Another casualty of my inability to comprehend email during the last two months of 2010: the knowledge that GWAR frontman Dave Brockie, aka Oderus Urungus, released a book at the end of last year. Thank god I eventually figured it out! The book is called Whargoul, and it's exactly the sort of apocalyptic science-fictional horror gloriousness that you'd expect from the mind of a guy like Brockie. The book was actually written in the late 90s, about a character who made his first appearance on GWAR's 1995 album Rag Na Rok. Brockie later expanded the story of this character, "an undying creature that found sustenance in the carnage of war," into a full-length novel--which he actually finished over a decade ago. At that point, not knowing what to do with it, he slapped it up onto a website (which, judging from its visual appearance, has not had a layout update in the 12 years since it was first created), where it languished until last year. That's when the independent horror publisher Eraserhead Press found it and decided to publish it in book form. You can still read it on Brockie's website if you're so inclined, though to be honest, scoring a copy in much-easier-to-read book form and avoiding the eyestraining web experience is probably worth every penny of the $12 it'll cost you to do it.
Here's what it says on the back cover:
From the killing grounds of Stalingrad to the death camps of the holocaust. From torture chambers in Iraq to race riots in the United States, the Whargoul was there - killing and raping. It is a beast born in bullets and shrapnel, feeding off of pain, misery, and hard drugs. Cursed to wander the Earth without the hope of death, it is reborn again and again to spread the gospel of hate, abuse, and genocide.
But what if it's not the only monster out there? What if there's something worse?
From Dave Brockie, the twisted genius behind GWAR, comes a novel about the darkest days of the twentieth century. The modern world is dying and Brockie is here to put a bullet between its eyes and violate the corpse.
This is all-out fucking war!
That sounds awesome, right? What are you waiting for? Order your copy now!