COMICS SUCK! - Fantastic Four #36 (March 1965)

50 YEARS AGO - March 1965

Cover artwork by Jack Kirby

FANTASTIC FOUR #36 (Marvel Comics)

"The Frightful Four"

By Stan Lee (w,e); Jack Kirby (p); Chic Stone (i) & Artie Simek (l)

The crisp bold line at the top of the cover reads "The World's Greatest Comic Magazine!" and for four or five years, it was true.

This issue marks the beginning of the greatest sequence of issues in superhero comics history. The standard of excellence established by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby on this peak era has never been matched. This is the issue where the Fantastic Four first meets Medusa the Inhuman, as a member of the team's newest, truest rivals, the Frightful Four. As plots and subplots develop, Medusa leads to the discovery of the Inhumans, which leads into Silver Surfer and the Galactus saga, which leads to Wakanda and the Black Panther, all three of which, it's worth pointing out have been or are being developed for the silver screen. The reign of excellence continued for another 50 issues after that, but this particular period is the one everybody remembers. This is where it started really cooking.

Medusa's First Appearance.

Jack Kirby transcends the medium of comics. Even non-comic book fans have come across his creations if not his artwork, there's just no getting around it. All comic fans know what Kirby hands are, what a Kirby crackle looks like and what Kirby-esque feels like. He's the greatest storyteller in superhero comics, this run on Fantastic Four is his finest hour and this issue begins his absolute pinnacle. Though he'd been Fantastic Four artist since issue #1, it took him about two years to truly find his voice on the book. There's no shame in it, it was a new series with a new approach to characters at what was essentially an all-new publisher (of superhero comics). It wasn't until around about this issue or just a couple issues before it that The Thing really starts to look like The Thing the way we remember him today. He'd gone through several "drafts" of doughy, craggy and angular before Kirby finally settled on the distinctive look he still carries to this day. Kirby's trademark Manhattan backgrounds started to look like Kirby backgrounds, detailed with clean lines (see bottom left corner of cover image above). It seemed that after three years of playing wait-and-see, it was safe to consider Fantastic Four a success and therefore, something to invest the full power of his talent into.

The Frightful Four.

In this story we meet the Frightful Four, a motley crew of chagrined and defeated villains from F.F. member Human Torch's solo adventures in Strange Tales magazine, opportunistic crooks and a mysterious new female baddie on the scene. Attention to detail in the continuity between issues is something that Marvel fans have always loved about the publisher, they were the first to take it seriously. One of the joys of reading Marvel comics was watching characters develop over the course of years and eventually, generations. When I was very, very young there was a comic called Marvel Saga which retold the whole history of Marvel Comics from the 1960's, issue by issue, including this one. So it took me years, decades even to trust Medusa as the heroine she has become. She was just so thoroughly evil in her early appearances. I guess first impressions really are important. I mean, she ran with a group called the Frightful Four, they knew who and what they were, they were the bad guys and proud of it. Strangely, Frightful Four member Sandman would go through a similar switch in allegiance, albeit much later.

After the Frightful Four crash the Fantastic Four's headquarters, the Baxter Building, a battle royal ensues. The action is intense, the wide-angle staging is classic Kirby and the bad guys nearly win. In the grand early Marvel style, only an incredible effort saves Reed, Sue, Ben and Johnny from certain death, when they turn the tables the bad guys, they escape cleanly to return but two issues later and three issues after that for what would be the team's greatest story yet up to that point. The Thing, feeling depressed about his appearance quits the team and ends up a member of the Frightful Four. The fact that his conversion continues for more than one issue is a perfect example of what made Marvel great in those early years, readers truly didn't know what to expect, but the seeds had been planted for them expect any changes to be long term.

