Entropic State Report 15th February 2025

Bradford remains chiily and wet this February but all the more reason to muse upon interesting readings and rustle up more stupid names for ships for my Let’s Play Fucking D&D game (latest, Dish of Ploons).

I’ve also just managed to get another episode largely in the can as my mate John came back to look at another Trevor Hoyle B7 novelisation. One of the wonderful things about podcasting, other than yakking with like minds about how amazing Avon is, is the odd things that crop up.

On this occasion, Big Ron Tarr.

RIP Big Ron.

Also awaiting editing, our first look at Luther Arkwright in the company of Tom Murphy and Bryan Talbot himself. We had a lovely conversation with Bryan last week about Arkwright, his work on Nemesis the Warlock and more, and it looks like it will be just the first of two or maybe even three appearances for the legendary author and artist over the coming year as we continue the journey through his work, including the further Luther stories but also Alice in Sunderland and Grandville. What a brilliant bloke.

We have a few other things lined up too of course, with Andy Derby returning to look at another of Mike’s 60s SF offerings, more Runestaff with Dave, the debut of some Jack Vance action on the podcast along with an all-new co-host and, for the first time, an Easter Special?!

No prizes for guessing what that is likely to be… But it’s probably high time we got to it.

And that’s before we’ve even had the chance to plan in a long requested bit of Zelazny (it’s coming Steve) and a look at the greatest Rock film ever made (and its novelisation).

I also heard from Ralph Lovegrove a day or two ago, and he’s revising his StormHack rules so we may have a chat about them at some point soon too. Those of you who’ve been around for the long haul will remember Ralph from an early RPG episode back in 2021.

If you missed it, I also appeared that year on Ralph’s Fictoplasm podcast talking about Roadside Picnic. Fictoplasm has been on a hiatus for a while but I hope it comes back soon.

I wish there were more hours in the day, there are so many more things I’d like to look at. That said, it looks like there may be redundancies on the horizon in the day job, so… who knows… I might have some time on my hands to do more fun things for a while?

Whilst being catapluted out of work again would be a pain in the arse on many levels, it’s not like I didn’t enjoy a few months watching Judge Judy in my pants last time round, so I’ll always look at the positives.

Besides, I need to finish The Journal of Gerard Arthur Connelly vol 3 and maybe even write vol 4. I’ve also have some other things gestating with Ian aka @biomassart for fucking yonks and it would be really nice to follow through.

Plus, AMBER, ROOFTOPCON, THE MOTE IN GOD’S EYE, VERMILLION SANDS, VOYAGE TO ARCTURUS, NEW WORLDS, JOHN BRUNNER, SHITLOADS MORE MOORCOCK…

Uuuuuurgh…

We’ll see.

Entropic State Report 7th January 2025

Welcome friends… to 2025!

The festive period here at Derry & Toms (Bradford branch) has been a funny one, punctuated by hospital visits to the awd fella, lifted in the middle by a boozy visit from Loz (see Episode 101), and then run down to a gooey conclusion by a heroic dose of lurgy that Phil and I are still trying to shake off. But that has given us ample opportunities to sit in a heap and catch up on some movies, not least of which was The Keep. I first came across this oddity in the mid-80s as a video rental and was instantly captivated by its unique style and atmosphere. I read the novel a few years later and was largely disappointed by it, but have come to appreciate it on its own terms on subsequent re-reads over the years (in fact I’m just in the middle of it once again).

The film has remained a staple part of my top 10 all time loves though, so imagine how delighted I was that, despite never even having had a blu ray release and not even adecent DVD release outside of Australia, it got released in a gorgeous 4k UHD format by Vinegar Syndrome last month.

Bonzer!

It’s probably inevitable now that we will cover it at some point in 2025 because it fits right into that 80s sweet spot where the core of my love of genre fiction was formed.

I’ve also had the chance to take a look at some of the groovy presents I got and in terms of podcast fodder, this brace sits atop the pile:

My old bud Yarky knows what makes me tick, and both of these items tie nicely into a conversation I had a while back with Dave about potentially looking at a bit more Conan but, rather than covering more RE Howard, taking a look at some of the inferior but still of value L Sprague de Camp stories including the novelisation of the John Milius film. That Sphere edition of Conan the Freebooter is a nice replacement for the one I got from Pops back in the day, now long lost to time and incident.

