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weneverlearn · 3 months

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Aaron Lange, Peter Laughner, and the Terminal Town of Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland-based artist, Aaron Lange, tackles his first graphic novel, Ain't It Fun -- a deep dive into the oily depths of the Rust Belt's most influential music town, it's most mythological misfit, it's oft-forgotten artistic and political streaks, and beyond...

Aaron Lange and his book, 2023 (Photo by Jake Kelly)

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There’s a recurring line in Aaron Lange’s remarkable new graphic novel, Ain’t It Fun (Stone Church Press, 2023), that states, “Say the words out loud. The River isn’t real.” The river Lange was speaking of is the Cuyahoga, that infamously flammable mass of muck that dumps out into Lake Erie.

Peter Laughner (the ostensible topic of Lange’s book) was an amazing artist who probably could’ve ditched the banks of the Cuyahoga for more amenably artistic areas back in his early 1970s heyday. Aside from his frequent pilgrimages to the burgeoning NYC Lower East Side scene (where he nearly joined Television) and a quickly ditched attempt to live in California though, he mostly stuck around northeast Ohio.

While desperately trying to find his sound and a workable band, Laughner smelted a post-hippie, pre-punk amoebic folk rock, and formed the influential embryonic punk band, Rocket from the Tombs, which later morphed into Pere Ubu. All of which – lumped up with other rust-belted oddballs like electric eels, Mirrors, DEVO, the Numbers Band, Chi-Pig, Tin Huey, Rubber City Rebels, and more – essentially helped formed the “proto-punk” template.

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Laughner was also a rock writer of some regional renown, and contributed numerous amphetamine-fueled articles to regional mags like The Scene and Creem -- mostly concerning where Rock'n'Roll was going, colored as he was by the Velvet Underground, the Stooges, David Bowie, and Roxy Music playing in Cleveland a bunch of times around his formative years.

Sadly, in June 1977, Laughner died of acute pancreatitis at age 24. Aside from the first two seminal Pere Ubu 7-inch singles, the rest of Laughner’s recorded output was just one very limited self-released EP and, posthumously, a great double-LP comp of demo and live tracks, Take the Guitar Player for a Ride (1993, Tim Kerr Records). A surprisingly large batch of unreleased lost demos, radio shows, and live tapes appeared on the beautiful and essential box set, Peter Laughner (Smog Veil Records, 2019), that brought Laughner’s legend just a few blocks outside of Fringeville, as it received universally great reviews….

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The Dead Boys became the most well-known act of that mid-70s Cleveland scene, though that only happened once they high-tailed it to NYC. Aside from DEVO, Chrissie Hynde, and the Waitresses (all of whom did their own versions of high-tailing it), nearly every other act in that fertile Cle-Akron proto-punk vortex soon dissipated, eventually getting the cult treatment at best.

Cleveland is indeed right there with NYC and London as punk ground zero, but Americans tend to equate buyable products as proof of import, so shockingly, the Pagans and The Styrenes just aren’t the household name they should be.

Decades of tape-trading stories, sub-indie label limited releases, and fanzine debates kept the mythology of those acts barely breathing underneath the end of the milennium’s increasingly loud R'n'R death knell. And as that mythology slowly grew, the fans and even the musicians of the scene itself still wonder what it all meant.

Which, as you dig deeper into Ain’t It Fun, becomes the theme not just about the legendary rocker ghost of Peter Laughner, but of Cleveland itself. Ala Greil Marcus’ classic “hidden history” tome, Lipstick Traces, Lange interweaves Laughner’s self-immolating attempts at Beatnik-art-punk transcendence with a very detailed history of Cleveland, with its insane anti-legends and foot-shooting civic development.

Like much of the dank, rusted, and mysterious edges of the one-time “Sixth City,” the Cuyahoga has been cleaned up since, though I still wouldn’t suggest slurping up a swallow if you’re hanging on the banks of the Flats. I grew up in Cleveland and visit as often as I can because it’s an awesome place, no matter what they tell you. Or maybe, because of what they tell you.

If you are keen to swim down through the muck and mire of Cleveland’s charms, you don’t just get used to it, you like it. As for the “Cleveland” that the City Fathers have always tried so vainly to hype, us hopelessly romantic proto-punk fanatics say to those who would erase Cleveland’s fucked-up past and replace it with that weird fake greenspace underneath the Terminal Tower: “The City isn’t real.”

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Give us a quick bio.

Born in Cleveland, 1981. We moved to the west side suburbs when I was six. My parents didn’t listen to much music, and I don’t have older siblings. So I didn’t really listen to music at all until I was in high school, and I didn’t listen to any of the grunge or ‘90s stuff that was popular. I got real into the Beatles when I was in ninth grade, and at some point I got the Velvet Underground’s first album from the library because I saw Andy Warhol’s name on the cover. I didn’t know anything about them, so that was a real shock. I probably first heard Iggy Pop via the Trainspotting soundtrack, and pretty soon after I started getting into punk and generally more obscure stuff. Now I listen to more electronic stuff, ambient stuff. I also like most anything that falls under the broad “post-punk” umbrella. I really hate “rama-lama ding-dong” rock and roll.

What came first – music or drawing interest?

Drawing. I was always drawing… I’ve been a semi-regular contributor to Mineshaft for many years, which is a small zine/journal that features a lot of underground comix related stuff, but also has a beatnik vibe and includes poetry and writing. I’ve done the odd thing here and there for other zines, but I don’t really fit in anywhere.

Don’t really fit it – I feel that phrase describes a lot of the best / more influential Ohio musicians / bands. Did you feel that kind of feeling about Peter as you researched and wrote the book?

Peter was well liked, and he knew a vast array of people. If anything, he fit in in too many situations. He was spread thin.

When you lived in Philly, did you get a sense of any kind of similar proto-punk scene / era in that town? I sometimes, perhaps jingoistically, think this particular kind of music is almost exclusively confined to the Rust Belt.

I lived in Philly for nearly 11 years. As far as the old scene there, they had Pure Hell. But back then, anybody who really wanted to do something like that would just move to NYC.

So, is there a moment in time that started you on a path towards wanting to dig into Cleveland’s proto-punk past like this?