WHAT ELSE WERE THE KIDS UP TO BACK THEN?
After being blown away by Stan and Jack the hipper of British audiences didn't walk, but ran to pick up the debut album of a band that were to the Rolling Stones, what the Rolling Stones were to the Beatles in terms of raunchiness:



THE PRETTY THINGS - SELF-TITLED
If you have the world's most impressive memory or something close to it, you'll notice that both albums from 1965 featured in Comics Suck! so far (the first was The Zombies 'Begin Here') have kicked off with a cover of the Bo Diddley classic "Roadrunner". The difference is The Zombies album landed on shelves then sunk like a stone in their home territory while The Pretties debut placed a tidy #6 on the album chart.

Pretty Things on tour in New Zealand 1965 [Source]

I have an idea of why that may be. By the end of 1964 The Rolling Stones had established themselves as a dominant force in British music. Blues guitar standout Eric Clapton and his band The Yardbirds were making a name for themselves with a "heavier", rawer style of pop music, their seminal "For Your Love" was also released this month (more on that on a future edition). The world of British pop music was beginning to cycle in a gravitationally challenged direction. The Zombies, as high quality as their album was, represented old news. Those early Beatles, Gerry & The Pacemakers and Dave Clark Five sounds were so last year's scene.

For one shining, brilliant moment the rough and ready Pretty Things were on the cutting edge.

But they would never enjoy the same level of chart success in their careers again. Unlike most of their early peers however, they're still going. It was only two years ago that they appeared at the massive Roadburn Festival. Listen to the album above and re-discover why buzz remains so high for this band 50 years on.

But after devouring the Fantastic Four and Pretty Things it was time for some real gone retinal input, it was time for Die, Die My Darling.

I know the title from the Metallica song, which was a cover of a Misfits song, which was taken from this movie. Actually, the film was originally titled Fanatic in the UK, but given the campier title for the U.S. audience. The film was part of Hammer Films seeming monopoly on British horror of the time (Amicus was only just emerging and Tigon was years away from appearing on the scene). It was directed by Silvio Narizzano and starred Tallulah Bankhead in an unforgettable performance as the fantical Mrs. Trefoile buffeted and abetted by the equally wonderful performance of Stefanie Powers as Patricia Carroll. It also co-stars a young Donald Sutherland (that's two 1965 films in a row co-starring Sutherland, including the Amicus Productions's Dr. Terror's House of Horrors from last month) as the simple-minded Joseph.

In it, Patricia visits the mother of her now deceased former boyfriend (Steven Trefoile) against her current fiancee's wishes. Upon arrival she finds Mrs. Trefoile to be a critical, dogmatic tyrant. Mrs. Trefoile does her best to "correct" Ms. Carroll's behavior because she considers her to be Steven's wife and can't stand the thought of his memory being tainted. When Patricia has finally had enough and decides to leave, Mrs. Trefoile produces a gun and locks her in the attic.

It's an excellent film that captured the zeitgeist of the times swiftly a-changing and inter-generational tension, although it can be a tad preachy in its own right. You can watch it in all its over-zealous glory below:


Die Die My Darling aka Fanatic 1965 full movie by ursula-strauss

LK Ultra's Top Albums for 03/07/15

Top 25 Albums

#). artist - album title

Lord of Doubts - 'Into the Occult'

1. Lord of Doubts - Into the Occult†
2. Crowned in Earth - Metempsychosis
3. Kabbalah - Primitve Stone EP
4. Pombagira - Flesh Throne Press***
5. Queen Crescent - Self-Titled***
6. Alucarda - Raw Howls
7. Misty Grey - Grey Mist
8. Evil Spirit - Caulron Messiah††
9. John Carpenter - Lost Themes*
10. Acid King - Middle of Nowhere, Center of Everywhere***
11. Shepherd - Stereolithic Riffalocalypse
12. Hands of Orlac - Figli Del Crepuscolo†††
13. Strange Broue - Various EP's
14. Zoltan - Tombs of the Blind Dead EP*
15. Patrick Bruss - The Gorgon's Gallery
16. Doomraiser - Reverse
17. Occultation - Silence in the Ancestral House
18. Goat Wizard - Self-Titled
19. Stoned Jesus - The Harvest
20. Saturnalia Temple - To The Other
21. Bretus - The Shadow Over Innsmouth☠
22. Widow & Children - Self-Titled
23. Phantomass - Self-Titled
24. Burning Saviours - Unholy Tales from the North*
25. Evil Invaders - Pulses of Pleasure*

