The award-winning author of the novel The Etched City and, more recently, the short story collection That Book Your Mad Ancestor Wrote KJ Bishop speaks to us about juggling two artistic disciplines, how the Australian landscape impacts on her work and reflects back other locales that make their way into her fiction, and her story
For our second November Schlock Talk, we speak to the versatile Australian artist Kathleen Jennings. Both a writer and illustrator, she has most recently applied her delicate, evocative and fragile line to Angela Slatter’s latest collection, The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings. We chat to her about juggling two art forms on a regular basis,
It’s November, or as I’ve heard it being called, Noshavember. Which is fine enough, although in my case every month is basically Noshavember…er. In fact my beard’s grown so much that it has now gained enough sentience (as well as strong enough opinions) to host AND edit this month’s POP CULTURE DESTRUCTCAST. DESTRUCTION NEWS Just a
When somebody describes themselves as an ‘all-purpose editorial mercenary’, you know they’re probably worth talking to. Rachel Edidin – writer, editor and publishing consultant – speaks to us about her work in both literature and comics, pointing out what writers should be mindful of when they embark on their forays into fiction, her work as
By Kris Green Illustration by Mark Scicluna The robed and hooded figures didn’t look out of place in the bar. It was a small place, cozy. The kind of place with nicknacks crowding the spaces between the ranks of bottles, where the memorabilia on the walls didn’t speak so much of theme, as it did
So it’s Halloween week but, due to my not being brought up with such a tradition, I never too compelled to feel, well, Halloween-y. Still, I suppose I have some candies for all of you trick or treaters… but wait, the candy is actually SPIDERS! AHAHAHAHA! I’m actually feeling Halloween-y after all. DESTRUCTION NEWS The past
Laird Barron: “My worlds are growing much larger and much more frightening than I’d imagined.” Illustration by Thom Cuschieri. We’re proud to cap off our run-up to Schlock’s Halloween issue by interviewing one of the luminaries of contemporary horror fiction. In an illuminating Schlock Talk, the award-winning novelist and short story writer Laird Barron speaks
I love how as the sun starts to set the skies above my neighbourhood come alive with bats. It’s probably thanks to a couple of seemingly abandoned buildings in the vicinity, in which bats can roost during the daytime hours. If this is the case I hope these buildings remain untouched by development, ruined as
Extraordinary Gentlepeople. Illustration by Daniela Attard As part of our ongoing run-up to Halloween, we invited Gothic scholar Conrad Aquilina to dissect Showtime’s popular Gothic panorama Penny Dreadful, aided along by illustrations by Schlock regular Daniela ‘iella’ Attard. by Conrad Aquilina Illustrations by Daniela Attard Nothing quite spells decadence, darkness, madness and excess than the Victorian
As we continue to Get Grisly for the month of Halloween, Krista Bonello Rutter Giappone delves into the horrific-but-hilarious world of ‘splatstick’. Think Looney Tunes, with an extra topping of exposed viscera. * I’ve always felt there are very strong grounds for intersections between horror and comedy – both flirt with the ‘subversive’, both stretch