Watched every early Aleister Crowley-inspired film by Kenneth Anger, UFOs and all, but no horned hands. I chose to listen to Anger’s commentary tracks which helpfully explained what he was trying to do with each film, but also slightly loosened my grip of reality. He was aiming for way, way out.

If you have the space, means and collection: a northern Texas warehouse full of proto-Redbox VHS vending machines from the mid-1980s is being evicted. The machines are free and whatever isn't taken will imminently be scrapped. www.facebook.com/commerce/lis...

"The breakdown from decent man to cold assassin is a slow burn, but a morbidly entertaining one. A stand-out series.” —Paperback Warrior Get six action-packed vigilante novels in one low-priced ebook! https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/B09T35RB3V/brash-twitter-20

Listening to the audiobook for It Seemed Like a Bad Idea at the Time: The Worst TV Shows in History and Other Things I Wrote by Bruce Vilanch Wasn't exactly a fan of him in his Oscar monologue fame, but he's been entertaining enough on podcasts with show biz stories. No particularly salacious back

getting yelled at by furries is pretty normal internet stuff

Youtube AI auto content review is blocking wrestling promos for threats and bullying. I mean, they're not wrong, hard to parse out even to a human "this kind is ok"

Richard Norton in his days as a bodyguard for ABBA He was BOTD in 1950

Hardman 1 Atlanta Deathwatch by Ralph Dennis Popular Library 1974 Jim Hardman is a disgraced former cop who operates as an unlicensed private detective, along with other minor criminal hustles. He's teamed up with former NFL player Hump Evans, more than a sidekick but doesn't get full co-billing.

Book of the year for less than a dollar! Buy the man's damn book already!

Only 99 cents! It’s Halloween in Marble Springs, TX and Abe just wants to make it out alive. But between the vengeful ghosts in his apartment, the lake monster he’s tasked with destroying, and being targeted by dueling serial killers, it doesn’t look good! amzn.to/3TizhOT

Here's Gene Simmons' ultimately abandoned trademark application for his Spider-Man variation of the devil horns, filed in 2017. tsdr.uspto.gov#caseNumber=8...

Working hypothesis: The Italian Mano Cornuto sign of the horns got conflated into the sign of the devil horns in some folklore books, though with the same good luck charm meaning. Meanwhile, the other signs of the horns (fists to forehead) from Crowley and/or Huxley's Ape and Essence got

She's coming back. It's been a crappy week, friends, but our cover designer has sent us the final approved cover to The Bartender: Whiskey Warfare. Still got a ways to go before the manuscript is ready for prime time, but Brodie is gonna be kicking ass all over the place soon. Bless her.

Cade 1 Darksiders by Mike Linaker 1992, Gold Eagle Cade is a Justice Marshal of the faraway future where hardcore pornography is transmitted by satellite. Cade and his cyborg (really an android) partner Janek uncover a scheme to kidnap homeless people living underground and force them to work in

Read my first Mad Magazine in 40 years. I was expecting the on-the-nose spelled out satire, was not expecting rape jokes and the F slur. Sergio Aragonés outclasses this rag.

Sci-fi about pimps who set up psychopaths with desperate people willing to be tortured to death and be reborn in cloned bodies.

Meditation of the day: Black people in Robert E. Howard's Solomon Kane series

nw Miami Golem Supposedly David Warbeck was kept on retainer to replace Roger Moore as James Bond at a moment's notice. Like Moore would ask for too much money and Broccoli would go "The star of Ark of the Sun God can do it cheaper"

Diamondback: It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time by Derrick Ferguson 2021, Pro Se Productions Believed dead, gunman Diamondback Vogel returns to the gang run city of Denbrook and inserts himself into a war of organized crime and corrupt police. It has a near future setting, just enough to

Strange Powers of the Mind by Warren Smith 1968 Ace Star Anecdotal feel to a lot of these entries, with names changed, mostly of predictions. A few good entries. There's the Copenhagen Hypnosis Murders, in which a man made a fellow prisoner a hypnotized slave and supposedly forced him to kill

Reading ‘Devil Soul’ (1973) which I got because it’s horror and by a gay author. Expected ‘coded’ characters, but there’s a gay relationship at the centre of the story, a pulpy retake of Devil Rides Out. Where was this when I needed it? A gay horror hero - not stereotyped, no tropes. Amazing.

Rig Warrior 4 Knockdown by J.A. Johnstone Pinnacle Books, 2020 William W. Johnstone has been dead for a quarter century, but his byline shows up on hundreds of titles, mostly westerns. They haven't revived his horror or post-apocalyptic titles, but some of his few thriller series are still going.

Now we're getting somewhere. Here's a tenuous link between the sign of the horns and the devil in 1961. References a 19th century play that used it as a sign of recognition.

Carnage on 84th Street: Splatter Crimes by Judith Sonnet 2023 One of a series mixing splatterpunk and 70s crime cinema. I'm not up on modern extreme horror, but this reminded me of the little of Edward Lee I've read, in that it's a pile of gross out with a razor thin plot to justify it.

It's fun to make up Giallo movie titles: 13 Guillotines for Cynthia Spider in a Fur Coat A Corset for the Devil The Knife Wore No Clothes A Killer in the eye of the Alligator's desire Sex Murder in the Hangman's Noose

K'ing Kung-Fu 2 Return of the Opium Wars by Marshall Macao 1973, Freeway Press Picks up immediately after the first installment, with K'ing chasing Kak across China. Kak links up with the evil Red Circle, while K'ing recruits the help of the Blue Circle, including a Black kung fu practitioner

Watching HIT: The Third Case. Seen takes that glorifying police brutality is a strictly American phenomena, with some thinking it was from a 9/11 hangover. Here, it doesn't even glorify it, it's just a standard procedural. MC is blowtorching a suspect, Captain walks in, he's like "almost done here"

TWO THOUSAND MANIACS! Written by Herschell Gordon Lewis

Rewatching Hell's Bells: The Dangers of Rock and Roll. Got shown this in Sunday school, turned me on to the Frogs. Two minutes in and we've already got Channel 3 and Dead Kennedys.

RIP rockabilly hero and all-round B-movie renaissance man Johnny Legend. A surname wholly befitting of his status! Here’s Johnny meeting a sticky end in Schlock Pit fav CHILDREN OF THE CORN III: URBAN HARVEST (1995) — but one of many flicks that benefitted from his quirky cameo appearances.

goodnight gilbert gottfried, wherever you are

The one time I actually needed a quote from the vendors that kept hassling me it took them a full month to get back with a number. "Let's set up a meeting to assess how we can.." "We're good. You sell a thing. How much does the thing cost?" "We can put together a plan that.." "Yeah, just need

Arrived today, the cheapest (but interesting) novel I could find by the legendary Victor J Banis, who wrote gothic romances under several ‘female’ names, gay porn under his own name and fun gay novels as Don Holliday. And horror novels!

Mother Fletcher’s Sooper Joose (1971-1972):A vaguely cherry-flavored cola from Canada Dry, marketed (with a tongue-in-cheek fictional lore) as a counter-cultural "bootleg soft drink", produced off the grid in a still by a deaf old woman. It was sold/tested exclusively in Dallas, TX and Rochester, NY

Ever so slightly addicted to these 1960s’ collections of tales of the supernatural… presented as true. Certainly a well of ideas for horror writers.

2/ First up, Beulah Poynter's THE MURILLO MYSTERY, originally from 1927. (Technically supposed to be released in December 2024, and the ebook was, but a hiccup caused the paperback to come out in 2025.) Golden Age mystery about the murder of an art collector, with a proto-Scooby Doo gang! #pulp

TNT: The Devil's Claw by Doug Masters 1985, Charter A Middle Eastern power has a weather control device that he's using to destroy the Western world and turn the Middle East into a paradise. Our Irish journalist with mildly superhuman powers is on the case.

Also entering the public domain this year: your mom. Their lining up around the block to get their fair use.

S. Craig Zahler's That Darn Cat

Here's my dumb idea for Public Domain Day. It was probably better as a sketch. Anyway, who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Boop knows!

REALLY excited about Canadian International Picture's release of Ghostkeeper, which is a wonderful slow burn Wendigo/slasher hybrid that I have loved for as long as I can remember. I was thrilled to be asked to join @thc-podcast.bsky.social for a commentary: vinegarsyndrome.com/collections/...

1: Die Naked, Bitch! by Dale Hammond. This freaking book is the best freaking action novel of the year...yes, even better than our two releases! Hysterically funny, with lunatic violence choreographed by a real maestro. I read this early in the year and haven't stopped thinking about it since.

I will never understand click bait mentality. "I'm sure the 'it' here is like takes of a scene, but what if, just what if, this is an ancient Roger Moore describing, in stark erotic detail, each of the 34 different times he railed Dorothy Provine?" 401 fools have fallen into this trap.

Howdy friends and enemies! Here's our recap of this eventful year. Warts and all. We made sure that the alt text is the body of the screenshots. As we sign off from the Point of Impact Bullpen for another year, I am grateful for each and every one of you. Even Jerry. To future adventures!

In no particular order, my favorite reads of 2025. First up:

Dillon and the Judas Chalice by Derrick Ferguson After a rousing car chase, Dillon is recruited to recover the Judas Chalice. Fun, if a less memorable entry. Available in Dillon Annual 2018, available from Amazon amzn.to/3TCRxBI