*Album available on itunes
** Streaming only
*** Pre-order only
† Available on cassette only
†† Available on vinyl and cassette only
††† Available on vinyl only

☠No release available yet

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ALBUM Spotlight on:

STONED JESUS – ‘The Harvest’

Stoned Jesus released their third full-length album on February 24 and it already has some long-time followers scratching their heads. If you're a fan of the band and haven't checked out this latest one, be prepared to hear a slightly different side of the band. I stop short at calling it a more "popular" sounding album, but I would argue it is more accessible to the average stoner or doom head and the six songs on the album seem to fit a little more comfortably into each of those two subgenres, much moreso than on previous efforts.

Previously, the Ukrainian power trio has been known for expansive 10+ minute-long suites. The longest of the first four tracks on 'The Harvest' reaches a mere fingertip past the seven minute mark. The trade-off here with a slight detour in direction is a renewed sense of focus. If nothing else the band proves that they can smash, grab the loot and run with the best of them. It should be noted here that while it may be easier for those taxonomically inclined to point at each song and label it as stoner rock or doom metal, nothing on this album really sounds like anything else anybody else is doing. First and foremost Stoned Jesus is still a prog band, and that sensibility will out by the nine-minute long "Silkworm Confessions" (see the official video at this location).

'Seven Thunders Roar'

The first inkling that I saw that the band was hankering for a repertoire of shorter material was when they released the four-minute edited version of "Electric Mistress" from their last album, 2012's 'Seven Thunders Roar'. It's impossible to get a nine minute song onto 7 inches of etched vinyl and maintain a high fidelity, and thus the edit. But when Stoned Jesus released "Here Come the Robots" on their bandcamp page in January, the first song off their then unreleased new album, it was obvious that the band had a change in philosophy in store. It was hard to imagine when the song came out how this rollicking three minute barn-burner was going to fit in between a pair of expansive 10 minute monoliths, for example.

Now that 'The Harvest' is here, everything falls into the place, the pieces match, and there's a logic behind the sequencing of the album. It's not to everyone's taste and that seems to be par for the course this year. It's been difficult, if not impossible to find a bigger-name band in this underground niche of heavy music with a new album out that isn't dividing opinion. That may not be what makes it out there in the reviews, but we reviewers talk behind the scenes and initial impressions of the stuff that's been coming out has been largely mixed. I think it has to do with bands redefining their territory and finding their own niche in an ever-expanding circle of competition.

Judge for yourself by clicking the link to the album at the #19 spot.

EVERYDAY STRANGE - The Patterson Disappearance

EL PASO, TX - William, 52 and Margaret Patterson, 42 were last seen on the night of March 5/6, 1957 at their home in the 3000 block of Piedmont Avenue in Kern Place, El Paso, Texas. Nobody knows what happened to them, they simply vanished from one day to the next. Their car was left in the driveway and the family cat was left to fend for itself. William owned a photography shop in town (Patterson Photo Supply)and it must have been an eerie sight for those that knew the couple had disappeared to see the shop sitting empty and unopened day after day.

Early on, a “business associate” claimed that the couple had gone on a sudden extended vacation to Florida. When the Pattersons still hadn’t returned after five months Cecil Ward, a friend and neighbor filed a missing persons report with the police.

A neighbor, Jeri Cash told police that she had been by the Patterson place the night they disappeared. She didn’t know the couple very well, but she said that Margaret seemed upset to her and William made it clear that he was annoyed that Mrs. Cash was there. Jeri and her family noticed “unusual activity” at the house later that night, but when Mrs. Cash told the police about what she had seen, they didn’t seem to care very much about her story.

