CARNIVAL (ACTUALLY, FREAKSHOW) OF THE CRIMINAL MINDS #20

Your last stop was Damien's Crime Down Under.  And God help you now. 

Every Carnival needs a sideshow, a place where they put the weirdos, the "uniquely gifted", and the unabashed puzzling, because they know that deep down, no matter how much we fight it, we're all voyeurs.  So for this installment of  Barbara Fister's Carnival of the Criminal Minds, I'll show you what's been whirring around in my head while in the formulating stages of my next novel (having just turned one in, trying to get the seasonings right for this next soup-of-a-manuscript I plan on whipping together).

And since most sideshows are visually oriented, you'll see a lot of video here.

So, what exactly is on my mind?  Biker pulp, grind-house, Pentecostals, war comics, Minnesota, "transgressive" fiction, and High School Satanists.  I can't talk about all of that (some of it deals with the novel I'm currently writing), but on we go into the unlocked passageways of the Freakshow...

Let's start with one of the coolest transgressive litsites out there (What's "transgressive"? Here's a discussion right over at Barbelith Underground), 3AM Magazine.  Their Buzzwords blog is the primer for the outcasts, the misunderstood, the too-cool-for-the-room.  And they just linked to a new trailer for Tony O'Neill's new book, Down and Out on Murder Mile.  O'Neill's on the verge of breaking out.  And I mean breaking out like in finding a getaway car, grabbing a hostage, and taking off on a multi-state car chase with troopers on his tail.  Search him out.

If you like 3AM, then also check out Dogmatika, another one flirting with the ledge.  They've published me a couple of times, so bless their wonderful, miserable mission.

The thing is that regardless of how much dirtiness, shamefulness, and crime fills transgressive fiction, it's never stuck with the genre label "crime writing".  I guess because the crimes involved aren't the focus, and the characters not "career criminals", maybe.  Doesn't matter.  I've always seen the type of writing I do under the noir pose as "Characters doing awful things to one another, and the consequences thereof."  And if it's good work, it's good work, so the labels become pointless.  But still, if a label helps, fine.  If anyone out there is bridging the gap between crime fiction and transgressive fiction (other than my baby, PLOTS WITH GUNS, I mean), I'd point to Thuglit, Murdaland, and Out of the Gutter.  And if there are more I don't know about, give us a comment.  Be glad to discover more.

Biker Pulp.  Mostly movies we're talking here.  But first, I started writing a sequel to Yellow Medicine a couple of months after finishing that book, and the one image that kept coming back to me was Billy Lafitte on a motorcycle, returning to Minnesota.  So I went with it, creating a biker gang ("motorcycle club" being the proper term) to go along with it.  And we're talking the 1% ("One Percenter") outlaw sort. Just seemed a perfect fit.  Then, soon as I'm done and we turn it in to the publisher, I learn about this resurgence of biker pulp that, well, I just didn't see coming.  And worse, most of it looks really fucking cool.  So I'm up for the ride, both the classic exploitation flicks and the new ones on the horizon, like Hell Ride.  I've read great reviews, and I've read lousy reviews.  But all I can say is that the trailer does a damned fine jobof making me want to see this.  Maybe that's because I'm also a big Tarantino devotee, and he produced it (as we wait impatiently for his next directing opus, Inglorious Bastards.)  And then the rumors start spinning about Rob Zombie's new pet project, called Tyrannosaurus Rex.  And my reaction: "Awwwwww, shit!  That's awesome."  So, is it about a biker?  Looks like it.  Hyper-violent Biker Flick blended with Horror, 70s Grind-house, and maybe, just maybe, Eastwood's The Gauntlet.  Kudos to Zombie, you son of a bitch (Also, consider his "trailer" for Werewolf Women of the SS).  And for the real fun, check out She Devils on Wheels, Werewolves on Wheels, and Satan's Sadists.  There's also an FX cable series called Sons of Anarchy premiering soon, but I'll have to reserve judgment.  Didn't care for the promos.  Then, for some awesome choppers, check out Iron Horse Magazine

War comics.  I don't do the superheroes anymore.  Nor do I bother with individual issues.  But every once in a while I still get the nerd-boy jitters and have to glom onto something new and cool.  Especially now that a couple of friends are into this stuff big time.  But when asked by Patrick Shawn Bagley which comics I would like to write if given the chance, I immediately spat out Sgt. Rock and The Unknown Soldier.  Rock gets a chance to come out and play every few years now, it seems, but I had thought that ol' Unknown guy, the master of disguises, was dead and buried.  But they're bringing him back on Vertigo, which is to my mind the coolest and most literary (and daring) of all the comics lines.  Also on my list of precious childhood memories: The Haunted Tank, Weird War Tales, and an obscure one from Charlton Comics called Fightin' Army!  And a shout out to Marvel's The Nam.  Now, I'm also still a big fan of the crime stuff and horror comics, but it's the war titles that really stir me.

Then there's Pop Sensation (All Kinky Pulp Covers), PocoTequila.com, Bookgasm.com, and Hell's Kitchen in Minneapolis and Duluth.  Let's not forget my love of tacos (I haven't made it out to L.A. yet, though), and my fascination with the Pentecostal religion (I used to be one).

After all that, you'll need some cotton candy, or a caramel apple, or a Schlitz.  You'll be saying to yourself, "Gee, that guy is a Lunatic Mississippian Ex-Pentecostal Comic Book Nerd Crime/Transgressive Novelist Who Likes Sick Grind-houseBiker Movies and Tacos."  And I would answer, "Well, almost."  I also now live in Southwest Minnesota, which, while I've battled with it on and off over the last few years, has proven itself to be strangely beautiful (but it will never surpass Northern Minnesota, no indeed) and weird enough to capture my attention.  So, to ease your worried souls before next month's visit to Brian Lindemuth's Observations from the Balcony, here is a nice peaceful photo of Lake Superior (just don't think about all the people that went swimming in it and never came back, and you'll be just fine).

Comments

[Barbara]

Transgressive - that's fascinating, in that so much of crime fiction wants to be transgressive, except that justice is served. With a side of patriotism, or family values, or at least the man who goes down mean streets but is not himself mean. Funny the company he keeps.

Anyway, I'm thinking about all those people who took a little swim and then realized Lake Superior is not for swimming...

[BV Lawson]

Hmmm...tacos and Pentecostals? Sounds like you need a trip to the Holy Taco in Atlanta http://www.holy-taco.com/ , not to be confused with http://www.holytaco.com/ .

By the way, a bit of sad news -- Editor Michael Langnas announced today that "Murdaland" will cease to exist, due to funding issues.

Best wishes, though, with the novel!

[James Bashkin]

Great post. I'm worried though... are we writing the same novel? If you substituted Arizona for Minnesota and bicycles for motorcycles, and bi-coastal for Pentecostal, we could be discussing my thinly veiled crime & horror novel/autobiography. I will say this, if one has to wear a veil, the thin ones are most effective.

But seriously, best wishes on the novel. I'll be back! Jim

[Scott D. Parker]

Your riff on war comics equals the phase I'm currently in. I've been scouring all my comic boxes for my old war comics after I found my digest-sized "Sgt. Rock's Prize Battle Tales" from 1981. Don't know why there are not more war comics nowadays, especially since Vietnam and Iraq are prime candidates. You know what I'd love? Modern takes on Weird War Tales and a "Sgt. Rock" from Iraq. Thanks for the links.

[N]

You know, Weird War Tales got an overhaul from Vertigo several years ago (or, hell, maybe that was the 90s) in a miniseries. I was able to snag a couple of issues.

It didn't occur to me, but you're right: why not just "reboot" Rock the way they rebooted James Bond? Stick the man in Nam or Afghanistan. Yessssss.