Blog Archives
Tea’s Weird Week: I Gotta Lotta October Left
Here’s just a list of things I’ve done or will be doing this month. I hope you get a chance to check some of it out.
October 3-5: QWERTYFEST MKE: Great stuff. We had people from Milwaukee and all over the country turn out for a celebration of typewriters, writing, and much more. I talked with my co-organizer Molly Snyder about the event for the TWW podcast, episode 2: https://teasweirdweek.podbean.com/e/teas-weird-week-episode-002-qwerty/
Follow QF on Instagram and FB, we’ll have photos and more stuff from the event posted soon!
Friday, Oct. 10: The UnXplained: I appeared as a guest commentator on Season 7, episode 16 of the History Channel show: “Unlocking the Sixth Sense.” It was a fun experience. I’ll be discussing Milwaukee psychic detective Arthur Price Roberts, one of the topics of that episode, at the Milwaukee Paranormal Conference (see entry below).
Ongoing through Oct. 31: Riverwest Radio Ghost Walk: I wrote two stories for this fun, interactive, self-guided tour. Really fun project, you buy a copy of a booklet from several participating Riverwest businesses that is full of stories and art and a map that guides you to homes and businesses that have decorated to correspond to the stories. More info: https://www.riverwestradio.com/
I’ll be on Riverwest Radio to discuss my stories on Sunday, October 26, at 6pm.
Ongoing: I’m Your Host. October is the perfect month to rent or buy I’m Your Host, a documentary on Kenosha area horror hosts that I produced: https://artforanti-villains.vhx.tv/
Ongoing through Nov. 1: American Ghost Walks: I (usually) lead AGW’s Third Ward tour Friday evenings, and the Shadow of City Hall tour on Saturdays. You can find info/tickets here: https://www.americanghostwalks.com/wisconsin/milwaukee
Ongoing through Dec. 7: Milwaukee Krampusnacht: this is when planning this event, now in it’s eighth year, really ramps up. Tickets are available and more info is slowly being added here: www.milwaukeekrampusnacht.com
Out now: Oct. issue of Milwaukee Magazine: I was one of the contributors to the cover story on “Hidden Milwaukee,” I wrote about the Kingdom of Talossa, the Ghost of the Milwaukee Public Museum, and more. On news stands now, the story will eventually be added to: www.milwaukeemagazine.com
Saturday, October 18: Milwaukee Paranormal Conference: I was the founder of this event 10 years ago and it is now being organized by American Ghost Walks. Really nice line-up this year. I’ll be giving a talk at 2pm about Spiritualist college founder Morris Pratt and Arthur Price Roberts, the psychic detective I talked about on The UnXplained. Sadly, this will be the last event ever held at the Irish Cultural & Heritage Center before they close. Check out the full line-up and register for free here: https://milwaukeeparacon.com/
October 31: Happy Halloween!
Tea’s Weird Week: I Dream of Gein-y
QWERTYFEST MKE took place this past weekend and it was just fantastic. I don’t even know where to begin, but me and my event co-organizer Molly Snyder are incredibly grateful to everyone who participated and made it a great experience. Hundreds of people showed up for QWERTY events at State Street Pizza Pub, Turner Hall, Central Library, Interstate Theater, Newsroom Pub, Forest Home Cemetery, and Falcon Bowl. There will be lots to sort through and discuss and photos to share in the future.
It was a lot of work moving dozens of typewriters, boxes of merch and supplies, tables and chairs, etc. so I took Monday off for rest and recovery, to lay in bed and watch TV. I decided to check out the new Monster: The Ed Gein Story on Netflix, but I was so tired I kept falling asleep during the show and somewhere around episode 3 or 4 I just shut the TV off and passed out. I didn’t see enough to say if I can recommend it or not, but I can definitely recommend not using it as a portal to dreamland, cause I had some real weird dreams about Ed Gein hanging around at QWERTYFEST. Yikes! From what I did see, it seemed to be wildly inaccurate, but that’s show biz for ya. Anyway, I just wanted to share some random Ed Gein related notes:
–If you want to read a really well done (but disturbing) and much more accurate telling of the Ed Gein story, I recommend the graphic novel Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Did? by Eric Powell (The Goon) and Harold Schechter.
