November 2010
West: Stray Bullets
A name heard in stories, breathed in whispers…
We are pleased to announce that the next issue of West - Stray Bullets, due for publication in the Spring of 2011 - is currently being worked on by a veritable roster of UK indy comic talent.
In some tales, he’s a lawman who stands for what’s right and fair. In others, he’s a killer hell-bent on revenge…
Designed as a portmanteau anthology, the stories in Stray Bullets will link with and illuminate each other while also fitting into the overall tapestry for which West is known. Ranging from West’s childhood to his latter days, Stray Bullets will feature short tales of blood and romance, horror and vengeance - Jerusalem West, like you’ve never seen him before.
Told around campfires in the cold prairie night, in the candlelit backrooms of low-rent saloons…
Stray Bullets will be a Guest Artist issue featuring stories illustrated by West creators Tim Keable and Andrew Cheverton, as well as Jenika Ioffreda, Paul Rainey, Emma Price and Warwick Johnson Cadwell.
His name was Jerusalem West… and these are his stories.
Hey i see that you have a good eye in poetry... Maybe you could check my work out and give me advice
Thanks :)
- Claude Page
Not sure if I’m necessarily qualified to comment on poetry (I submitted a few poems/poetic pieces to Elephant Words, but they were few and far between), but the writing advice I always give out is:
1 - Read Stephen King’s On Writing.
2 - Wherever possible, practice Deep POV (for explanations, click here or here).
3 - Avoid adverbs wherever possible.
4 - Write.
5 - Write.
Matilda Who Told Lies, and Was Burned to Death.
Matilda told such Dreadful Lies,
It made one Gasp and Stretch one’s Eyes;
Her Aunt, who, from her Earliest Youth,
Had kept a Strict Regard for Truth,
Attempted to Believe Matilda:
The effort very nearly killed her,
And would have done so, had not She
Discovered this Infirmity.
For once, towards the Close of Day,
Matilda, growing tired of play,
And finding she was left alone,
Went tiptoe to the Telephone
And summoned the Immediate Aid
Of London’s Noble Fire-Brigade.
Within an hour the Gallant Band
Were pouring in on every hand,
From Putney, Hackney Downs, and Bow.
With Courage high and Hearts a-glow,
They galloped, roaring through the Town,
‘Matilda’s House is Burning Down!’
Inspired by British Cheers and Loud
Proceeding from the Frenzied Crowd,
They ran their ladders through a score
Of windows on the Ball Room Floor;
And took Peculiar Pains to Souse
The Pictures up and down the House,
Until Matilda’s Aunt succeeded
In showing them they were not needed;
And even then she had to pay
To get the Men to go away,
It happened that a few Weeks later
Her Aunt was off to the Theatre
To see that Interesting Play
The Second Mrs. Tanqueray.
She had refused to take her Niece
To hear this Entertaining Piece:
A Deprivation Just and Wise
To Punish her for Telling Lies.
That Night a Fire did break out—
You should have heard Matilda Shout!
You should have heard her Scream and Bawl,
And throw the window up and call
To People passing in the Street—
(The rapidly increasing Heat
Encouraging her to obtain
Their confidance) — but all in vain!
For every time she shouted ‘Fire!’
They only answered ‘Little Liar!’
And therefore when her Aunt returned,
Matilda, and the House, were Burned.
- Hilaire Belloc.
My Book Cull: A Loss of Shelf Esteem →
tinyurl.com
“What’s the point of keeping most books once they’ve been read? …Do they speak to your visitors of your capacious literary appetite? Or do they just count as old friends, the rows of Nabokovs and Thomas Manns, standing protectively around you on permanent guard?”
Listen
Church of the SubGenius Hour of Slack #1284 - DEVOtional 2010 Pt. 1.
We set out to make a show from the 2010 DEVOtional, the annual Devo fan event held in
Misery is the River of the World
Tom Waits
Misery’s the River of the World.
Misery’s the River of the World.
Everybody Row! Everybody Row!
Stranger Than Science Fiction →
tinyurl.com
“Realist fiction struggles to grasp a world increasingly ruled by unreality. We need science fiction and the strange inventions of fantasy to help us understand the modern world…
“For the last few centuries the realist novel has done little more than find ever more obsessive ways to reflect back at us the comforting fictions we accept as reality, making the contemporary literary novelist merely a second idiot, retelling the tale the first idiot already told.”
Damien Walter’s column on The Guardian blog raises some interesting questions - and the comments are probably even more worth reading.