It was just something I had a vague interest in, going back to when I first heard Pere Ubu. And then later learning about the electric eels, and starting to get a feeling that Cleveland had a lot more to offer than just the Dead Boys. The Rocket from the Tombs reunion got things going, and that’s when I first started to hear Laughner’s name. A few years later, a friend sent me a burned CD of the Take the Guitar Player for a Ride collection, and I started to get more interested in Peter specifically.

Despite any first wave punk fan’s excitement about a Laughner bio, this book is moreso a history of Cleveland, and trying to connect those odd underground, counterculture, or mythological connections that the Chamber of Commerce tends to ignor as the town’s import. Was there a moment where you realized this book needed to go a little wider than only telling the tales of Laughner and the bands of that era? (Not that there’s anything wrong with that!)

Very early on I realized that none of this would make sense or have any true meaning without the appropriate context. The activities of the early Cle punk scene need to be viewed in relation to what was going on in the city. I think this is just as true with NYC or London – these were very specific contexts, all tangled up in politics, crime, rent, television, and also the specifics of the more hippie-ish local countercultures that preceded each region. You’ve got Bowie and Warhol and all that, but in Cleveland you’ve also got Ghoulardi and d.a. levy. Mix that up with deindustrialization and a picture starts to form.

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So when did you decide on doing this book? You’ve mentioned this was your first attempt at doing a full graphic novel – and boy, you went epic on it!

I did a short version of Peter’s story back when I was living in Philadelphia. But upon completing that version – which I now think of as a sketch – it became clear that there was a lot more to say and to investigate. I spent about a year just thinking about it, forming contacts with some people, and tracking down various reference materials like records, zines, books, etc. Then my wife got a new job at Cleveland State University, so we left Philly. Once I landed back in Cleveland I started working on the book in earnest.

Page from Ain't It Fun -- all book images courtesy of the author.

By any chance was Greil Marcus’ book, Lipstick Traces (1989), an inspiration, as far as the “hidden history” factor, the trying to connect seemingly unconnected and lost historical footnotes into a path towards the culture’s future?

Yes. I read Lipstick Traces when I was around 19 or 20, and I’d never seen anything like it before. It really blew my mind, all the stuff about the Situationists and Dadaists and all that. Later on, I read Nick Tosches’ Dean Martin biography, Dino, and that was another mind blower. Another major influence is Iain Sinclair.

Ah Dino, another Ohio native. So, Laughner’s one-time partner, Charlotte Pressler’s book is mentioned, and I’ve seen it referenced and talked about for years – any inside word on if/when she might have that published?

Charlotte never wrote a book, though she did co-edit a book that collected the work of local poets. As far as her own writing, she’s done all manner of essays and poetry, and probably some academic writing that I’m not familiar with. As far as her completing “Those Were Different Times”— which was intended as a total of three essays— I’ve got some thoughts on that, but it’s not really my place to comment on it.

Pressler sounds like a very serious person in your book, as you say, she was kind of older than her years. But how was she to talk to?

Charlotte is serious, but she’s not dour. She’s got a sense of humor and she’s very curious about the world, always looking to learn new things. She’s an intellectual, and has a wide array of interests. We get along, we’re friends.

The fact that the town’s namesake, Moses Cleveland, left soon after his “discovery” and never came back – that’s like a template for how people envision a town like Cleveland: nice place to grow up, but you want to get out as soon as you’re legal. Even the musicians of the area might’ve agreed with that sentiment, even if many never left. Do you think that has changed?

I’m glad I left Cleveland, but I’m also glad I came back. First off, my family is here. Second, the cost of living is still reasonable. I don’t know how people live in New York. I never have any money. I’d make more money if I had a full-time job at McDonald’s. That’s not a joke, or me being self-deprecating. How do artists live in New York? How do they afford rent and 20 dollar packs of cigarettes? I’m just totally confused by the basic mechanics of this. So yeah, I’m in Cleveland. It’s not great, but what are my options? I can’t just go to Paris and fuck around like a bohemian. I would if I could.

In Ain't It Fun, you reveal that one of the seminal Cleveland scene dives, Pirate's Cove, was once a Rockerfeller warehouse – these kind of enlightening, almost comically perfect metaphors pop up every few pages. Not unlike the mythology that can sometimes arise in musician fandom, I wonder if these are metaphors we can mine, or just an obvious facts that the town drifted down from a center of industry to relative poverty.

“Metaphor” might be at too much of a remove. These facts, these landmarks — they create a complex of semiotics, a map, a framework. The city talks through its symbols and its landscape. If you submit to it and listen, it will tell you secrets. There is nothing metaphorical about this.

Is it a sign of privilege to look on destitution as inspiration? I’m guessing the sick drunks at Pirate’s Cove in 1975 weren’t thinking they were living in a rusty Paris of the ‘30s. Though I will say a thing I really loved about your book was that, for all its yearning and historical weaving, you still stick to facts and don’t seem to over-mythologize or put any gauze on the smog, like “Isn’t that so cool, man.” You capture the quiet and damp desperation of that era and Laughner’s milieu.

Poverty, decline, decay, entropy – these things are real. By aestheticizing them we are able to gain some control over them. And once you have control, you have the power to change things. This is not “slumming.” “Privilege” has nothing to do with it.

Page from Ain't It Fun

Do you know why the Terminal Tower (once the second tallest building in the world when it opened in 1928) was named that? It seems somewhat fatalistic, given the usual futurist positivism of the deco design era.

Terminal as in train terminal. It really pisses me off that there was once a time where you could go there and catch a train to Chicago or New York. It’s infuriating how this country dismantled its rail systems. And the Terminal Tower isn’t deco, but I think it is often confused with that style just by virtue of not being a gigantic rectangle. In that sense it does have more in common with a deco structure like the Chrysler building. Honestly, if you are looking for deco you might find more notable examples in Akron than you would Cleveland.

I notice a kind of – and bear with my lesser abilities to describe illustrative art – swirly style in your work that kind of aligns with art deco curves, maybe some Gustav Klimt…? In general, who were some illustrative inspirations for you early on?