–I was glad to see Robert Bloch, author of Psycho, depicted (by actor Ethan Sandler) in scenes talking with Alfred Hitchcock (played by Tom Hollander) about Gein on the show. Bloch spent his formative writing years in Milwaukee, he lived for many years in an apartment above Glorioso’s (old location) on Brady Street, where he clacked away thousands of words for pulp magazines like Weird Tales. I wrote about him for Milwaukee Record ten years ago: https://milwaukeerecord.com/city-life/bloch-buster-milwaukees-connection-to-psycho-h-p-lovecraft-and-robert-bloch/
More recently, I wrote about Bloch for QWERTY Quarterly, and I’m actually reading some of Bloch’s work right now and plan to write more about him for an upcoming project I’m hoping I’ll be able to announce soon.
Like other things in the Netflix show, this conversation between Bloch and Hitchcock likely did not happen. Bloch didn’t know a lot of the details of the Gein case (many details did not come out until later) and didn’t have an understanding of Gein’s psychology as he appears to have here. Bloch said the main theme he got from Gein to create Norman Bates was Gein’s solitude in a small town setting. Gein and Bates also share a very unhealthy relationship with their mothers.
–I don’t know if they went there on the show, but one of my favorite Gein stories was that the great Werner Herzog was interested in filming a Gein documentary. It’s speculated that Gein might have exhumed his own mother’s grave, though this was never investigated. Herzog was ready to dig the grave up (without permission) and actually showed up with a shovel, but his directing partner chickened out and it didn’t happen. I talke about this and other wild Herzog moments in a TWW column from 2022, “High on the Herzog.”
Tea’s Weird Week, Episode 002: QWERTY
Tea talks to his QWERTYFEST MKE co-organizer Molly Snyder; Tea and Heidi talk weird news about Super Tardigrade Soldiers and more; Jenny tells us about her “Long Days Travel” to North Carolina.
https://teasweirdweek.podbean.com/e/teas-weird-week-episode-002-qwerty/
Tea’s Weird Week: TWW podcast returns, I’M YOUR HOST is now available online for your Fall viewing pleasure
One project I’m proud of is I’m Your Host (2024), a documentary on Kenosha area horror hosts that I’m a producer on. Inspired by an article I wrote for Milwaukee Magazine, Alicia Krupsky directed, Christopher Kai House was a producer and Alicia and Stephen Vincent Anderson shot the footage, mostly on location in Kenosha. Local bands with some association with the horror scene filled the soundtrack.
The project began in 2021 and the following year we were awarded a Milwaukee Film Brico Forward Fund Award, which gave some budget for expenses and some free legal advice and other services. Sadly, the Brico Award no longer exists. There were some “work-in-progress” screenings in 2023 at the Milwaukee Twisted Dreams Film Festival and at UW-Parkside in Kenosha. The film officially premiered at the Milwaukee Film Festival in 2024 and went on to be screened at the Seoul International Short Films Festival, and was screened and won awards at Port of Fear Film Fest in Kenosha, New York Tri-State International Film Fest, and the Seoul International Short Films Festival.
Official blurb:
Vampires, witches, werewolves, and ghoulies – Kenosha has the highest population of horror hosts per capita, who produce their own homemade TV shows showing cult-followed horror films. This documentary explores their relationship as a community, their triumphs, and a tragic loss that bonds them together.
I’m glad to say that the film is now available to watch online. You can rent or buy I’m Your Host and bonus– it comes with a download of a sheet of horror host trading cards and the posters Alicia designed as a bonus: https://artforanti-villains.vhx.tv/
And all this is discussed on the newly rebooted Tea’s Weird Week podcast. Me and my co-host Heidi Erickson talk with Alicia about the project, plus weird news on radioactive shrimp, a barefoot LEGO running champ, Pazuzu, and more. Jenny Sanchez tells us about her trip to Wall Drug In our new “Long Days Travel” segment. It’s time to get weird! Audio engineering by FlatlineAudio138. Listen here: https://teasweirdweek.podbean.com/e/teas-weird-week-episode-001-im-your-host/
Please Clap Dept.: QWERTYFEST MKE is happening Oct. 3-5. We’re going to discuss it on next week’s TWW podcast. Meanwhile, see more here: www.qwertyfest.com
Tea’s Weird Week: Trump is a Goblin Shark
Happy Shark Week to those who celebrate. (Note: Highlighted words=sources.)
I was a real weird kid. When I was around 7 or 8, I asked my dad if he would read entries about U.S. Presidents from a set of Funk & Wagnall’s encyclopedias to me at bedtime. I drew portraits of at least of dozen of the Presidents. Then, as now, I would become a little obsessive about a topic until I felt I had understood it. I’m not sure where the President Phase came from. The Hall of Presidents at Disney World? I think I viewed them as being like superheroes.
