The Theory of Everything Else: A Voyage into the World of the Weird by Dan Schreiber

Comedian and pod caster Dan Schreiber dips his toe into the water of conspiracy theories and strange phenomena. And by strange phenomena, we're talking things so goofy, even Fox Mulder is skeptical of them! Personally, I feel like Schreiber could have covered a lot more whack job ideas that are floating around out there. But I did think that the writer was very detailed about the theories he researched. Plus I liked that he covered a few subjects that even I, a long term and now repentant conspiracy theorist and devotee of the eccentric, outlandish and just plain odd, such as myself, weren't even aware of.

I also wouldn't categorize everything Schreiber features in this book to be a conspiracy theory. It's not entirely that type of book. Some topics are more based on fringe science and hobbies of nut jobs. Some of which just happens to be proven true. Case in point: the study that plants can communicate with each other. A former CIA interrogator supposedly hooked up his house plant to a lie detector and got some very unusual results. Eventually, the guy quits being a spook, starts up a research center to study plant and human behavior and publishes a couple of books on how plants talk to us that become oddball best sellers. Jump ahead to a couple of years ago and researchers reveal that there's indication of a worldwide network that plants use to communicate to other flora about droughts, floods, and other threats to wildlife.

Schreiber works rather blue. He likes to refer to many of the believers of these conspiracies and fringe ideas as bat CRAP crazy. Only the author doesn't use the family friendly word CRAP. The writer also seems a bit too preoccupied with crazy kinks. A bunch of pages are devoted to dolphin genitals, sex with ghosts and other X-rated situations. There's a few characters from the past 200 years who began cults and alternate religions that used their charisma to score with both male and female followers. I'm actually surprised how little the author focuses on some of those characters, especially Aleister Crowley.

Dan Schreiber also hosts a podcast called 'No Such Thing As A Fish' that delves into hoaxes. Fish and birds are amazingly left untouched in this book. Maybe due to some subjects being considering off-limits due to licensing or advertising agreements with the pod cast. If he's not restricted, I'd like to read a follow up of this book, because while he's a bit cheeky, Schreiber does tell some very good stories; both personally and of historic merit. 

Not a book for kids. But it's definitely a book that skirts upon a lot of the very strange theories being brought about by all sides of the political and public spectrum thanks to events like Brexit, the coming of COVID and January 6th election claims. The Theory of Everything Else may not have the answers you are looking for. However, it can definitely get you headed into the right direction for the origins of the world's most endearing and modern plots, dodges and cabals. And if that's not what you are looking for- Schreiber has plenty to say about ghosts, UFOs, time travel and other elements of the supernatural. Only he views such popular fringe and occult matters differently than most.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Dreadful Ed and Mary Scary (Family Comic Friday)

When your father is the Boogeyman, you grow up with the expectation to be scary. However when it comes to young Ed, scary just isn't in his DNA! That's because he's a human who was switched at birth! Where's the real heir of the Titan of Terror? Why, she is having a hard time adjusting to being normal in the mundane world. Join Family Comic Friday as we review the strangely charming adventure of Dreadful Ed and Mary Scary.

Dreadful Ed and Mary Scary
Written by Andrew Cosby
Art by Troy Nixey
Published by Dark Horse Books
Pages: 112
Retail: $19.99

Who says that books about monsters and the bizarre can't be appropriate for all ages? This book is one part graphic novel and one part poem about a switcheroo that proves the theory of nature vs nurture. Eureka's Andrew Cosby pens an epic that delights in the macabre without being scary. But it's the artwork of Vinegar Teeth's Troy Nixey that really completes this fanciful tale!

This edition of Dreadful Ed and Mary Scary combines the 2006-07 two-part adventure for the very first time. It's really an unusual yarn that I feel completely in love with. Tim Burton just oozes throughout this volume. I also felt that there was a whimsical touch of Doctor Suess with the creative rhymes of each quatrain.

With the reissue of both books, I thought that maybe there was a Dreadful Ed and Mary Scary animated movie on the way. But a quick Google search reveals that other than a development deal with Universal Studios in 2010, that doesn't appear to be the case. Hopefully this collection will reignite interest in a full length feature. Could we possibly get The Nightmare Before Christmas creator in on this project, please?