That “swirly” style you describe is art nouveau. Deco came after that, and is more angular and clean. Additionally, a lot of underground comix guys were also poster artists, and there was often a nouveau influence in that psychedelic work – so there’s a bit of a thread there. As far as Klimt, I came to him kinda late, but I love him now.

The music of many northeast Ohio bands of that era has been generally tagged as “industrial” (the pre-dance industrial style, of course), cranky like the machinery of the sputtering factories in the Flats, etc… My guess is maybe the musicians were already finding used R'n'R instruments in thrift stores by that time, which would add a kind of layer of revision, turning old things into new sounds. Did you hear about of any of that? Or were there enough music stores around town? I know DEVO was already taking used instruments and refitting them; or electric eels using sheet metal and such to bang on…

I’m not a musician, so I don’t know anything about gear or stuff like that. I do know that Allen Ravenstine made field recordings in the Flats, and utilized them via his synthesizer. Frankly, I wish more of the Northeast Ohio bands had taken cues from Ubu and early Devo, because an “industrial” subculture definitely could have formed, like it did in England and San Francisco. But that never really happened here.

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That kind of music was pretty popular on college radio and in a few clubs in Cleveland, though not many original bands with that sound arrived, aside from Nine Inch Nails who quickly took his act elsewhere… So in the book you mention local newsman, Dick Fealger. My memories of him are as a curmudgeon whose shtick was getting a little old by the time I was seeing him on the news, or his later opinion columns. Kinda your classic “Hey you kids, get off my lawn” style. You rightly paint him as a somewhat prescient reporter of the odd in his earlier days, though. I once had to go to a friend’s mother’s funeral, and in the next room in the funeral home was Dick Feagler’s funeral. I always regret not sneaking over and taking a peak into it to see who was there.

I like Feagler in the same way that I liked Andy Rooney on 60 Minutes. These were people that my grandparents liked. So I suppose my appreciation for Feagler is half nostalgia, half irony. I like cranks, grumps, letter-writers, street prophets. I like black coffee, donuts, diners, and blue plate specials – that’s Feagler’s world, the old newspaper world. Get up at 6 am and put your pants on, that kinda thing.

Yeah, I still found Feagler kinda funny, but like Jane Scott, while respect was always there, by the later ‘80s/’90s, both were set into almost caricatures who were kind of resting on their laurels.

Yeah, I remember seeing Jane at some random Grog Shop show back in the ‘90s, and I was kinda impressed. But no, she was never really cool. Jane was pure Cleveland, her career couldn't have happened anywhere else.

I remember seeing her sit right next to a huge house amp at the old Variety Theater for the entire duration of a Dead Kennedys show, taking notes for her review. Pretty impressive given her age at that point.

You also make a point of carving out an important space for The Damnation of Adam Blessing, a band that seems to get forgotten when discussing Cleveland’s pre-punk band gaggle. I find that interesting because in a way, they are the template for the way many Ohio bands don’t fit into any exact genre, and so often people don’t “get” them, or they’re forgotten later.

Damnation worked as a good local example for that whole psychedelic thing. They were very ‘60s. While the James Gang on the other hand, was more ‘70s— the cracks were starting to show with the ‘70s bands, they were harder and less utopian. Damnation feels more “Woodstock,” so they were useful to me in that regard.

I must add – for years I thought it was pronounced Laugh-ner, as in to laugh, ha ha, not knowing the Gaelic roots. Once I learned I was pronouncing it wrong, I still wanted to pronounce it like laughing, as it seemed to fit so darkly correct with how his life went, and Cleveland musicians’ love of bad puns and cheap comedians and such… Of course when I learned that it was an “ethnic” name, it made it that much more Cleveland.

Yeah, everybody says his name wrong. I used to too, and had to really force myself to start saying it as Lochner. But everybody says Pere Ubu wrong as well – it’s Pear Ubu.

I hate any desecration of any artwork, but I always loved the blowing up The Thinker statue story, as it seemed such a powerful metaphor of the strength of art, and Cleveland itself – the fact that The Thinker himself still sits there, right on top of the sliced-up and sweeping shards from the blast. It’s still there, right? And isn’t it true that there are like three more “official” Thinker statues in the world?

Yeah, I don’t condone what happened, but it is kinda cool. As a kid, the mutilated Thinker had a strong effect on me — I couldn’t have put it into words at the time, but I think it gave me a sense of the weight of history. It’s almost like a post-war artifact in Europe, something that is scarred. And yes, it’s still there outside the museum. And it’s a cast. I think there might be five official ones, but I’d have to look that up. If you are ever in Philadelphia, swing by the Rodin museum and check out The Gates of Hell.

I have only become a bigger fan of Laughner’s as the years pass. But there is something to the critique that perhaps he never really found his singular sound; that he was copping bits from Lou Reed and Dylan, and couldn’t keep a band together to save his life. And there was supposedly a feeling among some in the NYC scene that he was a bit of a carpetbagger.

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Everybody has their influences, so Peter wasn’t in any way unique in that sense. I know he has a reputation for doing a lot of cover songs — which is true — but he also wrote a lot of originals, and there are some damn good ones which are still unreleased. “Under the Volcano” is just one such unheard song which I mention in my book, but there are others. As far as finding his own singular sound, he probably came closest to that with Friction. That group borrowed heavily from Television and Richard Hell, but also drew upon Richard Thompson and Fairport Convention. And when you think about it, those were really unlikely influences to juxtapose, and it created something original. Frustratingly though, Friction never achieved their full potential, as Peter was already losing it.

Yeah, Friction is kind of way up there with the “What if” bands… It’s interesting that for all his legend as a proto-punk figure, perhaps Laughner’s signature songs – Sylvia Plath” and “Baudelaire” – were gorgeous acoustic numbers. Though of course those early Pere Ubu songs were proto-punk and post-punk templates, somehow...

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I honestly don’t know what happened with Ubu, as it is pretty distinct from Peter’s other work. Thomas isn’t really a musician, so we can only give him so much credit with how that sound developed. I honestly don’t know. There just must have been some sort of alchemy between the various players, and Thomas understood it and was able to encourage and guide it in the projects that followed over the years.

Page from Ain't It Fun

You also didn’t really detail Pere Ubu’s initial breakup – was there just not much to say?

