Archive for the Bizarro Books Category
Wizard Magazine on Shatnerquake
Posted in Bizarro Books on July 29, 2009 by carltonmellick“It’s bizarro fiction at it’s best as William Shatner’s appearance at ShatnerCon goes awry when a fiction bomb brings a twisted and evil version of every character the Shat has ever played to life. It’s short, sweet and has occasional grammatical errors, but getting a lightsaber-wielding Captain Kirk in the same room with “Boston Legal’s” Denny Crane is definitely worth the cover price in comedic gold.”
-Jim Gibbons
Wizard Magazine, Issue 214
Check out Jeff Burk’s Shatnerquake at amazon.com
Cover for “Warrior Wolf Women of the Wasteland”
Posted in Bizarro Books on July 27, 2009 by carltonmellickThe book isn’t coming out until later in the year, but here’s a look at the cover. What do you think?
I consider this book my werewolf book, only it has a different werewolf mythology. Instead of temporarily turning into wolves on the full moon, these werewolves turn slightly but permanently more wolf-like every time they have sex. Set 100 years after the apocalypse, this book is like Road Warrior with werewolf girls.
Writing Marathon Finished
Posted in Bizarro Books on July 21, 2009 by carltonmellickI finally finished marathoning my book “Warrior Wolf Women of the Wasteland” yesterday. Most of the time when I write a book I will lock myself away from the world and do nothing but write, eat, and sleep until it is finished. Well, most of the time my books are on the short side so I can finish them in 3-7 days. This book took me 20 days to complete. It is about 3-4 times longer than my usual books. It came out to be almost 80,000 words and 400 pages. The longest book I’ve written since 1999 (It might actually be longer than Satan Burger, which would make it my longest book since EJC in 1995).
This was probably the most exhausting writing experience I’ve ever gone through. Some days I could do nothing but stare at the computer screen, forcing out just a few sentences an hour. Other times I got so into it I forgot who I was or what I was doing and could get out thousands of words in a big gush. I drank dozens of energy drinks (which I never used to buy before) and smoked a ton of hazelnut tobacco.
Despite its Troma-esque title, this book is a little more serious in its approach than a lot of my books, but no more than most of my recent stuff. It’s basically like a bizarro version of Road Warrior with werewolves. I was watching a lot of anime and re-reading Vonnegut’s “Slapstick” the week before I started this book, and now that I’m going over the recently finished draft of this book I realize that those two things really rubbed off on this book. I’m not saying the book is like an anime written by Vonnegut (which would probably be pretty interesting)… its just like a book by me with a lot of influence from Vonnegut and anime.
After finishing the book, I went up to Olympia to a cocktail party at Kevin Shamel’s house. Kevin Shamel recently got his short novel “Rotten Little Animals” accepted to be published as one of the first books in the New Bizarro Author Series. Anyway, after 20 days of nonstop writing I was hardly able to hold up my martini glass or think of anything else but my book. It was a weird experience coming out of that daze.
While it was fun, I’m not doing the 20 day writing marathon anytime soon if I can avoid it. But I also probably won’t be writing any 80,000 word books unless I do.
Jeremy Shipp Now on Kindle
Posted in Bizarro Books on July 18, 2009 by carltonmellickI just wanted to mention that bizarro writer, Jeremy C. Shipp, has both of his books available as kindle editions now. Check them out:
It’s time for blueblood Bernard Johnson to leave his boring life behind and go on The Vacation, a yearlong corporate-sponsored odyssey. But instead of seeing the world, Bernard is captured by terrorists, becomes a key figure in secret drug wars, and, worse, doesn’t once miss his secure American Dream.
Jeremy Shipp is the master of the mind-bending tale. These stories bewitch and transport the reader. Though you may not know where Shipp will travel next, each story is an unforgettable thrill-ride and you’ll be glad you took the trip.
Shipp’s novel Vacation established him as one of the foremost authors in the “bizarro fiction” movement. Now he turns his attention to short fiction and literary horror. The themes of alienation and cultural homogenization on a global scale are explored in closer detail. Shipp notes, “This intimacy makes Sheep and Wolves much darker than its predecessor. Because now, the darkness is invading your homes, your dreams, your lives.” The author’s trademark quirky characters populate an otherwise bleak landscape, this time around facing horrors at home rather than evils abroad.
The Overwhelming Bizarro Urge
Posted in Bizarro Books on July 13, 2009 by carltonmellick
I found this in depth analysis of Andersen Prunty’s “The Overwhelming Urge” online today, at Joe Brainard’s Pyjamas. I think the guy has an interesting perspective on bizarro fiction, much of which I agree with.
