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Book Review: The Rogue Mountains by Joshua Tarquinio

The Rogue Mountains by Joshua Tarquinio

Joshua Tarquinio, 2017

ISBN-13: 978-0999240212

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook

 

Brothers, Pennsylvania is a small town nestled in the shadow of three tree covered peaks known as The Rogue Mountains.  The main industries are farming and hunting.  Brothers is considered to be the edge of the East, at least since the Events of Pittsburgh, 23 years ago, when the monsters moved in.  Hideous creatures dedicated to tearing humans limb from limb, these beasts live for eating, sleeping and making little monsters.  They have taken over The Rogue Mountains and infested them.

Mt. Fayette is home to The Witch: no one has seen her for years, and no one wants to.  Mt. Liston is where the Cave Worm lives: nobody that wants to stay sane or alive goes there.  Ever.  Devil’s Mountain is where the hunters go to work. They come into town for a week or two to get their thrills and trophies. When they visit, the monster population is pruned back, and the town gets to survive a little longer.  Times are changing though–  humans are not the only hunters these days.

The Rogue Mountains was a pretty good read.  I expected lots of monsters, guns, and general mayhem, and it delivered.  The plot was consistent and the pace flowed along with the action well.  I did think that it was a little long and drawn out. It could have used a little less romantic sub-plot and more action.  The descriptions were well done, and kept me tuned into the environment.  There were a lot of characters, but the author did a good job of making most of them distinctive, with different personalities and goals.  There were occasional typos, but not enough to break the flow of the story.  I really liked the unique situation that was set up at the start, and the author did a good job delivering on the promise.  I have not read any of this author’s work previously. Recommended for adult readers.

Contains: Adult Language, Swearing, Adult Situations, Sex, Suicide.

 

Reviewed by Aaron Fletcher

Posted on April 27, 2018 by , Reply

Kickstarter for “It’s All In Your Head” Art Book Illustrates Mental Health Disorders As Monsters

This sounds very cool. The Kickstarter is still going. You can learn more about it below.

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

‘IT’S ALL IN YOUR HEAD’ BRINGS VISIBILITY TO INTERNAL STRUGGLES
Coss compiles viral illustrations into an in-depth exploration of the mind

AKRON, Ohio – From the creative mind behind Any Means Necessary Clothing and the haunting stories and illustrations of “Kindergarten” comes a new project focused on the dark recesses of the mind.

“It’s All In Your Head” is a compilation of 85 illustrations by Shawn Coss that explore mental health issues and phobias, made famous during the annual Inktober Initiative over the past two years. What began as a simple collection of themed artwork soon turned into a viral sensation.

In 2016, Coss chose mental health disorders as his theme for Inktober, a month-long challenge founded by Jake Parker where artists create an ink drawing each day of October. While many artists work off a set list of prompts, Coss wanted to use this as an opportunity to really study a topic in-depth.

“Given my interest in the human condition and the demand from my fans to tackle mental health, I wanted to take on the various disorders in my own style,” Coss said. “I was intrigued, not only as an artist who suffers from depression, but also a medical professional. I wanted to portray the behaviors and symptoms as monsters that plague us.”

By giving the disorders themselves humanoid form, Coss was able to bring structure to abstract feelings in a whole new way. The response from fans was instantaneous. The art was shared 15,000 times, with more than 600,000 views. It got the attention of many major outlets, such as Buzzfeed, Huffington Post, The Mighty, BoredPanda, The Quint, and Bento.

Creating this level of awareness is really at the heart of the intention of the artwork.

“It was never about capturing every symptom of each issue in one piece of art,” Coss explained. “No one person shares the same symptoms or severity, and it would’ve been foolish of me to attempt to do so. It was about raising awareness, starting a conversation, and letting people know that the way they felt inside was real and valid. People really responded to that.”

In 2017, Coss set his sights on phobias, unlocking a whole new realm of struggles and touching on real experiences of fans across the globe. His art grabbed the attention once again of major media outlets, such as The Quint and BoredPanda.

In a follow-up to the wildly popular Kickstarter campaign for his short story and illustration book “Kindergarten,” Coss is launching another Kickstarter to publish all of his mental health and phobia artwork into one volume. The 180-page book, titled “It’s All in Your Head” will also include the medical insight and personal reflections that inspired each piece of art.

“I’m excited to finally be able to open up about my own mental health battles and connect with those who struggle every day,” Coss said. “I’m blown away by all of the responses from people who have told me how my artwork has helped them. I hope this book will continue to help others and continue the conversation on mental health.”

