IT’S SPLATTER TIME!!! (THE PRINT EDITION)
PLUS OUR VERY FIRST LOVELY REVIEW!
There comes a time in every young book’s life when it has to decide: do I want to be read? Or do I want to hide my light inside a drawer, or a file, or a trunk, as it were? DO I DARE TO EXPOSE MYSELF TO THE WORLD, NAKED FOR ALL TO SEE? Except made out of paper? Or, like, exes and ohs?
It’s a powerful rite of passage for an aspiring work of literature. And like most true rites of passage, it’s both really scary AND expensive! But if it wants to communicate its ideas, hopes, and dreams, then it knows in its heart that it can’t stay locked away. It has to be FREE, BABY!!! (Or more to the point, REASONABLY PRICED!)
And so it is that – with the kind of wistful pride and regret that only a parent or author (or pretty much anyone else) can know – I am excited to reveal that my little newborn cutie, This Is Splatterpunk, is now available in all the basic book-flavored forms!
You can get the unsigned paperback here, at a super-low rate, from Amazon:
And for even less, here’s the delightful Kindle version:
If you’re the kind of person who wants an autographed copy, the signed paperback is just slightly pricier than the Amazon option. But this money goes directly to financing the feature film, in a very punk rock DIY way, which I think feels juuuuust about right. Get it here!
And finally, for the serious collectors among you, we have the deluxe signed and numbered hardcover limited edition. Only 500 copies will ever be printed. Again, this goes directly to shooting the first crazy chunks of This Is Splatterpunk: A John Skipp Film. Which will be a joy unbounded. HERE YA GO!
For more on the book, the impending motion picture, the history of splatterpunk, and how to get involved, check out the website here.
I’m also delighted to announce that the first signed copies are shipping today. (Including custom This Is Splatterpunk bookmarks and buttons!) I’ve got the mailers, the bubble wrap, the shipping labels all printed and paid for. And in a couple of hours, when the Postal Annex opens, they will be sailing off to their new homes.
This has been a real learning curve for me. But thanks to Aron Beauregard and Shane McKenzie, I’m now a functioning one-man publishing house. And trust me, this won’t be the end. Expect more books, music, and movies from me.
Cuz, baby, I AM BACK!
Finally, here’s our FIRST AWESOME REVIEW! It comes from a cool-as-hell, super-thoughtful reviewer named Corrina Morse, howling out of the U.K. Her tastes tend to lean toward the hardest-rocking horror fiction. Which is why I’m so delighted that she (gulp) SEEMS TO LIKE THE BOOK!
And just before I hand the mic over, please know that posting and sharing reviews is a wonderful way to spread the love, and make the movie happen. So if you do, LEMME KNOW, okay? My little baby book needs to learn about caring by watching you care!
All this said…TAKE IT AWAY, CORRINA!!! And thank you sooooooo much!
Yer pal in the trenches,
Skipp
***
Firstly, what an honour this was to be asked to ARC read for a legend such as John Skipp. Thank you!
So this is a bit of an introduction into splatterpunk and what it means to John Skipp, as one of the pioneers of the genre. A little insight and history, and then 15 of his splatterpunk shorts from the early 80s, some of those published in Twilight Zone magazine, and right up until the present day.
Splatterpunk, (what I took away from this, personally), the ‘punk’ being the main emphasis, standing proud, pushing the boundaries, to make a point, to mean something, and then using a bucket load of gore and depravity to ice the proverbial, splattery cake.
I'm going to go through and say a few words for each entry into this book and then do a kind of little summary at the end….
All of these have deep dark depths to them, an underlying story to be told, and all are great, but, I do admit to having some favourites, which are, ‘The Spirit of Things’, ‘Film at Eleven’, ‘Food Fight’, ‘In the Winter of No Love’ and my #1 has to be ‘The Inward Eye!’
THE LONG RIDE.... Harry is a New York cab driver, tonight's fare is testing his patience, but it's ok, Harry knows just how to deal with it, he's been in the game a long time and plans on sticking around even longer.
A true sense of foreboding surrounds this story, it’s chilling, and I loved the twist.