Check it out:
Andersen Prunty’s The Overwhelming Urge is probably my first satisfying experience with the newly-fledged Bizarro movement in fiction. Bizarro lit seems to be gaining momentum and a readership rather quickly. This is probably due to the easy readability of these books, and because the works are often fun and unpretentious. Bizarro books (when they are enjoyable) feel almost like guilty pleasures, and restore us to the time when we read more fanciful, “messed up” sci fi or fantasy books–when we were kids or teenagers. “You reading that crap?” was the sort of comnment we’d get from those more enlightened beings around us who were probably reading Harold Robbins or Jackie Collins. Or worse: Tom Wolfe.
We knew why we read those books back then, but many of us have forgotten. Wasn’t it for the sense of the miraculous and the marvelous, the sense that anything was possible in this weird universe? Well, Bizarro is bringing that sense back by the shovelful.
Bizarro fiction is not for everyone. You have to possess a rather macabre sense of humor, for sure. Do you laugh often at David Lynch films? If so, you will probably enjoy bizarro fiction. Andersen Prunty’s book of flash fiction and short fiction, The Overwhelming Urge, was published by Eraserhead Press, after all, and once you read it I don’t think you will find that fact a coincidence. Bizarro fiction appears to owe more to David Lynch’s brand of American surrealism than the surrealism of Breton and Company. Bizarro has a gooey, macabre and existential (but often hilarious) take on life. You get the impression these books are probably as much fun to write as they are to read.
Of course, freedom always brings liability. And this means the extravagant freedom that Bizarro encourages in its authors will not always result in books of quality. For every Pollock, there will be 10,000 more Jack the Drippers out in the garage, sure they are creating a work to rival “Lavendar Mist.” I have seen some very bad Bizarro writing, and have seen some of these books get their comeuppance in astute literary reviews. As with any style, there must be substance. There must be a real author, chosing to wear this skin for a while. Wallace Stevens’s infamous charge directed at European surrealism (that it “invents without discovering”) should be kept in mind by any would-be Bizarro litterateur.
I first encountered Bizarro fiction on Goodreads.com. There are a number of practitioners of the aesthetic on there, and many of the authors are enjoying a nascent popularity. It’s not a literary movement in the traditional sense. The authors have not been publishing annoying manifestos, and condemning the art of the past as “bourgeois” or “irrelevant.” (At least this hasn’t happened yet, which is a refreshing change.) No one is getting ground down under a critical or theoretical apparatus which is clearly designed for future academic consumption and the torture of undergraduates. Hell, there is not even a Wikipedia entry on Bizarro Fiction yet! Now how unlikely is that? Could you imagine any poetic or prose-based avant-garde movement in the 20th century not making a beeline for Wikipedia codification in the first fifteen minutes of existence? I think of the pods in Invasion of the Body Snatchers when I think of most of those literary movements. Let’s hope the purity remains in Bizarro.
Oh, one last note before discussing Andersen Prunty’s book in particular. I haven’t established what Bizarro fiction acknowledges as the source for the name itself, but I don’t believe it’s Superman’s hilarious alter ego, Bizarro (see the Wikipedia article by the same name for some marvelous tutelage on this). Perhaps it’s from Mondo Bizarro. It doesn’t seem to really matter, since everyone gets what Bizarro is. Everyone uses that word naturally at one point or another to describe something they are encountering beyond the bourne of recognition. Breton called it le merveilleux. These writers simply call it Bizarro, which is much easier to pronounce, and just as useful.
Andersen Prunty’s The Overwhelming Urge is a decidedly uneven collection. There are stories I think are rather brilliant; there are near-misses; there are duds. I don’t want to be cavalier here. I do want to say I think there is a real originality present in the best pieces, and that I’m impressed that the work is always accessible, even when it’s challenging. I get the impression that many of the stories I don’t like will be loved by others. I feel the author has a real sense of the variousness of his audience. And that’s a good, compassionate thing. As one reads the stories, possible literary antecedents flit through one’s mind. Kafka? Definitely. Donald Barthelme? Possibly. Edson? Oh, yes. The Steve Martin of Cruel Shoes? Very probable.
