Founded in 1999, Eraserhead Press is an independent publisher of bizarro fiction and cutting-edge horror. Under the leadership of Rose O’Keefe, the press has developed an international cult following for its main line of trade paperbacks and e-books. The press releases new books every month and has published over four hundred titles by 150 different authors including Piers Anthony, Brian Keene, Michael Cisco, Molly Tanzer, Carlton Mellick III, Jeremy Robert Johnson, John Skipp, Edward Lee, J.F. Gonzalez, Laura Lee Bahr, and Wrath James White. The company also publishes under four imprints: Deadite Press, Fungasm Press, Lazy Fascist Press, and The New Bizarro Author Series.
Located in Portland, Oregon, Eraserhead Press is the oldest and largest publisher of bizarro fiction having helped introduce readers to the genre with The Bizarro Starter Kit and The Best Bizarro Fiction of the Decade anthologies. In addition to publishing unique well-crafted books, they have experimented with different business models, from their humble beginning as a DIY zine publisher, to an author collective, a volunteer staff of for-the-love writer/editors, to a full-time publishing house with multiple imprints and international distribution. Eraserhead Press has gained a reputation for their eye-catching covers and compelling titles such as The Haunted Vagina, Help! A Bear Is Eating Me!, Baby’s First Book of Seriously Fucked Up Shit, and Shatnerquake. They are also known for their unique marketing strategies like homebrewing beer in honor of their books to be served at parties, busking on street corners, selling books at film festivals and rock concerts, throwing performance art events and advertising books inside the boxes of local pizzerias. With an eye for keeping things fun, Eraserhead Press values open-mindedness, curiosity, and artistic expression. The company motto is: Take what you do seriously, but never take yourself too seriously.
Over nearly two decades, the press has been successful at attracting readers and writers, outside the mainstream, who get invested not only in the work but in the community associated with it. Readers call the books “addictive” and often comment that they’d given up on reading until encountering these books. Writers have moved to Portland to get more closely involved with the press, fans have tattooed images of the company logo and characters from the books, and half a dozen other small presses internationally have cited Eraserhead Press as an inspiration for their formation. The press also frequently collaborates with international publishers, filmmakers, musicians, and visual artists on adaptations and translations of the works.
Space: the final frontier… these are the voyages of… a walrus?
Meet Walter. He is the first walrus in a revolutionary space program. Someday, his blubbery form will float past asteroids, stars, and planets as he journeys through the dark beyond to become a Master of Space. But for now, Walter’s dream is to win the heart of his lifelong love, Dr. Stephanie, who happens to be the scientist assigned to conduct experiments on him. The problem is Dr. Stephanie does not love Walter. She views him as a test subject and nothing more. To make matters worse, Dr. Stephanie appears to be in love with the abusive head scientist, Dr. Ron.
From Wonderland Book Award winner Kevin L. Donihe comes a tragic comedy of unrequited love and inspired determination.
Eraserhead Press is proud to announce the release of WIDOW OF THE AMPUTATION by Robert Guffey
Widow of the Amputation & Other Weird Crimes is a collection of four novellas that explore the madness of murder through the warped lenses of urban noir, science fiction, horror, and experimental fantasy.
About the stories:
In Decay in Amber, a convicted rapist and murderer wakes up one morning to discover he is only six inches tall and floating down the middle of the L.A. River in a beer bottle.
In Rocket City Murder, a police lieutenant has only twenty-four hours to solve a brutal triple-murder committed within the secretive confines of the bio warfare research lab known as Micropolis.
In Widow of the Amputation, the mythologies of various cultures collide as Charles Manson succeeds in busting out of Corcoran Penitentiary.
And in You Might As Well Die, a crime noir writer is led into a clever cat-and-mouse game intended to frame him for a murder he himself unknowingly devised.
Along with Cormac McCarthy, Guffey is my favorite modern fiction writer.
Gary D. Rhodes, author of The Perils of Movie going in America
About the author:
Robert Guffey is a lecturer in the Department of English at California State University – Long Beach. His most recent books are WIDOW OF THE AMPUTATION AND OTHER WEIRD CRIMES (Eraserhead Press, 2021), a collection of four novellas, and a novel entitled BELA LUGOSI’S DEAD (Crossroad Press, 2021). Find him on Goodreads.
Eraserhead Press is proud to announce the release of Captain Clive’s Dreamworld by Jon Bassoff.