And the Subotai figure is fucking cool too.

These are ideas for the coming year, but what do we have in store in terms of firm itinerary?

First up for 2025 will be the conclusion of some 2024 activity as we conclude our Doctor Who reportage with The Coming of the Terraphiles Part Three.

We’ll be headed back to the Tragic Millennium to pick up the efforts of Hawkmoon and D’Averc to finally defeat the evil empire of Granbretan…

After a couple of years mulling it over, we’re going Moorcock adjacent with the adventures of Luther Arkwright…

And then we’re going back to the 60s MM SF well with The Shores of Death…

And that’s just for starters.

So stay safe, keep warm and continue to tune in pards!

Entropic State Report 22nd October 2024

Halloween is rampaging towards us and, following some technical issues, we managed to get our Halloween Special recorded and in the can…

SABAT!

And Holy shit. It was not what I expected, but I’ll keep my powder dry on that one. Thoughts of Phil, Graham and me coming up in a couple of weeks.

Meanwhile though, I had a great time discussing The House in the Borderland with Allister – a book I’ve loved for a long time and one that is indelibly marked by my memories of Pops and some of those conversations we shared after my Nan passed away and I spent long evenings with him and his recollections of all sorts of things, some whimsical and light, others drenched in the grief, loss and trauma that a widower of his age and generation had inevitably suffered due to his place in time.

Also, and this was a last minute addition to the slate, it was great to welcome Loz back to the Derry & Toms kitchen to drink daft booze, eat haggis and talk about another horror novel that’s failed to make the grade in the patron polls this past couple of years… Slimer!

I’m not sure horror is Loz’s bag, but we had fun either way. When you listen to that one be sure to stick with it to the end because we did watch Proteus, but I put that bit of chat after the end music for some reason. I was going to leave it out, because we were a bit battered by the time we recorded that segment (and you can tell) but I thought “bah whatevs” and just bunged it on the end.

In other news, a package arrived at D&Ts today… a mysterious package c/o Dan Charnley AKA Dan’s Monsters…

Some ghost stories, a couple of westerns including an Edge volume (always meant to check one out), a bit of Survivalist action and… THAT BEAUTY PICTURED ABOVE!

Many thanks for that Dan, it now has pride of place alongside my signed Ebola Hunter photo from Wakaliwood.

It just occurred to me earlier that by the time our Sabat episode goes out on Halloween, we’ll have knocked out five episodes this month. Probably our busiest-ever period, but none of it Moorcock-related (other than talking generally about Bastable with Robert). Therefore, in November, we’ll be going back to the well and picking up some of our dangling threads with a return to Corum, the finale of The Coming of the Terraphiles and possibly some other bits and bobs, and then it will be December!

And that means another birthday episode that might… just might, by some coincidence… end up being episode 100.

Yes, our centenary approaches.

I wonder if we can crowbar in something special for that? Well, mayhap we can and mayhap we can’t…. we’ll just have to see. I’m nothing if not disorganised and terrible at planning, so it might just finally be part two of Phoenix in Obsidian or something.

Finally for today, if you don’t subscribe to Jim Kirkland’s Dreaming City Books newsletter, Pursuit of the Pale Prince, you absolutely should. There are some great updates in this latest instalment, one of which I referred to in the Slimer episode, but there’s more to see too, including details of a new Monsieur Zenith trilogy, the Bob Haberfield art shop and more.

Take care all, and see you in a week or so for Sabat (uuurgh… Sabat).

Entropic State Report 29th June 2024

It’s time for us to decamp to the coast for our jollies again. Not Morecambe this time though, no. We’re headed to the far side of Morecambe Bay to Grange-over-Sands, a bonny place with an incredibly picturesque railways station, some nice boozers and (most importantly perhaps) a used book shop with a pretty cracking fantasy and scifi section.

Or at least it did have last time we were there.

We’ll pass through Carnforth so it may be inevitable that we end up in their incredible three floor book shop along the way, even though I’m yet to even scratch the surface of my last Carnforth haul. On that occasion, from memory, it was a mixture of M John Harrisons, John Brunners, and a 70s book about UFOs in Bedminster or somewhere.

