Showing posts with label Pat Douglas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pat Douglas. Show all posts

Story acceptance for upcoming Bizarro Anthology.



I have been venturing beyond the realms of Horror lately. My latest excursion into other-worldly genres has resulted in an acceptance in Bizarro Pulp Press's anthology: Bizarro Bizarro



I wrote my story 'The Colony' many years ago under the influence of a low-strain LSD trip, with a few revisions and the tightening of prose it extended itself into quite a poetic work of short fiction. In the guise of a 'manifesto,' it tells the tale of a deluded literary hack who imagines a colony of versifiers that will revolutionize the canon of western literary tradition. 

You'll have to wait until the official release of the anthology to read it but, suffice to say, I think I like the Bizarro genre - it is so open-ended that anything qualifies as long as it is so whacked-out that it can't fit into any other genre classifications. 

That's my understanding of it, however, if you'd like a more in-depth definition, I stole the following from the home of Bizarro Fiction - Bizarro Central:



"About Bizarro


“The Bizarro literary movement is the ultimate in outsider lit.”
- 3AM Magazine


“The literary equivalent of a David Lynch or Tim Burton film … A rising genre that functions like the cult movie section in your local video store.”
- Horror World


“[Bizarro is] universally intriguing, thoughtful, intelligent and, most importantly, a hell of a lot of fun.”
- The Pedestal Magazine


“Sometimes comic, sometimes violent, sometimes sexually graphic (if not all of the above) and adolescently fearless to offend.”
- Details Magazine


“Bizarro fiction is by turns repulsive, stupid, and crude. But at its best, it is also compelling, intelligent, and well-written. Any literary genre that can be both bad and good at the same time is worth reading.”
- The Guardian

What Is Bizarro?


  1. Bizarro, simply put, is the genre of the weird.
  2. Bizarro is literature’s equivalent to the cult section at the video store.
  3. Like cult movies, Bizarro is sometimes surreal, sometimes avant-garde, sometimes goofy, sometimes bloody, sometimes borderline pornographic, and almost always completely out there.
  4. Bizarro strives not only to be strange, but fascinating, thought-provoking, and, above all, fun to read.
  5. Bizarro often contains a certain cartoon logic that, when applied to the real world, creates an unstable universe where the bizarre becomes the norm and absurdities are made flesh.
  6. Bizarro was created by a group of small press publishers in response to the increasing demand for (good) weird fiction and the increasing number of authors who specialize in it.
  7. Bizarro is like:
    • Franz Kafka meets John Waters
    • Dr. Suess of the post-apocalypse
    • Takashi Miike meets William S. Burroughs
    • Alice in Wonderland for adults
    • Japanese animation directed by David Lynch
Even though the Bizarros are underground cult outsiders they still have gained an incredible amount of respect in the publishing industry, having been praised by the likes of Chuck Palahniuk, Christopher Moore, William Gibson, Jonathan Lethem, Piers Anthony, Cory Doctorow, Poppy Z. Brite, Michael Moorcock, and Charles de Lint, to name a few, as well as the publications Asimov’s Science-fiction, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science-fiction, Fangoria, Cemetery Dance, Publishers Weekly, The Washington Post, The Guardian, Details Magazine, Gothic Magazine, and The Face, among many others. They have also been finalists for the Philip K Dick Award, the Bram Stoker Award, the Rhysling Award, the Wonderland Book Award, and the Pushcart Prize."


Here is the announcement/post from the good folks at Bizarro Pulp Press:


Here it is, guys! This list is subject to slight change between now and when the book actually releases. This is also what we are thinking of for the order of the stories that will be featured in this book! I am Very excited about this thing. We have a lot of great names and great stories. If you will notice, we have a super secret story to complete the anthology.

1.Wol-Vriey Lucy in Brain Ceiling World
2. Jeff Burk The Satanic Little Toaster
3. Robert Harris A Smashed Up Salmon
4. Dustin Reade Night Butterfly
5. Marcin Kiszela Dreamsource
6. James Dorr Mr. Happy Head
7. Alan M. Clark and Kevin Ward Ugly Shirt's Quest
8. Edmund Colell Fuck
Your Death, Keep Working
9. Robert Harris Pixelated Nostalgia
10. Sean Leonard Dope-elganger
11. Emily Hundrwadel Body Snatcher’s Remorse
12. Bruce Taylor Four Dreams in Miniature
13. Alan M. Clark and Randy Fox Not About Mrs. Maridu
14. Daniel Gonzales Sitcom Hell
15. Aaron French Shoes
16. Max Booth III A Prescription for Shut the Fuck Up
17. Vincenzo Bilof The Swamp of Girders and Chains
18. P. A. Douglas Pussy Apocalypse
19. Danger_Slater The Monster, the Man, the Building, the Bomb
20. MP Johnson Vagalyn’s Flying Head
21. Todd Nelsen Moon Love
22. Ethan C. Evans and Daniel J. Pendergraft Wildberry Christ
23. Jan Maszczycsn Toy Soldiers
24. G. Arthur Brown The Pitfalls of Modern Gardening
25. Craig Saunders Sleep and the End
26. Meghan Arcuri Plaything
27. Michael A. Rose Civics of Consequence
28. Christopher T. Dabrowski Big Bang
29. Andrew Adams Forget Me Not, Filet Mignon
30 William Cook The Colony
31. Robert Harris Schluck!
32. Alan M. Clark and David Conover All His First Born
33. Tony Rauch Refugees from the Future
34. James Reith As One
35. Gabino Iglesias Looking for Gloria
36. Nick Cato A Path for the New Bride
37. ????




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The Horror Show: Poetry Sucker Punch Death Hit!

A wee while ago an online friend took a shine to my artwork and commissioned some pieces for the interior art in his new poetry book. His name is Vincenzo Bilof and his book is titled The Horror Show. I was honored to do some designs specifically for this amazing book of verse. VB sent me an ARC and it blew my mind - as a result, the vivid imagery easily produced the images that follow. These are not all the pieces I designed - you'll have to buy a copy of Vincenzo's fantastic verse novella to see the others. I have taken the liberty of reposting the following book description complete with links for you to view/purchase a copy. You will notice the different covers; the colorful blue one is my design but I must say I prefer Pat Douglas's amazing final design. Pat is a great graphics guy (writer, publisher, musician . . . the list goes on) so if you need a cover or web-design check out what he's done here.

From the Bizarro Pulp website:


The Horror Show, by Vincenzo Bilof. 

A Nobel Prize-winning poet has been missing for several years, along with his wife and child. Suffering from narcolepsy and amnesia, the poet wanders the same back-alleys he terrorized as a teenager. He's being carefully watched by Doctor Humphrey, whose unique treatment plan is driven by a higher power that wants a cure for mental instability to produce the ultimate war machines. At the mercy of his derangements and the ghosts of his fragmented past, the poet's descent into the darkest reaches of his soul reveals a blood-soaked past which threatens to repeat itself.
While Doctor Humphrey collects data from his experiment with madness, he devises a plan to satisfy his own terrifying vision for the future. 
“A uniquely sustained piece of conceptual writing that has been tried before but not with the success Vincenzo Bilof achieves here… this is a must read for fans of conceptual writing. At once nightmarish and playful, it will creep you out when you feel most safe, and you can't say that for many books today, horror or otherwise.”

-Anthony Servante, Author of East Los: A Noir Nightmare

“Some of the most strange and psychotic poems of a mind adrift. Reading them can only be described as pulling your brain inside out, then tying it in a bow like a pretzel and drop-kicking it into a gorge, a very deep gorge, where it will be washed by a stream of consciousness toward the outer limits and beyond.”

-Lori R. Lopez
author of An Ill Wind Blows and Chocolate Covered Eyes


Interior Artwork by Blood Soaked Graphics:





Vincenzo Bilof, The Horror Show, William Cook, Bizarro Pulp Press, Pat Douglas, Lori Lopez, Anthony Servante

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