Lucas Mangum

The Juggalo Noir of Kelby Losack and J. David Osborne

My first memory of the Insane Clown Posse is watching the commercial for their album The Great Milenko between segments of WWF (now WWE) Monday Night Raw. It might have been the one linked below, but I’m honestly not sure. I liked the grimy horror imagery but never bought the album. I had friends at school play me songs on their portable CD players, and they sounded like things I wasn’t supposed…

Hey everyone. I’m Lucas Mangum, a two-time Splatterpunk Award nominee and author of a dozen or so books. I’ve been a somewhat inconsistent blogger over the last decade. Part of the reason for that inconsistency is a lack of focus, meaning that I blogged about anything and everything that interested me and quickly burned out. My longest daily streak was something like six months. I will not be…

Class of Nuke ‘Em High 3 and Halloween Kills

I keep forgetting to post here when a new episode of Make Your Own Damn Podcast goes live, but we have new episodes every week. Right now, we’re going through the Class of Nuke ‘Em High franchise. This week, we looked at the third entry. Then, we pivot to talk about our favorite horror movie franchises. You can download the full episode here, or listen to it wherever you get your podcasts. Here…

Book Announcement: Rusted Blood: Digital Darkness, Book 1

A while back, I announced I’d signed a six book deal with Raven Tale Publishing for a new series of haunted tech/weird Internet horror stories. Rusted Blood is the first in that series. Check out the blurb, and see if it’s something you’ll dig. CUBE meets RATS: A NIGHT OF TERROR in this survival horror thriller. Six people wake to find themselves in a disused ice cream parlor in the middle of…

Awesome tapestry by Pallbearer Press I had a great time last week chatting with Jeff Burk about the 1990 classic FRANKENHOOKER. Like KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE and POULTRYGEIST, it’s a great example of a film with a ridiculous concept that its creator fully embraces and takes as far as possible. It’s also one of my absolute favorite movies. You can hear our conversation on the latest…

WTF Am I Doing?

Sometimes a tarot reading is extremely straightforward. The dude on the leftmost card even looks like me. Also, the number on the third card is the sum of the numbers on the first two. Fascinating stuff! I asked the cards, “WTF am I doing?” So, how did it answer? This is an easy one. Much of this year has seen me paring down my social circle, cutting away frivolous interests, and abandoning…

Last week, I wrote about the discussion Jeff and I had about BLOODSUCKING FREAKS for our show MAKE YOUR OWN DAMN PODCAST. Now, you can hear the full two-and-a-half hour conversation wherever you get your podcasts, or you can download the episode right here. Made in 1976 by people mostly associated with the porn industry, BLOODSUCKING FREAKS is quite possibly the most notorious Troma movie ever,…

New Book Deal and Bloodsucking Freaks

I am so excited to announce that I’ve joined the roster of amazing authors at Raven Tale Publishing for a whopping SIX BOOKS of Internet/tech horror. Think BLACK MIRROR meets AMERICAN HORROR STORY. I won’t say much else for now, but if you’re thinking this sounds like I’ll be exploring themes introduced in GODS OF THE DARK WEB, you would be correct. However, these are not SEQUELS to that book.…

I spent last weekend virtually attending Killer Con 2021. For the uninitiated, Killer Con is a convention for professionals in the splatterpunk and extreme horror subgenres. The con ended on Sunday afternoon. It’s Wednesday morning now, and I’m still wiped. It was a great time, though. Killer Con has an energy to it rivaled by no other con I’ve attended. I may be a little biased. I’m on the…

Lucas Mangum, myself, and Encyclopocalyse Publications are proud to present THE FINAL GATE, a fiction tribute and loving homage to the films of Lucio Fulci! Also Includes a wonderful introduction by Ryan Harding. Coming August 3rd 2021 in paperback, e-book, and audiobook. Pre-order the e-book here. Paperback will be available on the day of release. BACK […]Book Announcement: THE FINAL GATE

American Garbage: The Meager Rise and Massive Fall of a No-Name Rock Band

All authors have books they want to write. I want to write more Gods of the Dark Web books. I’d also like to try my hand at some dystopian science fiction. Maybe even some sword and sorcery. The universe behind the Gods books has an infinite amount of untapped potential. Dystopian science fiction is a genre I grew up loving. Sword and sorcery is just fucking cool. But beyond the stories we want…

Note from Underground 5/4

Yesterday, I found a pic of my oldest and me. I won’t post it here because I want to respect my kid’s privacy, but it got me thinking about shit. It was taken exactly three years ago, less than a month before I checked myself into the psych ward. You can see how worn down I am in it. The suicide prevention shirt, the tired smile, the unkempt hair, and the darkness around my eyes (I swear I…

Make Your Own Damn Podcast – 4/16/21

Marc Vuletich I’m beyond thrilled to announce the launch of a new show. In addition to White Trash Occultism (which you can view on my YouTube channel), I am kicking off Make Your Own Damn Podcast, a show where we examine the filmography of the infamous provocateurs at Troma Entertainment with author and former editor at Deadite Press Jeff Burk as my cohost. I’ve been a Troma fan for over two…

It’s occurred to me recently that I could probably write the Gods of the Dark Web books forever. If you’re a Richard Laymon fan or you remember my blog about his memoir A Writer’s Tale, you may know that one of his biggest pieces of advice was to find ideas that are “infinitely expandable.” This was a strategy he employed to turn his short, sharp thrillers into sprawling 600-page doorstoppers.…

Just when you thought it was safe to go on the Internet...

Just when you thought it was safe to go on the Internet… Cover by Jim Agpalza It’s been years since true crime author Niles Highsmith and his brother Leon disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Left to pick up the pieces, Dana can’t seem to break free from the dark web cultists and their strange gods. As personal tragedies pile up, the world itself begins to fracture. The dark web isn’t…

I’m on my way out the door at the day job, which has had me thinking more than ever about monetizing my skill set. That’s always the goal, right? Or if not the goal, it’s the dream: to do whatever you want, whatever you’re good at and compelled to do, and make a sustainable living […]Work