In fact it was a brace of nice Brunner hardcovers that I picked up in Carnforth last time too. Scandalous then that I still haven’t read any of them (despite my doomed efforts to read The Sheep Look Up for a podcast with Joe Banks that never got off the launchpad thanks to the appalling typeface/set/quality of print of whatever you call it).

I’m excited to see what this trip has in store for us. Our most recent forays in this direction have yielded a lot… and I mean A LOT… of Dumarest books so I’m going to impose a moratorium on those for now as I haven’t got to any of those either.

I need to retire damn it.

As you’ll see from the pic above, we’ve already kicked off our week with a hearty and mildly boozy lunch (start as you mean to go on I say) and we’re having a siesta to catch up on some reading.

I’m travelling light on the book front with Phoenix in Obsidian, because we will do Part Two damn it, and a couple of other likely candidates for a follow-up of sorts to the Snowcastles episode with Clarky. We’ll call it Barbarian Bingo or something.

Naturally, this will all hinge on whether I get distracted by any pick-ups in Carnforth or Grange-over-Sands. Best laid plans and all that.

Meanwhile, Part Two of The Coming of the Terraphiles (thanks Miles) is in the can and I’ll get that out in a couple of weeks when we’re back home (there may/will definitely be a part three). We have a couple of other things pencilled in for July and August, including a new RPG-related episode in which I grill Steve Round and his players about their epic Stormbringer campaign, what their ‘dance’ and ‘balance’ stats are and how many two-man canoes they managed to hoard by the end. Steve has also prepped them ahead of time with knowledge so foul, so vaguely unsettling, so gnarly on the wallet… Yes… It will involve the D6 wandering beer table.

Prepare your demon-bound flagons of stupid beer tolerance!!!

Amazing really that we’re half way through the year already. 86 episodes down in fact, so it’s looking like our centenary might even neatly coincide with this year’s Birthday episode.

I have a plan for that. Just need to shape it up a bit…

More on that later though! Halloween first and we’re going to try for a three-fer again with William Hope Hodgson definitely on the cards with Allister, a bit of eco-horror with Graham and an all new poll for some kind of blood-curling book/film combo for the 31st October.

I’m still quite fond of the idea of doing Nick Sharman’s The Cats with the movie CATS. You must decide though.

Right. I’m off to eat a two pack of snack biscuits from our hotel tea tray before working up an appetite for a good dinner and some Barolo.

Take care pards…

Entropic State Report 16th June 2024

Greetings pards,

I hope you’re playing a good hand at the tables this fine day.

A few years ago when I recorded the episode on Letters From Hollywood with Dirk, we raised a glass to departed friends. One was my old mate Magic Paul who I’d lost contact with some time in the early 2000s. When I learned that he’d passed away I spread the word amongst all my old muckers and none of us had seen him for years. It’s such a shame we do this as we get older. Drifting apart, moving towns, changing interests etc.

Anyway.

This morning one of those muckers sent me a couple of pics he found whilst having a clear out. Back in those days a few of us shared a house down De la Pole Ave in Hull, scene of many a debauched evening and subject of many fondly recalled anecdotes about being a smashed 20-something year-old in the early 90s. Heady days.

Paul was a huge Trek fan, even having his own Wrath of Khan era starfleet uniform (which was a much rarer thing in those days as cosplay was way more niche than it is today). He spent an age trying to convince a few of us, including Loz, to play the FASA Star Trek RPG. When we finally did, I was so mashed I fell asleep an hour in and missed most of it but Loz and Neil (AKA Noel Clippingstalk) sat through it and later vowed never to play it, or allow Paul to GM for them, ever again. They weren’t Trek fans and the meticulous approach from our Games Master and adherence to Trek aesthetics was just too dry for them I suspect.

Paul was a character. He was a classic old school geek with a vast RPG collection (I still wonder what happened to all of his Morrow Project and Aftermath stuff when he passed away as his parents were both long since gone and he had no siblings), and a passion for wargaming, napoleonic history, folk music, Samson tobacco and Rich Tea biscuits. He also had a ridiculous collection of 60s and 70s SF and Fantasy paperbacks and I’m pretty sure, had he still been around today, his to-read pile would probably dwarf any of ours.

