Author Archives: balladeer

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About balladeer

I am passionately interested in college sports, ancient Greek comedies, bad/weird movies, mythology, the American Revolution, Puck Magazine, World War I, U.S. Presidential history, silent movies, the English Civil War, epic, lyric and comic poetry, U.S. Supreme Court history, the Revolutions of 1848, the Philippine War and old pulp heroes like The Moon Man, Pilot G8, Silver John and The Rio Kid.

JOE BIDEN’S FASCIST FOLLIES CONTINUE

joe biden slovenly messAs senile yet corrupt Joe Biden’s owners in the Chinese government assume possession of Bagram and other former American bases in Afghanistan, here at home the doddering demagogue continues to divide the nation while using the apparatus of government to try silencing dissent. Meanwhile the accused rapist’s Underboss Hunter Biden is still funneling bribe money to the Biden Crime Family via six-figure “sales of his artwork.” (LMAO) 

JOE BIDEN, INCOHERENT, INARTICULATE AND ILLEGITIMATE AS EVER, JUSTIFIES SICCING THE DEMOCRATS’ FASCIST MOBS ON SENATOR KYRSTEN SINEMA FOR DARING TO DISOBEY HIM. The authoritarian scumbag actually justified mob harassment as “part of the process.” More HERE.

CREEPY, SLEEPY JOE’S SON AND UNDERBOSS HUNTER BIDEN STILL STALLING REGARDING HUNTER DIVESTING FROM CHINESE FINANCIAL FIRM. It can’t be stated often enough – Joe Biden and his Crime Family are apparently owned by China.

MICHIGAN’S DEMOCRAT GOVERNOR WHITMER VETOES ELECTION INTEGRITY MEASURES THAT WOULD PREVENT RECURRENCES OF THE WIDESPREAD “CHEAT BY MAIL” AND SIMILAR 2020 ELECTION SCAMS. And remember when Whitmer was pushing her Big Lie that Trump was involved in a plot to kidnap her? Is Whitmer all there? 

democrat republican or awakeBRAZEN ANTI-TRUMP LIES CALLED OUT IN STEPHANIE GRISHAM’S NEW BOOK. She’s being called out by Steve Scalise, victim of Democrat fascist violence-mongering.

MORE AND MORE ANTI-BIDEN CHANTS RINGING OUT LOUD AND STRONG ACROSS THE NATION. Despite the demented dolt’s ongoing attempts to suppress them. More HERE from New York. And more HERE. For Michigan HERE.

POLL: SIXTY-FOUR PERCENT FEEL BIDEN HAS DIVIDED THE COUNTRY MORE THAN IT WAS A YEAR AGO. Plus, remember the Quinnipiac poll showing only 42% thought the Biden Regime was competent? I wonder how low that figure has become since then?

JOE BIDEN’S POLITICIZED DEMOCRAT PAC CALLED THE DOJ BEING UNLEASHED ON PARENTS ACROSS THE COUNTRY. Joe Biden is totalitarian trash. Is he hoping to provoke a show of defiance that he can once again falsely label an “insurrection?”

427,000 PARENTS RESPOND TO THE BIDEN REGIME’S ATTEMPT TO LABEL THEM “DOMESTIC TERRORISTS” FOR SPEAKING OUT AT SCHOOL BOARD MEETINGS. More HERE. And by the way, most school board meetings REQUIRE I.D. AND PROOF OF RESIDENCE to speak at. In other words school board meetings are more securely run than America’s fraud-infected electoral process.  Continue reading

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Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion

FAUST (1987): THE PRE-SPAWN VERSION OF SPAWN

faustFAUST: LOVE OF THE DAMNED (1987) – Written by David Quinn with artwork by Tim Vigil. Halloween Month continues here at Balladeer’s Blog with this review of the 1987-2012 “adult” comic book series Faust. This series included very graphic and very unusual sex and violence while offering a twisted update on the story of Faust selling his soul to Mephistopheles. The year 2000 Brian Yuzna (’nuff said) movie version of Faust: Love of the Damned is pretty bad but does capture the blood-soaked, anarchic WTF air of the series.  

