In which we tell you about awesome things that you must look into and enjoy.

LISTEN TO “THRILLING ADVENTURE HOUR”

Fuck, there are a lot of podcasts.  If everybody stopped producing content now, it would still take you a lifetime to listen to everything even kinda sorta good.  So I’m pretty choosy about what I listen to, but the one show that’s a no-brainer is the Thrilling Adventure Hour on the Nerdist Network.  Recorded live at Largo in LA, TAH is an “old-timey radio show” starring some of comedy’s finest, including Paul F. Tompkins, Paget Brewster, Marc Evan Jackson, and James Urbaniak. With tongue planted firmly in cheek, they recreate vintage radio antics through a revolving door of serialized stories-my personal favorite is Sparks Nevada, Marshal of Mars. He rides a rocket horse and has robot fists. How can I not love that?  As the show has progressed, it’s attracted absurd talent to do guest spots, including Patton Oswalt, Nathan Fillion, and Colin Hanks. It’s super funny, but what makes it work is how thouroughly the writers clearly love old-timey radio.  While some of the jokes may be a bit more modernized, the show embraces the format rather than mocking it, and it’s oddly affecting.  Who’d have thought that as technology barrels forward, one of the best ways to do something worthwhile would be to throw it in reverse and go retro with it?-KRC

READ CROSSED

Do you like a good nights sleep? If you do, don’t read Crossed. If you like being scared out of your wits and having horrifying images burned into mind, well, Crossed is your bag then. Crossed is a ten issue horror comic written by the master of the subversive, Garth Ennis (Preacher, The Boys), with art by Jacen Burrows. It’s a different take on the zombie apocalypse genre, and I personally think a more frightening one. I have to put a disclaimer on this because the comic (that you can now get as a trade paperback in its totality at your local comic shop) is brutal and breaks so many barriers of morality and good taste; recommending it is a slippery slope, but who gives a fuck? Art should challenge you.

Crossed follows a group of survivors after a plague turns most of humanity into raping, cannibalistic, homicidal maniacs. You can tell if someone is crossed by the cross-like rash that appears on their face. They are not your traditional zombies, but they do share some traits. Do not get bit or get any of their bodily fluids on you or you are done for; reference the zombies of 28 Days Later, except these guys will face fuck you to death. The things Ennis comes up with for the Crossed will really shake you, at least it did me, and there is one particular two page splash that comes specifically to mind.

Aside from a small introduction to the main characters, we are thrown into the story ten months after the plague, with our group of survivors trying to make it to Alaska because of its low population and brutally cold weather; you see the Crossed are too focused on killing and raping to worry about a jacket when a skinned face over ones crotch will suffice. The characters are real folks and I could easily put myself in any of their shoes, which makes what happens to some of them genuinely difficult to experience. All of them have to come to terms with doing what they have to do to survive, and thats the whole story. How far would you go to survive and would you risk losing your humanity just to do so?

I’m not gonna delve into plot because it should be experienced without spoilers. Read this book at your own risk, and remember this while you read; there is no hope. There are no heroes. No one is coming to save you. THERE IS ONLY THE CROSSED. -GC