A book filled with kid friendly ghosts and goblins, Dreadful Ed and Mary Scary is a pair of stories that will delight readers of all ages during any season of the year too!

Dreadful Ed and Mary Scary will return to print on February 12, 2019. It will also be available in digital formats as well!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

This review was concurrently published on Outrightgeekery.com.

1977: A Madman Turns 40: 2017- Day 22

   Upon my research for my year-long project of A Madman Turns 40, I'm learning that not every day is going to commemorate some major across-the-board cultural event that changes not just individual lives but those of entire communities. For example, tomorrow's article chronicles something huge. But that's for tomorrow. I need something to discuss today.
   
   Looking around the internet I found some really interesting tidbits that involved things that I have a particular interest in but weren't exactly watershed moments in their field. Some were cool, some odd, others tragic. All-in-all, these are great factoids but weren't things that I can really develop an entire article around.

     Let's look at a few: 

Another concert I wish I could have gone to!
ELO was in Texas!!!

• 40 years ago today some really awesome bands had concerts that I wish that I could've attended. The Talking Heads played the Rathskeller in Boston. Kiss lit up the East Coast and Van Halen was cruising around the Central Plains.

• Tom 'The Greek' Kapatos, bodyguard to Irish mobster Mickey Spillane is gunned down by a hired hand by the Italian mafia. This murder is seen as one of the acts that begins the end of the Irish mob in New York City. One of my favorite books made into a film Wiseguy/ Goodfellas alludes to this war between the Irish and Italians towards the third act.

The Bandit's hat is not included in the sale of this Trans-Am.

• From the Weird Drivers file: on this date, a man purchases a brand new 1977 Pontiac Trans-Am from Emerson Pontiac in Pekin, IL. For the next year and a half, the man uses the car as his daily automobile, meticulously tracking the 20703 miles he puts on the car after every use. For the next 36 years, he uses the car sparingly having documented a total of 48,975 miles. The guy even has details of every person to have ever driven the car and reports that it was only driven in the rain a total of 5 times. In 2015, 38-years to the day he bought the car, the man sold it to Carlyle Motors in Texas. As of Wednesday, the car is still at Carlyle, where for the price of $79,000, this replica of the car driven by Burt Reynolds in Smokey and the Bandit can be yours. 

  

  Nakata is widely considered the greatest
  soccer player in Japanese history.

• I noticed that a lot of soccer players were born on this day. Most famous is the Japanese player, Hidetoshi Kakata. I played soccer in high school, all four years. I don't recall there being very many teammates sharing birthdays with one another. 
  

• Lastly, Soviet TV airs a propaganda film called 'Buyers of Souls." This anti-Semitic picture will lead to the KGB arresting and imprisoning several key Zionist leaders in the following days. All arrested were accused of being CIA spies and basically tried by a kangaroo court that refused the defendants right to attorneys, making the prisoners defend themselves. The KGB would later demand that all who defended themselves were not permitted by law to do so and their testimonies rendered inadmissible. Eventually, Israel in able to negotiate many of the accused extraditions to the Holy Land in exchange for captured Soviet spies.

      This last one really burns me up. I have such a heart for the Jewish people. In high school, I actually made it a goal to marry a Jewish person who was a Christian. People said I was crazy and never find one. Well, I did. My wife is half-Jewish and my 5 children, God rest their souls, are a quarter Jewish. So for me, when I see Jews attacked, I see it as an attack on my family. 

      

       It's just hard to believe that after so many years, this sort of thing still occurs. It happened during World War II and you'd think after the horrors of the holocaust, people would have learned. Yet in the year I was born and still now 40 years later, the Jewish people are still targets of hatred and bitterness. 

     
   So much for light and peppy... But that's history for you. No matter how funny or odd you might find something, like the guy obsessed over his Trans Am, there's a tragedy on the other side world. It's one reason why this Madman continues to promise for the next 343 days I won't gloss over the controversal just to defend my favorite year.

    Until tomorrow...

