Whether you consumed it at the time or some years later, one of the cultural rites of our era is spending a couple days devouring all of Watchmen, the genre-bending, formally rigorous 12-issue superhero tale by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons and John Higgins that was published at DC in 1986 and 1987.

Watchmen managed to point up the silly pretensions of costumed crimefighters even as it offered no fewer than three examples of truly exceptional men doing truly exceptional things in Ozymandias, Dr. Manhattan, and Rorschach, all told in a savvy counterfactual timeline featuring a fictitious third term for President Richard Nixon.

I don’t know if it’s that (shudder) third term or the golden trappings of the successful businessman Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias that reminded Aaron Edwards and Arlen Schumer of our current predicament with a distinctly un-super businessman occupying the Oval Office. In any case they have decided to replay the entire election as a Watchmen remix, with Trump in the Ozymandias seat and Hillary Clinton as….. wait for it… Dr. Manhattan. I suspect this interpretation will not go over in all of the precincts of our great nation. By the end of Watchmen, Dr. Manhattan is all-powerful but essentially removes himself from the narrative as his increasingly “universal” mindset makes him insensible to mere human concerns.

On January 20, 2017, Edwards and Schumer unveiled the first installment of “Who Watches the Men?” called “Trump Rises,” on The Outline, and today, May 1, comes the second one, with the title “Hillary’s Escape.” I’m looking forward to more of these.

Weirdly, in the role of Rorschach we have none other than .... Anthony Weiner! (Perhaps Nite Owl will be ....  James Comey?)

If you’re not into Watchmen, It’s worth noting that the entire story is told in a long series of nine-panel pages with each cell being the exact same size (there is one exception to this rule), and Edwards and Schumer have done a wonderful job of sticking to that premise.

Here are some of the panels from the strip, but I recommend you read it all at The Outline.
 

 

 
More after the jump…......

 
It’s May Day! A perfect day to honor an American artist who paints images that disturb the 1%.

Los Angeles area artist Alex Schaefer has a sideline that has won him a fair bit of attention over the years. He likes to paint canvases of bank branches—most often Chase Bank—engulfed in flames. Make no mistake, you’re reading him correctly. He doesn’t like banks, and his paintings are a legitimate form of protest. He calls his images “disaster capitalism.”

Schaefer has actually incorporated his art in protests he attends, as this picture of him on May Day 2012—exactly five years ago—attests:
 

 
His method varies: In this canvas there is a Chase Bank engulfed in flames but there is an extra element, the Chase logo with the ironic word “freedom” next to it. Occasionally the burning bank will be obscured by a word salad of protest featuring terms like laundering, terrorism, and crime. In some canvases the target of his pyrophilic approach is Bank of America.

One startling image shows an actual lynch mob. Have a look:
 

 
My favorite examples of his art, however, are free of commentary—just the burning Chase Banks, that’s plenty for me.

Unsurprisingly, people have had a strong reaction to Schaefer’s images. To KCET Schaefer described the act of setting up an easel across from a Chase Bank in Van Nuys and commencing a canvas:
 

Once it was sketched out I started immediately with the flames. That was the first paint that I put on the canvas. So I led with the message, which was a bold move. The reaction of everyone who commented was positive. Thumbs up. [People would say] “They suck.” “they screwed my checking account,” “my brother’s losing his home.” I could feel that the image was a catharsis for lots of people. Three hours into it the police came and the rest is history.

 

The artist’s Schaefer’s easel as he captures the Chase Bank on 725 Sout Figueroa Street in Los Angeles
 
Naturally, the police have taken an interest in a painter who enjoys depicting what might be considered felonies. We’re in a post-9/11 world, so that means someone will invoke “national security.” As Schaefer said to KCET:
 

It’s a fact that homeland security considers drawing or photographing “sensitive” locations and buildings is suspicious activity. But my painting protest is different because it’s so slow and blatant. I was not “casing” the location. I was standing on the street in full view painting for four hours, talking with people, interacting. I suspect it was someone from the bank that notified authorities that they are “threatened” by my painting. And that was the exact word the police used when first confronting me. Someone was “threatened” by my art and called them.

