ZARDOZ
A novelization as weird as just about any you’ll read, and no wonder: the film it novelizes, the 1974 science fiction oddity ZARDOZ, is one of the absolute nuttiest releases of its decade
AFFAIRS OF A CARDIOVASCULAR NATURE
A collection about which the cliché “expect the unexpected” fits quite well
THE LEATHER NUN AND OTHER INCREDIBLY STRANGE COMICS
Odd and obscure (though not quite “incredibly strange”) comics
HEAD-TO-TOE PORTRAIT OF SUZANNE
An unspeakably demented concoction that could only have been dreamed up by France’s late Roland Topor
TV Flashback: TÉLÉCHAT
A show that spoofed TV newscasts via a surreal universe of animal newsreaders and sentient objects, warping an entire generation of French youngsters
TOPOR AND ME
The only film ever directed by the Dutch actress/artist Sylvia Kristel, and a skilled enough piece of work to make one regret that she didn’t helm anything else
THE BURNING BUDDHA MAN
Cut-out animation, H.R. Giger-esque grotesquerie and Buddhism—an irresistible combination, I say
VIOLENCE VOYAGER
The second feature by Japan’s Ujicha, following the mind-roasting BURNING BUDDHA MAN
MAGIC MIRROR
A worthy, if frustratingly little known, addition to the underground comics scene
A PRAYER FOR HETMAN MAZEPA
With the conflict between Russia and the Ukraine exploding, I say it’s an opportune time to revisit this 2002 feature, which offers a most unorthodox treatment of the skirmish