Occult Detective Illustrated is finished. Edits are in the proverbial can and it’s now being shipped off to the printer. As soon as everything’s wrapped on that end and I get a look at the final product and assure that it’s all copacetic, I’ll be sure to let you all know how you can get one delivered to your doorstep (or monitor, if you’re all about the new school).
And so ends a glorious three day weekend (with another one on the near horizon). I have, as a result, been mostly absent from cyberspace. Living as I do on the very edge of civilization, in the borderlands between the haunted and untamed wilds and the neon spectacle of urban convenience, the Internet is tricky business, even for a 21st Century Wizard. Such will be the case until autumn rears in magnificence . We hope that by this time next year, DSL will have come to our little corner of the multiverse. Until then, my online presence will mostly be confined to when I’m enslaved at my place of employment.
Three days of freedom from all things web-related was a blessing, truth be told. I spent the weekend with my lady love and our tiny monster. We played boardgames, watched movies, caught up on some chores about the house, and generally enjoyed one another’s company. And the best part is, I get to do it all over again this coming weekend.
Be warned, town of Swayzee — we are coming for you.
Another benefit from three days away from being tethered to the web — I finished Occult Detective Illustrated. 17 days from blank page to completed work. I’ll spend the next day or two — editing the beast one final time — then ship it off to the printer.
I also read Edward Lee’s City Infernal and The Book of Enoch (two books that went surprisingly well together).
All in all, a killer weekend, with an even better one cued up.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a lot of catching up to do.
418
(multi-media on 4×6 postcard)
Submission for the 2nd Annual Skull Appreciation Day Event
to be held on June 4th from 10am – 5pm at
The Mütter Museum
The College of Physician’s of Philadelphia.
Peter Levenda, gods love him, is one of those special cats who always captures my attention, whether it be one of his frequent stops on paranormal radio or through his growing list of scholarly works. He’s always a good interview and his written work is painstakingly researched. Once a part of Herman Slater’s Magickal Childe circle, Peter Levenda is probably best known as being one of the authors of the Simon Necronomicon (source: The Doom That Came to Chelsea) and, most likely, Simon himself (see Levenda’s 2006 release Gates of the Necronomicon).
I’ve made it a point to read anything that falls out of his pen, from Unholy Alliance: A History of Nazi Involvement With the Occult to The Secret Temple: Masons, Mysteries and the Founding of America. When Weiser Books offered me a look at his latest book from Ibis Press, Ratline: Soviet Spies, Nazi Priests, and the Disappearance of Adolf Hitler, I jumped at the chance.
Here’s the online book description:
Ratline is the documented history about the mechanisms by which thousands of other Nazi war criminals fled to the remotest parts of the globe–including quite possibly Adolf Hitler.
It is a story involving Soviet spies, Nazi priests, and a network of Catholic monasteries and safe houses known as the rat line. The name of one priest in particular, Monsignor Draganovic, was discovered by the author in a diary found in Indonesia. Why would this name turn up in a document written in a spidery German hand in a remote island in Indonesia?
As famed author Peter Levenda began his research, more information came to light: In December of 2009, it was revealed that the skull the Russians claimed was Hitler’s–salvaged from the bunker in 1945–was not that of Hitler! In 2010, files from the Office of Special Investigations of the Justice Department were declassified, revealing a history of American intelligence providing cover for Nazi war criminals.
The mystery deepened, and the author returned to his own roots hunting Nazis in North America, South America and Europe. He revisited old contacts, made some new ones, and gradually the explosive story was revealed: there is no forensic evidence to prove that Adolf Hitler died in the bunker in April 1945!
Tell me that doesn’t whet your appetite for more. Well, more there is.
Peter Levenda is in fine form. His style of writing is meticulous and he’s a thorough and dogged researcher, but he also has a flair for the dramatic which makes reading his works such a joy. He is one of those rare animals that can write with an authoritative voice and still make the material poignant and personal.
Whether you buy into the author’s claims or not, Ratline is a must-read for any student of history, especially those with an interest in World War II. Levenda’s case is a compelling one and I find it highly plausible. History is full of myths and misdirections. The suicides of Adolph Hitler and Eva Braun appear to be just that.
Ratline: Soviet Spies, Nazi Priests, and the Disappearance of Adolf Hitler by Peter Levenda is available wherever books are sold, including Red Wheel/Weiser’s online bookstore. I recommend it highly.
One odd note, on my copy of Ratline, Hitler’s first name is spelled Adolf on the cover, but Adolph on the spine and back cover.
The lettering for “tiny monsters” is now finished.
Tomorrow I’ll be tackling “You Can’t Teach an Old Crow New Tricks” and “Devil Dog”.
With a wee bit of luck, I’ll start “Sorceries Unspoken” on Friday and have Occult Detective Illustrated finished by Monday. Tuesday at the latest.
page 20 of Occult Detective Illustrated
from the short story
“tiny monsters”
featuring an 8 year old Landon Connors
as portrayed by my son, Conn.
words and pictures by Bob Freeman
Table of Contents for Occult Detective Illustrated
words and pictures by Bob Freeman
coming your way very soon
page 5 of Occult Detective Illustrated
“Sorceries Unspoken”
A panel from “Sorceries Unspoken”
Occult Detective Illustrated has taken on a life of its own. I had intended, when I dreamed it up yesterday morning, for it to serve as a well I could turn to when others had run dry. Instead it has been all-consuming. I’ve drawn six pages in two days. I might just have to press on and see this project through to the end.
While my collaborator labors away on the illustration side of Oddfellows Serenade, I find myself idyll on the comic front. A wee bit of an artist myself, one thing I’ve never seriously attempted was illustrating a comic myself. So, in the interim I’ve begun another little project — Occult Detective Illustrated. Inside will be a collection of stories and strips, all written and drawn by yours truly. Some will be experimental. Some a bit more traditional. It may take me a year or more to complete, but its something to occupy myself with whenever I need a bit of a break from other projects. It will give me a chance to stretch a different set of muscles as comic work is a far cry different from covers and pin-ups. I’m looking forward to diving in and seeing what happens when I swim in dark and unfamiliar waters.