I first met him when he trained to be a psychiatric nurse in the same school as myself and Robbo (see Wheels of Terror Part One – Part Two WILL arrive some day). He never completed the training for one reason or another but we stayed friends for a number of years afterwards. He was an acquired taste for some, but to me he was kind, generous, quick to laugh and an all-round good bloke. If a bit nicotine stained round the edges. What’s more, had we still been in touch he would have been a marvellous presence in a podcast like this because his knowledge of all the gubbins we gas about was deep. And I like doing this podcast with old friends like Robbo, Loz and Tash as well as making new ones along the way.

I regret losing touch with him.

He wasn’t particularly into technology and had no social media presence that I was ever aware of so I dedicate this report, and this tiny section of the Internet, to him.

Entropic State Report 24th January 2024

How is January 2024 almost up already???

That’s a rhetorical question really as I’ve long since come to the realisation that as we gradually return to our natural state of sludge and atoms time just speeds up at a frankly ridiculous rate. It’s a shame too as (as ever) all I want to do is produce more episodes and talk to more people about the things I’m into. Only this morning in fact, I clocked the book cover above (another marvellous 70s thriller photo cover) on social media and immediately regretted not having the time to dip into the copious shelves/piles of similarly adorned paperbacks and run a side podcast diving into the world of Panther Crime novels, the wild array of Pan and Mayflower wonders, and further into NEL pulp exploitation books (which we have of course touched on with Andrew Nette). I’m sure Andrew would agree that there is probably an entire podcast just covering photo covers featuring women with guns (photo c/o his twitter feed).

But… no time…

So I’ll be sticking with the main roster of content for BITR, the next of which will be Moorcock/Butterworth/Hawkwind cross-over/mash-up The Time of the Hawklords in the company of Hawkwind: Days of the Underground author Joe Banks, returning to Derry & Toms for the third time. That will be out in a few days.

Over the coming weeks, we have some other things in the pipeline in the form of:

a bit of Sheckley from Pops’s shelves that’s been on my mind for over 30 years w/Derek AKA Imrryr
the return of Andrew Nette to talk about Quatermass (for reasons that will become apparent)
Part two of The Pheonix in Obsidian w/ Phil
a long overdue second look at Conan in some shape or form with Dave AKA SÖNUS
MM’s obscure political chapbook w/ a variety of guests (possibly in multiple parts)
Luther Arkwright w/ Tom Murphy
Oswald Bastable (finally) with Robert MacMillan
The Land That Time Forgot (in its various forms) with Allister Thompson AKA The Gateless Gate (and we’ll probably talk about The War of the Worlds again at some point)

…and some other stuff I’ve talked about with various interlocuters that we just haven’t managed to get in the diary yet including Loz, Hussein, Tash and Miles. The latter is something Miles and I have been mulling over for a while related to the perils of writing spin-offs for established IPs. MM has form for this of course… more on that when we decide how to tackle it.

Meanwhile, Andy Darby pinged me a link to a decent article on Esquire titled The Death of the Multiverse, ostensibly an observation on why ‘multiverse stories’ are getting tiring and a little bit passé for mainstream audiences thanks to Marvel and co but it delves deep into the philosophical dimensions of that type of storytelling and MM gets some coverage too. Well worth a read, particularly the bit about the actual origins of the term ‘multiverse’.

Now, I must take my leave to eat crisps, listen to the howling gales and hope our wheely bins are still local.

For now I’ll sign off with another Pulpcurry special, so wherever you are pards… take care, stay safe and be SUPER.

Entropic State Report 15th November 2023

These past few days we took in our just about annual Thought Bubble weekend so we’ve been in Harrogate spending far too much money on comics, art, games and zines. It was a good time to do it too as it was a perfect distraction from the news.

There have been a number of times over the years when I’ve taken to shutting myself off from the news and social media for various reasons, but this past weekend was a perfect example of the insidious madness surrounding us at the moment. Twitter was a conflagration of flame wars consisting of competing videos of red-faced nazi dick heads in Victoria station harassing people of colour vs videos of women in McDonalds shouting ‘death to all Jews’. Meanwhile, a still of a right-wing counter-protest showed Israel flags being held high amongst ranks of bald pillocks throwing nazi salutes. When irony is this dead surely it’s the end times on fast forward.

I’d have gone and bought some napalm, but it was Sunday.

