Toast Toasted

In the mid-1990's, I was an adolescent mess. I wore a studded dog collar and wallowed (happily) in angst. I listened to a lot of Joy Division and Nine Inch Nails; I had eyeliner tattooed on and wrote shitty poetry I believed was groundbreaking. I was young and frequently drunk off cheap liquor; pumped full of testosterone and teenage idiocy.

The stereotype you are surely forming of me is probably spot on, so it is no surprise I also read a lot of Anne Rice and Poppy Z Brite books. I distinctly remember picking up a copy of 'Interview with a Vampire' and was blown away by its existence, never realizing it was close to twenty-five years old at that point.

More relevant to today’s topic, During this same window I picked up a copy of 'The Mummy, or Ramses the Damned'. Unlike other Anne Rice novels, as I aged and my eyeliner faded, The Mummy stayed fresh in my mind. While still a fan, I grew out of my Anne Rice phase. Over the years, The Mummy showed staying power, stick…

I have been laughing deep jolly belly laughs for close to a decade thanks to Matthew Inman, the twisted monkey brain behind Web comic The Oatmeal. His dastardly comics include such classics as a Mother-Effin Pterodactyl who pisses acid, an analysis of cats plotting against you, and a compendium about the proper usage of the semi-colon. Let's not forget 'How to Punch a Dolphin in the mouth'.
The Oatmeal has made a nice business of coffee table books collecting Inman's artwork and making it available offline and in eBook format. 'Dogs Pair Middle-Aged Men' is exactly that. A whole mess of hilarious relatable pages.If My Dogs Were a Pair of Middle-Aged Men (The Oatmeal, Matthew Inman)36 pagesAndrews McMeel PublishingISBN-10: 1449433529ISBN-13: 978-1449433529This is perfect for those nights you are too drunk to work the Internet on your iPhone but still, want to prove to some foolish bar patron that you are hip. Like riding a bike, it is hard to forget your 'tur…

I grew up eating a lot of cheesy macaroni and hanging around women who obsessed over Anne of Green Gables. They watched the films, read the books, pretended to be the characters. I understood macaroni but failed to understand the pull people had for Avonlea.

As I got older, I gained an appreciation. My reading branched out to more than just Stephen King and Hardy Boys. I read the first book in the series and evolved into a big bearded dude who doesn't change the channel when some variation comes on the Hallmark channel. Netflix launched 'Anne with an E' and I holed up in the bedroom with my wife to consume it.

I nearly peed myself when I found out a new Graphic Novel was slated for release.



PREORDER! October 24th Release date.
Buying a copy through this link supports this site but cost you no extra money.
Put it in the closet for an awesome x-mas gift.
Anne of Green Gables: A Graphic Novel (Brenna Thummler, Mariah Marsden)
232 pages
Andrews McMeel Publishing
ISBN-10: 1449479…

I am blown away by how absolutely off game I am. The Trade Paperback DayBlack has existed since August 2015. AUGUST 2015! The universal hiatus I took after my children's birth looks more and more like I just died and rolled under a rock. Granted, I am a long way from Atlanta, where Artist Keef Cross does his work. Excuses, assholes, you know the saying.


Get a copy via Amazon today.Buying a copy through this link supports this site but cost you no extra money.Series: DayBlackDayBlack vol 1 (Keef Cross)104 pagesRosarium PublishingISBN-10: 0990319121ISBN-13: 978-0990319122
Merce is a vampire. He exists in DayBlack Georgia, a city where a past industrial meltdown has blotted out direct sunlight. Merce finds himself passing out at inconvenient moments, seemingly being impacted by the extended darkness around him. Is his Circadian Rhythm screwed up or is there something about how he feeds which interrupts his waking 'life'?
Because of the AIDS epidemic, deadly to vampires, Merce ha…