Later, a letter appeared, alleged to be from a W.D. Patterson arranged to have William’s properties divided between Doyle Kirkland, a friend and manager at Doyle’s Photo Supply, his business auditor Herb Roth and a 24-year old employee at Patterson Photo Supply named Art Moreno. The letter seems strange because William had at least two known relatives, including his father and a sister. The signature on the letter was challenged. It’s unknown whether the letter was authenticated and honored.

Kirkland was also seen at the house the night the couple disappeared. He was in the garage with William working on a boat. In 1984, a man named Reynaldo Nangaray came forward claiming he had washed blood out of the Patterson’s  garage soon after the couple disappeared and that he’d found pieces of scalp on the propeller of the boat’s motor. In 1957 he was an illegal immigrant, he hadn’t come forward sooner because he’d feared deportation.

It wasn’t enough to take to a Grand Jury, however and the case remains open to this day.

Sources:

El Paso Times

El Paso Times II

The Doe Network

The Charley Project

EVERYDAY STRANGE - The Philippines Firestarter

SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, ANTIQUE, ILOILO CITY - On March 5, 2011 a bizarre news story came out of the Philippines about a three year-old girl who could “predict” fires. The report was confirmed by the local mayor in the story after he allegedly witnessed the girl predict a spontaneous fire. Mayor Rony Molina put a fire truck on standby near the girl’s family residence.

The girl’s father originally claimed that she said there was going to be a fire at 9 a.m. Later, a spare tire for the motorized rickshaw he drove for his job burst into flame without contact with any visible ignition source. He checked his wristwatch, it was 9 a.m. The story was all the stranger in that the father claimed that the girl did not yet know how to tell time and that there were no clocks in the household.

After stories of the girl’s alleged power began to circulate throughout the area, one noted for deep roots in folklore and magic, mayor Molina paid a visit. While there the girl said that something was going to burn. Moments later a shirt that had been hung on the clothesline to dry burst into flame.

It has also been reported that the girl had the ability to point her finger, say the word “fire” and whatever object she was pointing at would suddenly erupt in flame. Of course, many of these reports are highly dubious and may ultimately be the result of rumor.

Unfortunately though, the little girl has not gotten through this story unscathed, news videos online show the girl’s legs and feet to be burned and scarred (see picture at right and video below). The girl was taken to be baptized as the cause of the fires was believed to be “evil spirits”. It was reported that during the baptism ceremony a paper flyer tacked to the church bulletin board caught fire. It was also reported that there is video of this incident, taken by one of the girl’s godmothers, but it has not materialized online.

A similar story came out a year later about a girl in Vietnam. Perhaps what the world needs is a real-life Charles Xavier.

People who exhibit or are alleged to exhibit the ability to predict, create or control fire with just their mind are called pyrokinetic. The term “pyrokinesis” was coined by author Stephen King in his novel “Firestarter”, about a young girl who could start fires with her mind. It has been pointed out that the term isn’t necessarily accurate, but was probably invented by conjoining “telekinesis” - the ability to move objects with one’s mind, with the ancient Greek word for uncontrolled fire, “pyro”.

Sources:

Gulf News

GMA News

ABS-CBN News

COMICS SUCK! - Uncle Scrooge #9 (March 1955)

60 YEARS AGO - March 1955

Cover artwork by Carl Barks.

UNCLE SCROOGE #9 (Dell Comics)

"The Lemming with the Locket"

By Carl Barks (w,a)

One of thee great secrets of comics hidden from the mainstream of superhero adventures is the work of Carl Barks. It's no exaggeration to put Barks works among the all-time greats of the medium. I'm talking about Will Eisner, Jack Kirby, Alex Toth, Joe Kubert, Osamu Tezuka, Hal Foster and Winsor McCay. Though he worked in the not-very-well respected field of cartoon illustration, he belongs among that pantheon, without question. Matter of fact he was one of the first three members of the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame.

