originals, and there are some damn good ones which are still unreleased. “Under the Volcano” is just one such unheard song which I mention in my book, but there are others. As far as finding his own singular sound, he probably came closest to that with Friction. That group borrowed heavily from Television and Richard Hell, but also drew upon Richard Thompson and Fairport Convention. And when you think about it, those were really unlikely influences to juxtapose, and it created something original. Frustratingly though, Friction never achieved their full potential, as Peter was already losing it.

Yeah, Friction is kind of way up there with the “What if” bands… It’s interesting that for all his legend as a proto-punk figure, perhaps Laughner’s signature songs – Sylvia Plath” and “Baudelaire” – were gorgeous acoustic numbers. Though of course those early Pere Ubu songs were proto-punk and post-punk templates, somehow...

I honestly don’t know what happened with Ubu, as it is pretty distinct from Peter’s other work. Thomas isn’t really a musician, so we can only give him so much credit with how that sound developed. I honestly don’t know. There just must have been some sort of alchemy between the various players, and Thomas understood it and was able to encourage and guide it in the projects that followed over the years.

Page from Ain't It Fun

You also didn’t really detail Pere Ubu’s initial breakup – was there just not much to say?

Yeah, I think I mentioned it, but no, I didn’t really get into it. Pere Ubu is kind of a story unto themselves. But it might be worth mentioning here that Home and Garden was an interesting project that came out of that Ubu breakup. And Thomas also did some solo albums, but I’m not as familiar with those.

Yeah, I saw Home and Garden a few times way back, good stuff. You’ve mentioned to me that there were some people that didn’t want to talk to you for the book; and that people were very protective of Peter’s legacy and/or their friendship with him. To what do you attribute that?

It has everything to do with Peter’s early death. Some people are very protective of how Peter is remembered. And I think some people weren’t exposed to Peter’s dark side, so when they hear those descriptions of him it strikes them as untrue. I think Peter showed different sides of himself to different people.

I kind of felt as I was reading that you might say more about Harvey Pekar, as not only is he an interesting figure, but the most famous graphic novelist from Ohio, and I assume an inspiration of your’s.

Pekar’s great. Especially the magazine-size issues he was doing in the late ‘70s up through the ‘80s. It was important to me to include him in the book. But Pekar was a jazz guy, and that’s a whole other story, a whole other tangled web.

So, Balloonfest! Hilarious. I almost forgot about that. But I do remember Ted Stepien owning the short-lived Cleveland professional softball team; and for a promotion, they dropped softballs off the Terminal Tower, and if you caught one you won $1,000 or something. Do you recall that? It’s one of my favorite fucked-up Cleveland stories. Balls smashed car roofs, and cops immediately told people to run away.

Yeah, I’m aware of that baseball stunt. I generally try and stay away from anything even remotely related to professional sports teams — it gets talked about more than enough elsewhere. Oddly, I am interested in athletes who work alone, like Olympic skiers. I’m attracted to that solitary focus, where the athlete isn’t competing against other teams or players, but more competing with the limits of the human body, competing with what the physical world will allow and permit, that whole Herzog trip. I’m also interested in the Olympic Village, as this artificial space that mutates and moves across time and across continents.

As far as Balloonfest, I still watch that footage all the time. I use it as a meditation device. I’ll put it on along with Metal Machine Music and go into a trance.

A few years ago, as I am sure you are well aware, noted British punk historian Jon Savage put together a Soul Jazz Records comp of Cleveland proto-punk called Extermination Nights in the Sixth City. I grew up in Cleveland, lived in Columbus for awhile, and I never heard it called “the Sixth City.” Have you? If so, what does it refer to?

Nobody calls it that anymore. It’s an old nickname back from when Cleveland was literally the sixth largest city in the country.

I’d guess Ain’t It Fun was a tiring feat to accomplish. But do you have another book in the works? And if someone wanted to option Peter’s story for a movie, would you sign on? I personally dread rock biopics. They’re almost universally bad.

Yeah, I’ve got an idea for another book, but it’s too early to talk about that. As far as biopics, they are almost always bad, rock or otherwise. Rock documentaries are often pretty lousy too. A recent and major exception would be Todd Haynes’ Velvet Underground documentary, which is just goddamn brilliant. A film about Peter in that vein would be great— but there’s just no footage to work from. He didn’t have Warhol or Factory people following him around with a camera. So unless somebody like Jim Jarmusch comes calling, I won’t be signing off on movie rights any time soon.

Unless there is more you’d like to say, thanks, and good luck with the book and future ventures!