Emily's Secret Book of Strange (Family Comic Friday)

  I've been holding on to this week's selection for just a time as this. It's the last Family Comic Friday before Halloween and I thought now would be the right time to read and review Emily's Secret Book of Strange.
    A little background about Emily. She's an advertising mascot designed in the early 90s. Since her inception, Emily and her kitties have graced skateboards, purses, guitars, stationary- you name it. There's even boutiques devoted to her in Taiwan, Japan, and in 2017, a store will open in her birthplace of San Francisco. In 2001, Emily even made the jump to comics and graphic novels.
    I had seen a couple of Emily the Strange books in the Young Adult section at my local library. But I just wouldn't make time to check it out. Then one day at a discount book sale, I found a copy of one of her books for literal pennies on the dollar. "Huh,' I thought, 'This would make a great Halloween read' and I snagged it up.
    So, was it a great read?
    The neat thing about about Emily's Secret Book of Strange is that some of it is printed in this kind of invisible ink. If you hold the book up to the light in a certain way, secret messages and other spooky images appear. That's actually pretty neat. There's even this secret decoder activity throughout the book that requires you to find a secret rune in order to find even more hidden messages from Emily.
    Stylistically, this book is beautiful. But the book itself borderlines on the disturbing. Emily hates people. Her only friends are her cats. In order to not feel so lonely she creates these hybrid creatures called Zonsters. So far, I'm on board with everything though I'm a bit spooked as well.
    Because of her creation of new beings, she also shes herself as God.
    Huh? say what? Yeah, I'm sure there's some Doctor Frankenstein mixed into this but if I am trying to be objective for parents, I have to point this personality trait out because some adults may find this objectionable for their kids. Going on the Emily the Strange website, it's pointed out that Emily isn't for kids. But this book is aimed at those 10 and up. Honestly, some of the images and cryptic messages might be too scary for youngsters. So, I would have to say that the suggested reading age actually be 12 and up.
    A very artistic book that is at times visually beautiful as it's advertising at it's very best. But it contains images and ideas that parents  and guardians may not feel are appropriate for their child. Personally, this won't be a permanent fixture of my collection but that's my opinion.

   Rating: 6 out of 10.
    

Strange Sports Stories #1 (of 3)

Issue #1 with the trading cards attached.

   Welcome to the Strange Sports Hall of Fame. Based out of Canton, Ohio it's run by the aged Hall O. Fame. Fame has the personal claim to having been involved with every American sport invented in the past 200 years! In his museum are exhibits to not only every sport imaginable but some that are out of this world and everywhere in between.

   Hall O. Fame, along with his robot hostess Miss Sullivan and resident alien sports expert, Bob the Blob, takes his guests on a whirlwind tour of several adventures including a story about a high school running back that happens to be a werewolf, a brave young man with leukemia's dream of being a radical skateboarder, and some strange but true stories of happenings in the world of baseball and boxing.

   I enjoyed this book, thought the art was a little rough. But I happily remember the original Strange Sports Stories that DC put out in the 70s and how fun they were. That's what I expected with this book and that's what I got. But I'm wondering how Adventure Comics, which in no way is affiliated with DC, was able to name this comic STRANGE SPORTS STORIES.

   I would've thought there would be some sort of copyright against that. Maybe that's why this series was limited to only 3 issues. I'm guessing Adventure Comics couldn't pass on the title and so they figured that they bolt and run before DC found out...

   I'm not accusing anyone of anything. I just can't find anything about this series online other than some listings of back issues for sale. If anyone has any further info on this, please drop me a line. I'm very interested in learning more about this little-known series.

   BTW- if you are interested in collecting this book, complete issues come with a pair of really cool trading cards based on characters from this series.

   Worth Consuming

   Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Attack of the Killer Facts by Eric Grzymkowski

   Killer Bacteria! Alien Abductions! Odd Laws! Paranormal Activity! Freaky Weather! Human Oddities! Filled with 1,001 weird and bizarre bits of trivia, Attack of the Killer Facts is the ultimate bathroom reader for fans of the strange and macabre.