Yeah, I think I mentioned it, but no, I didn’t really get into it. Pere Ubu is kind of a story unto themselves. But it might be worth mentioning here that Home and Garden was an interesting project that came out of that Ubu breakup. And Thomas also did some solo albums, but I’m not as familiar with those.

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Yeah, I saw Home and Garden a few times way back, good stuff. You’ve mentioned to me that there were some people that didn’t want to talk to you for the book; and that people were very protective of Peter’s legacy and/or their friendship with him. To what do you attribute that?

It has everything to do with Peter’s early death. Some people are very protective of how Peter is remembered. And I think some people weren’t exposed to Peter’s dark side, so when they hear those descriptions of him it strikes them as untrue. I think Peter showed different sides of himself to different people.

I kind of felt as I was reading that you might say more about Harvey Pekar, as not only is he an interesting figure, but the most famous graphic novelist from Ohio, and I assume an inspiration of your’s.

Pekar’s great. Especially the magazine-size issues he was doing in the late ‘70s up through the ‘80s. It was important to me to include him in the book. But Pekar was a jazz guy, and that’s a whole other story, a whole other tangled web.

So, Balloonfest! Hilarious. I almost forgot about that. But I do remember Ted Stepien owning the short-lived Cleveland professional softball team; and for a promotion, they dropped softballs off the Terminal Tower, and if you caught one you won $1,000 or something. Do you recall that? It’s one of my favorite fucked-up Cleveland stories. Balls smashed car roofs, and cops immediately told people to run away.

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Yeah, I’m aware of that baseball stunt. I generally try and stay away from anything even remotely related to professional sports teams — it gets talked about more than enough elsewhere. Oddly, I am interested in athletes who work alone, like Olympic skiers. I’m attracted to that solitary focus, where the athlete isn’t competing against other teams or players, but more competing with the limits of the human body, competing with what the physical world will allow and permit, that whole Herzog trip. I’m also interested in the Olympic Village, as this artificial space that mutates and moves across time and across continents.

As far as Balloonfest, I still watch that footage all the time. I use it as a meditation device. I’ll put it on along with Metal Machine Music and go into a trance.

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A few years ago, as I am sure you are well aware, noted British punk historian Jon Savage put together a Soul Jazz Records comp of Cleveland proto-punk called Extermination Nights in the Sixth City. I grew up in Cleveland, lived in Columbus for awhile, and I never heard it called “the Sixth City.” Have you? If so, what does it refer to?

Nobody calls it that anymore. It’s an old nickname back from when Cleveland was literally the sixth largest city in the country.

I’d guess Ain’t It Fun was a tiring feat to accomplish. But do you have another book in the works? And if someone wanted to option Peter’s story for a movie, would you sign on? I personally dread rock biopics. They’re almost universally bad.

Yeah, I’ve got an idea for another book, but it’s too early to talk about that. As far as biopics, they are almost always bad, rock or otherwise. Rock documentaries are often pretty lousy too. A recent and major exception would be Todd Haynes’ Velvet Underground documentary, which is just goddamn brilliant. A film about Peter in that vein would be great— but there’s just no footage to work from. He didn’t have Warhol or Factory people following him around with a camera. So unless somebody like Jim Jarmusch comes calling, I won’t be signing off on movie rights any time soon.

Unless there is more you’d like to say, thanks, and good luck with the book and future ventures!

Stone Church Press has a lot of projects planned for 2024 and beyond, and I encourage anyone reading this to support small publishers. There is a lot of very exciting stuff going on, but you have to work a little to find it. Amazon, algorithms, big corporate publishers — they’re like this endless blanket of concrete that smothers and suffocates. But flowers have a way of popping up between the cracks.

Aaron Lange, 2023 (Photo by Jake Kelly)

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a-mag-meme-a-day · 1 year

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meme for @a-mag-a-day Day 71

MAG 70 - Book of the Dead

#a mag meme a day #the magnus archives

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ultimate-fucked-up-ship-tourney · 2 months

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Tentative list for best horror and thriller girls:

1. Maria from Mad Father

2. Reiko Mikami from Another

3. Bridget, from the webtoon Nonesuch,

4. Ha-Im, from webtoon Never-ending Darling.

5. Riot Maidstone (from Hello From The Hallowoods),

6. Martha from Ravenous 1999

7. Grace, from Ready or Not (2019).

8. Regan Abbott (A Quiet Place)

9. Ava (Ex Machina)

10. Beatrice (Over the Garden Wall)

11. Jennifer from Jennifer’s Body

12. Rozy from the guy upstairs

13. Rachel (Rachel Rising comic book series)

14. Amanda Young, SAW,

15. Wendy Torrance, “The Shining” movie

16. Pannochka - Viy

17. Blind Mag (Repo! The Genetic Opera)

18. Sasha from the magnus archives

19. Mina Harker (Dracula

20. Lex Foster from Black Friday.

21. Charlotte from Hello Charlotte!

22. Carrie White, Carrie

23. Scarlet, I’m the Grim Reaper

24. So Jung-hwa, Strangers from Hell

25. Dana Scully, The X Files

26. Akane Tsunemori, Psycho Pass

27. Mima Kirigoe, Perfect Blue

28. Nina Fortner, Monster

29. Eva Heinemann, Monster

30. Edith Cushing, Crimson Peak

31. Lucille Sharpe, Crimson Peak

32. Ellen Ripley, Alien

33. Clarice Starling, Silence of the Lambs

34. Lisa Reisert, Red Eye

35. Laurie Strode, Halloween

36. Kayo Hinazuki, Erased

37. Hondomachi, ID Invaded

38. Yonaka Kurai, Mogeko Castle

39. Ib, IB

40. Re-L Mayer, Ergo Proxy

41. Kyun Yoon, Bastard

42. Jisu, Sweet Home

43. Lauren Sinclair, Purple Hyacinth

44. Nita, Market of Monsters series

45. Rose the Hat from Doctor Sleep (2019 movie and Stephen King book)

46. Sidney Prescott from the original Scream movies,

47. Jade Daniels, Indian Lake Trilogy/My Heart is a chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

48. Villanelle, killing eve

49. Harrow from gideon the ninth/Locked Tomb

50. Maggie, Everything is Fine

51. Chaerin Eun, Surviving Romance

52. Finn, I’m Dating a Psychopath

53. Rayne Liebert, Homesick

54. Ha-im Yun, Never Ending Darling

55. Ashlyn Banner, School Bus Graveyard

56. Chae-ah Han, Trapped

57. Jeongmin Choi, Dreaming Freedom

58. Frankie, Stagtown

59. India Stoker, Stoker

60. Nam-ra, All of Us Are Dead

61. Ji-woo, My Name

62. Nanno, Girl From Nowhere

63. Emerald, Nope

64. Jessica Jones

65. Susy, Wait Until Dark

66. Margot, The Menu

67. Vera, Just Like Home

68. Rosemary, Rosemary’s Baby

69. Gertrude Robinson, The Magnus Archives

70. Alex, Oxenfree

71. Margaret Lanternman/The Log Lady, Twin Peaks,

72. Audrey Horne, Twin Peaks,

73. Su-an, Train to Busan

74. Ji-a, Tale of the Nine Tailed

75. Cha Ji-won, Flower of Evil

76. Coraline

77. Helen Lyle, Candyman

78. Nancy, Nightmare on Elm Street

79. Mrs. De Winter, Rebecca

80. Mrs. Danvers, Rebecca

81. Shiki Ryougi, Garden of Sinners

82. Kirsty Cotton, Hellraiser

83. Pearl, Pearl

84. Take-ju, Thirst

85. Suzy Bannion, Suspiria

86. Lain, Serial Experiments Lain

87. Asami Yamazaki, Audition

88. Naru, Prey

89. Eli, Let the Right One In

90. The Girl, A Girl walks home alone at night

91. Cecilia, Immaculate

92. Evie Alexander, The Invitation

93. Maren, Bones and All

94. Michelle, 10 Cloverfield Lane

95. Thomasin, The VVitch

96. Emma, None Shall Sleep

97. Contestanta, A Dowry of Blood

98. Brigid O’Shaughnessy, Maltese Falcon

99. Sandra Voyter, Anatomy of a Fall

100. Lisa, Rear Window

#polls

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golden-dreamers-waltz · 2 years

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MAG 70: Book of the Dead

[Day 70/200]

I haven’t brought the book with me to show you, and I am not planning to write up a will. I don’t know whether it’s ownership of the thing that makes it write your fate or just reading it. Either way, I will keep it as long as it will let me. Until I reach an end that may be more gruesome, but is fundamentally no different than that which awaits us all.

#the magnus archives #the magnus archives fanart #tma fanart #the end tma #the end #daily tma art

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themagnustournament · 1 year

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Round Two Part Six - Match 49

Statement of Hazel Rutter, regarding a fire in her childhood home. Wait a minute, how did that get there? Hello voters, apologies for the deception. We actually have the Season 4 finale here, The Eye Opens! Could Jon ending the world beat out Book of the Dead, which comes with 141 votes?

MAG 160 - The Eye Opens | Spotify - Acast - YT | Wiki | Transcript

Vigilo, Audio, Supervenio

MAG 070 - Book of the Dead | Spotify - Acast - YT | Wiki | Transcript

Statement of Masato Murray, regarding an unusual inheritance and the causes thereof.

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levisgeekstuff · 6 months

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Levi's Geekstuff Awards 2023

Het jaar zit er bijna op. Wat mij betreft was het een prima jaar, waarin ik eindelijk mijn reis naar Japan heb gemaakt (die was enkele jaren uitgesteld wegens Covid) én waarin de mooiste club aller tijden, Royal Antwerp FC, na 66 jaar eindelijk nog eens kampioen van België werd. Maar laten we ook eens terugblikken op de Nederlandstalige comic(gerelateerde) uitgaven van 2023. Maak je klaar voor de ✨ ‘Levi's Geekstuff Awards 2023’ ✨ 👉

10. Fight Girls 1-2

Ik geef toe, Fight Girls is zeker niet de beste strip van het jaar. Maar het feit dat uitgeverij Dark Dragon Books ook comics van kleinere Amerikaanse uitgevers in de gaten houdt én natuurlijk de prachtige tekeningen van Frank Cho maken deze toch een verdiende 10e plaats.

9. Loki 6 / Hulk 6

Jawel, het was lang wachten, maar in 2023 werden de ‘Boekenvoordeel’ Marvel strips eindelijk afgewerkt. Met Loki 6 / Hulk 6 kregen we zelfs iets redelijk unieks voor de Nederlandstalige comicwereld: een flipbook.

8. Saint Seiya: De ridders van de Zodiac 1

De vreemde eend in de bijt, maar zoals jullie vast wel weten ben ik naast comics ook een groot manga liefhebber. Ik ben dan ook zeer blij dat uitgeverij Daedalus de Westerse versie van deze manga klassieker naar het Nederlands vertaald.

7. Sara 1-2

Nog een comic van een kleinere Amerikaanse uitgever (TKO), maar natuurlijk wel met grote namen aan het roer. Het kille oorlogsverhaal Sara van Garth Ennis en Steve Epting is gewoon een hele goede strip.

6. Deadpool: Samurai

Na jaren absolute stilte gebeurt er weer wat op gebied van manga in het Nederlands. Zo ook deze manga versie van Deadpool bij uitgeverij Panini. Pluspunten omdat het mijn 2 verzamelingen samenbrengt. En ook gewoon een leuke, vermakelijke strip.

5. Lugosi

Qua vertaalde Amerikaanse graphic novels was het dit jaar iets stiller, maar met Lugosi van uitgeverij Menlu kregen we wel kwaliteit. Het levensverhaal van de acteur uit de oude Dracula films (en natuurlijk ook Plan 9 From Outer Space) wordt hier sfeervol in beeld gebracht.

4. Death of Captain America 1-6

Blij dat deze moderne klassieker van Ed Brubaker en Steve Epting ook zijn weg heeft gevonden naar de Lage Landen. Hopelijk gaat Dark Dragon Books het komende jaar nog door met deze ijzersterke run van Captain America.

