#zoom reading

This month’s Blaster Al Ackerman Zoom reading is this Sunday, 26 July, at 8 PM EDT. The reading is of Blaster’s pulp-fiction pastiche, “If Robert E. Howard Had Been Huffing Glidden in 1935”. If you haven't already, sign up now on EventBrite to get the Zoom link for this FREE performance; I will email you on the day of the event with the Zoom link.

Please arrive promptly so the reading can start and finish within a reasonable time. No one will be admitted from the Zoom waiting room after the reading begins. This reading (though not the entire Zoom session) will be recorded. Recording will be posted at https://vimeo.com/ejbarnescomics

Story Synopsis: A simple dinner party at home goes awry when the menu results in destruction, unleashing a simian menace. For when the Thunder God speaks, it means Death!

(Content warnings: Solvent abuse, partial nudity, stereotypical pulp racism, flatulence, inaccurate chronology, mental illness. Recommended for listeners aged 13 and up.)

We gratefully acknowledge the permission granted for this performance by the Estate of Will Greathouse.

This is part of a series of Blaster Al Ackerman readings on Zoom. Readings for 2026:

Sunday, 25 January: “2,976 Vienna sausages”

Sunday, 22 February: “Ack’s Wacks: The Macaroni Column”

Sunday, 22 March: “The Day When Money Will Be Found in the Streets”

Sunday, 26 April: “The Fool”

Sunday, 21 June: “Introduction to the Davenport Continuum”/”The Death of Granny Fernandez”

Sunday, 26 July: “If Robert E. Howard Had Been Huffing Glidden in 1935”

August: “I Taught My Dog to Shoot a Gun”

September: “Blind Ka”

October: “The Squid Boys of Terre Haute”

November: “Miss Mantis”

December: “Red Flies”

Exact dates for future 2026 readings TBA.

The May Blaster Al Ackerman Zoom reading is "The Death of Granny Fernandez" (with an Introduction to The Davenport Continuum). The performance is this COMING Sunday, 31 May at 8 PM EDT. Sign up below and I'll email you with the Zoom link on that day.

Story Synopsis: Edgar Allan Poe Messenger editor Stark Lee Davenport, the Old-South Poet of Richmond, VA, is given a copy of a scandalous counterfeit version of his own magazine, only to find himself caught in a trap of recursive narrative.

(Content warnings: Alcohol abuse, ethnic slurs, attempted grant fraud, identity theft, unsolicited homosexual flirting, mail hoaxes, four-letter words, incest, madness, miscegenation, arson, necrophilia, mopery, murder, infanticide, congenital feeble-mindedness, spirit channeling, narcotic abuse, hallucination, slurs against the disabled, cafeteria fights, bad poetry, desecration of corpses, sexual slang, sexual situations, suicide, disability fetishism, prescription abuse, injury to the eye motif, Confederates in the attic and elsewhere. Recommended for listeners aged 18 and up.)

We gratefully acknowledge the permission granted for this performance by the Estate of Will Greathouse. This performance is dedicated to the late Lon Spiegelman.

This is part of a series of Blaster Al Ackerman readings on Zoom. Readings for 2026:

· Sunday, 25 January: “2,976 Vienna sausages”

· Sunday, 22 February: “Ack’s Wacks: The Macaroni Column”

· Sunday, 22 March: “The Day When Money Will Be Found in the Streets”

· Sunday, 26 April: “The Fool”

· Sunday, 31 May: “Introduction to The Davenport Continuum”/“The Death of Granny Fernandez”

· June: “Heaving Las Vegas”

· July: “Floaters”

· August: “I Taught My Dog to Shoot a Gun”

· September: “Blind Ka”

· October: “The Squid Boys of Terre Haute”

· November: “Miss Mantis”

· December: “Red Flies”

This coming Sunday evening, 26 April, at 8 PM EDT, is my next Blaster Al Zoom reading, his occult essay "The Fool". You'll need me to email you the Zoom link, so sign up on EventBrite now!

Story Synopsis: Dr. Ackerman discusses the relative merits of differing portrayals of the “Fool” card from the Greater Arcana of the Tarot.

(Content warnings: Occult references, scatological references, ethnic slurs and stereotypes, vampirism, allusions to unsanitary sexual practices, urine, developmental disorders, insanity, nudity, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, allusion to strategies for preventing child sexual abuse, and perverted Roman emperors. Recommended for listeners aged 18 and up.)

We gratefully acknowledge the permission granted for this performance by the Estate of Will Greathouse. This performance is dedicated to Gerald Simonsen.

This is part of a series of Blaster Al Ackerman readings on Zoom. Readings for 2026:

Sunday, 25 January: “2,976 Vienna sausages”

Sunday, 22 February: “Ack’s Wacks: The Macaroni Column”

Sunday, 22 March: “The Day When Money Will Be Found in the Streets”

Sunday, 26 April: “The Fool”

May: “Introduction to the Davenport Continuum”/“The Death of Granny Fernandez”

June: “Heaving Las Vegas”

July: “Floaters”

August: “I Taught My Dog to Shoot a Gun”

September: “Blind Ka”

October: “The Squid Boys of Terre Haute”

November: “Miss Mantis”

December: "Red Flies"

This Sunday at 8 PM EDT is when I'm giving this month's Blaster Al Ackerman Zoom reading, of his story "The Day When Money Will Be Found in the Streets". Follow the link to sign up on EventBrite, so I can send you the Zoom link on the day of the reading!