Before I get into plot details I’ll point out that, despite the criticism that Quinn and Vigil get for providing stories featuring extreme sex and gore in a purely sensational manner they never sold out their indy comic vision by watering down either the sex or the violence just for wider distribution and more money. Continue reading

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Filed under Halloween Season, Superheroes

14 NEGLECTED GOTHIC HORROR STORIES

Halloween Month continues here at Balladeer’s Blog with this look at some of the neglected literary horror tales I’ve reviewed.

ensouled violin picTHE ENSOULED VIOLIN (1880) – Written by THE Madame Blavatsky. A gifted Austrian violin player named Franz Stenio is drawn to occult studies while away at college. Hearing dark legends about how Niccolo Paganini supposedly acquired his otherworldly skill with the violin, Franz carries out some of the rumored rituals in real life, to bloody and deadly effect. The fallout is horrific. CLICK HERE.  

CITY OF VAMPIRES (1867) – Written by Paul Feval. This criminally neglected story depicts a fictionalized young version of the Gothic horror writer Ann Radcliffe when she was still Ann Ward. To try to save some friends she trails them to the Belgrade city of vampires called Selene as well as the Sepulchre. In that perpetually gloomy and overcast village Ann and company must deal with vampires of varied abilities from back in the era before vampire lore was as set in stone as it later became. CLICK HERE

werwolvesTHE WERWOLVES (1898) – Written by Honore Beaugrand. A pack of werewolves prey upon victims in Canada. Plenty of unusual takes on lycanthrope lore with a north of the border touch. These particular werewolves are of Iroquois extraction which, along with the cold and snowy backdrop, helps to make this Canadian horror tale stand out from the rest. CLICK HERE. Continue reading

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DEMOCRAT ATROCITY ROUNDUP: OCTOBER 4th

biden who is at faultIndependent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog as always comes to you from the corporate fascist state of the U.S. We’re that surreal realm where Joe Biden’s entrance into a room should be announced by the playing of The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down instead of Hail to the Chief. “C’mon, man” listen for yourself if it’s been awhile.

Senile Joe BidenNeedless to say, Biden’s departures, where he flees the room because he’s not allowed to answer questions that further reveal how mentally unsound he is, would then consist of propagandist Jen Psaki saying “Th-th-th-th-that’s ALL, folks!”

Nah, all of that is too dignified for the Biden Regime considering its countless crimes against humanity. So let’s look at the latest from senile yet corrupt Joe Biden and his political party which combines the worst elements of fascism and organized crime (office-holding Republicans are irrelevant trash and do nothing but chase money):

DEMOCRAT FASCIST MOBS HARRASS EVEN THEIR OWN SENATORS FOR NOT BEING FASCIST ENOUGH. Also HERE. And HERE. But give Democrat Senator Kyrsten Sinema credit -even though the mob harrassed her in the ladies room RIGHT OUTSIDE HER BATHROOM STALL she did NOT pull an AOC and pretend she felt “in danger of being assaulted” like the repulsive Ocasio-Cortez did earlier this year.

repub dem otherMORE CALLS FOR BIDEN TO RESIGN.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE, ANTI-BIDEN CHANTS CONTINUE TO RING OUT AT COLLEGE FOOTBALL GAMES AROUND THE COUNTRY.

THE DEMOCRATS AT FACEBOOK CONTINUE CENSORING POLITICAL CANDIDATES IN OTHER COUNTRIES, TOO. Bloated rich pigs of social media continue to decide what political candidates around the world should be allowed to say.

BIDEN REGIME STILL PUSHING OLD, DISPROVEN LIES. What good does such partisan dishonesty do for anyone?

BIDEN STOPPED FROM ANSWERING QUESTIONS EVEN FROM FELLOW DEMOCRATS DURING HIS VISIT TO CAPITOL HILL. I guess there have been too many incidents of Biden showing how much of a blithering idiot he is. Continue reading

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Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion

COLLEGE FOOTBALL RESULTS FROM OCTOBER 2nd

HEADLINES

Charleston Golden Eagles helmet NEWTOPPLING NUMBER SIX – In NCAA Division Two, the UNIVERSITY OF CHARLESTON GOLDEN EAGLES played host to the number 6 team in the nation – the NOTRE DAME COLLEGE FALCONS (School Motto: “No, not THAT Notre Dame”). The Golden Eagles put the Falcons on Upset Alert with a 17-14 Halftime lead and ultimately won the game 38-28.