All the shops were shut.

In these circumstances, we could only power on and drink Black Tower spritzers (a proper end-of-world beverage if I’ve ever found one).

Thought Bubble was a fun time as ever and it gave Phil and me the opportunity to meet patron Tom Murphy and his wife Jane, co-runners of Colossive Press, in person. Tom and Jane print a number of wonderful zines and books, some very moving and personal. I was delighted to grab some of those, including a trio of collections of photographs by Jane’s late Dad Gordon, Fractures, Book One by Aaron Wolfgang, Ghost Stories I Remember by Patrick Wray (including a little hand-drawn sketch by Patrick) plus their latest release A Trial Death and Other Stories by Glenn Dakin. To cap it all off I got them all in a Croydon Spaceport tote bag!

It was lovely to meet you both Tom.

Fast forward a bit, it’s now Wednesday, we’ve just about recovered from our extended Black Tower Bender (although other beverages were consumed) and the news cycle has moved on. I won’t bang on about the current state of the UK’s zombie government other than to say it has now begun to eat its own tail in desperation. Truly we are living in a Realm of Chaos.

AND ON THAT LAZY SEGWAY…

I’ll be getting on to editing the latest show tonight, which will be out over the next day or two, and this was a fairly short notice affair consisting of a quick back and forth over the voxcaster with none other than Karl Willets, beer lover and legendary vocalist and front man of Bolt Thrower and Memoriam. This was pretty groovy for me as Bolt Thrower and their more short-lived contemporaries Sabbat were, to my ears, the saviours of British metal at the time they broke out. The Immaterium did present some comms challenges but I’ll be working through those this evening.

The rest of the itinerary remains semi-stable for the moment but of course, we’re heading into that busiest time of year in people’s calendars. Nevertheless, we have Corum, politics, Hawklords, Black Swords, very British Armageddons, birthdays and more to come.

Take care out there.

Entropic State Report 12th October 2023

Dear friends,

It’s a rare sunny day here in Bradford after a week of relentless rain and overcast. It feels decidedly autumnal in that crisp, golden-hued fashion.

It’s been a busy week too with some brisk activity in Derry & Toms, although you may not know it as it’s been three and a half weeks since our Letters From Hollywood episode. That’s largely down to external events and me fudging up a recording and having to do some head-scratching regarding ways of rescuing the audio.

And then, after figuring out what to do, realising that it took just ten minutes to correct.

If you know… you know… and if you don’t… you spend many hours thrashing around in the mire.

But at least I know now. I just hope I don’t forget by the time it happens again. Which I probably will.

Anyway, this just means we’ll have a bumper second half of October with three episodes landing between now and Halloween!

In the next day or two… The Phoenix in Obsidian AKA The Silver Warriors (Part One)

Then… CRABS ON THE RAMPAGE

And finally, as selected by the patrons… DOMAIN

As well as getting some podcasts recorded, we’ve had a lovely month in terms of support with new patrons arriving on the Donblas from as far afield as Lithuania, Australia, Finland and Israel.

And our new Patron Demon from Lithuania, Marius, sent me some truly marvellous images of Lithuanian Corum editions.- The Knight of the Swords (translated as Kalavijų Rikis) and the remaining Swords trilogy entries collected as Kalavijų Valdovai (Sword Rulers).

Even better, as well as these striking covers they feature some rather gorgeous internal B&W art…

Thanks for sending those over Marius (and also thanks to Jason Atomic over on Instagram who by some strange coincidence sent some of these the same week).

In other news, Chris AKA Dirk the Dice appeared on our Letters From Hollywood episode and in the outro I mentioned that he had a very special guest lined up for his next instalment of The Grognard Files. That show is now live and it features none other than Mike himself and, as you would expect from that podcast and Chris as a first-rate host and interviewer, it’s excellent. Check it out.

That’s all for now, I’m back to topping and tailing our new episode.

Take care and stay safe pards.

Entropic State Report 25th August 2023

A quick update this time whilst I’m waiting for some processing to complete on the latest pod (and listening to the newly remastered Hawkwind platter, Sonic Attack on the trusty Sound Burger as I type).