GO TO SLEEP.... Rick has a unique gift. A purpose. A duty almost.. It's a morbid gift but fulfilling too.
Beautifully serene and eerie.
THE SPIRIT OF THINGS.... This one flies out of the starting gates, kicking and screaming, and is full of tense anticipation.
Everything progresses and evolves, including Halloween traditions, some for the better, some much, much worse...
Terrifying!
A QUICKEE.... Exactly what is says on the tin, "A Quickee", but one packed with horror and uneasiness.
FILM AT ELEVEN....Dottie is a desperate woman, a victim of horrific abuse. But she's determined too, determined this will be the last time ever.
Mental anguish and last resorts lead to a shockingly sinister outcome..
Heartbreaking and emotional.
ROSE GOES SHOPPING.... What do you do when you're in the middle of a zombie outbreak? Well, you make sure to stock up on cheese right? I love Rose for this!
This was a lot of fun, fast paced and action packed.
ART IS THE DEVIL.... Drea and Kristy are invited to a Hell of an Art show, they're unsure at first but their curiosity soon wins out.
Nightmarish and unsettling with a garnish of bizarreness and hilarity.
DEPRESSO THE CLOWN... A clownnapping, prejudice against all clowns, a phobia driving someone to take desperate actions. If you hate clowns you'll probably love this.
I felt sorry for him, personally.
THE SHITTIEST GUY IN THE WORLD (A CHRISTMAS FABLE).... A tasty little dose of Christmas karma.
Chillingly delectable…
FOOD FIGHT.... All is not right at the Golden Canyon Behavioral Health Center, in fact, its chaos and mayhem at every turn. All Hell has broken loose, quite literally.
I loved how this was told from all the different povs, and they were all brought together brilliantly. The insanity is utterly chilling, this story unfolds FAST, and the realisation of what is going on hits you harder with every page. A kinda mass hysteria that you feel like you're a part of.
SKIPP'S SPLATTERPUNK ALPHABET SOUFFLE.... A cool, fun look into the whys and wherefores of extreme/hardcore/splatterpunk and what it means to Skipp personally. From abhorrent artefacts and actions, to the impressions they leave on us, the reactions given and received, the depths, the extremes, the influences and reasoning.
Heed the horror styles, I for one, found this very interesting and enlightening!
JIMMY JAY BAXTER'S LAST, BEST DAY ON EARTH.... When the end of the world arrives, all bets are off, all rules are out the window, and the freedom that brings is beautifully terrifying. Especially when the MC is armed to the eyeballs, prejudiced to the max and has a bucket list agenda that includes taking no prisoners. But the huge dose of Karma that gets dished up, more than makes up for it.
IN THE WINTER OF NO LOVE.... Dreams of a summer of free love turn into a new age nightmare, a bit like the changing of the seasons.
Disturbing, eerie, trippy.
THE INWARD EYE.... Discovery and awareness of all things around you, consciousness, subconsciousness, BEING, vibrations good and bad, past lives and visions, deep hallucinations and flashbacks all expressing horrors and insights into life and beyond.
Real life horror, the scariest of them all, alongside fictional horror, movie horror, and the progression of horror through the ages.
Powerful, deep, dark, stunning!
NAME YOUR POISON... Short, sharp, stunning and powerful.
I am absolutely in love with John Skipp's writing. It's brilliantly atmospheric, fun, visceral, gnarly, powerful, impactful, and darkly poetic.
I’m sad I have never read anything by him before, but so excited that I have his entire back catalogue to discover and enjoy from hereon in.
Skipp knows how to end a short story to leave you wowed and completely satisfied. My personal bugbear with shorts is when the story just seems to end abruptly, and you're left thinking, “Is that it?” But Skipp finishes them off perfectly.
I loved the added insights into each story at the end of the book too, I do love seeing these. And I too, wish Rose had been made into a movie, I loved her character! She's a total badass!
RELEASING AUGUST 2025
KEEP YOUR EYES PEELED FOR THE FILM TO GO ALONGSIDE THIS BOOK TOO.
Can't wait for my copy! (And to add the button to my pin hat.)
Awesome. Eagerly awaiting my copy in the mail. I'll try not to harass the mail man too much.