Stone Church Press has a lot of projects planned for 2024 and beyond, and I encourage anyone reading this to support small publishers. There is a lot of very exciting stuff going on, but you have to work a little to find it. Amazon, algorithms, big corporate publishers — they’re like this endless blanket of concrete that smothers and suffocates. But flowers have a way of popping up between the cracks.

Aaron Lange, 2023 (Photo by Jake Kelly)

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

THIS ONE'S FOR ALL THE MONSTER KIDS -- CUE "DEVILOCK" (1983) RIGHT ABOUT NOW.

PIC INFO: Spotlight on a Martin Kippenberger piece titled "Candidature à une rétrospective," ("Candidacy for a Retrospective"), c. 1993.

"The pre-digital, appropriated, rephotographed, and often degraded image is also ubiquitous to the art of punk flyers and fanzines of the late seventies and early eighties. The radical degradation and mutilation of mainstream imagery in early punk graphic design has been so influential on contemporary visual culture that it’s easy to forget that we haven’t always been looking at things this way. Heinecken’s work shares an aesthetic connection to this genre — especially with the imagery of V. Vale’s San Francisco–based "Search & Destroy" magazine. Since SFMOMA has no copies of "Search and Destroy," nor any punk flyers from this period, I have included Martin Kippenberger’s poster "Candidacy for a Retrospective" (1993) with the artist pictured sporting an iconic MISFITS devilock."

-- MATT BORRUSO (American/Bay Area-based graphic artist/illustrator/former hardcore punk musician)

Source: www.mattborruso.org/collection-rotation.

[letters-and-fallen-stars]

welcome

hello! name's lara. i'm from aotearoa new zealand. i collect rocks, spend too much money on books, procrastinate assignments, and sometimes act. i write poetry, fiction, plays, fanfiction, a little bit of everything.

im currently working on various fics, Recollections (fantasy webcomic), and Lavender Menace (poetry collection)

find me on chill subs

tags:

#lara rambles: my thoughts, maybe self promo of publications

#publications: i've been published

#works from the stars: my writing

#ask tag: self explanatory

My work has been published:

‘Between the Lines’, Out on the Shelves Rainbow Zine 2020

'Silenced Angel’ and 'Rose By Any Other Name’, Bare: A Pop Opera Fanzine 2020

’Lesbophobia is Homophobia With a Side Order of Sexism’, Sunstroke Magazine 2020

'Blasphemy’, Overcommunicate Magazine 2021

'Daisy, Daisy’ The Jupiter Review 2021

'Blasphemy’ Messy Misfits Club: Issue 2, May 2022

’Re: Still Being Referred to as My Parents’ Daughter’ and 'A Look at My Relationship With Gender’, Powders Press: Issue 3, June 2022

'Burning Everything’, Catchwater Magazine: Issue 4, August 2022

'Spores', Ship of Horrors, 2022

'The Wheel of the Year', Versions Tuatoru, October 2022

'If', Livina Press: Issue 3, January 2023

'A Conversation Between Two Hedonists', Rat World Magazine's R18 Valentine's Zine, February 2023

'The Lament for Icarus', bad apple, August 2023

'Hypotheticals With My Younger Selves', Messy Misfits Club: Issue 5 (digital edition), October 2023

'Blasphemy' and 'A Conversation Between Two Hedonists', Perfumed Pages: Forbidden Fruit (Issue 4), September 2023

'Prophetics', Portland Project, upcoming 2024

'Garden Etudes' and 'Baking Etudes', Versions Tuarima, upcoming 2024

[discworldfz]

We are excited to announce: Misfits and Strays: a City Watch Fanzine will be coming out this time next year!

Look out for an interest check coming in October!

[the-haunted-toybox]

[jemfanzine]

🚨 4 DAYS LEFT 🚨

There is only 4 days left to preorder your very own copy of The Jem Jam, a digital-only, charity fanzine themed around the music of the cartoon.

Preorder The Jem Jam here  and purchase the Jemzine Back Catalogue Bundle here until May 25th. All proceeds will go to support the charitable work of the Mazzoni Center!

[misfitsfanzine]

The current application form is now closed. Missed your chance to apply? Don't worry!

Since we only got a small number of applicants, we will still be accepting late-joining contributor applicants.

The form application was strictly for organizing purposes; no one will be denied from joining. (Unless there are reasons that go against the project's beliefs, such as AI usage.)

Please DM @fulfillingbineeds to inquire.

