* Dannie Flesher, cofounder of Wax Trax! Records, has died at age 58. I really would not be the same without him. When I was a teenager, the industrial aesthetic pioneered by Flesher, his partner Jim Nash, and Wax Trax! acts like Ministry, KMFDM, and their myriad side projects defined “cool” for me in a way that still holds true for me today. Trent Reznor and Al Jourgensen joining forces to cover Black Sabbath with 1000 Homo DJs’ “Supernaut” is pretty much the most amazing thing a 16-year-old Sean could imagine. Any day I’m dressed all in black, which is usually three or four days a week, you pretty much have them to thank. Today I’m still impressed by just how committed Wax Trax! bands were to their sound and style. There’s a totality to their encapsulation of deviance and decay that’s still chilling, and extremely edgy and ballsy even now. Plus, a vintage Ministry side project is a joy forever–I listened to the Revolting Cocks Beers Steers & Queers just this morning, not knowing what had happened, and it’s still a death-disco hoot. Thank you, Dannie. I hope wherever you are now, Jim’s there with you.
* Today on Robot 6: Buy Prison Pit pages and check out the Best of 2009 comics meta-list, plus a quick thought from me on same.
* Hey, new Paul Hornschemeier Forlorn Funnies? How about that!
* Jesse Reese of Are You a Serious Comic Book Reader? tackles Mike Mignola and Richard Corben’s Hellboy: Bride of Hell. The Hellboy books proper spent some time in the wilderness, but I think with The Wild Hunt and Bride of Hell, they’ve been duly and deftly brought in line with what makes B.P.R.D. so compelling: Their heroism ultimately futile, our heroes fail.
* Viz has some cool-looking comics coming out soon.
* Here’s a list of the bestselling graphic novels at my LCS, the great Jim Hanley’s Universe, in 2009. Superhero-heavy, but which superhero titles we’re talking about is kind of surprising.
* Benjamin A. Shobert of Asia Times waxes philosophical about the Red Dawn remake, in which Red China is apparently the heavy. (Via CRwM.)
* Clive Barker is making some fucked-up Halloween costumes.
* Thanks to Tom Spurgeon for directing me to Michael Wm. Kaluta’s J.R.R. Tolkien calendar and a terrifically choreographed Buz Sawyer chase sequence. Next time you just wanna take your superheroes and have ’em fly around shooting shit at each other, please take a look at this and think again!