    Written by budding Jeopardy contestant Eric Grzymkowski, Killer is Facts is just one of several books written by the gang at the Daily Bender; an informative blog created by Adams Media. Though these fact books are considered 'bathroom readers' you don't have to enjoy them on the porcelain throne. 

   I love reading about weird and odd things and with over 1000 crazy tidbits of subjects ranging from the search for Bigfoot to the odd collections of serial killers, there was tons of new stuff for me to learn. Some of these facts were completely new to me- so new, I couldn't believe them! But each fact comes complete with a list of references so you can further your research like I did when I looked up Lina Medina, who at 5 years old, was documented as the youngest female to ever give birth!

   One thing that each of these facts also contain are jokes and I could do without them. Grzymkowski seems to think he's better suited at comedy than fact finding as he includes an often inane quip at the end of every factoid he presents. 99% of these kneeslappers produced groans instead of gaffaws. Still, even with these stinkers, the amount of interestingly odd facts are enough for me to give another one of Adams Media's readers a try. I just probably will chose one of the publisher's other authors over another offering by MR. Grzymkowski.

    A fun read that suceeds at being a poor man's Ripley's but fails at being another '1,001 Gross Jokes...'

   Worth Consuming

   Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil

 

   On the island of Here, everything is seemingly perfect. There's no crime, no litter, everyone is clean shaven and life is easy. It's also amazingly banal on Here. But at least it's not like There, where the ocean begins and the world is dark, scary, and nobody returns from.

   All that changes when Dave wakes up to an out of control beard growing on his face. It's not a simple matter of a little stubble as when Dave shaves his face, it grows back within minutes. The old adage of 'if you shave, it will grow back fuller and darker' is true here as Dave's beard begins to grow to such a point it threatens the safety of the citizens of Here and their property and more importantly their simple way of life.

    The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil by Stephen Collins is a black and white 2013 graphic novel that challenges the concept of conformity. The story includes elements of the film Pleasantville with the people of Here's fear of the unknown anything different that the norm. The eerie perfection of the island community also reminds the reader of the idyllic setting that Jim Carrey's character is subjected to in the Truman Show. Along with the very bizarre flowing beard and the satirical bent towards pre-accepted social mores, this book could easy have been written by Roald Dahl or the subject of the next Tim Burton picture.

   I thought this graphic novel was incredibly engrossing. There was a perverse curiosity behind why the people of Here were a community of Stepford People. But I don't think that the beard was truly evil. It didn't have a mind of its own and it didn't try to eat the town like the creature in the Blob. I think it's malevolence was more in the minds of the people of Here because it represented that dark and forboding unknown of There.

   Another great read that, unfortunately, has a slightly ambiguous ending. Again, it's not a knock at the quality of the work or at the talents of Mr. Collins. I just don't favor books with unsettled endings.

   Worth Consuming

   Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

A Curious Man: The Strange and Brilliant Life of Robert "Believe It or Not!" Ripley by Neal Thompson

I remember watching the 80s ABC version of Ripley’s starring Jack Palance when I was a kid. The host scared the hell outta me and so did the opening sequence. I remember seeing Rip’s face on the opening credits and thinking “Just who was they guy?” I also fell in love with the Beleive it or Not odditoriums and the comic strip, reading my grandpa’s old Ripley paperbacks before starting my own collection.

  All of those fond memories of BION are collected in the biography of the Marco Polo of the 20th Century. A fascinating read about a man who loved to play as hard as he worked. From his outsider upbringing to becoming a ladies man, it’s amazing to see just how much a workaholic Ripley was.

  There are some pictures in the middle of the book, but I would’ve loved to have read a few of his comic strips. (Only one is even reprinted legibly in the book towards the end.) One needed aspect of the book are little BION snippets about the many cast of characters Ripley encounters both home and abroad. And talking about broads, Ripley had his share of ’em. I was surprised how many ladies fawned over a guy who collected shrunken heads, tribal masks and erotic photos of amputees.

  Essentially, Robert Ripley is an oddball. But he loved the planet he lived on and the odder, the better. A must read for fans of shows like “Oddities” and “World’s Dumbest” and other shows that explore the strange, goofy, or just plain spooky.

  Believe it or not, this book is Worth Consuming.

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.