I had a great time chatting with Nick and Sean about these haunted hinterlands of Indiana.
I was a bit under the weather, but I still think the interview came off pretty well.
If you’ve not listened to their podcast before, Nick and Sean run a very relaxed interview session and they’ve had some stellar guests on in the past — Michelle Belanger, Heather Taddy, Shane Pittman, Dustin Pari, Reverend Long. I was thrilled to have the chance to sit down with them and appreciated their humor and dedication.
The anthology Running Home to Shadows: Memories of TV’s First Supernatural Soap from Today’s Grown-Up Kids is now available on Amazon, and for less than $10. Invited to submit my history with the famed cult classic, I was also able to introduce Jim Beard, our esteemed ringleader, to both Mark Rainey and Elizabeth Massie, two of my favorite authors, and who co-penned my favorite Dark Shadows novel, Dreams of the Dark.
Dark Shadows meant everything to me as a child, and being given the opportunity to share my love for Shadows and Dan Curtis was a thrill. The fact that this anthology was put together to honor Jim’s late wife, author Becky Beard, made the experience all the more poignant. And I got to share a Table of Contents with some of my favorite people.
If you’re a fan of Dark Shadows, then this anthology is the love letter you’ve been waiting for.
School’s out, Barnabas is IN!
They were a generation all their own, the army of children who ran home from school to watch Dark Shadows, TV’s very first supernatural soap. A breed apart, they set aside the worship of mundane pop stars to follow vampires, witches, and werewolves. From 1966 to 1971, they were daytime Monster Kids…and today they have stories to tell.
Writer-editor Jim Beard has gathered these grown-up kids together in this tome to tell those tales. Their experiences are sometimes tragic and terrifying, yet also uplifting and inspirational, but above all, Dark Shadows touched them so deeply as to leave an indelible impression on their lives that lasts to this day.
Return to Collinwood to brave the stormy nights and rainswept days of yore to listen to this coven of writers spin yarns of childhood encounters with Barnabas, Angelique, Quentin, Vicky, Maggie, and their compatriots. Cross the threshold of the Old House, take a seat by the crackling fire, and make yourself comfortable to the strains of maudlin music issuing forth from the gramophone—the ghosts of the past are about to arise in RUNNING HOME TO SHADOWS. Won’t you join us?
Edited by Jim Beard with Charles R. Rutledge
Cover Illustration by Mark Maddox with Logo Design and Formatting by Maggie Ryel
Foreword by Kathryn Leigh Scott
Featuring Essays by Greg Cox, Mark Dawidziak, Dave Dykema, Bob Freeman, Ed Gross, Nancy Holder, Tina Hunt, Katherine Kerestman, Mark Maddox (with Ed Catto), Elizabeth Massie, Kimberly Oswald, Martin Powell, Dana Pride, Mark Rainey, Michael Rogers, Charles R. Rutledge, Chris Ryan, Frank Schildiner, Duane Spurlock, and Jeff Thompson.
Afterword by Rich Handley
Addendum:A big shout out to our editors. Jim was great to work with and extremely communicative (and he delivered a heartfelt introduction), and my pal Charles Rutledge was a lifesaver, catching a slight error that really improved my essay. Cheers to both.
First of all, let’s get the disclaimer out of the way: Ash Hamilton is a good friend of mine. I’ve known him for twenty years. We co-managed a Books-A-Million, we kicked around various comic projects, we’ve broken bread, I’ve been a guest on a couple of different podcasts he’s hosted, and we generally share a common love for horror, fantasy, comic books, and, well, all manner of pop cultural and conspiratorial phenomena.
That said, if this movie sucked, I would tell you, and I would bust on him gleefully until he started to whimper.
Thankfully, this isn’t the case.
Holes in the Sky: The Sean Miller Story, written and directed by my pal, has raked in a Brinks Truck worth of awards and accolades… and I’m happy to report after finally viewing the thing, it’s worth every bit of praise.
Ever since The Blair Witch Project dropped many moons ago we’ve been waiting to see the found footage documentary genre taken to the next level. Hellier, that magnificent paranormal entertainment series from Greg and Dana Newkirk, Karl Pfeiffer, and Connor Randall, tapped into this in their two season opus and legitimized the hunger for this type of storytelling. Holes in the Sky, while not quite elevated to Hellier standards, is in that same vein and a compelling and nail biting love letter to all those things that gave me thrills as a child growing up in the rural Midwest.
Holes in the Sky explores “a documentary film crew’s efforts to make a movie detailing the 2013 alien abduction of Illinois resident Sean Miller. A five-day shoot turns into a life-changing experience for everyone involved as events spiral out of control.”
The strength of the film lies in the superb performances by all those involved. This story feels real. All the people on camera are believable. Everyone seems natural. And the creepiest moments are beautifully shot. Ash does a great job of building tension and delivering legitimate chills.
Look, I grew up on UFO and Bigfoot sightings, ghost stories, and abduction narratives. Ash’s love for these same things really comes through on camera, and by firmly grounding it in the “Midwestern Gothic” atmosphere, it delivers a believable and ultimately terrifying tale.