West Alabama Tigers helmet NEWNUMBER NINE FALLS, TOO – Staying in D2 for a moment, the 23rd ranked UNIVERSITY OF WEST ALABAMA TIGERS took it on the road against the country’s number 9 UNIVERSITY OF WEST GEORGIA WOLVES. A 24-17 lead for the Tigers at the break ended up in a 38-20 Upset victory for them.   

erskine flying fleetHISTORY IN THE NCCAA – The ERSKINE COLLEGE FLYING FLEET, in their very first year of intercollegiate football, notched their first ever victory yesterday. It came against their guests the VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY OF LYNCHBURG DRAGONS. The Flying Fleet were chasing the Dragons 7-3 in the opening Quarter but were on top 24-7 come Halftime. They never looked back on their way to a 59-13 blowout. Continue reading

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SPIDER-MAN: 1970s CLASSICS PART SIX – THE MOLTEN MAN

Here’s Part Six of Spider-Man 1970s Classics. For Part One click HERE.

spider man 132SPIDER-MAN Vol 1 #132 (May 1974)

Title: The Master Plan of the Molten Man

Villain: The Molten Man

Synopsis: With Peter Parker’s Aunt May finally out of the clutches of Doctor Octopus and being taken care of by her new roommate Anna Watson (Mary Jane’s aunt), Peter as Spider-Man is swinging his way around New York City one night a few weeks later.  He comes across a few cops investigating a strange break-in at the Metropolitan Museum.

Clinging to the ceiling and staying out of the way of the investigating officers, Spider-Man goes unnoticed as the investigation reveals that the break-in was committed by a supervillain who could burst through walls as well as melt locks and leave burned-in footprints in the floor. The thief stole meteor fragments from one of the displays then left.

Just as Spider-Man realizes this must have been the work of his old foe Molten Man, whom he fought two times previously, the cops notice him and open fire. At this time our hero is still wanted in regard to a pair of murders – of Captain John Stacy and Norman Osborn. (He won’t be cleared for years.) Continue reading

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THE OLD GODS WAKEN (1979): HALLOWEEN MONTH BEGINS

Silver John

Silver John

THE OLD GODS WAKEN (1979) – Another Halloween Month begins here at Balladeer’s Blog with this look at the first novel featuring Manly Wade Wellman’s iconic Pulp Hero Silver John. In 2011 I reviewed all of Wellman’s short stories and vignettes about this figure. The Old Gods Waken was the first of five Silver John novels.

For newcomers to these tales I’ll point out that Silver John aka John the Balladeer was a wandering guitar player in the Appalachian Mountain communities of yore. He would do battle with assorted supernatural menaces from mountain folklore like a combination of Kolchak and Orpheus. John’s silver guitar strings and silver coins were powerful repellants against much of the evils he faced down.

For more details on this neglected fictional hero click HERE or HERE or HERE. If you want an easy comparison the Silver John stories were based on the same type of mountain/ country folklore about music and the supernatural that the song The Devil Went Down To Georgia was based on.

silver john another coverThe Old Gods Waken deals with Silver John performing with other musicians at a music festival, then getting drawn into a property line dispute between the Forshay family and two sinister British men calling themselves Brummitt and Hooper Voth. As usual in our hero’s travels there are dark supernatural forces at work behind this boundary dispute – forces ultimately dealing with Pre-Columbian entities and transplanted Druidism.

I enjoy the Silver John short works far more than the novels and this book reflects plenty of reasons why. If The Old Gods Waken is a reader’s first exposure to the wandering balladeer then they might like it much better than I do based on the strength of the character and Manly Wade Wellman’s ear for old mountain dialects. As for me, I’ll explore the reasons why I think this novel embodies all the shortcomings of the (still very good) long form Silver John adventures.    Continue reading

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“HIS WORD AS A BIDEN?” JOE BIDEN IS NOT ALL THERE, IS HE?

biden blood on handsWE NEED ALTERNATE PARTIES! Recently Joe Biden, the corrupt establishment hack residing in the White House, actually sealed one of his meaningless promises by saying “I give you my word as a Biden.” Let’s take a look at what Creepy Sleepy Joe’s “word as a Biden” is worth. It will help make Biden getting booed at the Congressional baseball game even funnier.