You can join as late as October. It simply depends on how quickly you can complete your piece/s before the deadline. (Oct. 27-Nov. 2nd)

Don't know what you want to do? That's okay! Feel free to send a message to join anyway! We can always brainstorm ideas together.

We are still very much in need of fanfiction writers, as we haven't received any applicants for that category.

And for those who have already applied, please expect an email with the Discord link and other information by Saturday, July 27th, at the latest.

Thanks! :)

[fuckin-nancy]

A Wretch Like Me

rating: T characters: John Seed, Joseph Seed words: 1,082 excerpt:

Though he hadn't seen him in nearly two decades, John recognized the man who entered—Joseph Seed, his brother. Those same cheekbones, that same jawline, only broadened by manhood. The same calm, level gaze; the same solemn demeanour.

[AO3]

The gorgeous accompanying art by @pheedraws is here!

John absentmindedly tapped his desk with his forefinger. No matter how hard he tried to will his gaze not to glaze over, the pounding in his head—the final remnant of a hangover—inevitably broke his concentration.

His fault, for going to that party last night. When he'd woken this morning, he'd nearly thought his head would split open. Although he had to admit, finding himself abed with two beautiful women sweetened the deal considerably. Pity he couldn't recall the events that had brought them there, or their names.

After realizing he'd read the same sentence for the umpteenth time, John pushed the case notes away. He'd just have to wing it.

The phone trilled. With a sigh, he pressed the speaker button.

"Yes, Carla?"

"There's a man without an appointment who wants to see you, sir."

He frowned. He was in no mood to meet some random person, but he asked, "What's his name?"

"Joseph Seed."

He swallowed thickly. "I'm sorry, could you repeat that?"

"He says his name is Joseph Seed, sir."

"Let him in." He paid no attention to her response.

Without realizing it, he'd stood, bracing his hands on the desk. It was all he could do to keep his breathing under control as he stared the door down.

After an eternity, it opened.

Though he hadn't seen him in nearly two decades, John recognized the man who entered—Joseph Seed, his brother. Those same cheekbones, that same jawline, only broadened by manhood. The same calm, level gaze; the same solemn demeanour.

An uncharacteristic uncertainty seized John's throat as he slowly rounded his desk. "You ... you're ... ?"

"Hello, brother."

John practically threw himself at Joseph, burying his face in his shoulder. He barely choked out, "I never thought I'd see you again."

Joseph rubbed his back soothingly, and his voice cracked with emotion as he said, "Brother, you ought not to have feared. Our reunion was preordained."

"Preordained?" He looked up at Joseph's face. Preordained sounded like fate, which sounded like God. He hadn't thought of God in years, not since leaving his parents' home. God didn't want to have anything to do with someone like him.

"Yes." Joseph smiled through his tears. "Brother, there is much I have to tell you, but first, I would like to know all you've done in these long years we've spent apart."

God have mercy.

In the back of his mind John had known, all these years, that he had all the tools needed to find his brothers. But he hadn't done so. He knew what he was, and he knew that anyone sensible would reject him.

But he couldn't lie to his brother. Oh, he'd lie to everyone else, but never family.

So he told his story. Adopted by the Duncans, a wealthy couple from Atlanta. For the first few years, beaten daily until he confessed his sins, because they saw him as spiritually tainted. Going to law school. Getting the call that his parents had died. Graduating at the top of his class, and then—

"Were you?"

He stared at Joseph, uncomprehending.

"You said your parents thought you spiritually corrupt. Were you?"

Joseph's eyes bore into John's own. Their serene depths would brook no dishonesty.

John turned away, whispering, "Yes." Joseph didn't ask him to elaborate, but he told everything—the lying, the blackmail, the wild parties rife with sex and drugs. Pure deceit was the only way he'd made it this high; no part of his life was sacred.

By the time he finished his eyes were dry, his voice level. With reluctance he turned back to Joseph, expecting condemnation, but instead was startled by Joseph's arms wrapping around him tightly.

"All will be forgiven, brother." Joseph pulled away a little, pressing his forehead against John's, and John closed his eyes in his bewilderment. "You are not tainted, John. God has great plans for you. He gave me a vision, and the three of us—you, I, and Jacob—will save His righteous from the Collapse."

John's eyes snapped open. "You've seen Jacob?"

"Not yet. But with your connections, I've no doubt we'll find him."

"Of course. But ... the Collapse?"

Joseph nodded, pulling away. He rounded John's desk to the window that ran the length of the wall, and watched the street below. "The cataclysm that will end the world as we know it. You can feel it coming, can't you? People are growing more wicked by the day. No one knows what it is to be good anymore. The end is rapidly approaching, and when it comes ..." His solemn tone told the rest.