After becoming the suspect in the death of a young woman, Deputy Sam Hardy is reassigned to the town of Angels and Hope, which, within its borders, holds the once magnificent amusement park, Captain Clive’s Dreamworld. When he arrives, however, Hardy notices some strange happenings. The park is essentially empty of customers. None of the townsfolk ever seem to sleep. And girls seem to be going missing with no plausible explanation. As Hardy begins investigating, his own past is drawn into question by the town, and he finds himself becoming more and more isolated. The truth—about the town and himself—will lead him to understand that there’s no such thing as a clean escape.
“The Twilight Zone mixed with Twin Peaks mixed with Dante’s Inferno.” – Jeffrey Thomas
We’ve been getting requests to make our official logo t-shirt available. This design was previously only available to Eraserhead Press staff members. But now through August 4th we’re making this Limited Edition T-Shirt available for all. Show your support for Eraserhead Press and pick up one of these while they last!
Eraserhead Press is pleased to announce the release of HELL OF DEATH by Vince Kramer.
Hell of Death is an offensive, hilarious adventure through the depths of Hell where Satan is like your cool older brother. And at the center of it all is the Hell House, Hell’s version of the White House, with its own president and everything. So it’s all political and shit. But not too political. There’s literally a scene where you can’t even keep reading anymore because a pit opens beneath you and screaming demons pull you down into the abyss! YOU’LL DIE! HOLY SHIT! Don’t read this book without drawing an upside cross on your forehead and a pentagram on the floor. Yell out “Hail Satan!” after every page if you want to survive! And if you don’t even want to live anymore, then kill yourself with the special Hell of Death razor blade (sold separately). Satan will be waiting for you! SATAN WAITS FOR US ALL!
Vince Kramer is a gay author who lives in Portland, Oregon. In addition to Hell of Death, he is also the author of Gigantic Death Worm, Death Machines of Death, and Deadly Lazer Explodathon. Follow him on Instagram!
Fall in love this month with the latest New Bizarro Author Series release, HUMAN FISH by Benjamin DeVos
His mom is a trout and his dad’s a human. He is a half-man, half-fish creature from the sea, trying to figure out the world of man. But the answers he finds lurking in the Los Angeles underbelly only lead to more questions. On a journey to find his father after a drug deal gone bad, how far will the Human Fish go to seek out the truth of his identity?
A new twist on the mermaid narrative, Human Fish is a dark bizarro adventure of drug trafficking, interspecies romance, and the ghosts of our past that come back to haunt us.
Benjamin DeVos is the author of The Bar is Low, Lord of the Game, and Madness Has a Moment and Then Vanishes Before Returning Again. He is the head editor of Apocalypse Party and lives in Philadelphia. http://facebook.com/benjaminedevos http://www.apocalypse-party.com/
Happy October! We are pleased to announce the release of EVERYBODY LIES IN HELL by Dave Zeltserman
“In Everybody Lies in Hell Mike Stone’s eternal damnation is a private detective’s office in a re-imagined Brooklyn. In Hell, the beautiful woman with a case opens a literal Pandora’s Box, and Stone is soon inundated by all-too-recognizable evils and lies of Hell’s tortured souls, powerful ancient demons and devils, and haunting personal ones. Classic pulp, noir, and horror—think James N. Cain and Bukowski and Palahniuk–are all ground up in a blender and the result is a nasty, wild, and ultimately redemptive novel that only Dave Zeltserman could write.” —Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts
“Everybody Lies in Hell is a wild adventure centered on confronting our demons–literally and figuratively. At once compulsively entertaining and bizarre. Zeltserman has written a metaphysical masterpiece. Hell has never been so much fun.” —Jon Bassoff, author of The Drive-Thru Crematorium
Hell can be a tricky place with all of its rules. Mike Stone, hell’s lone practicing private eye, thinks he has it figured out, and more often than not, solves the cases that come his way. It’s not easy, though. Not with the fact that everyone in hell lies. And not with having to worry about a barbaric warlord from a long-forgotten time after his head. Or a compatriot of Vlad the Impaler wanting to purify his soul in a chamber of horrors for all eternity. Or that his circa 1992 Brooklyn private hell might be absorbed at any moment by a more aware soul. And then there’s that creepy Mortuary Man and whatever his agenda might be.