In the Patron Poll for the subject of our Halloween Special it looks like James Herbert’s Domain has an unassailable lead, leaving me kicking myself as it’s about twice the length of all the others. It is a page-turner though and last year we introduced a new sort of precedent when, following The Fog’s triumph in the poll, we did The Devils of D-Day anyway. So currently The Cats by Nick Sharman is in final place so maybe we’ll do that later in the year. It looks mercifully short. Probably a one-shit book in fact.

Either way, I’ll leave the poll up for another week or so, should there be any late gambits that drastically alter the field.

On the skinny book front, I’ve had another suggestion fly in from left of field and a one-shit book suggestion at that…

Snowcastles by Duncan McGeary. It looks gloriously rubbish. Therefore it has made the to-do list. Which is growing longer by the week.

Right, processing is complete. Back to editing. There was a time when a monthly episode was the norm but this year we’ve had a more productive spell, reaching close to two per month at times. I don’t want to let that slip too much so I intend to have this latest show out in the next day or four. Furthermore, despite recent developments in the realms of real life (and thanks for the lovely messages on that front by the way, they were highly appreciated), this is a passion project that is going to continue until I stop enjoying it. Or you do. Or both.

Take care Pards.

Entropic State Report 14th July 2023

It’s a week since we returned from our latest trip to our by now practically second home Morecambe, that curious blend of urban decay and mellow repose.

As usual, we returned home burdened with bellies full of booze and tucker and several bags of second-hand books from The Old Pier Book Shop, the market book stall and the Carnforth Book Shop up the road in… well… in Carnforth.

And what a haul we bagged!

From the Old Pier we came away with another Graham Masterton, a potential one-shit book and a whole raft of Edgar Rice Burroughs…

..including these three Frank Frazetta illustrated hardcover doubles…

…ugh… marvellous. Black and white Frazetta art inside too.

There is, of course, a consequence to this. Now I have to find the other three volumes to complete the set.

Meanwhile, over at the market, I plugged a few gaps in the Survivalist series I started collecting a year or two ago.

I finally started reading the first of these a few days ago. It’s entertaining. Pulp trash for sure but I can’t stop reading. For a series so fixated on WW3 it’s also pretty ill-informed about a few things, but the author Jerry Ahern certainly does love his guns. In fact, he’s an out-and-out gun nerd, which just makes them all the funnier when, after describing in intricate detail the hero’s handguns right down to the grip, he shows amazing ignorance of other details (best example so far is a couple of nuclear submarines under an ice cap torpedoing each other and causing a 72 (SEVENTY-TWO) megaton explosion. It’s refreshingly short on racist tropes so far and, as it reads like the creative writing of a 13-year-old growing up in the 80s, it’s all very charming so far.

Over at Carnforth we picked up a lovely little trio of Sphere Conans. The Sphere editions were my introduction to Two-Gun Bob’s creation so I have a soft spot for them even though they are the de Camp and Carter adulterated texts or, in these cases, entirely new stories. Inferr yes, but nevertheless part of my Conan head-canon thanks to Pops.

As well as the Conans, a trio of M John Harrisons (which reminds me we need to cover The Pastel City at some point)…

Just look at that Centauri Device cover. So dynamic.

The Carnforth Book Shop, whilst perhaps not quite as extensive with SF and fantasy as The Old Pier, is an absolute trove thanks largely to its being much better organised.

I could have come away with a lot more but with the steely resolve of Conan himself (or being too lazy to carry any more as we were on the bus) I limited myself to just another four, including a John Brunner, a Thomas M Disch, a bloody lovely Dunsany and a tatty old British UFO exposé.

Just need time to read them all now. Which I’ll never get. But fuck it, finding these beauties is all part of the fun and I’ll retire one day…

one day…

…

Anyway. I’m on with editing the latest episode after finishing this report – The Sword of the Dawn Book Two with Dave -and it’s a tricky bugger thanks to some bizarre audio issues where we went out of sync during recording and ended up like an old trans-Atlantic interview complete with time delays in hearing each other. I’ll conquer it though.

And last night Graham and I jumped into D&Ts to discuss our latest Uncosy Catastrophe with The Fungus so that will be emerging in a couple of weeks too.

That’s it for now though, I’d better drink coffee and crack on wrestling with audio files.

Take care, stay safe and we will of course bump into each other again soon… on the moonbeam roads.