This is a movie you’re going to want to watch late at night with the lights off.
On a scale of 1-5, this movie gets a solid 6 from me.
Addendum: I mentioned Ash and I kicked around some comic ideas back in the day. Here’s a little sample of something we were working on some 15 or so years ago. We should really get around to finishing it…
Posted in Media, Occultober on October 11, 2021 by Occult Detective
In 2013 I was asked to send an audition clip into an agent for a Paranormal Reality series to be called, tentatively, The Devil’s Own. This show later became Portals to Hell, hosted by Jack Osbourne and Katrina Weidman.
The video is old and corrupt, much like myself. Please excuse the quality.
Hallowe’en, for all its sinister overtones, is just as good for a laugh now and then. Running across this video from 8 years back certainly gave me a chuckle. I hope it does for you as well.
Pity I didn’t get the gig, but as Portals to Hell is one of my favorite docu-series, it’s hard to cry foul.
Posted in Media on July 15, 2021 by Occult Detective
Long time no post. I’ve been busy, and you’ll see why very soon, but, after finishing up Loki last night, I felt it was time for me to evaluate the entirety of Marvel Cinematic output thus far. And I consider the Disney+ series to be a part of that, so let’s tackle this… from worst to first.
The Inhumans
Runaways
Cloak & Dagger
Agents of Shield
Iron Fist
Captain Marvel
Iron Man 3
Luke Cage
Iron Man 2
Agent Carter
Black Panther
The Defenders
Falcon & the Winter Soldier
Jessica Jones
Shang Chi & the Legend of the Ten Rings
Eternals
Avengers: Age of Ultron
Thor: The Dark World
Captain America: Civil War
Spider-man: Homecoming
Daredevil
Captain America: The First Avenger
The Incredible Hulk
Marvel’s The Avengers
Avengers: Endgame
Avengers: Infinity War
Ant-Man & the Wasp
Black Widow
Hawkeye
Spider-man: Far From Home
Thor: Ragnarok
Iron Man
Wanda/Vision
Captain America: Winter Soldier
Ant-Man
Guardians of the Galaxy
Loki
Thor
Guardians of the Galaxy vol 2
Doctor Strange
I was really tempted to go deep and add all of the Marvel output, you know, the tv shows, cartoons, Sony and Fox output and the like. Let’s face it, if I did, a lot of the recent Marvel stuff would slide south. I rate the original 1978 Dr. Strange tv pilot right behind the Dr. Strange movie, and Wesley Snipes’ first Blade outing would be right on its heels, but I’ve still a mountain of things to get sorted so that will have to be a project for another day.
Posted in Media on July 1, 2021 by Occult Detective
Today is National Television Heritage Day, so that leads me to presenting my Top 3 Favorite Television shows of all time. Are you ready? I doubt there will be any real surprises…
NUMBER THREE CARNIVALE
“…the perfect show for those who thought Twin Peaks was too accessible” — Matt Roush, TV Guide
NUMBER TWO LOST
“Name another network drama that can so wondrously turn a ? into a !” — Entertainment Weekly
NUMBER ONE TWIN PEAKS
“Twin Peaks disorients you in ways that small-screen productions seldom attempt.” —Tom Shoals, Washington Post
Posted in Magick, Media on May 20, 2021 by Occult Detective
As promised, to avoid the confusion of last week’s Occult/Horror Comics List (emphasis on Horror), this week I’m sharing my favorite Occult Comics. I’m tossing up 10 and I’m not putting them in any semblance of order…
Posted in Media on May 6, 2021 by Occult Detective
BLACK CHARACTERS MATTER
“ORIGINAL black characters remain on the shelf because of tokenization.” — Eric July (YoungRippa59)
The internet is ablaze with talk of Black Superman and the casting of a woman of color in the role of Red Sonja. This is nothing new. Both in comics and on the big and small screens, unique characters of diverse ethnicities are often overlooked or downright dismissed unless they get slapped into another hero’s pajamas.
I’ve got to agree with Eric July on this. Taking a traditionally “white” character and putting a POC in the suit is not progress. There are a whole host of great black characters that deserve a seat at the table. A prime example is the demotion of the Falcon from a unique character to a “tokenized” Captain America. We don’t need a black Cap, what we need is the Falcon. Period.
That said, today I thought I would share my three favorite black comic book characters. This was a hard list to make. Why? Because it’s a long list of awesome, unique heroes and villains that need to be propped up. You know what? I’m going to cheat. Were going Top 5, baby!
Posted in Media, Tarot on May 4, 2021 by Occult Detective
I’ve known Amber Petty for a few years now. She reached out after becoming enamored by my High Priestess tarot design, which she licensed for her Tarot Tea House business in Australia. Subsequently she wrote a memoir and we collaborated on the cover art over the course of many months. Below is the finished artwork for her debut —This Is Not A Love Song: A Memoir About Mental Health and Love which is available wherever books are sold.
And for kicks, here are a few of the other ideas we knocked around, all Tarot related, of course.
occultdetective.com 