When Stone takes on a young woman as a client who wants him to find out who murdered her, it turns out to be his most dangerous case yet, and what he discovers might just be Hell’s biggest secret.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
“If there’s any other young writer out there who does crime noir better than Zeltserman, I don’t even want to know.” Maureen Corrigan, THE WASHINGTON POST
Boston-based author Dave Zeltserman’s crime and horror novels include SMALL CRIMES, PARIAH, KILLER, OUTSOURCED, THE CARETAKER OF LORNE FIELD, A KILLER’S ESSENCE, MONSTER, and THE BOY WHO KILLED DEMONS, and he’s been published in seven languages. SMALL CRIMES has been made into a Netflix film starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Molly Parker, Gary Cole, Robert Forster, and Jacki Weaver. THE CARETAKER OF LORNE FIELD and OUTSOURCED are currently in film development.
His books have been picked by NPR, the Washington Post, American Library Association, Booklist, and WBUR as best novels of the year, and his Julius Katz mystery stories has won a Shamus, Derringer and two Ellery Queen Readers Choice awards.
“Bassoff confronts directly the traumatic stress disorder of our world today and tears off its mask, even if the face must follow.”—New York Magazine
Happy August! This month we are very excited to present THE DRIVE-THRU CREMATORIUM by Jon Bassoff, a dark, absurd, unsettling tale about the monsters within us.
“Toss Kafka, David Lynch, and a pinch of Flannery O’Connor in a blender and you just might end up with The Drive-Thru Crematorium. A thoroughly baffling, unsettling, and mesmerizing journey into madness.” —Dave Zeltserman, author of Everybody Lies in Hell
Stanley Maddox lives a mundane life in a nondescript town. His wife is cheating on him, his colleagues at work don’t recognize him, and he has recently noticed a mysterious creature darting its way through his house. When he notices a flap of skin on his face, he begins pulling. Beneath his skin lies another person, an evil person, with the power to change his life forever.
“A Gordian knot of alienation and suburban discomfort. Nihilistic, weird, and ultimately, very funny.”—Danger Slater, author of I Will Rot Without You
“Jon Bassoff is the Kafka of Colorado, a writer who spins feverish nightmares out of the insane realities of modern life. Horrifying and hilarious, The Drive-Thru Crematorium is his darkest trip yet, the story of a mild-mannered nothing man who discovers the monster within. It’s a hell of a fun read, but it’s also the kind of book you find yourself thinking about days later.” —Jake Hinkson, winner of the Grand Prix de Litterature Policiere
“In The Drive-Thru Crematorium, Jon Bassoff twines the mundane and the absurd together in a dizzying spirograph to produce an angst-ridden picture of modern society. Bassoff’s novel is a shadowy feverdream in the best possible way—a story that both burns and chills and remains an unsettling thorn in the reader’s psyche, longer after the last page is turned.”—Steph Post, author of Miraculum
With summer in full swing we bring you the perfect bizarro beach read! SCUM OF THE EARTH by Cody Goodfellow is out in paperback and ebook today.
“In this fabulously unholy marriage of bizarro SF, crass sexuality, and tongue-in-cheek humor, Goodfellow (Sleazeland) successfully creates an interstellar pirate adventure that is anything but ordinary. Drugs are in high demand throughout the galaxies, and few things prove as addictive as the human imagination, which can easily be hijacked and downloaded. The Intergalactic Narcotic Enforcement Force destroys the Earth to halt imagination smuggling, and humankind is forced to scatter to the hidden corners of the universe, where cartels prey on them. Luckily for the human race, the trashiest crew in the galaxy and their nymphomaniac captain, Callista Chrome, are there to save them from being commoditized. Callista and the crew of the Barracuda are prepared to take on alien gangs, sex-crazed platypuses, and space vikings, even if they’re not sure the human race deserves it. A master class in the power of outlandish imagery and pulpy action, this otherworldly pirate crusade is sure to reel in SF fans who are ready to have their minds blown. ” — Publishers Weekly
THEY CAME TO RAID… THEY STAYED TO GET LAID!
For centuries, alien drug-runners plundered the Earth, harvesting organs and freebasing fear. Few drugs could match the potency of humanity’s dysfunctional two-stroke brains, so the Intergalactic Enforcement Force burned it down.
Now, the last scattered, ragtag pockets of humanity strewn across a hundred backwater worlds are the most sought-after cash crop in the universe, and their only hope lies in the unsteady, oversexed hands of a pirate crew of intergalactic trash under the command of a devious cutthroat nymphomaniac known as Callista Chrome.
But to save the unworthy human race, Callista and her drug-hungry horde will have to go through conniving alien cartels, buzzkill narcs, priapic platypuses, polymorphic ex’s and bloodthirsty space-Vikings before facing the most devastating enemy in the worst place in the known universe… home.