3. Walking Dead 33

Aan alle mooie liedjes komt een einde. Dat was dit jaar ook het geval voor de mooie hardcover edities van The Walking Dead bij uitgeverij Silvester. Na een periode van stilte verschenen dit jaar eindelijk de laatste 4 delen. Het einde van een tijdperk.

2. De Kronieken van Judge Dredd, boek 1

Hoera, Judge Dredd is terug in het Nederlands! En dan nog wel met de verhalen waarmee het allemaal begon. Uitgeverij Dekwerk laat ons kennismaken met de rauwe roots van Judge Dredd uit de Britse cult magazines van eind jaren ‘70.

Contest of Champions

Met de nieuwe hardcover reeks ‘Marvel Classics’ brengt Dark Dragon Books niet eerder vertaalde klassiekers naar de Lage Landen. Eerste aan de beurt is Contest of Champions, een stukje Marvel geschiedenis dat je niet mag missen. En dan nog eens prachtig uitgegeven ook. De terechte winnaar van de 'Levi's Geekstuff Awards 2023'! 🥳

*Herbekijk ook de 'Levi's Geekstuff Awards 2022'

#dossier #dark dragon books #dekwerk #silvester #menlu #panini #daedalus

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tma-newbie · 4 years

Text

thoughts on: MAG 70 Book of the Dead

i got a weird chip ad before this episode

and my cat is here to listen to the episode with me

oof this is depressing

he and phil didn’t like each other but phil left him a book?

a weird book? *squints at leitner*

don’t read the book!!!!!!!!!!!!

“deeth” fjfjjfjfjj

okay there seem to be different accounts of people’s deaths

“often violent, always unpleasant”

the last two pages are of his friend phil and him

oof

this is,,,,, unsettling

the page about his death changed??? yikes

every time he reads it the date gets closer

statement ends

he disappeared after his statement

so the book never belonged to leitner?

they figured out what’s wrong with sasha’s computer

supplemental

always books

leitner hasn’t been creating the books, just collecting them

he found something inthe tunnels!!

a room with chairs

scraps of paper

ashes of a book

one scrap shows it’s from “the key of solomon”

why did gertrude burn it in the tunnels?

#mag 70 book of the dead #tma-newbie #tma season 2 #the magnus archives

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demolition-lov3r · 2 years

Text

i organized all the tma statements in order

gertrude is rolling in her grave

note that these include episodes that aren’t exactly statements such as the finales, i basically went about this like if it has a case number it’s getting organized, which is also why i stopped at 160

if i’ve made a mistake dont hesitate to tell me !!

january 1st 1715 - mag 140 “the movement of the heavens”

november 2nd 1787 - mag 116 “the show must go on”

june 12th 1814 - mag 50 “foundations”

march 31st 1816 - mag 23 “schwartzwald”

april 9th 1824 - mag 92 “nothing besides remains”

november 21st 1831 - mag 127 “remains to be seen”

august 1st 1837 - mag 152 “a gravedigger’s envy”

december 5th 1845 - mag 58 “trail rations”

unknown date; early 1862 - mag 105 “total war”

may 14th 1864 - mag 98 “lights out”

february 13th 1867 - mag 138 “the architecture of fear”

november 6th 1922 - mag 7 “the piper”

june 27th 1930 - mag 133 “dead horse”

february 20th 1952 - mag 99 “dust to dust”

july 3rd 1955 - mag 137 “nemesis”

june 4th 1972 - mag 29 “cheating death”

november 2nd 1977 - mag 95 “absent without leave”

february 3rd 1979 - mag 44 “tightrope”

unknown; 80s or 90s - mag 85 “upon the stair”

march 2nd 1983 - mag 86 “tucked in”

december 1st 1990 - mag 84 “possessive”

july 19th 1993 - mag 125 “civilian casualties”

september 15th 1994 - mag 77 “the kind mother”

may 15th 1996 - mag 96 “return to sender”

september 5th 1997 - mag 53 “crusader”

november 22nd 1998 - mag 2 “do not open”

june 10th 1999 - mag 17 “the boneturner’s tale”

february 22nd 2000 - mag 66 “held in customs”

june 12th 2001 - mag 78 “distant cousin”

june 4th 2002 - mag 35 “old passages”

october 20th 2002 - mag 21 “freefall”

december 3rd 2002 - mag 9 “a fathers love” & mag 155 “cost of living”

august 24th 2003 - mag 27 “a sturdy lock”

september 1st 2003 - mag 146 “threshold”

november 4th 2003 - mag 88 “dig”

december 9th 2003 - mag 70 “book of the dead”

april 9th 2004 - mag 52 “exceptional risk”

january 17th 2005 - mag 24 “strange music”

november 29th 2005 - mag 59 “recluse”

january 22nd 2006 - mag 134 “time of revelation”

november 7th 2006 - mag 75 “a long way down”

november 30th 2006 - mag 139 “chosen”

january 4th 2007 - mag 115 “taking stock”

march 13th 2007 - mag 8 “burned out”

march 18th 2007 - mag 67 “burning desire”

july 1st 2007 - mag 3 “across the street”

janurary 7th 2008 - mag 51 “high pressure”

february 10th 2008 - mag 106 “a matter of perspective”

march 11th 2008 - mag 49 “the butcher’s window”

july 3rd 2008 - mag 62 “first edition”

july 21st 2008 - mag 154 “bloody mary”

december 12th 2008 - mag 18 “the man upstairs”

december 19th 2008 - mag 130 “meat”

january 4th 2009 - mag 156 “reflection”

february 2nd 2009 - mag 145 “infectious doubts”

february 23rd 2009 - mag 5 “thrown away”

march 30th 2009 - mag 97 “we all ignore the pit”

april 4th 2009 - mag 57 “personal space”

april 22nd 2009 - mag 114 “cracked foundation”

august 6th 2009 - mag 37 “burnt offering”

october 3rd 2009 - mag 144 “decrypted”

october 11th 2009 - mag 126 “sculptor’s tool”

october 22nd 2009 - mag 72 “takeaway”

feburuary 1st 2010 - mag 107 “third degree”

march 25th 2010 - mag 48 “lost in the crowd”

october 7th 2010 - mag 10 “vampire killer” & mag 56 “children of the night“

november 18th 2010 - mag 69 “thought for the day”