If you're anything like me, you grew up watching DuckTales and being blown away by the highly imaginative stories and the colorful populace of Duckberg. Well it turns out, most if not all of that originally came from Carl Barks. In later life I've read issues of Dell Comics Uncle Scrooge that were adapted whole hog into DuckTales episodes, stories that remained vivid to me all these years later.

Carl Barks was totally anonymous in 1955, he was never credited in the comics for his Disney stories, it wasn't until comics "fandom" became a thing that the inside baseball stories started getting passed around and Barks found his recognition. Now, he is known primarily as the "Good Duck Artist" and for good reason. This issue is particularly memorable due to the high anxiety levels the reader feels when sympathizing with the money-obsessed Scrooge McDuck. Scrooge has just locked all his money in an impenetrable vault, there are pages of set-up for the vault's absolute impregnability. The only way in or out is by a key, which due to zany and unfortunate circumstance ends up around the neck of a cheese-obsessed lemming and hilarity ensues.

WHAT ELSE WERE THE KIDS UP TO BACK THEN?
After reading this issue and having a good snicker, the more adventurous youth of America no doubt hit the jukebox at the local malt shoppe and spun this little record:



FATS DOMINO - "I Know" b/w "Thinkin' of You" (7", 78rpm single)
Rock & Roll was just about to hit the big time (more on that in a minute). Antoine "Fats" Domino was roughly half a year shy from his breakthrough moment "Ain't That a Shame" (keep your eyes peeled to Comics Suck! on September 4 for a discussion on that record). But that doesn't mean the big man didn't have a sublime moment or two in him while no one was looking. In many ways "I Know" is a typical jump blues record, indicative of the uptempo, horn-driven style, but there's something more going on here if you listen closely. Listen to the sound of the guitar. This is an early fuzz rock record with a solo that would make the garage bands of the 60's stand up and take notice. It's not something that the overindulged audiences of today would consider to be "scorching", but it was more than evocative and illicit enough to make a modern listener why the rock n roll style was named after a euphemism for humpin'.

By this point in time, Fats was 5 years into a go-nowhere recording career, stuck tickling the ivories to the same old crowds in the same old clubs at home in New Orleans. While his musical hero Louis Jordan was topping the "race" charts with songs like "Saturday Night Fish Fry", Domino was releasing a raft of locally successful, but nationally ignored singles like "Baby Please" and "Don't Leave Me This Way". The (sexually charged) frustration evident in the titles and felt in the performances on record was arguably too racy for mainstream audiences at the time. But once the tide turned and the youngsters of the nation caught on, it was this very frustration that they could relate to which would eventually propel Fats into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, say what you want about its merits.

But none of it might have happened. Things could all have turned out differently if censors had had their druthers. There wouldn't be a Rock n Roll Hall of Fame to honor musical mavericks like Fats Domino if the newly dubbed "teen-agers" of America hadn't engaged in a quiet uprising.

Parents would tell their adolescents that what they were going through was a passing fad, and that may or may not have been true on an individual level, but the excitement that first wave of rock n roll enthusiasts felt left a legacy that reverberates through both popular and underground music to this day. And it all started with an outing to the theater.

Blackboard Jungle was the Dangerous Minds of its day: an unflinching look at unruly youth through the eyes of an inner city school teacher. It may seem mildly laughable today, but this film was at the cutting edge of cinematic badassery. It showed kids having bad or even nihilistic attitudes smoking and fighting in the classroom, but more importantly, it created a broad and internationally distributed canvass on which a craze was graffitied.

When the drum solo kicks in during the title sequence to ring in Bill Haley & the Comets's "Rock Around the Clock" it marked the beginning of the end of the crew cut, prudish cultural sensibilites and socially conservative mores that ruled the accepted norms of the day. This was the beginning of the popularity of rock n roll.