 
You can see the full set of Schaefer’s anti-bank paintings here.
 

Van Nuys
 

Venice
 
More disaster capitalism, after the jump…

An intriguing puppet of actor Angus Scrimm as ‘The Tall Man’ from the ‘Phantasm’ film series by The Scary Closet.
 
So two things: Yes, a 50-inch puppet of Angus Scrimm, the terrifying “Tall Man” from the Phantasm film series actually exists. Likewise, so does a four-foot version of Pennywise the Clown from Stephen King’s 1986 novel It and subsequent television miniseries starring Tim Curry as the clown who lived to lure kids below the street gutters. (In other good news that involves Pennywise, director Andrés Muschietti‘s highly anticipated film adaptation of It is scheduled to hit theaters on September 8, 2017.)

Made by a company out of Los Angeles called The Scary Closet, these puppets are not for the casual collector of horror-related oddities. For instance, Pennywise was created with the help of FX rock star Bart Mixon who was responsible for creating the original image for the It miniseries. Every last detail of Pennywise’s appearance was taken from Mixon’s original tangible design which the artist has kept as a part of his own personal collection. Adding another bit of horror nerd street credibility to the puppet is the work of sculptor Charles Chiodo, who created Pennywise’s head. Chiodo and his two brothers Stephen and Edward are long-time film artists and the talented trio are probably most well-known for flexing their FX muscles in their own film, the 1988 cult horror classic Killer Klowns from Outer Space. This version of Pennywise is known as the “Battery Acid Edition.” A clever nod to the original production when the evil clown gets burned with it the stuff thanks to the quick thinking of “Eddie Kaspbrak” played by actor Dennis Christopher. Only 25 were ever made and all of them have been signed by Tim Curry himself.

The puppet of Angus Scrimm (the transfixing “Tall Man” from the 1979 film Phantasm and all of its subsequent sequels) took over a year to finish. Ten of The Tall Man puppets—which were all hand painted by Charles Chiodo—were signed by Scrimm during a reunion of the cast of Phantasm in California in 2014. If after reading this post you’ve just decided to quit your day job and fulfill your dream of becoming a traveling ventriloquist, I hope you’ve saved your lunch money, because the Pennywise puppet will run you $2,495 and Mr. Scrimm (who is currently on sale) is $1,995. You can get more information over at The Scary Closet‘s Etsy page where they have several other high-end puppets up for sale (including a very scary “Slappy” puppet from author R. L. Stine’s book and television series Goosebumps). I’ve posted a few images of the puppets below. If you need me I’ll be under the bed.
 

 

 
More after the jump…

 
I’ve long had a somewhat…. allergic reaction to Smashing Pumpkins. I think it all comes down to Billy Corgan, every little thing he does tends to drive me up the wall. I will grant his talent, but just don’t make me listen to his stuff too much.

Anyway, in 1994 the band released a videocassette item called Vieuphoria (ouch…. even the title makes me cringe), and it generally received positive notices. For instance, in the October 29, 1994, issue of Billboard, it was singled out as “a treat” that would serve as “a fine complement to the Pumpkins’ new B-side collection, Pisces Iscariot.”

This was a good moment for Smashing Pumpkins, by any definition. Siamese Dream came out in 1993 and was a massive success, and the ambitious double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness would be released a year later. Pavement may have been snarking about the Pumpkins in “Range Life,” but the Pumpkins were clearly winning the game Pavement was ostensibly playing.

More after the jump…

#NSFW Totally Naughty Coloring Book (Volume 1)
 
Coloring is supposed to be therapeutic. Instead of popping a Xanax to calm your nerves, some people choose to use coloring books to lower their stress levels. I’ve used coloring books before to destress and I must admit they do work. There are so many adult-themed coloring books out there nowadays. I knew they existed I just never searched for them before.

