At the Jechidah blog, Apuleius Charlton writes about his new fiction addiction, the Dungeon Crawler Carl series by Matt Dinniman. Cruel invading aliens have turned the Earth into a video game for the entertainment of the galaxy. It sounds both kind of ridiculous and very entertaining. The description of what Dinniman does also reminds me a bit of Ernest Cline. Excerpt from the post:
"Our unlikely protagonists are the recently single Carl and his ex-girlfriend's showcat, Princess Donut. (Full name Grand Champion, Breed Winner Regional, National Winner Princess Donut the Queen Anne Chonk.) Carl had followed Princess Donut outside in the frigid AM hours of Washington state in a leather coat and boxers after she had escaped out into a tree minutes before “the Collapse.” In search of warmth, Carl enters the dungeon with Donut and is quickly overwhelmed by the setting, surviving by the skin of his teeth (or heels). In short time, Donut is imbued with sapience and through a quirk of the system becomes the “party leader” between the two. Hilarity ensues as the cat acts very much how many people would imagine a sapient cat to act, and Carl’s wardrobe never shows much improvement."
Apuleius has the cover for the latest book in the series, but I've chosen to post the cover for the first book.
For the final post, two folks were invited to write pieces for the post on the book's afterword. I wrote one piece and Adie wrote another. I thought Adie's piece was better than mine, but maybe read them both.
Over at Jechidah, the second episode of the Testament online reading group has posted, with a link to the online version of the comic book. The first episode and the first issue of the comic book is still available, if you need to get caught up. The second issue is "Sodom and Gomorrah," and I'll be checking it out this weekend.
It's led by Bobby Campbell. Bobby has gotten permission from the creators of the comic book series, Douglas Rushkoff and Liam Sharp, to post each issue online for a month, and Bobby has written a thoughtful first blog post, so join in with your comments!
[Bobby Campbell has announced a planned new online reading group, for the comic book series TESTAMENT, to be hosted at Apuleius Charlton's Jechidah blog. Here is Bobby's announcement. The Management.]
By BOBBY CAMPBELL Special guest blogger
I'm very excited to announce the formation of a monthly reading group based around the Douglas Rushkoff & Liam Sharp created comic book series TESTAMENT!
TESTAMENT was published as a monthly series by DC Comics, under the prestigious Vertigo imprint, from 2006 - 2008. It ran for 22 issues and was then collected into four trade paperbacks. It was also collected into a digital omnibus (which I designed!), and I’m told efforts are currently underway for a deluxe print edition, coming in 2026 :)))
Why should we read TESTAMENT?
“A stunning, richly entertaining book.”
-- Robert Anton Wilson
“Rushkoff and Sharp unveil the new voice of dissent. Make no mistake, the greatest story ever told continues right here!”
The story of TESTAMENT takes place simultaneously in the biblical past and a near future that, 20 years later, looks suspiciously similar to our present.
This is a book about the open source nature of reality, about participatory myth-making, about resistance to inhuman systems, and about discovering our collective agency.
Useful things to think about anytime, but perhaps especially in these particular times.
Also, there's absolutely astonishing art, by one of the all-time greats, LIAM SHARP!!
Both Douglas Rushkoff & Liam Sharp have these wildly brilliant and expansive oeuvres, between them there are dozens of titles worthy of our time and attention, but I maintain that something special happened here where their two styles met and combined into something uniquely explosive. A lost classic of the Vertigo canon, waiting to be discovered!
A quick word of warning! TESTAMENT is often very NSFW. There’s a fair amount of nudity, sex, violence, and other such adult situations. Frankly, it’s kinda fucked up! (Complementary.)
Additionally, many other artists contributed significantly to the series! But this being an intro I figured we'd stick to the original creators for now, but rest assured all contributors will be given their flowers! Peter Gross, Dean Ormston, Gary Erskine, Mark Pennington, Jamie Grant, James Devlin, Jared K. Fletcher, Todd Klein, Pornsak Pichetshote, Jonathan Vankin, and Bob Harris.
THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE
An ulterior motive I have is the promotion of the comic book medium! I know how wildly intelligent and insightful this group is, and I thought it would be fun to see what you all would discover within some especially well-crafted esoteric sequential art :)))
Comix are slowly, but surely, emerging from their spandex-covered super-powered chrysalis, and waiting to be discovered as a richly rewarding medium for stories of every type.
A good companion piece for this series would be Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics. Intentionally named to mirror Marshall McLuhan's Understanding Media, and packed full of those same paradigm shifting epiphanies.
Here's Rushkoff and McCloud in conversation from 2008:
FREE AS IN BEER
I thought it would be bad manners to ask for both your time and your money, so I got permission from Rushkoff & Sharp, who very generously agreed, to provide the source material free of charge!
On the 22nd of each month for the next 22 months, I will post a free web version of the original single issue TESTAMENT comics.
"Either way, magic is full of indignities, it is a parade of hunchbacks and soldiers, the crew that never rest. Sometimes, it is heartwarming in its absurdity. I went so far into my lifestyle fantasy that, at one point, between hauling in the cardboard boxes of Crowley, Wilson, Moore, Blake and sundry, I complained to my father that the second bedroom of my new apartment was too small. Knowing of my proclivity at the time to keep my second bedroom as a ritual space, he responded: 'guess you’ll have to sacrifice smaller cats.' Do what thou wilt."