John considered it. He wasn't the only corrupt person around, and certainly not the worst by far. He knew his colleagues' every sin. The world was filled to the brim with liars, cheaters, adulterers, murderers, rapists, and worse.

Of course. Why hadn't he thought of it before?

"When do we start?"

Joseph smiled. "In due time. First, I would like to get reacquainted with you more."

John's cheeks burned. "I should have asked before. How have you been, all these years?"

"That can wait for another time. I'm sure you're busy."

He laughed. "I'll cancel everything. You're my brother I haven't seen in decades—who cares about work!"

"As much as I would enjoy spending the rest of the day with you, brother, you must keep up appearances for a little longer." Joseph's tone lightly chided. "At least until we can find Jacob."

They made plans to meet once John was off work. As they embraced for a final time, John found himself clinging to Joseph, suddenly terrified that once his brother walked out that door, he'd never see him again.

"It's all right, John," Joseph said gently. "I will return. We may be brothers, but I'll look over you as I will the rest of our flock—as a father. Neither of your earthly fathers were honourable men, but I will strive to be so."

John nodded, unable to speak.

With a final squeeze of his shoulder, Joseph turned and left.

Once again John braced himself on his desk, trying to calm his racing mind. New hope budded within him, spilling out of him with laughter. His headache had cleared. He'd never felt so light.

But Joseph was right—he had to keep up appearances, at least for now. As one of God's chosen, he'd abide with these profligates as long as needed.

He straightened his tie. There was work to be done.

[cabotcomix]

Le voilà, le beau, le magnifique, le fantastique Cabot Comix numéro 17 ! Paru en avril 2023, 24 pages noires et blanches au superbe format A5 ! Les abonnés recevront leurs exemplaires le mois prochain, ô rage ! Mais il est déjà disponible en librairie, ô joie ! Excepté chez Super Héros où il faudra patienter jusque début juin pour vous le procurer , ô merde !

Merci aux auteurs ayant participé, aux libraires évidemment et à moi-même, créateur, auteur et beau gosse ultime.

Ben voilà c'est tout. Bisous Bisous !

[the-misfits-fanzine-blog]

Misfitz FanZine Interest Check!

------    -------   ---------

Greetings! This is a post about the interest check for the Misfits FanZine!

-| ᴀʙᴏᴜᴛ ᴛʜᴇ ᴢɪɴᴇ |-

The Misfits FanZine will be a non-profit fan-made project created to inspire and spread creativity in the Misfits Fandom. The main goal of this Zine will be to produce a free to download/print PDF for traditional art and transparent line art files for digital art with various works from different Misfits fan artists (basically, an online fandom coloring book!)

This Zine will be for everyone! Your age or what your “skill level” is doesn’t matter, everyone will have the opportunity to apply and use this Zine! Let's make a bigger impact on the community, and start 2020 with something amazing!

 ||↞| Click here to fill out the interest check form! |↠ ||

Questions? Don’t hesitate to ask! Dm @MisfitsFanZine on Tumblr or Instagram, and we'll get back to you as soon as we can!

Please consider reblogging to spread the word!

[janosotocossiodiary]

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

THAT ONE TIME GLENN DANZIG REVIEWED THE ROAD WARRIOR FOR "FLIPSIDE" ZINE IN '82.

PIC(S) INFO: Spotlight on a promotional image of the titular Mad Max from the MM sequel "THE ROAD WARRIOR" (1981), written & directed by Georgw Miller.

PIC #2: Glenn Danzig of THE MISFITS performing at the Freezer Theater in Detroit, Michigan, c. 1982. 📸: ❓

"This is the sequel to "Mad Max" but that's where the similarities end. "Mad Max" was boring but "ROAD WARRIOR" is the ultimate statement on survival in the not-too-distant future. Scavenging mohawk-men riding the highways of the wasteland, searching for new victims. Hunting out the scarcest of all things, "GAS." MAX really gets fucked over in this one but manages to survive it all (he ends up looking like a walking contusion). Plenty of harsh brutality, violence, rape, murder, and death. All the things that await you in post-war life. I've seen this five times, at ten I'll lay off for awhile. See this at least once."

-- GLENN DANZIG of American horror punk band THE MISFITS, from a review published in L.A. punk fanzine "Flipside" #36 (December 1982)

Sources: www.filmonpaper.com/posters/mad-max-2-program-japan, Pinterest, & These Days L.A.