The Kickstarter campaign is running Feb. 20 – March 22, 2018, with copies of the book, artwork, and other special incentives for donors. For more information or to donate, visit http://kck.st/2sD0rI6.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Shawn Coss is an Ohio based artist who’s been chasing his dream to being an “entreprenartist” for the past 9 years. He’s co-owner of Any Means Necessary clothing, creator of the Inktober Illness Series, and got his start into the craziness of professional art while working (and currently) with Cyanide and Happiness. He’s also achieved his dream gig of working with Stephen King on the movie Cell as a prop design artist, as well as create the album art for bands such as Seether, Cage, and Sadistik. He refuses to leave Ohio because he doesn’t know any better.

http://www.shawncossart.com
http://www.amnclothing.com
https://www.facebook.com/ShawnCossArtist/
https://instagram.com/ShawnCoss
http://www.explosm.net

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Posted on March 8, 2018 by , Reply

Musings: Frankenstein and Race

Black Frankenstein: The Making of an American Metaphor by Elizabeth Young

NYU Press, 2008

ISBN-13: 978-0814797167

Available: Used hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition

 

With this being the bicentennial of the publication of Frankenstein, we can look forward to a year of interpretations of the text. Of course, you can read the novel as if it was produced in a blank space if you just want entertainment(this seems unlikely since the framing device is deadly dull, and almost anyone who picked it up and just read the first page would probably put it back down), or you can run with the romantic version of the summer party where the novel was first inspired, but Mary Shelley, even at 18, was an intelligent woman who listened well and was familiar with literature, philosophy, and the issues of the time.

The easiest way to look at Frankenstein is to consider her life circumstances as the gifted and passionate daughter of a prominent and provocative feminist who died giving birth to her, and a freethinking, progressive father who educated her to want more than she had.  She had already been a mother herself, and watched her child die. The creation and destruction of life must have often been on her mind. In that way, Frankenstein is deeply personal to the author. But for the book and its characters to have survived so long and been recreated in so many ways and such a variety of media, it’s about much more than her own circumstances and emotions. She touched a nerve in our culture through her insights about her own life and times, and even if she never expected that her creation would continue to be relevant as time passed… well, it has been, and continues to be.

Frankenstein centers on reactions to physical and mental difference– monstrosity– and oppression and rejection of the “other”. It is a text that can be used both to justify oppression and to critique it. I was surprised to learn recently that the novel had been used in an argument against the abolition of slavery. This made me want to look further into it. In 1824, British Foreign Secretary George Canning did, in fact, refer to Frankenstein’s creature in a rebuttal to pro-abolition forces in Parliament, saying:

“We must remember that we are dealing with a being possessing the form and strength of a man, but the intellect only of a child. To turn him loose in the manhood of his physical strength … would be to raise up a creature resembling the splendid fiction of a recent romance.” (Wolfson)

I can’t imagine that Shelley was anything but appalled to have her work manipulated to support slavery.  I learned from an online excerpt of Elizabeth Young’s Black Frankenstein that that support crossed the ocean to America (this seems like a cool book, if you like certain kinds of academic reading, which I do, but I haven’t had the opportunity to read the whole thing). After the Nat Turner revolt, American Thomas Dew quoted Canning’s reference to Frankenstein in a long pro-slavery essay. (Young, 19)  In 1860, Frederick Douglass wrote that “slavery is the pet monster of the American people”, and it is still one we’re grappling with today. A century later, civil rights activist Dick Gregory observed that James Whale’s movie told the story of  “a monster, created by a white man, turning on his creator.” (Young, 4) In fact, race played into the visuals of the movie, with the filming of the mob scene at the end created to evoke a lynching. (Wolfson) Frankenstein may have started out as a nineteenth century British Gothic novel, but it’s made a home for itself in American culture. With race at the forefront of our issues today, now is a great time to consider Frankenstein in a new light.

 

Wolfson, S. “What makes a monster?” New York Public Library. Retrieved from http://exhibitions.nypl.org/biblion/outsiders/outsiders/essay/essaywolfson

Young, E. (2008) “Introduction”. In  Black Frankenstein: The making of an American metaphor.  New York: NYU Press.  Retrieved from https://nyupress.org/webchapters/9780814797150_Young_intro.pdf)

 

Posted on January 4, 2018 by , Reply
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