For whatever reason I got curious and I decided to search for the “naughtier”-themed ones. Lo and behold I found ‘em! I’ve added links of where to purchase each book with a few image examples. I had to pick the tamer images for this website. Trust me when I tell you these coloring books can get quite raunchy.

The book you see above (with its page examples below) is called #NSFW Totally Naughty Coloring Book (Volume 1). You can get it here.

 

 

 
This adult coloring book is through Pornhub. It sells for $20 here. According to its description it celebrates “themes of sex, body, queerness, gender fluidity and erotic expression” and their book “invites artists and amateurs alike to color both in and outside of the lines.”

 

 

 
Dirty Little House Wife: Adult Coloring Book. Get it here.

More coloring books after the jump…

 
If you like your comedy black with a little dash of sweetener then you’ll probably love Nick Fisher’s beautifully dark and twisted comic strip Kevin & Friends.

Kevin is one of those wonderfully naive and earnest characters who can always see the bright side in everything—whether this is helping someone to commit suicide or just being positive about his own brutal murder. For Kevin, the glass is always half full—even if that glass is being repeatedly smashed into his face.

Kevin’s creator Nick Fisher describes himself as an “aspiring comedian with a full-bodied mustache.” He makes comics and motivational posters about the “horribly optimistic” Kevin which you can follow via his Instagram account, Kevin & Friends. Or, maybe buy one of his inspirational posters here.
 

 

 
More laffs from Kevin & his twisted friends, after the jump…

 
There are many days while I’m doing my “job” here at Dangerous Minds when I think I’ve pretty much seen it all. Then there are days that I stumble across something on the Internet that reminds me that there is still plenty of fantastic trash out there for all of us, specifically those of us who are connoisseurs of filth and all thing low brow. Which is exactly what I have for you today—a sixteen-inch doll in the image of John Waters’ greatest muse, the legendary Divine.

Made by My Best Fiendz based in Rockland, Maine, little Divine was made by a horror-movie-loving husband and wife duo who used a standard baby doll as the base then transformed it into a pretty spot-on “Babs Johnson” who looks like she’s dying to tell you to “eat shit” in full makeup, custom-dyed flaming-hot hair and a pistol. There are also a few other strange items in the Fiendz’s Etsy store that might also be of interest to our sleazier/horror-inclined readers such as a bizarre “jumpin’ jack” of GG Allin that would keep everyone (including dogs and rats mind you) off your lawn, an utterly fantastic jumper of Swedish pro-wrestler/actor Tor Johnson, and that nasty murderous clown “Captain Spaulding” aka “Johnny Lee Johns” as portrayed by actor Sid Haig in the films House of 1000 Corpsess and The Devil’s Rejects. The Divine doll will run you $130 and the wooden jumpers are about $40. I’ve posted images of the oddities below. If any of this is your thing (because filth really is your life), more details on ordering and other items in the shop can be found here.
 

 

 
More after the jump…

The cover of ‘Amputee Love #1,’ 1975.
 
Back in 1975 Rich and Rene Jensen collaborated on Amputee Love #1, a comic that detailed the intimate relationships and sex lives of amputees. Written by double-amputee Rene, the story is based on a woman named Lyn who loses one of her legs in a violent car crash. The rather graphic cover of the comic was drawn by artist Brent Boates who would go on to work on a litany of films including Heavy Metal and Big Trouble in Little China, who used real amputees as his subjects matter.