Like many of the authors I just mentioned, Prunty has a gift for writing the weird parable. Many of these stories resonate well beyond their particulars, and leave a real smack on the brain. I am going to scan in two stories I wanted to share (“Vagina” and “The Joke”) to give you an idea of the sort of writing I think Prunty does best. Several of these stories deserve to be anthologized and given a wider readership. I love the simplicity of Prunty’s language, the refusal to deviate stylistically from what is essential to the telling of the miniature tale. It’s hard to write well about the relationship between the sexes, or our relationship to sex itself, but Prunty has a knack for that. But he has no particular obsessions or subject matter; he’s pretty much interested in the whole weird platter of life, and in that regard the stories deliver up a Petronian spread. The longest piece of fiction in here, “Discovering the Shape of My Skull,” is a compelling demonstration of how the entire universe of Eros is really only a spinning plate balanced on a thin stick for a circus act. Read it, and you’ll see what I’m talking about.
When Prunty succeeds, he creates a vision to rival the best scenes out of Lynch (and yes, often the darkest works, like Eraserhead or Lost Highway). When he fails, it’s a joke with no punchline, or a too obvious punchline. “Prince,” in which the narrator finds himself inexplicably babysitting the rock god–who is now a geriatric teenager–flops flat on its purple lame belly. “Void” (“I have a bowel movement that lasts for three days”) inexplicably discovers a Kafkaesque tale of strange beauty in extremely disgusting, scatological circumstances. “Vagina” and “The Joke” both work their stiletto heels beautifully on the literary runway. “Shoes” and “The Johnsons” are both too close to pieces in Martin’s Cruel Shoes for my liking. “Frogs” is hilarious and filmic. Andersen better watch that one doesn’t get cribbed. I expect some screenwriter to steal that baby from him.
Prunty’s best writing is completely aware of the thought that runs under our thought, the humongous fears and worries we carry around with us on this planet in which everything is uncertain, and it sculpts those fears…not into epiphanies the way the worst mainstream fiction does (the man wouldn’t insult you like that) but rather into a strange sort of release that may be a laugh, may be a gasp, or may just be a moan.
The French poststructuralists would have a field day with some of his writing on the body and sex. Even Bachelard would love the obsessively attentive way Prunty plays with our sense of space in these stories.
Discovering Prunty as a young author (with all the inevitable imperfections and rough spots) is rather like encountering Bukowski early in his career. You know this guy is gonna take a lotta shit from people who are sure they “know better.” You know it will be fun to watch this display of ego in the monkey house. But you also see the wild hunger, and the gift. You know who you’re putting your mental money on. You know who’s going to win in the long run and the big picture. And you know it will be a fun film to watch.
Wonderland Book Award Final Ballot
Posted in Bizarro Books on July 4, 2009 by carltonmellickHere is a list of nominations for the Wonderland Book Awards:
BEST NOVEL
“House of Houses” by Kevin L. Donihe
“Zerostrata” by Andersen Prunty
“My Landlady the Lobotomist” by Eckhard Gerdes
“Help! A Bear is Eating Me!” by Mykle Hansen
“The Egg Man” by Carlton Mellick III
BEST COLLECTION
“Squid Pulp Blues” by Jordan Krall
“Sheep and Wolves” by Jeremy C. Shipp
“The Overwhelming Urge” by Andersen Prunty
“Laredo” by Tony Rauch
“Rampaging Fuckers of Everything on the Crazy Shitting Planet of the Vomit Atmosphere” by Mykle Hansen
I’m happy my book “The Egg Man” was nominated. Of my recent books, this one is probably my favorite.
The Bizarro Artwork of Jase Daniels
Posted in Bizarro Artists, Bizarro Books on June 25, 2009 by carltonmellickThere is fantasy art, horror art, and science-fiction artwork. But is there such a thing as bizarro art? I believe so. In order to define bizarro artwork, I’d say it would have to be an image that tells a bizarro story or could easily inspire a bizarro story. With that definition, I would say that Jase Daniels is a definitive bizarro artist. His work is dark, surreal, somewhat cartoonish (in a good way), and it always tells a strange story. It reminds me of the French film Fantastic Planet, or the web cartoon Salad Fingers, or the surreal animated MTV shows from the ’90s like Aeon Flux, The Maxx, The Head, and Liquid Television. Fans of bizarro should take note.
I first discovered Jase Daniels when I picked up his book (a collaboration with bizarro writer Forrest Armstrong) called This City is Alive:
It’s a great book that was nominated for the Wonderland Book Award. Although it is now sold out, it is perhaps the most beautiful bizarro book to be published. It is a short novel with full color illustrations. Forrest and Jase are the perfect match of artist and writer. They compliment each others’ work perfectly. I hope they work together on many future projects.