december 9th 2010 - mag 31 “first hunt”

january 2nd 2011 - mag 33 “boatswain’s call”

april 3rd 2011 - mag 148 “extended surveillance”

may 29th 2011 - mag 14 ”piecemeal”

may 30th 2011 - mag 19 “confession” & mag 20 “desecrated host”

november 13th 2011 - mag 112 “thrill of the chase”

february 11th 2012 - mag 12 “first aid”

march 12th 2012 - mag 110 “creature feature”

april 2nd 2012 - mag 153 “love bombing”

april 22nd 2012 - mag 1 “anglerfish”

june 6th 2012 - mag 38 “lost and found”

november 19th 2012 - mag 36 “taken ill”

december 1st 2012 - mag 136 “the puppeteer”

december 11th 2012 - mag 124 “left hanging”

unknown; circa 2012 - mag 113 “breathing room”

may 13th 2013 - mag 149 “concrete jungle”

june 23rd 2013 - mag 54 “still life”

june 28th 2013 - mag 4 “page turner”

august 7th 2013 - mag 90 “body builder”

august 14th 2013 - mag 157 “rotten core”

september 1st 2013 - mag 30 “killing floor”

september 4th 2013 - mag 129 “submerged”

october 19th 2013 - mag 83 “drawing a blank”

february 23rd 2014 - mag 32 “hive”

march 31st 2014 - mag 63 “the end of the tunnel”

june 4th 2014 - mag 102 “nesting instinct”

july 2nd 2014 - mag 103 “cruelty free”

july 14th 2014 - mag 135 “dark matter”

october 10th 2014 - mag 87 “the uncanny valley”

november 9th 2014 - mag 150 “cul-de-sac”

december 9th 2014 -mag 6 “squirm”

february 1st 2015 - mag 122 “zombie”

april 9th 2015 - mag 16 “arachnophobia”

april 19th 2015 - mag 25 “growing dark”

may 20th 2015 - mag 64 “burial rites”

june 8th 2015 - mag 74 “fatigue”

august 1st 2015 - mag 123 “web development”

january 13th 2016 - mag 13 “alone”

march 12th 2016 - mag 22 “colony”

april 2nd 2016 - mag 26 “a distortion”

april 17 2016 - mag 34 “anatomy class”

july 29th 2016 - mag 39 “infestation” & mag 40 “human remains”

september 2nd 2016 - mag 41 “too deep”

september 19th 2016 - mag 43 “section 31”

october 2nd 2016 - mag 47 “the new door”

november 3rd 2016 - mag 55 “pest control”

december 1st 2016 - mag 61 “hard shoulder”

january 7th 2017 - mag 65 “binary”

january 25th 2017 - mag 71 “underground”

february 11th 2017 - mag 73 “police lights”

feburuary 16th 2017 - mag 79 “hide and seek” & mag 80 “librarian”

feburuary 17th 2017 - mag 81 “a guest for mr. spider” & mag 82 “the eyewitness”

april 24th 2017 - mag 89 “twice as bright”

april 28th 2017 - mag 91 “the coming storm”

april 29th 2016 - mag 94 “dead woman walking”

unknown date; may 2017 - mag 100 “i guess you had to be there” & mag 101 “another twist”

june 14th 2017 - mag 104 “sneak preview”

june 29th 2017 - mag 109 “nightfall”

june 30th 2017 - mag 111 “family business”

august 2nd-4th 2017 - mag 117 “testament”

august 6th 2017 - mag 118 “the masquerade”

august 7th 2017 - mag 119 “stranger and stranger”

august 9th 2017 - mag 120 “eye contact”

feburuary 15th - mag 121 “far away”

march 3rd 2018 - mag 128 “heavy goods”

march 20th 2018 - mag 131 “flesh”

march 24th 2018 - mag 132 “entombed”

june 11th 2018 - mag 141 “doomed voyage”

june 12th 2018 - mag 142 “scrutiny”

june 16th 2018 - mag 143 “heart of darkness”

july 20th 2018 - mag 147 “weaver”

august 14th 2018 - mag 151 “big picture”

september 25th 2018 - mag 158 “panopticon” & mag 159 “the last”

october 18th 2018 - mag 160 “the eye opens”

#tma #the magnus archives #jon sims #jonathan sims #martin blackwood #elias bouchard #sasha james #tim stoker #peter lukas #jonmartin #lonelyeyes

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generic-hufflepuff1 · 3 years

Text

My Tma favorites (per entity per season)

In honor of the finale of Tma, I'm looking back and going through the seasons and picking out my favorite episodes. I'm sorting them by entity and Im gonna write a little piece at the end of each fear as to why I picked that episode. It is relatively spoiler free but still keep your wits about you.

Also this is only up to Mag 197

The Stranger

Season 1: 1 Anglerfish tied with 34 Anatomy Class

Season 2: 77 The Kind Mother

Season 3: 83 Drawing a Blank, with 96 Return to Sender as a close second

Season 4: 128 heavy Goods

Season 5: 182 Well being, but 165 Revolutions is very very good

Overall: 1 Anglerfish

So all the of The Strangers’ episodes are really evocative and well written and I have to say that it was a very, very close call for almost every single season and I still cannot really decide if I truly like Mag 1 more than Mag 34 but I have to say that Mag 1 is so very good at drawing you into the world and works as a stand alone piece.

The Buried

Season 1: 2 Do Not Open

Season 2: 66 Held In Customs

Season 3: 97 We all Ignore the Pit

Season 4: 132 Entombed

Season 5: 184 Like Ants

Overall: 2 Do Not Open

I love Mag 2 as the protagonist straight up did not have any of this bullshit. And they even got a mike drop moment with the frozen key. Like in this house we stan Joshua Gillespie. His determination to not have to deal with that shit is so incredibly strong that it sticks with you.

