We take a break from our ghul-ish obsession to round up news from the last week or two, both doggy and weird. Today is about our ancient labrador Twiglet, Josh Reynolds’ latest book, films from Mansfield Dark, the Cthulhusattva anthology and some great artwork from Totem Comics in Argentina. And the cunning connection between these? None, as far as we know, except that the dog has been known to pee on our comics.
It’s fair to say that our various trapped nerves and spinal argghs are not currently helped by the fact that we now have to haul a sixteen year old labrador up and down stairs several times every day due to her age, lumps and arthritis. Both Twiglet and ourselves are on painkiller sandwiches. Nothing says “There goes the slipped disc again!” like needing to carry the dog downstairs three minutes after waking up, when everything still creaks and aches.
We are firmly convinced that Twiglet is surviving purely on obstinacy, a quality which she has always had in abundance. This obstinacy is also why she insists on going up and down rather than settling in the comfy living-room bed like a sensible dog. So she sits either at the top or the bottom of the stairs, as appropriate, and barks loudly until someone conveys her to the opposite end. Apparently her deep, penetrating bark has not been affected by old age, and she isn’t going to give in on this one.
Of course, the process of being carried and shoved between floors triggers her weak bladder, so she pees on the carpet at her destination. Then it needs scrubbing, which wrecks our back even further. Meanwhile, Twiglet has staggered into the kitchen and is eating any shopping she can find, or going through pockets to find treats.
So we’re trying a concentrated supplement of every omega 3 thingy, green-lipped mussel, chondroitin etc. extract we can find at the moment. The dog gets it first, but if there’s no change, at least we can always eat the tablets ourselves. They’re bloody big tablets, mind you…
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You ‘ll forgive us this one, but the anthology Cthulhusattva: Tales of the Black Gnosis is now out from Martian Migraine Press, and we’re in it. There may be other writers involved, and they may be even better than us, but we didn’t say that. The Messages story by jlg himself is, oddly enough, the first Lovecraftian/Mythos story ever to come out of the greydogtales kennel, and concerns a mother and her daughter with an unusual mission in Alaska.
Far more terrifying than our story is the fact that we did an audio interview on the subject. If the talented Scott R Jones of MMP ever releases it, we’ll tell you. Find out more about Cthulhusattva by clicking on the right-hand sidebar. We think you should buy it, but we would say that, wouldn’t we? MMP have some other great stuff as well, so go explore:
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On to other weirds and wonderfuls. Author Joshua T Reynolds, interviewed here a few weeks ago (joshua reynolds: royal occultist with a warhammer), has had the third of his Royal Occultist novels published – The Infernal Express. We have to say that we’ve enjoyed all of his tales of St Cyprian and Ebe Gallowglass, so we anticipate being thrilled and amused by this one. A how-do-I-pick-it-up? link is on the right-hand side as usual.
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The marvellous Mansfield Dark are at it again. Their M R James films are a delight, both for the content and for their highly original animated cut-out/silhouette technique – well worth a look. Richard Mansfield, who we talked to last year concerning their fab films (see mansfield dark), tells us that they are going digital, and gives us an update on their activities.
My DVD producing machinery is giving up the ghost as it were, so I’m taking the M R James film online for purchase and download.
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/apleasingterror
The link on my website works too – www.aPleasingTerror.co.uk
Other than that I’ve been scripting and storyboarding 2 new M.R. James adaptations, ‘Mr Humphries and his Inheritance’ and ‘The Residence at Whitminster’. I’m hoping to have one ready by Christmas.
There’s a new supernatural feature film being filmed in June under the working title ‘The UnBearable’. It’s a mostly one-man period drama set in the 1970’s featuring a demon dressed as a giant teddy bear! The film will star Henry Regan from my LGBT drama ‘The Secret Path’. I think it will have a bit of a folk/fairy tale vibe to it.
My horror ‘Video Killer’ should be out late 2016 on DVD in the USA, hopefully getting a digital release in the UK around the same time. The teaser trailer is here https://vimeo.com/108775344
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We’re also loving Totem Comics of Argentina at the moment. They have a really great website where you can browse their collections for free, including a couple of English-language offerings. There’s some very stylish art to enjoy, and a wide range of comics, including Dr Paradox by Quique Alcatena, a veteran of the comics business who we’ve mentioned a number of times on greydogtales before.
Luciano of Totem provided us with a quick guide:
Tótem Comics is an Argentinian digital imprint founded by Quique Alcatena ( https://web.facebook.com/quiquealcatenacomics/?_rdr ) and Fernando Calvi (arte arte arte) in 2012, with the later incorporation of Lea Caballero ( https://web.facebook.com/lea.caballero6666 ), Luciano Vecchio ( www.lucianovecchio.com.ar) and Paula Andrade ( http://www.derrewyn.com/ ).
We produce independent, creator-owned superhero comics, free for digital reading. We update weekly, each author publishes one (sometimes two) pages of his/her series, plus fanart and pinups with stories or concepts told in one image.
All of our content is available online and freely at http://www.totemcomics.com.ar/ and our Facebook page https://web.facebook.com/comicsTotem/?fref=ts , in Spanish.
So far, two of our series are being translated to English: Paula Andrade’s “Amnistia” ( http://amnistiacomic.tumblr.com/post/130117079348 ) and Luciano Vecchio’s “Sereno The Seer” http://serenotheseer.blogspot.com.ar/
Thanks, Luciano. As a reminder of our Stranger Seas theme, which ran over the last few months and isn’t yet entirely dried-up, we loved this splash (yes, we know) page of nautical superheroes from Totem:
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In next week’s medley we’ll be mentioning the magazine Supernatural Tales, the massive Mammoth Book of Cthulhu edited by Paula Guran and Matthew Bartlett’s super new book, Creeping Waves, which is weird even by our standards…