Last week I got an advance copy of his new book, The Grubby End:
It was published by Crossing Chaos, a new company that has released books by some bizarro people like Jase Daniels, Forrest Armstrong, and Tom Bradley (although I’ve heard the company is anti-bizarro for some reason).
The Grubby End is a wonderfully surreal story of pictures, like a 100 page bizarro version of a David Wiesner or Maurice Sendak book. The story is genuinely creepy in style, and weird as hell. It’ll take you on a journey through an insecty world of soggy sky scrapers, maggot eggs, and little goblin-like people. It’s genuinely creepy and weird as hell. It is also 100% bizarro. I highly recommend it.
Here are some samples:
It’s coming soon. Watch for it on amazon.com or crossingchaos.com.
To check out more of Jase Daniels’ artwork, go to his website: http://www.jasedaniels.com
Spockalypse!
Posted in Bizarro Books on June 20, 2009 by carltonmellickAfter Wil Weaton (you know, Wesley Crusher from Star Trek the Next Generation) twittered about Jeff Burk’s Shatnerquake, there have been lots of ideas coming in for sequels to the book.
Here are some that I found:
Spockalypse
AfterSpocks (after the Shatnerquake, there are AfterSpocks)
Tsunimoy
Uhuracane
DeForestfire
Shatnerquake 2: Electric BoogSulu
Although I prefer the sequel “Shatnerquest,” these are some funny ideas for book titles.
Here are some fan created covers for said sequels:
(created by Ian Watson)
And the original cover:
The Magazine of Bizarro Fiction #1
Posted in Bizarro Books on May 25, 2009 by carltonmellickI’ve already read it, so I know. This is an incredible magazine featuring some of the best bizarro fiction. Andersen Prunty’s novella “The Sex Beast of Scurvy Coast,” a weird and a bit perverted Scooby Doo parody, is one of the most entertaining pieces of bizarro fiction hands down. His story alone is worth the $7 cover price.
THE MAGAZINE OF BIZARRO FICTION
Issue #1
Fiction
“Justice in Amerry-Ka” by Bruce Taylor
You’re on trial by two giant spiders. Then things get bad.
“The Sex Beast of Scurvy Island” by Andersen Prunty
What if Scooby and the gang were traveling pornographers?
“Puzzles” by Michael James Gibbs
Sudoku is much harder without eyes.
“The Pistol Burps” by Jordan Krall
A surreal and violent prequel to Krall’s forthcoming Spaghetti Western collection, Fistful of Feet.
“Victim: A Story Inspired by Takashi Miike” by Jeremy C. Shipp
A severed penis head and clowns await you.
“Mr. Plush Detective” by Garrett Cook
A Teddy Bear detective in a world of furries.
Comics
“Four Scenes” by Jeremy Kemp
Scenes of joy, decay, and the surreal.
“Power Flower” by Andrew Goldfarb
Man versus flower!
Nonfiction
Punk Rock and Mother Punching: Author Spotlight on Gina Ranalli by Jeff Burk
A career overview and analysis of bizarro figurehead Gina Ranalli
My Bear Will Kick Your Ass: Reflections on Bizarro Book Promotion by Mykle Hansen
The trials and joys of a DIY bizarro book tour.
How to Write a Short Story! By Bradley Sands
English Grads, listen up!
The Squishiest Place on Earth: Report on BizarroCon 2008 by Jeff Burk
The sights, sounds, smell, and quotes from the first BizarroCon.
The 2008 Wonderland Awards
Book Roundup
Regular Features
A Rant from the Editor by Jeff Burk
Welcome and “What is Bizarro?”
Bizarro Book Reviews by Jeff Burk, Cameron Pierce, and Forrest Armstrong
Reviews of The Faggiest Vampire by Carlton Mellick III, The Caterer: Issue #3 by Steve Aylett, Shark Hunting in Paradise Garden by Cameron Pierce, House of Houses by Kevin L. Donihe, Piecemeal June by Jordan Krall, Discouraging at Best by John Edward Lawson, 13 Thorns by Gus Fink and Gina Ranalli, This City is Alive by Forrest Armstrong, Every Sigh, The End by Jason Hornsby, and The Menstruating Mall by Carlton Mellick III
The Bizarro Books that Never Were: Omega Flappy by Kevin L. Donihe
Kevin L. Donihe talks about The Flappy Parts.
Cover Art by Carlton Mellick III
Interior Story Illustrations by Angie Molinar
Editor-in-Chief: Jeff Burk
Copyeditor: Cameron Pierce
Get it at amazon.com
Carlton Mellick III 