Voice-over hype during the trailer says it all: "Many people said this story could not, must not, dared not be shown! The picture already has the movie and book world gasping! Blackboard Jungle deals with an explosive subject: the teen-age terror in the schools! It is the toughest, frankest, most realistic film since 'On the Waterfront'! It is fiction, but fiction torn from modern Big City Savagery!"

Blackboard Jungle was released in theaters on March 19, 1955. It was directed by Richard Brooks, whose other notable film work included Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and the acclaimed but perplexingly out-of-print Looking for Mr. Goodbar. The film starred Glenn Ford, Anne Francis, Louis Calhern, Margaret Hayes and Sidney Poitier whose role was sadly downplayed in the trailer.

You can watch the trailer right here, aside from that one racist gaffe, it's both hilarious and bad ass:

XII BOAR - Pitworthy (Album Review)

Artwork by Beak - Six of One

It's not my first day or nothing, but I'm still new here. When it comes to underground heavy, I'm still green. It's a maxim of mine that it takes 15 years to become truly good or proficient at anything you do, be it something creative, a job or even just listening to a certain type of music. I'm about a fifth of the way there, way down the seniority list. XII Boar is one of those bands that you hear about, over and over. If enough of the right people talk about a band I'll make a mental note to check out the next release. Trying to play catch up and listen to everything is bailing a flood with a thimble. Well the time has finally come and XII Boar has a new release. After a pair of highly regarded EP's the band is releasing their debut album on March 9.

XII Boar is often labelled as sludge or even doom but I call it biker rock. It's an unswerving, unrelenting, fast-driving terror trip of heavy music. This is bicycle-chain-being-whipped-in-your-face-in-a-midnight-park-brawl music. Well, you either shy away from it and turtle, or you use the adrenaline to keep driving and fight on. XII Boar is suited for the latter personality type.

From the wicked throw down of savage opener "Sharp Shooter" to the epic finish of "Quint" this Aldershot power trio shows no mercy. The album title is no lie. The 10 tracks on this 48 minute album keep a quick tempo, but tend to alternate heavy, slower, riffier moments at opportune times. And the album's not without it's melodic moments, see the sublime "The Schaeffer Boogie" for evidence of that. It's a good signature sound and they carry it well.

With XII Boar being from the UK, the style they play immediately brings to mind bands like Orange Goblin and Desert Storm and newer groups that I just happened to hear first like Mage, The Grudge and Beardmore. They also wouldn't fall off the stage on a double bill with Midnight Ghost Train. But even among this excellent lot, XII Boar excels. Bands like XII Boar are to Motörhead what ... Windhand, for example are to Black Sabbath. They are the children of Lemmy and crew, ensuring the sonic lineage while building on it and sending it to seething new places.

Incidentally I was never sure how to say the band name, all this time I've been reading their name as "She-Boar", well it's Twelve Boar. Either way this band spells trouble and 'Pitworthy' will leave scuff marks and bruises. The album is available now!

XII Official website
XII Boar facebook page

Secrets of THE DOOM CHART

Anybody here who used to follow the old Paranoid Hitsophrenic blog I used to run will probably recall the Super Doom Charts. I got the idea when I opened the Paranoid blog to review submissions. I'd always try to give an honest critique of the music, but sometimes I would rave about an album and find myself moving away from it quicker than I thought I would. It got me thinking. I'd made quite a few online buddies who also blogged or podcasted about doom and stoner music and I wondered, with all the album reviews we collectively threw out there on a monthly basis, which albums were we actually listening to and digging. I threw the idea of doing a music chart based on reviewers opinions and listening habits and I was surprised at the positive response. We did the first one in May of 2013. It became a big hit, Uncle Acid himself said he saw them, which would have been right around the time they were touring the UK with Black Sabbath.

Much to mine and many other people's horror, the idea died with the Paranoid blog a year ago. The last Super Doom Chart went up on the old Paranoid blog on March 1, 2014. I was having internet problems and I accidentally deleted the post and had to re-do it from scratch the next day. It wasn't long after that that I gave up trying to beat my head against the wall by fighting through the lack of internet.