Sometimes a book series really gets in your head. It is natural to obsess a bit. More natural than kidnapping a man and doodling hearts into his chest with a blade. More natural than cycles of self-depreciation for a broken man. It's just a book series, right? Can't hurt any one with a book series, right?
I find that I cannot stop thinking about these two screwed up lovers, Beauty Killer Gretchen Lowell and Detective Archie Sheridan. It has been four years since the most recent book in the Gretchen series was released. To date, there are six books and we hope there is more to come.
Because the Gretchen Lowell series is based out of Portland Oregon, I am frequently reminded of them as I move about the city. Every time an Oaks Amusement park advertisement comes on the radio, I think of the bodies. When I see any venue where Storm Large played a concert, I think of Gretchen (and the I Love Gretchen fan page). When I hear mention of Vicodin, Archie springs to mind.
Haven't rea…

The story of Little Red Riding Hood has always been a wonderful morality tale. The interpretation of it has been wide spread. Some view it as a cautionary story telling of the dangers of strange men with young girls. Others interpret as following the righteous path vs the non. Some view Red Riding Hood as nothing but a playful story and don't read any deeper. Each person who reads or hears it has a slightly different take, and it impacts them at some level. I myself have always been a fan of the Riding Hood story, but in recent years have felt inundated by exposure to the tale. It seems like corporate commercials, TV shows, and the likes are all stabbing at it and taking reference. 
Maybe this is simply an artifact of my own generation, that the age bracket I inhabit was more strongly influenced than others. 

AVAILABLE FOR PREORDER! - 10/03 Release!Buying a copy through this link supports this site but cost you no extra money.
Little Red Wolf (Amélie Fléchais)Translated by Jeremy M…

If I were given the choice, between drowning in the ocean and decompressing in the vacuum of space, I would select space. Both are essentially the same, the removal of breathable material. They are different in how they are experienced and the details of timing or physical effects, but in space, my corpse would not be nibbled at by creatures. I have never been able to pinpoint why this creeps me out so much as worms and land creatures do not bother me.
The ocean contains monsters we have never even seen, monsters that hold grudges.(Can you tell I grew up in a landlocked area? Is it that obvious?)

Water Memory (Mathieu Reynes, Valerie Vernay)Translated by Jeremy Melloul108 pagesLion ForgeISBN-10: 1941302432ISBN-13: 978-1941302439
Available on Amazon Buying a copy through this link supports this site but cost you no extra money.

Marion and her mother Caroline move to a small coastal town, reviving the inherited house of Marion's deceased grandmother. The house sits in a beautiful locati…

October 31st, 1517: Young monk, Martin Luther nails documents to the front door of the Wittenberg Castle Church. On the pages were printed 95 theses defining man's relationship with God and religion. These were tumultuous times and blasphemy is a dangerous game for renegades and suicidal fools anxious to receive the lash.
2017 marks the five hundredth anniversary of this event.  Martin Luther rallied against the Pope and started a revolution in thought that shook the cornerstones of known Christianity. The writing and distribution of Luther's 95 theses, caused ripples in our social structures still in evidence.

Slated for release on 10/08/2017 Preorders available Renegade: Martin Luther, The Graphic Biography (Dacia Palmerino, Andrea Ciponte)160 pagesPlough Publishing House ISBN-10: 0874862078ISBN-13: 978-0874862072
I have bastardized a bit of this, but bear with me as I am far from being a religious historian. I will leave the hard core cross comparison to those with stronger b…

I have come to appreciate the layers of striation that the publishing industry can provide. If viewed as a cross section of the literary landscape, every genre has a clear color and texture showing the world all that helped define it and differentiate it. Having read a vast array of novels over the years, I am lucky to be able to easily move from highly enjoyable mass market pulp trash to questionably appropriate pornographic debtors prison fare to introspective efforts and instant classics. While many readers have difficulty shifting gears in this manner, others of us get bored or hyper critical if we read too much of the same genre and instead crave the variety.

Non-Fiction has one of the highest degrees of contrast in variation as each topic can shift from dry and factual to emotional and vivid. This book sits right in the middle, giving a critical eye to the history of publishing in the UK and American markets, but carrying a strong but veiled vein of iron resolve behind each pas…