Story Synopsis: Red has a close encounter with a talking hog maw.

(Content warnings: Implied sexual activity, raw meat, alcohol abuse, political terrorism, hallucinations, animal cruelty, pyromania, suicidal ideation, clinical insanity, run-on sentences. Recommended for listeners aged 14 and up.)

We gratefully acknowledge the permission granted for this performance by the Estate of Will Greathouse.

This is part of a series of Blaster Al Ackerman readings on Zoom. Readings for 2026:

Sunday, 25 January: “2,976 Vienna sausages”

Sunday, 22 February: “Ack’s Wacks: The Macaroni Column”

Sunday, 22 March: “The Day When Money Will Be Found in the Streets”

April: “The Fool”

May: “Introduction to the Davenport Continuum”/“The Death of Granny Fernandez”

June: “Heaving Las Vegas”

July: “Floaters”

August: “I Taught My Dog to Shoot a Gun”

September: “Blind Ka”

October: “The Squid Boys of Terre Haute”

November: “Miss Mantis”

This is a reminder that this Sunday, 22 February at 8 PM EST, I'll be giving another one of my Zoom readings of a Blaster Al Ackerman story. This one is "Ack's Wacks: The Macaroni Column", which I thought might be appropriate, or perhaps inappropriate, for Valentine's month.

You need to sign up on EventBrite so I'll know to email you the Zoom link on the day of the performance. The reading (though not the Zoom meeting as a whole) will be recorded, and later posted on my Vimeo channel.

Story Synopsis: “When four readers of this magazine, one right after another, sent letters that complimented me on my most recent column I knew there must be something wrong…Their letters seemed to assume that my column had been about macaroni….”

(Content warnings: Profanity in multiple languages, false memory, corpses, necrophilia, racist gambling games, practicing medicine without a license, malnutrition, sexual situations, foul odors, train accidents, circus “freaks”, freak accidents, malapropisms. Recommended for listeners aged 18 and up.)

We gratefully acknowledge the permission granted for this performance by the Estate of Will Greathouse. This performance is dedicated to Monty Cantsin.

This is part of a series of Blaster Al Ackerman readings on Zoom. Readings for 2026:

Sunday, 25 January: “2,976 Vienna sausages”

Sunday, 22 February: “Ack’s Wacks: The Macaroni Column”

March: “The Day When Money Will Be Found in the Streets”

April: “The Fool”

May: “Introduction to the Davenport Continuum”/”The Death of Granny Fernandez”

June: “Heaving Las Vegas”

July: “Floaters”

August: “I Taught My Dog to Shoot a Gun”

September: “Blind Ka”

October: “The Squid Boys of Terre Haute”

November: “Miss Mantis”

I'm giving another free Zoom reading of a Blaster Al Ackerman story, in this case the "essay" "Ack's Wacks: The Macaroni Column". The reading is on Sunday, 22 February, at 8 PM EST. To get the Zoom link, sign up on the EventBrite link above. On the day of the reading I'll send an email to those who signed up.

For those unfamiliar with the art and/or writing of the late mail artist Blaster Al Ackerman (1939--2013), he was the author of the Ling Master stories, on which I based (with his permission) the Tales of the Ling Master comics. These stories show the clear influence of the old "pulps" on his work.

I chose this piece for February because it is one of Blaster Al's more romantic pieces, albeit (like most everything Blaster wrote) in questionable taste. So be careful to read the content warnings on the EventBrite page before agreeing to subject yourself to the performance.

My first Blaster Al Ackerman Zoom reading for 2026 is his classic story, "2,976 Vienna Sausages" -- just 3 days from now! The reading is THIS Sunday, 25 January at 8 PM EST. Sign up now on EventBrite to receive the Zoom link for this FREE performance of a story that I adapted as a short comic, which has appeared as a mini-comic and in Shattered Wig Poetry Review. I will email you with the link on the day of the event.

Please arrive promptly so the reading can start and finish within a reasonable time. No one will be admitted from the Zoom waiting room after the reading begins. This reading (though not the entire Zoom session) will be recorded. Recording will be posted at https://vimeo.com/ejbarnescomics

Story Synopsis: Plopman attempts to impress the attractive blonde in the apartment across the courtyard by building a suit made entirely of Vienna sausages. The coming months of this project bring to light a number of problems he failed to anticipate.

(Content warnings: Sexual and scatological references, partial nudity, alcohol abuse, food wastage and putrefaction, hallucinations, fire hazards, and flies. Recommended for listeners aged 12 and up.)

We gratefully acknowledge the permission granted for this performance by the Estate of Will Greathouse.

This is part of a series of Blaster Al Ackerman readings on Zoom. Readings for 2026:

Sunday, 25 January: “2,976 Vienna sausages”

February: “The Macaroni Column”

March: “The Day When Money Will Be Found in the Streets”

April: “The Fool”

May: “Introduction to the Davenport Continuum”/”The Death of Granny Fernandez”

June: “Heaving Las Vegas”

July: “Floaters”

August: “I Taught My Dog to Shoot a Gun”

September: “Blind Ka”

October: “The Squid Boys of Terre Haute”

November: “Miss Mantis”