Anyway, a year passed and now the concept has returned. This time around I'm not hosting it on my site. I decided to post it on a neutral site on which many of the others involved in putting it together could share equal administrator status. I didn't want to make the concept "mine" this time around, if I ever did. You might say I wanted to spread the blame and well, I have. Right now the admins for the new site represent The Sludgelord, The Evil Engineer, Stoner Hive, Doomed & Stoned, Fast n Bulbous, More Fuzz websites, Hand of Doom Online Radio and the band Motherslug. It's a great group. There are more people involved of course, and we'll get to that motley group in a moment along with all the requisite links.

But first, if you'll indulge me, I'd like to let you in on a little secret.

Because I compiled everybody's individual list into the chart I'm privy to the knowledge of which bands just missed the Top 25 cut. They're all great bands and certainly worthy of a little extra attention. In fact, compiling this chart has helped me discover quite a few awesome bands myself as I'm sure it's helped a few others do the same so I'll present to you right now, the next ten on the list.

Call it the Doom Charts "bubbling under" chart:
26. Hands of Orlac - Figli Del Crepuscolo
27. Grimmage - Tales from Beyond

28. Saturnalia Temple - To The Other

29. Occultation - Silence in the Ancestral House

30. Wo Fat - Live Juju

31. Diesel King - Concrete Burial

32. Goya / Wounded Giant split

33. You're Smiling Now But We'll All Turn Into Demons - Population IV

34. John Carpenter - Lost Tapes

35. Lord Dying - Poisoned Altars

You can find the Top 25 at this location.

Here's the full list of contributors:

A.S. Van Dorston (Fast n’ Bulbous); Bill Goodman (The Evil Engineer); Billy Goate (Doomed & Stoned); Bucky Brown (The Ripple Effect); Cam Crichton (Motherslug); Clint (Hand of Doom Radio); Doktor420 (Stoner HiVe); Double A Doom (The Sludgelord); Gram Pola (Dirty Denim); Ian Gerber (WTF is Stoner Rock?); Joop Konraad (Stoner HiVe); LK Ultra (You May Be Dead & Dreaming); Lyk (Phantasmagoria); Melissa (Doomed & Stoned); Mr. Fuzz (More Fuzz); Pat Harrington (The Electric Beard of Doom); Paul Rote (Bandcamp); Skip (Ride With the Devil); Soggy Bob (Soggy Bog of Doom); Steve Howe (The Sludgelord); Steve Miller (Vertical Chamber Apparatus); Tony Maim (Stoner HiVe); Ulla Roschat (Wicked Lady)

The response to the newly re-formed Doom Charts has been amazing. As of this writing the list has been shared 397 times on facebook and has averaged about 100 pageviews an hour in the 30 hours since it was first posted. That may not sound like a lot, but You May Be Dead & Dreaming is lucky to hit 100 views in a day (when I'm not posting or sharing links that is, on a good day I'll hit around 200 here). The chart has been seen in 57 different countries. To quote the immortal Reverend Bizarre, that's "Doom Over the World"!

Every link on the post has been clicked at least twice. Hopefully the list has spread the word just a little bit about some kick ass bands and websites, which was my ambition. Everybody benefits from a "collective" like this, none more so than the band Elder, whose link has been hit about 100 times. Also, I think we introduced quite a few people to the bands Shepherd, Holy Serpent and ZQKMGDZ, who are all incredible. Their respective links have been hit around 50 times each.

And all of those numbers continue to climb, by the way.

Next month the plan is for somebody else to curate the list and put it all together. Hopefully we've built a more sustainable model of the Doom Charts that will survive any internet blackouts or personal maladies. Also, expect to see more contributors, I have to admit, this month's list was kind of a rush job but we got it finished and posted in fine fashion. I hope you've enjoyed it.