A couple years and a few obsessions later, my focus changed to a new topic: sharks. I spent a lot of time reading books and writing my own notes, learning everything I could. I dreamed of cruising around with Jacques Cousteau and becoming the world’s youngest foremost authority on these amazing creatures. One thing I found fascinating about sharks was the wide range of sizes, shapes, and unique features across the seas. There was the beautiful gentle giant, the whale shark; the powerhouse predators like the great white and mako sharks; the elegant, torpedo-like blue shark; the strange, almost extra-terrestrial looking members of the hammerheads and wobbegongs.
The most grotesque shark is the rare deep sea goblin shark (Mitsukurina owstoni). Wikipedia notes that this odd, pink-skinned species has a “flabby body and small fins,” a benthopelagic (bottom feeder) predator, the goblin inhabits a world that U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service reports is “utterly alien and inhospitable to humans.” Doesn’t all this remind you of a certain President of the United States of America?
Trump is a Goblin Shark.
Note the creature’s Pinocchio like snout, symbolic of a liar. There is one thing Trump is good at– lies. Many politicians are, but Trump shoots so many lies out of his blowhole like a firehose that it’s impossible to keep track before you’re blasted away again. Some of the lies are racist, weaponized conspiracies– his bloviating claim that Obama was born in Kenya and couldn’t be president, the whole “they’re eating the cats, they’re eating the dogs” bullshit. Some lies are feeble attempts at self-preservation, like his claim that he didn’t draw a nudie for Epstein because he’s never “wrote a picture.” And some of the lies are just idiocy, take his story about chatting with his uncle about the Unabomber or his declaration that windmills cause cancer. Those are just a few grains of sand in his murky seabed of lies.
Trump is a Liar of a Goblin Shark.
The goblin shark has a horrific array of needle like teeth, which it uses to chomp on cephalopods. Another toothy animal is the unwitting mascot of one of Trump’s tributes to cruelty, his Alligator Alcatraz concentration camp. This will be looked back at in horror and disgust in future history books (maybe– unless books, education, and empathy are banned).
Trump is a Cold-blooded Goblin Shark.
First they came for the immigrants. But that is only the beginning. Make no mistake, hate and revenge is Trump’s only goal as President. If Trump could (and maybe he’ll succeed) he would fill his gulags with the many people he hates– political opponents (even from his own party), journalists, comedians, lawyers, judges, late night talk show hosts, scientists, professors, musicians… eventually that’ll maybe extend to people who beat Dear Leader at golf. You’re all getting a one-way ticket to El Salvador!
Trump is an Orange-assed Sadistic Dictator Goblin Shark.
Who will stand up to him? Democrats are hiding in the reef. Corporations are out at sea. Maybe his ground base of Christians? Nah, Trump bamboozled them long ago, one of the greatest cons of this or any other century. Trump is not a Christian. He does not know a single Bible verse, only worships greed and power, and embodies all Seven Deadly Sins rolled together in orange dough.
Trump is a Pink Devilfish, the Goddamned Goblin Shark.
Now that I think of it, this comparison is pretty unfair to the goblin shark. Old Gobby is just slowly cruising along in the deep sea looking for squid to snatch as they’ve done for millions of years. Compared to Trump’s soul, this strange fish is a beauty queen… don’t tell that line to Trump, though, he might try to force his way into their dressing room and sexually harass it.
SEE ALSO: Political Monsters: How Presidents Influence Horror Movies reveals the correlation between Trump and killer clown flicks.
“The Jewish Space Laser Bill,” TWW, July 9, 2025.
“You are Geraldo Rivera, high on ecstasy, looking at a UFO in the Bahamas,” TWW, May 20, 2022.
American Madness talks about Trump’s rise to power harnessing conspiracy theories.
Tea’s Weird Week: Apocalypse Every Show Now
My third book, Apocalypse Any Day Now, was published in 2019 (by Chicago Review Press). I talked to a wide range of people on their ideas on how the world as we know it might end, and some of their plans for the apocalypse. It was deeply stressful at times, but I had some fun with it, too. For example, I thought it would be interesting to read some dystopian fiction, so I started a book club, The Apocalypse Blog Book Club (I had renamed my website here The Apocalypse Blog while I was working on the book) in 2017. We read some classics like Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler, The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., and many others. You can see a list of our selections here: https://teakrulos.com/apocalypse-any-day-now/
Anyway, I thought of all this recently after I binged a show called Paradise (which was released in January on Hulu), a post-apocalyptic murder mystery. I really enjoyed it, even if it managed to earworm “Another Day in Paradise” in my damn head for over a week. But I was also like, wow there are a lot of shows on this theme lately, aren’t there? Maybe I was too distracted studying the theory I explored in Political Monsters about the correlation of zombie, vampire, and killer clown movies and politics to dwell on it too much.
But yeah, the shit hitting the fan scenarios, dystopias, and that post-apocalyptic lifestyle is a popular theme in shows like Silo (2023-present), Fallout (2024-present), The Walking Dead and all the spinoffs (2010-present), The Handmaid’s Tale (2017-2025), The Last of Us (2023-present), Westworld (2016-2022), even shows like Severance (2022-present) play on this theme. And that’s just naming off the top of my head.
Why are shows like this so popular now? Oh gee, I dunno– art imitating life? Women’s rights being taken away, like in The Handmaid’s Tale. People are being disappeared in cases of mistaken identity, as seen in Brazil. Reality is being redrawn and renamed, like in Nineteen Eighty-Four, some real “Oceania was at war with Eurasia: therefore Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia,” type of stuff. Homeland Security is even thinking of doing a reality show that sounds like an idea out of The Hunger Games.
I don’t expect this trend to stop any time soon. These are tough, dismal times. I wish you all well– may the odds be ever in your favor and all that.
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Next week on TWW: If you don’t support QWERTY, you might end up feeling butt-hurty (Part II). Want TWW delivered to your inbox? You can sign up for my Substack HERE. Follow me on: Facebook Bluesky Instagram
Apocalypse Any Day Now: Deep Underground with America’s Doomsday Preppers (2019, Chicago Review Press) can be bought here: www.chicagoreviewpress.com/ApocalypseAnyDayNow
Tea’s Weird Week: Send in the (Killer) Clowns (Again)
Back in October, I published a zine/e-book titled Political Monsters: How Presidents Influence Horror Movies. This explored an old theory which I expanded on. The Political Monsters Theory says that we get more vampire movies during Democratic Party administrations, more zombie flicks for Republican ones, with the monsters reflecting fears of the parties in power. After analyzing movie lists, I found this theory checked out for the most part. I also found an interesting new development– under Trump’s first administration, the MAGA Party had brought a new fear– there was a big spike in evil killer clown movies. When Biden won, vampire movies were back in. In particular, there were a wave of Dracula-inspired movies like Renfield, Abigail (inspired by Dracula’s Daughter), and The Last Voyage of the Demeter.
The graceful last act of the Biden-era vampires is the remake of Nosferatu, which crept into theaters on Christmas. The story, also based on Dracula, is a box office hit, which will certainly inspire more vampire productions. Dracula and company will always be retold. But with the MAGA Party clown car pulling up to the White House on January 20, expect vampires to take a coffin nap while we hear more evil giggling on the horizon.
As I mentioned in Political Monsters, this is probably the least of concerns about what will happen in the next Trump era. But weird pop culture/ social stuff is how I cope, so I’ll be following this trend by launching CLOWNWATCH 2025. Here are the first reports of evil clowns we’re expected to encounter on screen in 2025/26.
Terrifier 4. One of 2024’s biggest fails was killer clown movie Joker: Folie a Deux. Unlike the first Joker film, this sequel was a commercial and critical stinkbomb. Terrifier 3, on the other hand, was quite successful with a box office of $68 million, the highest grossing unrated film of all time. Director Damien Leone confirmed that a Terrifier 4 will happen, probably with a 2025 or 26 release date. Leone says this will be Art the Clown’s “final chapter,” but they said that about Freddy and Jason before resurrecting them again and again.
Welcome to Derry. Although the Political Monsters Theory examines movies and doesn’t consider TV shows, it’s maybe time to revise and reconsider this. We’re seeing movie-TV crossovers more frequently– the MCU shows, Dune: Prophecy, and The Penguin being a few recent examples of TV shows tied to a cinematic universe. A prequel series to It, Welcome to Derry will premiere on HBO with an unannounced 2025 date with Bill Skarsgård returning as Pennywise. The It movies (2017, 2019), by the way, were both released in the first Trump administration (as well as Terrifier, 2018, and Joker, 2019).
Clown in a Cornfield. This adaptation of an award-winning 2020 YA horror novel by Adam Cesare will be directed by Eli Craig (Tucker & Dale vs. Evil). The movie has a May 9, 2025 release date.