While the actual illustrations inside the comic done by Rene’s husband Rich were not as polished as Boates’ cover, the story is beyond intriguing and full of lurid details concerning amputee sex orgies, outings to a XXX movie theater to see a fictional (as far as I know) amputee film called “Fragmented Sex,” and pool parties where people got wet but not from the water if you catch my drift. If you were the kind of cat that dug comics back in the mid-70s it’s possible that you might have seen Amputee Love #1 sitting beside other kinds of low-brow comics like Zap or The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers. Put out by the legendary San Francisco publisher Last Gasp, the 32-page comic allegedly had only one production run and the first issue of Amputee Love would also be the last. Occasionally copies of this unique and rare comic come up for auction, generally selling for over a $100 bucks a pop in case you need to add this fascinating piece of ephemera to your collection. I’ve posted parts of Amputee Love #1 below for you to peruse in all of its NSFW underground comic glory. You can see and read the entire comic, here.
 

The introduction page for ‘Amputee Love #1” that includes a few words from Last Gasp publisher Ron Turner who referred to the ground-breaking comic as “liberating.” 
 

 

 
More after the jump…

’House on Haunted Hill’ (1959).
 
If I had the money, I guess I’d buy an old abandoned cinema somewhere downtown or maybe one of those big ole drive-ins that’s been long left for dead some place out in the desert. I’d refurbish it then screen double-feature monster movies each and every day. Double-bill after double-bill on continuous performance. Choice picks from the whole back catalog of Boris Karloff, Vincent Price, dear old Peter Cushing, and “King of the Bs” Roger Corman. Yeah, I know, I would probably go bust within six months—but hell, it would have been worth it just to see these classic horror movies and glorious science-fiction films on the big screen where they belong and not on flickering cathode-ray tube of childhood memory.

The walls of this fantasy cinema would be covered with the finest movie posters and artwork by the likes of Albert Kallis, Frank McCarthy, and Reynold Brown—“the man who drew bug-eyed monsters.”

Brown has probably impacted on everyone’s memory one way or another as he produced a phenomenal array of movie posters. Brown supplied artwork for B-movie features like Creature from the Black Lagoon and Attack of the 50ft. Woman, mainstream movies like Spartacus and Mutiny on the Bounty, to those classic Corman horror films House of Usher and The Masque of Red Death. I know I can hang large parts of my childhood and teenage years by just one look at a Reynold Brown poster. Straight away I can tell you when and where I saw the movie and give a very good idea of what I thought and felt at that time. Now that’s the very thing many a great artist tries to make an aduience feel when they look at a work of art. While artists can spend a lifetime trying to achieve this, Reynold Brown was doing it as his day job.
 

’The Thing That Couldn’t Die’ (1958).
 

’Tarantula!’ (1955).
 
More of Reynold Brown’s classic sci-fi and hooror movie posters, after the jump…

 
Shortly after the release of Don’t Tell a Soul in 1989, Paul Westerberg and Tommy Stinson of the Replacements consented to an interview with MTV’s Kurt Loder. I’ve noticed that a few people are suffering from the misapprehension that the Replacments had gotten sober around this time—this video should be enough to convince anyone that this was not the case.

Westerberg and Stinson are funny and charming as fuck and don’t take a damn thing seriously. Loder’s first question involves the band having taken a “new direction” on the latest album—invoking “Gepetto,” Westerberg blurts “Well, we’re ‘mature’ now…..” while pantomiming his nose growing by three feet.

While Loder is inordinately interested in topics that retrospectively seem entirely uninteresting—music videos, the joys of residing in California, sampling, and how the 1980s will stack up in the annals of music history—Westerberg and Stinson ain’t buying.

The ‘Mats had long enjoyed an informal competition with R.E.M. ever since opening for the Athens indie rockers on a mini-tour in the summer of 1983—and this competition was quite mutual, Peter Buck paid close attention to the Replacements’ releases. In Trouble Boys: The True Story of the Replacements, Bob Mehr reports that Westerberg was initially relieved that Don’t Tell a Soul was so much better than Green, but R.E.M.‘s album rapidly hit gold while sales of Don’t Tell a Soul never got off the ground. Westerberg makes a crack to the effect that apparently only “half the people who bought the last one” chose to plunk down their cash for Don’t Tell a Soul.

More of the ‘Mats, after the jump…