Kickass Trailer: "Rare Exports"

From the Rare Exports official Web site:

A film for those who think they don't believe in Santa Claus anymore

In the depths of the Korvatunturi mountains, 486 metres deep, lies the closest ever guarded secret of Christmas. The time has come to dig it up!

This Christmas everyone will believe in Santa Claus.

Based on award winning shorts of director Jalmari Helander that have already acquired a cult reputation in the internet.

The Unexpected Horror: The Road by Cormac McCarthy

The Road by Cormac McCarthy is a bleak, harrowing story of a nameless father and son struggling to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. Though darker than Stephen King's The Stand and Richard Matheson's I Am Legend combined, you'll never find The Road, winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, categorized in the horror section at bookstores.

Like King's and Matheson's works, McCarthy creates a desolate landscape of destruction where there are "nights dark beyond darkness and the days more gray each one than that had gone before. Like the onset of some cold glaucoma dimming away the world." However, unlike King and Matheson, McCarthy offers no glimmer of hope and no explanation for the destruction. The world is reduced to a blackened ash, and it will never recover.

Unlike traditional post-apocalyptic horror stories, The Road has no supernatural elements. There are no zombies, no vampires. Just regular people. Regular people who have turned savage and cannibalistic, killing, raping, and eating any survivor in their path. Though these people are only seen in fleeting passages, the father and son are in constant fear of their presence. As the father and son journey south in search of a warmer climate, they stumble upon signs of the cannibals, including, "a charred human infant headless and gutted and blackening on the spit."

The father and son are surrounded by despair. Conversations between the father and son are shown in quick bursts in between the blackened imagery of the landscape. "I wish I was with my mom," the son says. "You mean you wish that you were dead," the father replies. Throughout the course of the story there is an overwhelming sense of dread. The father is trying to remain strong for the sake of his son, but deep down, he knows there is no hope.

McCarthy's writing style is sparse and intense. The characters are constantly threatened by other survivors, harsh climate, and the lack of food, and as a reader, you will feel the threat, too. Each door opened may lead to a world of devestating horror, and your heart will pound every time the father "takes a look." Though the situation may be hopeless for the father and son, The Road is still worth the journey.

The Road written by Cormac McCarthy
Vintage International, 2006
287 pages

Kickass Trailers: "Live Freaky! Die Freaky!"

Kickass Trailers: "Cold Fish"

 

Inspired by true events, Cold Fish depicts a troubled family whose lives are changed when they meet the fate of a serial killer. 

Now Accepting Short Comics!!

Short Comic Submission Guidelines
All comics must be ready to print. We cannot accept scripts, sketches, or proposals. Comics must tell a complete story. Though there is no specific length, ideally, we are looking for comics 15 pages or less. Please email all comics as a JPG file. Comics must be clear and readable in a digital format.

To get a taste of what we publish, visit our Web site.

"We should become prosperous by working hard and then donate generously." ~Atharva Veda

It's not too late to contribute to Tainted Tea like the folks below. To keep the magazine going, contact Shane & Kris at: taintedtea.editors@gmail.com

You can also do your part by purchasing your copy of the zine here. All the money goes to making the zine even better and eventually paying our contributors.

Illustrations in Fall 2010

From "...When the Devil Drives" by Zach Black. Photo by Kris Fossett

Zach Black's "...When the Devil Drives" tells the story of Doug, who stumbles upon more than he bargained for when he decides to walk along the train tracks late at night.

From "A Halloween Treat" by Harold Kempka. Illustration by Kris Fossett

Harold Kempka's "A Halloween Treat" is the story of Billy, who learns the hard way why no one ever knocks on old Mrs. Stout's house on Halloween.

To read these stories and more, download Tainted Tea Fall 2010 from Lulu. Click on the button below.