Consignment from Manic Baby Studio

Title :  Consignment

Who's it for?: Fans of David Lynch or Alfred Hitchcock who don't have a lot of time or money and are a bit brokenhearted, possibly for the recently dumped
Who made it?: Manic Baby Studio -- Justin Hannah and Abbra Smallwood
Where is it?: Distributed through Indieflix!
Length: 19 min

As brief and transient as life is, the pursuit of love can sometimes become a maddening descent into selfish coveting. Desperate singles are sometimes tempted by the fear of loneliness into venomously competitive feelings of possession of significant others. Is there anything more horrific and endangering than selecting a person as a goal to end such soul-consuming longing? Such longing can only distract an individual from developing a self-assured identity while searching for meaning in life, and any victory hinges upon the appraising judgment of the prized other.

This sort of poisonous temptation and damaging self-delusion is veiled by a romantic noir in the independent short film Consignment, directed by Justin Hannah and produced with him by Abbra Smallwood as Manic Baby Studio. A 1950s period noir with surreal undertones and a cerebral style of storytelling, the film tells the story of a young woman desperate to restore an important romantic relationship she lost via the aid of a mysterious box from a consignment shop. However, the box may not be the ideal answer; it even may corrupt those who possess it. Not every detail of the story is spelled out, and it rewards repeat viewings and careful attention to its scenic design.

My full review of Consignment is available on Rogue Cinema: http://www.roguecinema.com/consignment-2013-by-teresa-d-lee.html

Short Story Review: Jar of Mist by Jeffrey Thomas

Title Who's it for?: Who made it?: Where is it?: Length:

What is it?:  a short story featured on Lovecraftzine 
Title / Author: "Jar of Mist" by Jeffrey Thomas
Length:  About 23 pages of 13pt font but it felt like half that when I read it in an afternoon.  You can too!
Where is it?:  [Lovecraft ezine]
Who's it for:  Fans of Lovecraftian fiction, fans of fantasy horror who love the theme of madness, anyone interested in the upcoming Lovecraftian web series Whispers From the Shadows, sponsored by Lovecraft ezine.


Lovecraftian fiction has long intrigued me though I never knew quite where to start.  The cerebral glimpses of battles with madness and hypnotic siren call of cult worship are intriguing, but many of the stories in the Lovecraftian universe end in despair and doom.  The difference with Jeffrey Thomas's story is that it starts with the despair and doom and finds a silver lining, albeit a macabre one.

It begins with rather than ends in death.  A father is investigating the death of his daughter and unraveling the life she had built for herself towards the end with macabre influences on her actions.  There are a few characters but most of the story's conflict is internal, with one man fighting his own mind to cope with the death of a loved one.  The atmosphere in the story is thick with despair but also curiosity and exploration.

This story is one of three short stories from Lovecraft ezine that are being adapted into short films by Alien Jungle Bug, and "Jar of Mist" is a particularly good one because it is so very visual with assorted cult fetish and art props and a hallucinogenic trance sequence that I'm looking forward to seeing them execute for the internet screen.  I've seen their previous film "Silence of the Bell" and think its dream logic prepared them perfectly for adapting these nightmarish stories into the Whispers From the Shadows series this year.

Anyway, this story drew me in and made me feel its morbid fascination with death and other planes of existence.  I recommend it to fans of Lovecraftian fiction who have the emotional reserves to step into this violent, maddening world.

More info on Jeffrey Thomas's science fiction and horror fantasy fiction is available at http://punktalk.punktowner.com/

Robert Hack's doing art for a scarier Sabrina

I am so happy for my Cinematic Titanic fan forum friend Robert Hack, who has worked on IDW's Doctor Who comics and the zombie Archie series, and he is now going to be the artist on Archie comics' new Sabrina series, which is taking one of my favorite characters in a fun and gothic new direction:

More Information on USA Today

I love that this article says someone will find out Sabrina's secret in the first issue, and that there will be grim consequences.  But I'm even more excited about Hack's moody art style balancing out the once too-sweet Archie universe with dark, heavy inking.  He likes drawing mobsters and Lovecraftian monsters too, so I am laughing so hard with gleeful anticipation about his brand of evil happening to insipid Archie characters.

The series starts this October, so now I gotta figure out whether a comic subscription fits into my annual budget and find a way to subscribe.  But I also want to subscribe to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles :(  I am possibly doing comics fandom wrong.  I want to subscribe but haven't since we subscribed to Sovereign Seven back in the late 90s.  I typically just go to a store once a year or so, set a limit that I'm willing to spend and estimate when I've reached that limit on picking up single issues.  I also limit myself to either old bagged comics or the new wall, not both.  And I have no idea about price checking etiquette.  It always feels like I am guessing and am really good at guessing what is quality writing at this point but also at finding what will cost me an arm and leg at the register.