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Ah, thanks so much for tuning in!

You can’t tell because of the invertebrates crawling all over my face but I swear I am blushing! But seriously thank you, it’s very gratifying to hear the “melding” worked, and from a multimedia wizard like yourself!

Evocative and fascinating, like dissociating while fossil hunting.

Ah, thank you! I appreciate it a lot. Do take a leech for the road.

This was really compelling! The conceit of a dream recording device that only outputs letters is, somehow, the most dream-like idea of them all. It definitely works.

Very much enjoyed the Osamu Sato-like symmetrical compu-weirdness and non-sequitur transitions. Very nicely done!

This was punchy and frightening at the same time. Like Waking up in a coffin...meltdown imminent, there’s no light but your mind’s eye (or "mind/screen" as it's called in here!) becomes a projection surface for distorted half-remembered subtitles you recall from existential arthouse films, games, etc. The result is a panicked concrete poem of slipping away into metallic nil. Chilling and effective!

The gingerbread gave it an extra kick for sure!

Ultimate mallardian outcome!

This is such a clever way to do a kind of journal or any kind of storytelling really. I love tying some kind of memory to different body parts. In this case it's extremely wholesome. (But also maybe just me reading into it but something pleasantly menacing about a gingerbread figure whose "eyes are for watching"...)

Thank you I am really happy the combo of the two worked for you! Was a bit of an experiment 

oh, thank you for the creeture feature!

metaphysical, ambiguous, achievable!

fantastic

Yes!! Just a few more decades and change to go!

the world’s first semi-vertebrate!

And now you have ape-sludge to use on the furniture!

C'était surprenant et assez beau d'un point de vue sombre. J'ai vraiment apprécié la simultanéité bizarre, presque maladroite, des fragments de l'histoire, cachée derrière un étrange mécanisme de sécurité. La vue triptyque fonctionne très bien. A la fois sombre et merveilleux! Je pourrais voir ce même format être utilisé pour toutes sortes d’expériences intéressantes à plusieurs volets.

This is really crazy! I love the wild neologisms, the very beautiful and fractured image window with trippy animations, the mutant writing, and the weird touches like the randomized palette chooser. This is an inspiring way to combine visuals and story,

Pro tip for this issue: skip to the playlist, get it running, start dissociating hard to the post-punk psychodrama it has in store for you, then flip back to the anatomy of the poison god and start choosing your way in a non-linear fashion through the various anatomical samples. I guarantee you will “pass” whatever exam you think you are studying for, with all this! THANK YOU SHEM for kicking us while we are down at the end of another year! A gibbering jolly jaunt ov a holiday special!

The Anatomy of a Poison God bears comparison to other analytico-theological outlays. I think you will find it is superior in many ways. Foremost being the HANDY NUMBERED SCHEMA which is generally lacking in such texts—for example, The Bible—which contains ad nausea descriptions of the Temple of Blah, and no pictures! Whereas Prophet-at-Large Shelley gives us a perfectly comprehensible illustration. Second thing to note is the INTEREST inherent in the poison deity itself. Theologically speaking we can immediately factionalize into believing it is a poisoner (see the serpentine POISON GLAND) and then debate further as acolytes the degree to which we ourselves ought to imbibe poison in praise of it, when, how much, etc. We can fight endlessly about first poison communions, poison late stage baptisms, and so on. Or whether this thing is not actually a poisoner at all, but POISONED, a martyr, a kind of spiritual food tester, who hath through its own “BLOODY BANQUET” eaten up our sins. The possibilities for spiraling are endless. What a cheerful affliction we’ve been granted by Shem!

And then, having our stomachs churned, we turn towards our AURAL CAVITIES, blessed by our very fine end of year UTOPIA playlist. You’ll find everything from apocalyptic post-punk to cyberhorror video game music. Perfect for clearing out rooms at end of year celebrations, or wringing one’s hands in shame at the death of the sun. I feel richer already!

ROMONDE’s epic continues here too. Perhaps this is the festive edition, speaking of borealises and white viruses and such? I imagine maybe a few of those “Remnants of the Faith” have thoughts on the poison god diagram above. If you’ve ever seen the Charlie Brown Christmas, you could imagine the speech given by Linus on the true meaning of Christmas is muted and swapped out by ROMONDE’s rant. Try it at home!

And finally we are given a bit of TRIVIA on another much beloved holiday special/tradition. Much like the Charlie Brown Xmas spawned backlash against metallic trees, the Black Crystal Mass screenplay starts its own holiday “trend” which we are still paying for, 7 years before it even happened. As usual, SHEM EXPLAINS EVERYTHING.

yeap this is how it is!!

How perfectly nightmarish! Sparse, tense, and tricky...

Very happy to hear that! “Twisted” is one of my favourite adjectives!

Yea Decker has this weird magical quality to it that brings out the “fun in everyone”, I think…

These look amazing!

Many thanks!

This felt like the memory of a 3rd grade school activity book warped by the chaotic forces of subjective hauntological entropy.

This was exquisite! It made me think of Kathe Koja's novel Skin...

WHOA!! Now You're P(h)laying with P(h)ower!

Incredible. Decker Maxxed.

Amazing! I bet the page flip transits are going to be popular with the zine crowd!

Verily ‘tis a romaunce of exceedinge highe vertue! And do greatly appercieve therejne, bothe fauncy of  imaginacioun unpareilled,  and stronge allegorie of hidden lore! Of worlbuildynge and allegorye eache in chaine.

Modern translation: Not only does it look fantastic, oozing with atmosphere, but also gets the structure just right. I love the idea of a piece of FRUIT somehow acting like this Grail item, it feels so plausible and yet weird at the same time. 

Also I am total sucker for in-character themed disclaimers. Amazing work!

This looks incredible, the developers even channeled Henri Rousseau for the snake charmer enemy. A lot going on here!

I just leave the game running on the COSTCO level because I love the BGM so much

Thank you! I can’t help but think we’ve all met a few already…

We must ask again to what exogenous potent the pseudofigure of Shem Shelley has access, such that it can pull so many multifarious nightmares together in a single feuilleton? This issue has an astounding opener, a classic bit of sequential romance, slathered in bitrot and oozing “just desserts”. What a fable for our times! Shem is a fan of coloured entities and their foibles (see Tux and Fanny) and this little graphical substance adventure falls into the same disquieting mode, covering themes of romance, nutrition, and escape. We hope to see more!

Meanwhile Romonde does anything but keep us grounded with a meta-nauto-physical adventure aboard the DICTATOR SHIP. Overall a very VERNEAN sequence, complete with Professorial authority and canine dispositions. Magnificent.

The track promoted by VIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN might just be the final tour of Syd Barrett reincarnated as a trash compactor with a NES going through it. Strangely listenable, enjoyable even, this digestive adventure. FLAMES IN THE MORGUE is a dark way to end a dark issue, evoking equal parts folk horror in the page design with a micro-apocalyptic SF paragrapheme. KEEP AWAY!

that’s the “good” ending

right!??

Thank you! Yea as soon as I started to think up actual mechanics I got bored so decided to cheat and let the ambiguity speak for itself

As for p11 error that was unintentional but now that you've canonized it I am leaving it in!!

I heard there's an "infinite pants eggs" code

I have also found this seems to happen on view with the dialogizer. I will be interested to see if there is a way around it! The post you linked to seems to suggest to do it any other way than on view, like incorporating it into the “on click do” of the previous card instead…