Author of adventure/thriller and horror fiction

REMINA by Junjo Ito

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I love Japanese manga creator Junjo Ito, particularly his longer graphic novel work like UZUMAKI, and I was thrilled to receive a surprise gift from my partner Chris Marrs this Christmas: REMINA, hot off the press. Like his other work, it’s wonderfully weird, dark, bleak, Lovecraftian, and beautiful.

The story focuses on Remina, whose father detected a mysterious planet that has emerged from a wormhole he discovered. He names the planet Remina after his beautiful daughter, who becomes a pop star in the tide of fame.

Alarmingly, however, the planet appears to be sucking everything around it into itself, and it’s now coming toward Earth.

I won’t say more about the plot, as you should check it out for yourself, but I really enjoyed this manga. There isn’t a lot of depth in terms of character, with the story being driven by its fantastical plot elements rendered in Ito’s distinctive creepy artistic style. What Ito delivers is pure spectacle, a great creep factor, and a bleak feeling that leads you to conclude character change and development kind of don’t matter when people are confronted with horrors too vast for human influence or meaning.

Overall, I loved it, and it proved horror does indeed make a great gift!

Photographer Brings Gustav Klimt’s Paintings to Life

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Austrian painter Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) produced a variety of works, many of which focused on erotic portrayals of the female body. Photographer Inge Prader recreated several of his notable works in stunning photography using models, costumes and props.

Shown below is “Beethozen Frieze,” based on Richard Wagner’s interpretation of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony as humanity’s search for happiness. The frieze depicts humankind struggling against insanity and sickness and vices to find eternal joy in art. Klimt’s frieze is above, Prader’s photo, focusing on a detail from the frieze, is below.

Check more of the photos here.

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The Museum of Rocks That Look Like Faces

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In Japan, there is a museum of rocks that look like faces, or jinmenseki. Officially, the Hall of Curious Rocks.

When I first heard about this, I was like, well, that’s Japan for you.

My second response was, wow, these rocks are kind of cool!

The museum is located in Chichibu, Japan and hosts a large collection. The main requirement is the rock must look like a human face and be completely natural with no human artistry.

Here’s a photo for you below. I think my favorite is the happy little chunkster on the bottom right.

Check out more here at ThisIsColossal.com.

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“Spokes for the Wheel of Torment” by Buckethead

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“The Garden of Earthly Delights” (dated between 1490 and 1510) is a three-part painting by Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch and his best-known work. An oil painting on oak, the work consists of a center panel and two outer panels. When the outer panels are folded, they depict Creation as described in the Bible. When opened, the left panel shows God presenting Eve to Adam. The central panel shows an earthly paradise (or a warning against too deeply tasting earthly delights, depending on the interpretation). The right panel shows Hell.

The images of Hell, based on Church doctrine at the time, are fantastic and disturbing.

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Syd Garon created an animation of the Hell panel for “Spokes for the Wheel of Torment,” a song on a new Buckethead album. He writes on YouTube:

“So Buckethead has someone send me some mp3’s of his new album without any comment or album art. I am struck by the “Spokes” track and I *instantly* visualize animated Hieronymus Bosch in my head. I scan a few of his paintings in and make a 15 second test animation. A week or so later I drive to Buckethead’s secret headquarters and play him the test. He freaks out and takes me into his recording area, right there on the wall is a huge Hieronymus Bosch poster. Buckethead had been imagining the painting coming to life when he wrote the song. This was one of the most effortless things I have ever done, it felt like it was meant to be.”

Check it out here: