FROM THE CASKET, ...TO THE CLOTS!

Here’s the official synopsis:

“This new Rough House monthly article, BLOOD CLOTS will feature a unique perspective on comic books, magazines, novels, music and films that hit us with an insane amount of inspiration to become the twisted deviants that we are today! Filled with sharp-as-a-murder-knife whit and hauntingly inhuman insight, these articles will jump headlong into the underbelly of pop culture from resident roughian, MIKE “CORPSE MONGER” WASION and the rest of the ROUGH HOUSE gang ta boot! Between series overviews, single issue deep dives, interviews and bat-shit gonzo suicide runs into obscure errata, BLOOD CLOTS got you covered….with 6 feet of dirt, and thoroughly watered with Trioxin infused rain.”

A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE!

Like every ignored warning before a trip to Crystal Lake, like every Sumarian curse uttered deep in the foggy woods, like every flash of lightning above a castle-top laboratory, something stirs on the slab. Renewed with unholy life, and vengeful hunger... the resurrected (and former FANGORIA column) MIKE WASION’S COMIC CASKET lives, in a new format, in a new forum, and now, with a brand new name. … Enter the strange and bizarre world of the BLOOD CLOTS!

Crawling from the unhallowed grave of print media, and given new, spectral life for the digital age, ROUGH HOUSE PUBLISHING throws open the gates of Hell, and unleashes this conjoined beast, that knows where all the bodies are buried.

So gather round the camp fire, and crack open a cold one, ….we’ve got a story to tell ya!

Back in the chilly days of early 2011, - a literal lifetime ago - a greenhorn horror journalist (and lifelong comic junky) was handed the keys to his own column at a newly revitalized FANGORIA...with carte blanche to get as deep, and as weird as he needed to, to scrape the bottom of the horror comic trash can, to dig up long-interred bodies, to summon vengeful four-color ghosts, to look at EVERY worm beneath that pulp-pop rock...and he did so, with aplomb.

Hence, COMIC CASKET was born!

At least, until the checks started bouncin'. Wasn't the first, won't be the last in THAT parade. After all, this wasn’t Corpse’s first rodeo, having previously slung prose for neighboring pop culture periodicals such as HORRORHOUND and STRANGE KIDS CLUB Magazines, the latter of which transitioned into an online presence along with RETRO SLASHERS to boot!I

I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE!

They say everything in life eventually comes full circle. Alas, we’ve been waiting for Peter Steele to return from his Brooklyn grave for over a decade and not so much as one guttural drone from the Green Man. But we digress.

It was 2010. DEREK ROOK was going into the 7th year of semi-retirement from drawing and publishing comics. Aside from the occasional recreational page drawn for the yet unreleased follow-up to LUCIO FULCI’s GATES OF HELL comic book series (formerly of the publishing imprint, XMACHINA) Rook was working as a Corporate Security Account Manager and the history of his contributions to Blackest Heart Media’s graphic novel, LUCIO FULCI’s ZOMBIE (2001), was exactly that….history!

But at that time, “CORPOSE MONGER” was all about comic book history and when he smelt the proverbial blood in the waters off the shark and zombie infested waters off the shores of Matool, it wasn’t long before he contacted Rook to get the full skinny on the truncated print run of the aforementioned title for a forthcoming addition of COMIC CASKET. Some would say that this fiendish summit lay the skeletal foundation of what would eventually become ROUGH HOUSE PUBLISHING, LLC just a year and change later, …and they would be right.

So after a draft or thirteen (sorry Mike), on OCTOBER 2011, FANGORIA #307 ran the now infamous article, and history was made. Ironically, ZOMBIE GN penciller MIKE BROOM had painted a cover from The Howling for that very same issue. Coincidence?

COMIC CASKET ran steadily on a monthly basis until FANGO stopped running the article in 2013, and soon after, died an untimely, tragic death of it’s own.

For seven years there was silence. The aftermath of the now infamous FANGORIA MAGAZINE implosion of 2015 left many editors, associates and contributing writers little more than the exorcised husk or a once malignant horror culture leading magazine and an eviction notice. Crawling out from under the dead bodies was Corpse Monger, his beloved column, ….and a dream.

WE ARE GOING TO READ YOU!

All right, all right, …stop yer cryin’!

Sheesh! There’s no sad endings here! Look, FANGORIA ended up coming back stronger than ever in 2018, under new management and has been kicking ass ever s…..um, …So, FANGORIA ended up coming back stronger than ever in 2020, under new management and, …Ahem, please pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!

And not to be outdone, COPRSE MONGER’s COMIC CASKET has come home to the ROUGH HOUSE, and we’re promising to make this BIGGER, BADDER, BOLDER and BRUTAL! And this time, the CASKET will NOT be restricted to just comics, or censorship!

NO ONE WILL BE A STRANGER!

So what’s the difference between Mike Wasion’s COMIC CASKET and BLOOD CLOTS?

Besides the name change, you’ll still get new Comic Casket episodes written by the Corpse Monger himself whenever time and circumstances allow. He owns enough horror, sci-fi and exploitation memorabilia to open up his own oddities driven haunted attraction and when the dark spirits possess him again, you can be sure to enjoy another storied tale of indie horror comics brought to you by the man himself!

The bonified bitch of the bunch is that working as an indie creator is a very tough business. With very little time and money to spare, it’s amazing any of us find the time or the creative petrol to persevere, especially in these most recent dark and uncertain of times…but like any good horror slasher villain, just when you think we’re dead, we spring up for one last kill and stay for another 10 sequels!

Hence the soft rebranding. Let the BLOT CLOTS begin!

In the meantime, DEREK ROOK and his merry band or roughians will be continuing the column, showcasing their retro deep dives beyond just comic books into other forms of pulpy media like magazines, record album reviews, movie dissections, creator spotlights, lost pulp pocket novels, and whatever horrors lay in wait!

These are the “LOST” analog oddities that made us (the screwballs, we), and the best part is you don’t have to wait one single extra day to feast your grubby eyes on the FIRST SIX EPISODES brought to you by your unfriendly neighborhood Corpse Monger!

HOOK YOURSELF UP WITH A NEW DOSE OF “BLOOD CLOTS” THE FIRST FRIDAY OF EVERY MONTH!

CLICK BELOW AND ENJOY RIGHT NOW!