*** JOE BIDEN COMES FROM A SLAVE-OWNING FAMILY.

*** JOE BIDEN EULOGIZED AN OFFICIAL IN THE KU KLUX KLAN, HIS FELLOW DEMOCRAT SENATOR ROBERT BYRD.

*** JOE BIDEN REPRESENTS EVERY SINGLE POLICY WHICH THE WORLD HATED AMERICA FOR OVER THE PAST FIVE DECADES.

biden cone*** JOE BIDEN HAS BEEN CAUGHT IN COUNTLESS LIES OVER THE YEARS, INCLUDING MANY THAT ARE DELUSIONALLY SELF-AGGRANDIZING. 

*** JOE BIDEN DEVIATED FROM THE CAREFUL AFGHANISTAN WITHDRAWAL PLANS OF HIS PREDECESSOR AND OUR NATO ALLIES, THEREBY UNLEASHING A BLOOD BATH AND A HOSTAGE SITUATION WHICH HE CONTINUES TO LIE ABOUT. 

*** JOE BIDEN IS AN ACCUSED RAPIST AND THE WHOLE “C’MON, MAN” MEME ABOUT BIDEN CAME FROM THE WORDS HIS ALLEGED RAPE VICTIM SAID HE USED – “C’MON, MAN, I HEARD YOU LIKED ME.” Believe All Women.

*** JOE RUNS WHAT IS BASICALLY “THE BIDEN CRIME FAMILY” WITH HIS SON HUNTER BIDEN AS THE VIRTUAL UNDERBOSS FUNNELING BRIBE MONEY TO “THE BIG GUY” VIA PHONY SALES OF HIS “ARTWORK.”

biden n word*** JOE BIDEN IS A NOTED RACIST (LIKE HIS SON HUNTER) AND IS KNOWN FOR HIS HARSH CRIME LEGISLA-TION WHICH DISPROPORTIONATELY DAMAGED PEOPLE OF COLOR. (And remember Joe’s remarks like “If you don’t vote for me, then you ain’t black.”) 

*** JOE BIDEN CANNOT EXPLAIN HOW HE BECAME WORTH OVER 150 MILLION DOLLARS ON A SENATOR’S PAY FOR DECADES. Joe’s corruption scandals might give reasonable people an idea, though. Continue reading

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Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion

FOOL KILLER FIFTY-NINE: SEPTEMBER 1912

Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the many facets of Fool Killer lore. FOR PART ONE, INCLUDING THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT IN THE 1850s, CLICK HERE 

PART 59 – Some of the Fool Killer’s targets in the September of 1912 edition of James Larkin Pearson’s publication:

Fool Killer gray*** Child labor, which the U.S. Supreme Court kept upholding in yet another of its series of disgraceful sagas. These attacks were noble, but it has to be said that Pearson’s Fool Killer came nowhere close to Klarenc Wade Mak’s version of the folk figure when it came to attacking the atrocity of child labor. (In America in 1912 over two million children were working in mines, mills and factories.) 

*** People who opposed nationwide voting rights for women.  

*** An unnamed High Society family which held an invitation-only meal for themselves and ninety-nine other bloated rich pigs. The ASS-ociated Press (As Pearson and his Fool Killer always called the AP) breathlessly reported on it the same way the media of today gives groveling coverage to such monumentally vain celebrity affairs.

              The meal cost ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS in 1912, the equivalent of $2,775,000.00 here in 2021. The Fool Killer pointed out how many meals the $100,000.00 could have bought for the starving poor. I’m a bit torn, though, because at least back then bloated rich pigs weren’t constantly talking down to the rest of us about their “causes” while wasting that much money. Hundreds of butterflies and birds were released into the air as part of the festivities.

Continue reading

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Filed under Mythology, Neglected History, opinion

COLLEGE FOOTBALL RANKINGS FROM BALLADEER’S BLOG (NAIA & NCCAA)

Lindsey_Wilson_KYNAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics)   1. LINDSEY WILSON COLLEGE BLUE RAIDERS (defending national champions)    ###     2. MORNINGSIDE COLLEGE MUSTANGS   ###    3. NORTHWESTERN (IA) COLLEGE RED RAIDERS   ###    4. INDIANA WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY WILDCATS   ###   

Southwestern College Moundbuilders NEW5. SOUTHWESTERN COLLEGE MOUNDBUILDERS    ###     6. GRAND VIEW UNIVERSITY VIKINGS (should be the Zebras)    ###    7. BAKER UNIVERSITY WILDCATS    ###     8. KANSAS WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY COYOTES    ###      Continue reading

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