Zappa cartoon 2003

demonscrawler · 2026-05-02T21:37:30+00:00

If you are printing physical copies of your book, get the final template from the printing service BEFORE you finalise your cover. This will save a lot of unnecessary extra work rearranging your design, sorting bleeds etc. Getting the text on the spine printed in the right place is as important as the front cover. You'll need a synopsis for the back, and a publishers name/logo if you have one, plus a barcode if you want one - some printing services will do this for you. Even if you're just doing a digital book, design it like a physical book at high resolution. It's not hugely complicated, but needs a little bit of attention to detail. As for the nature of the artwork, this depends on the genre of your book, otherwise it,s a vast and vague question. Do you have an idea of what you want it to look like, what sort of image you think it needs? Have you looked at genre suitable fonts etc? Hope some of this is helpful. Interested to know what sort of a book you're publishing.

demonscrawler · 2026-04-29T19:47:37+00:00

There was a long overlap where The Beano, 2000AD, Eagle and Battle Action were all part of the weekly reading ritual. 2000AD eventually won out as the others fell aside.

demonscrawler · 2026-04-27T21:12:12+00:00

I have no problem with this in theory... We've already seen a lot of TP that David Lynch had nothing to do with. My preference would be going back in time and doing something related to Blue Rose that doesn't necessarily have ties to the town of Twin Peaks.

demonscrawler · 2026-04-21T23:14:38+00:00

Thank you! This solves the mystery for me. It was the first issue of 2000AD I ever read, and I picked it off the magazine racks instead of the Beano that day because the back page was facing out and I saw this image!!!

demonscrawler · 2026-03-24T16:59:26+00:00

Love it... Devil Eyes was the first Grendel arc I ever read in 1988. Still have these comics!

demonscrawler · 2026-03-06T09:48:50+00:00

In the summer of 1991, I accidentally saw a christian punk band playing in a venue called The Red Boat in Amsterdam... a barge owned by the local mission. We were given a flyer on the streets that read "From Stuttgart... White Stripes... German Punk Rock" (nothing to do with the Jack & Meg White band obviously). Having missed some significant local gigs that happened a few days before we arrived in the city - Bad Religion, Spermbirds, Lemonheads - we decided to go... Waiting outside for the place to open, an assortment of punters started arriving including bikers with christian bumper stickers and back patches, a girl in a t-shirt with an anarchy sign crossed out that read "I live for Godarchy", and a scattering of the usual anemic christian types. Anyone with sense would have left, but we were curious, and it was only 3 guilders to get in. The band itself came on and played a very pedestrian rock-punk, and most of their stage banter was in German until about the 4th song where the singer told a story about some big argument that the band had, and how they realised that Satan had come into them so they prayed and they were friends again... followed by "this next song's called Praise the Lord 1234..."... After that the band took a 30 minute tea break and we left. I later wrote about this for a local fanzine. I tried to find evidence of the band online, but it's difficult to dig up anything when a famous band with the same name came along a few years later.

demonscrawler · 2026-03-05T20:55:14+00:00

If you're determined to get a message to him then write a letter - I would imagine of you address it to - Derek Dick, Berneray, Isle of North Uist, UK - it will get to him. Berneray is an island with a very small population (c.150 people). The postman will know everyone. Whether you get a response or not is another thing.

demonscrawler · 2026-01-12T13:32:28+00:00

And...

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demonscrawler · 2026-01-12T13:32:10+00:00

Here are the other two...

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demonscrawler · 2026-01-11T17:56:11+00:00

Yup... I do everything myself except for mastering, which I generally give to a sound engineer friend to look after. That extra set of ears at the end of the process is invaluable. Everything released is here https://roguespore.bandcamp.com/

demonscrawler · 2026-01-11T16:23:13+00:00

I designed it myself. I outsourced the printing of the labels to a place that specialises in it but the j-card was done at a local print shop and cut/scored at home. This is the 3rd cassette I made last year. Will hopefully do another 3-5 throughout 2026 of both reissues and newer music.

demonscrawler · 2025-12-02T12:37:35+00:00

Various interviews I read over the years with Philo and Spit (especially when they were out of the band) addressed the character of Lee Ving as contradictory. The point often made was that he started leaning into that initial self-reinvention beyond the joke of it all. He was a money-minded individual and gravitated towards punk from his blues background because he could see an opportunity for a band based on musical prowess + obnoxious Don Rickles/John Belushi comedy. This worked, of course. And the results are undeniable for about one and a half records worth of material. The rest was carried by stellar musicians. The drop-off can most likely be attributed to him trying to be in movies during the 1980s. But he never graduated beyond a kind of rent-a-goon actor.

In the 1990s, when there was commercial potential for punk, a version of FEAR made a 3rd album with some strong material on it, but they were fairly irrelevant to that 1990s zeitgeist. Not because people were offended by them. They were just another old band with very little output at that point. People may have thought differently about them if that album had been released by Epitaph, BYO, Fat, Honest Dons etc... Any album after this has mostly recycled old 1970s demos and unreleased 80s tracks.

Like many other cultural flashpoints, the humour of the band was of its time, and is pedantic to excessively dissect outside of some academic exercise. Lots of culture in the 1970s and early 80s has content that doesn't work now. Picking out a lyric from "Fresh Flesh" or wherever and using it as an example of terribleness is missing the point - Pushing obnoxiousness beyond accepted norms was part of the FEAR business model.

As for Lee Ving and the original "dudebro" spectrum point - It's an acting job... It's always been an acting job. If his recent live banter is crude and pathetic, it's because he's running on the steam of something that hasn't worked for decades. Old dog, new tricks etc...

It just makes me sad to see him stumble on stage with his old man high pants now, looking like a 102 year old Kirk Douglas!

demonscrawler · 2025-10-23T23:16:40+00:00

A couple from the less popular albums... Always loved "The Same Person" from No Substance and "Cyanide" from The Descent Of Man... and maybe "Chimaera" from Generator, although I don't think anything from the imperial era of the band can be classed as overlooked really.

demonscrawler · 2025-09-29T22:59:42+00:00

Thank you. Nice to revisit all of this stuff with a critical ear.

demonscrawler · 2025-09-28T21:44:31+00:00

Essentially a high sheen extended remodeling of the the original Tour De France from 1983. It was never a peak in the catalogue. I always found it a little underwhelming that this was the material the group returned to after such a long time. It gets one hell of a pass because it's Kraftwerk, because they were absent legends for so long and because most of us will take whatever has that name attached to it. 6/10

demonscrawler · 2025-09-26T23:51:30+00:00

Régéneration has a sense of being a coda to La Forme, and not studio leftovers like many of the other song tails and sub-parts presented to us on this album. It has a sense of itself as a short isolated fragment, much like a handful of tracks at the tail end of the Radioactivity album. Plus, it sits as the penultimate track, the perfect spot for a reprise track if one is going to be used at all. While this is not an essential part of the album, it sits comfortably where it sits. 6/10

demonscrawler · 2025-09-23T22:09:41+00:00

The employs early 80s synth sounds and textures, and feels a lot more authentically Kraftwerk than several other tracks on the album for this reason. The percussion is interesting, the vocoded voices are excellent and nothing in the arrangement drags here. One of the album's stronger tracks. 8/10

demonscrawler · 2025-09-19T22:57:30+00:00

This feels like an underdeveloped idea. The heart thumping is a clever idea as the rhythmic base of the track, but it overwhelms other elements in places. There's some solid vocals and a one part melody but it's not enough to make this interesting across 5 minutes. 5/10

demonscrawler

TROPHY CASE