When I am trying to do a summary of a fairly long blog post, I sometimes struggle to find an excerpt that accurately conveys the whole. But I think this sentence gets the point across: "It may be the best single expression of magic in theory and practice extant."
The review goes into detail about the different sections of the book, such as "Things to Do on a Rainy Day" and “Old Moore’s Lives of the Great Enchanters.” Read the whole thing.
Over at Jechidah, the online discussion group on The Sex Magicians continues. At this point, the discussion has reached chapters five and six. This isn't a long novel like Moby Dick or Ulysses. There's still time to grab a copy of the book, get caught up, and join the discussion.
I meant to blog about this earlier, but I've had a lot of other news. The online discussion group for The Sex Magicians has continued at the Jechidah blog.
The latest entry covers the second chapter, which was my favorite when I read the book for the first time when Hilaritas republished it; I liked all of the new jokes about the Midget. Not too late to pick up the book and catch up with the discussion.
"The first chapter of The Sex Magicians introduces us to arguably the primary protagonist of this slim volume of smut, Dr. Robert Prong. Prong is the first incarnation of Dr. Frank Dashwood in The Schroedinger's Cat Trilogy. Dashwood, named after the founder of the most infamous incarnation of the Hellfire Club, and Prong both hold the enviable, if somewhat challenging, position of head of the Orgasm Research (Foundation)."
Not too late to grab a copy of the Hilaritas edition and take part! Also, a review is promised soon of the new Alan Moore-Steve Moore book, The Bumper Book of Magic.
"Michelle Olley contextualizes and absolves The Sex Magicians. Olley is in a unique position of being a pioneer in sexual expression and one who has come out on top of the game. As far as I know, Olley hasn't declared any extraordinarily ugly sentiments about any groups, peccadillos or ways of being. Instead, she applies her myriad and extraordinary experiences to a multi-fold (multi-folderol?) interpretation, framed in empathy and understanding. Having Olley as our barker and initial interloper with the raw material of Wilson's first published novel is a very good thing, and very apropos, for our clarity-by-convolution century."
The Lion of Light reading group at Jechidah wraps up with a final blog post, mostly written by Oz but a little bit by Gregory. The discussion includes the proposed alternative cover, above.
Here's a quote from the piece:
"Another big attraction to Magick for me: it works when applied; sometimes much more than expected; sometimes shockingly so. Simply expressing an intention puts things in motion. Coming into contact with Crowley's material presents the first obstacle or barrier – wild stories and concern about the man himself. It's been said that he exaggerated any lurid stories about himself to amplify this bad reputation. It may have gotten out of hand; at times in his life he appeared to regret all the bad publicity coming his way. Getting hung up on Crowley's personality can effectively filter out anyone not ready for the material."
Another reading group at Lion of Light is planned this summer; the topic isn't selected yet.
When I read the Illuminatus! trilogy back in the 1970s, when I was in college in Oklahoma, I didn't know anyone who was seriously into magick or Aleister Crowley. I did know quite a few libertarians; in fact, all of the people I knew who read the book were libertarians, and so I was under the impression that libertarians were the core audience for the book. Of course, there are plenty of libertarians who have read the trilogy, and read other work by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea, but I did not realize how many RAW fans really were more into magick than political philosophy. When I began this blog in 2010, I assumed that most of the people who bothered to read it would be libertarians, and I was surprised at the number of people I encountered who identified with the left instead, or who were into magick.
While my views about RAW's audience have shifted, I am still capable of surprise. I am reading Lion of Light because I am taking part in the ongoing online reading group at Jechidah, so I duly read the pieces by Lon Milo DuQuette and Richard Kaczysnki, and a couple of passages caught my eye.
DuQuette: "Ordo Templi Orientis is now arguably the largest and most influential magical order in the world. In the first 15 years since our local lodge in Newport Beach officiated scores of Degree initiations. Of the new initiates I interviewed in those years at least 75% told me they had been initially drawn to magick and Aleister Crowley because they had read The Illuminatus! Trilogy and the works of Robert Anton Wilson."
Kaczynski: "In the late 1970s, when I dove into the sci-fi con and pagan festival circuits, one or both of Wilson and Leary were frequent guests of honor. To me it seemed like more of the attendees had come to Crowley's magick through The Illuminatus! Trilogy than all of the aforementioned 'establishment' authors combined." [Kaczynski says that in 1974, the occult "establishment" was Israel Regardie, Francis King, John Symonds and Kenneth Grant.)
So it sounds like the revival of Crowley's magick is another way Illuminatus! has influenced the culture.
The latest discussion of Sex, Drugs & Magick at the Jechidah blog, on Chapter 3, seemed particularly interesting to me; there's discussion of Hassan i Sabbah, "Philip Farber's excellent High Magick: A Guide to Cannabis in Ritual and Mysticism," and Robert Anton Wilson's sex magick information, more detailed than in other Wilson pieces on the same subject. It's not too late to grab a copy of the book and get caught up on the discussion.