The Web

Season 1: 16 Aracnopobia

Season 2: 69 Thought for the Day

Season 3: 81 A Guest for Mister Spider

Season 4: 136 The Puppeteer

Season 5: 172 Strung Out

Overall: 81 A Guest for Mister Spider

Honestly Mag 81 is absolutely brilliant and serves to contextualise so much of season 1 and 2 and ends up being incredibly important to the world as a whole. That plus the delivery and excellent premise gives it a slight edge over Mag 172 that is a pure exploration of the controlling and manipulative nature of addiction

The Vast

Season 1: 21 Freefall

Season 2: 75 A Long Way Down

Season 3: 91 The Coming Storm

Season 4: 124 Left Hanging

Season 5: 174 The Great Beast

Overall: 174 The Great Beast

So the first half of season 5 does an amazing job of truely fleshing out each fear and the Vast is no exception. The split between the two protagonists makes it clear that The Vast is not just about big things or empty space but deep existentialism and the fear of the inevitability of life.

The Spiral

Season 1: 26 A Distortion

Season 2: 74 Fatigue

Season 3: 85 Upon the Stair

Season 4: 126 Sculptors Tool

Season 5: 177 Wonderland, tied with 187 Checking Out

Overall: 187 Checking Out

This one was difficult as Mag 177 and Mag 187 as both of them lingered in my head for literal weeks after listening to them. In the end Mag 187 was so completely mind boggling in how it completely changed my perception of the Distortion. And is a masterclass in writing a character twist.

The End

Season 1: 29 Cheating Death

Season 2: 70 Book of the Dead

Season 3: 94 Dead Woman Walking

Season 4: 155 The Cost of Living

Season 5: 168 Roots

Overall: 168 Roots

I have quite literally experienced some version of what the victims are describing. But more than that the realisation of the implications of this domain for the world as it elevates the episode much higher than any of the Ends other appearances as eventually the other entities will fear the End just as the mortals do.

The Flesh

Season 1: 14 Piecemeal

Season 2: 58 Trail Rations

Season 3: 90 Body Builder

Season 4: 131 Flesh

Season 5: 171 The Gardener

Overall: 171 The Gardener

Everything about Mag 171 just speaks to me. From the visual it conjures, to the brilliant use of botany metaphor to describe various body image issues, to Jared’s simple but weighty request. This episode lives rent free in my brain at all times. This is the first time that I have zero contenders for my favorite of an entity.

The Corruption

Season 1: 32 Hive

Season 2: 68 The Tale of a Field Hospital

Season 3: 102 Nesting Instinct

Season 4: 153 Love Bombing

Season 5: 164 The Sick Village

Overall: 32 Hive

Although Mag 164 does have a very particular place in my heart and in the history of literature due to its topic and the precise time it came out, but it does pale compared to just how brilliant Mag 32 is. As the first real mention of the entities it reveals just little enough to keep the suspense whilst providing just enough answers that it's obvious in hindsight. But once more none of that matters in the face of “There is a wasps nest in my attic” the shere delivery of this episode has placed it in many people's favourite lists.

The Slaughter

Season 1: 7 The Piper

Season 2: 42 Grifter’s Bone

Season 3: 105 Total War

Season 4: 125 Civilian Casualties

Season 5: 163 In the Trenches

Overall: 42 Grifter’s Bone

Mag 42 is very interesting. I’ve mentioned in some of my other posts that Im pretty sure that Jonny Sims finds some fears harder to write and the Slaughter is definitely one of them but I’ve only come to this conclusion by looking at how frequently they show up but listening to the show you would never be able to tell and Mag 42 is one brilliant example of this it is a brilliant way to expand on how the Slaughter manifests.

The Desolation

Season 1: 37 Burnt Offering

Season 2: 67 Burning Desire

Season 3: 89 Twice as Bright

Season 4: 139 Chosen

Season 5: 169 Fire Escape

Overall: 67 Burning Desire

I find Mag 67 so intensely interesting as it leads into one of the major themes of Tma, that love can and will defeat and overpower even the most gripping fear. The simple love of a simple man sowed just enough doubt to destroy an avatar of destruction. Tma is filled with similar moments but personally this one is my favourite.

The Dark

Season 1: 25 Growing Dark

Season 2: 63 The End of the Tunnel

Season 3: 86 Tucked In

Season 4: 143 The Heart of Darkness

Season 5: 173 Night Night

Overall: 173 Night Night

I remember the reaction to Mag 173. It was so incredibly powerful to watch most of the fanbase (myself included) react in exactly the same way the characters did to the reality of this domain. First with dawning realisation, then anger followed sudden confusion at where to direct that anger. It was quite eye opening to say the least.

The Hunt

Season 1: 10 Vampire Killer, with notable mention to 31 First Hunt

Season 2: 56 Children of the Night

Season 3: 112 Thrill of the Chase

Season 4: 133 Dead Horse

Season 5: 176 Blood Ties

Overall: 112 Thrill of the Chase

I absolutely love Mag 112. It is such a brilliant idea, and as a result I end up valuing it a bit more than Mag 133 or 10 which are particularly telling for me as it proves that the Hunt is weirdly the fairest of the entities and absolutely condones fighting back and even killing its avatars or that it just cares about the circular nature of the hunt.

The Eye

Season 1: 23 Schwartzwald

Season 2: 53 Crusader

Season 3: 82 The Eyewitnesses

Season 4: 138 The Architecture of Fear

Season 5: 183 The Monument

Overall: 138 The Architecture of Fear

Oh Smirke. Poor naive and enlightened Smirke. I love Mag 138 more than the other Eye related episodes because it is due to this character that we even have a metric through which to observe the world of tma

The Lonely

Season 1: 33 Boatswain’s Call

Season 2: 48 lost in the Crowd

Season 3: 92 Nothing Besides Remains

Season 4: 159 The Last

Season 5: 170 Recollection

Overall: 170 Recollection

Covid lockdown hit me quite hard and I have not seen a single piece of media that captures the feeling of having hours and days drift into each other quite like Mag 170 so along with Mag 164 it has a very strange place in my heart.

The Extinction

So this one is a bit of a different situation so im gonna simply list my top five in order

175 Epoch

149 Concrete Jungle

65 Binary

157 Rotten Core

156 Reflection

Mag 175 is another example of a statement that my mind will drift to if I leave it alone for too long. From the vivid visuals to the subtext of the descriptions to the delivery of every line it is easily one of the best episodes of Tma in my personal opinion.

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