UPDATE, 01/16/2025: Unless we find info to the contrary, it appears that the first killer clown movie of Trump 2.0 is the simply named Clowns (d. Alexander Kane) with an April 1, 2025 release date.
IMDb: “CLOWNS is a tale of revenge of a filmmaker-turned-serial killer who hunts down and captures the key individuals in his life responsible for his downward spiral.”
And so it starts! I’ll continue to ride this balloon animal over the next four years. Murderous, buffoonish… we shall see how the clown car unpacks.
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Political Monsters is available as a zine: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1778576030/political-monsters-how-presidents
Or as an e-book: https://www.amazon.com/Political-Monsters-Presidents-Influence-Horror-ebook/dp/B0DFJ7DZKQ/ref=sr_1_1
TWW: 4 More Years…of Vampires or Killer Clowns?
Political Monsters Week Continues
To conclude my posts about the Political Monsters project, I want to do some monster-casting to the future. During election years, we’re bombarded by both campaigns via emails, texts, junk mail, billboards, TV and internet ads– everywhere we look.
My zine/e-book Political Monsters talks about how we get more zombie movies during Republican administrations and more vampire movies during Democratic ones– the exception being Trump, who launched a rise in killer clown themed movies. In this last year or so we’ve seen lots of vampire movies, particularly Dracula inspired ones– The Last Voyage of the Demeter, Renfield, Nosferatu. But with Trump on the periphery, there’s also been a bump in killer clown movies– Joker 2, Terrifier 3. I think if Trump is elected, the chaotic candidate will bring in another wave of evil clown movies.
But what about Kamala Harris? She would be unique in becoming the first woman president. But she’s deeply associated with the Democratic Party as Biden’s VP, unlike Trump’s unhinged splinter MAGA Party. I think Harris would continue the trend of vampire movies as seen during Biden’s term. If anything, there’s be more lady vampire movies along the lines of what we saw in this year’s film Abigail (loosely inspired by the horrror classic Dracula’s Daughter).
As I note in the Political Monsters zine, the fate of the world will hinge on the election in a couple weeks on November 5. Significantly less frightening, it may determine the amount of vampires vs evil clowns we see on the silver screen.
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You can get a copy of Political Monsters…
In person: Saturday, Oct. 19: Milwaukee Paranormal Conference, I’ll be on the vendor floor 10am-5pm at the Irish Cultural & Heritage Center. Register for a free ticket here: milwaukeeparacon.com
Sunday, Oct. 20: Political Monsters Party at Lion’s Tooth, 3-5pm. Admission is free. I’ll talk briefly about the project, we’ll do a round of horror trivia, and if you dress like a zombie, vampire, or killer clown, you get a free copy of the Political Monsters zine!
You can also buy copies at Lion’s Tooth here in Milwaukee and Quimby’s in Chicago. You can order a print copy via the QWERTYFEST MKE Etsy page: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1778576030/political-monsters-how-presidents
And an e-book version is available through Kindle/KU: https://www.amazon.com/Political-Monsters-Presidents-Influence-Horror-ebook/dp/B0DFJ7DZKQ/ref=sr_1_1
TWW: The Late, Great Hannibal Lecter
Political Monsters Week Continues
One of the many bizarre things to come out of this election cycle is the Trump campaign’s racist fearmongering and spreading of false internet stories about immigrants eating the dogs, the cats, the geese, everything in sight– maybe even you. Trump says the countries south of the border are not only sending criminals, but highly intelligent forensic psychiatrist/ cannibal serial killers like “the late, great” Dr. Hannibal Lecter, the character who originated in novels by Thomas Harris and was adapted to various TV shows and movies, most famously The Silence of the Lambs (1991), played by Anthony Hopkins, who won an Academy Award for his portrayal.
Rolling Stone’s Miles Klee outlines the history of Trump referencing the killer in an article titled “Why is Trump So Obsessed With Hannibal Lecter?: A Complete Timeline.” Klee pinpoints the first reference at a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania on July 29, 2023, where Trump claims immigrants are “pouring” out of “mental institutions, from insane asylums,” adding “that’s like Silence of the Lambs stuff.” Trump continued to work on the bit, like a comedian refining a joke, over the months and by May 11, 2024 he referred to the character as “the late, great Hannibal Lecter” for the first time. As Rolling Stone notes, this is a strange reference as there’s no Hannibal Lecter related book or movie that depicts him as dying off.
Rolling Stone points out that perhaps Trump “initially conflated the term ‘insane asylums’ with ‘asylum seekers'” or maybe identified more with Lecter than the FBI agents who locked him up. I think that latter idea is the key here– Trump is a fan of the character. Much like he fawns over dictators like Putin, Jong Un, and Orbán, he admires Lecter.
In fact, I’m going to use Trump’s playbook of fearmongering lies here– the Trump family isn’t sending their best. They’re eating the public, they’re eating the people! They’re shooting people on 5th Avenue, then eating their livers with some fava beans and a nice chianti and the crooked Supreme Court is granting them total immunity. Horrible!
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See yesterday’s post for more on the Political Monsters project. Tomorrow I’ll give a monster forecast: “4 More Years: Vampires or Evil Clowns?”
You can get a copy of Political Monsters…
In person: Saturday, Oct. 19: Milwaukee Paranormal Conference, I’ll be on the vendor floor 10am-5pm at the Irish Cultural & Heritage Center. Register for a free ticket here: milwaukeeparacon.com
Sunday, Oct. 20: Political Monsters Party at Lion’s Tooth, 3-5pm. Admission is free. I’ll talk briefly about the project, we’ll do a round of horror trivia, and if you dress like a zombie, vampire, or killer clown, you get a free copy of the Political Monsters zine!
You can also buy copies at Lion’s Tooth here in Milwaukee and Quimby’s in Chicago. You can order a print copy via the QWERTYFEST MKE Etsy page: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1778576030/political-monsters-how-presidents
And an e-book version is available through Kindle/KU: https://www.amazon.com/Political-Monsters-Presidents-Influence-Horror-ebook/dp/B0DFJ7DZKQ/ref=sr_1_1
TWW: It’s “Political Monsters Week!”
Alright, well, it’s been a while since I’ve done anything significant with Tea’s Weird Week. But we’re getting into the Halloween season and this weekend I’ll be tabling with my Political Monsters zine at the Milwaukee Paranormal Conference on Saturday and at a special party at Lion’s Tooth on Sunday. Leading up to that, I thought I’d do some posts here this week tying to the project.
Today, let’s start at the beginning. What is the “Political Monsters Theory?” In 2008, a theory began to circulate that found a correlation between the political party in power and monster movies. It suggested that we get more vampire films during Democratic Party administrations and more zombies during Republican ones. The idea is that these monsters play into stereotypical visions of those parties. The short version: Democrats being kinky necksuckers and Republicans being a mob consuming everything in their path and warmongers.
My research found that the numbers checked out pretty well from the Carter through the Bush administrations.
During George W. Bush’s administration there was an explosion in zombie movies. 9/11 and war in Iraq in Afghanistan was one factor. Easier accessibility to affordable camera and editing software for low budget filmmakers was another. The theory was upended somewhat during Obama’s administration as there were far more zombie movies than vampire ones. However, as I argue in Political Monsters, if you look at another metric– box office money vs number of films, the sparkly vampires of The Twilight Saga far outpace all the zombie movies of that era combined with a total box office of $3.36 billion.
Then, in 2019 I made an observation. A political outsider, Trump, had broken the theory with a new trend…killer clowns. During the chaotic MAGA Party administration, we saw box office hits like Joker and the two-part It movie adaptation, as well as a surge of low budget imitators. After Trump packed up his clown car and left the White House, the vampires returned with Joe Biden. The Last Voyage of the Demeter, Renfield, Abigail, Salem’s Lot, and Nosferatu are just some of the titles from 2023 and 24. In Political Monsters I also share a special tie one-term presidents Carter and Biden have with the most famous of vampires, Count Dracula.
Tomorrow (Thursday), I’ll be writing about “The Late, Great Hannibal Lecter” and on Friday I’ll give a monster forecast: “4 More Years: Vampires or Evil Clowns?”
You can get a copy of Political Monsters…
In person: Saturday, Oct. 19: Milwaukee Paranormal Conference, I’ll be on the vendor floor 10am-5pm at the Irish Cultural & Heritage Center. Register for a free ticket here: milwaukeeparacon.com
Sunday, Oct. 20: Political Monsters Party at Lion’s Tooth, 3-5pm. Admission is free. I’ll talk briefly about the project, we’ll do a round of horror trivia, and if you dress like a zombie, vampire, or killer clown, you get a free copy of the Political Monsters zine!
You can also buy copies at Lion’s Tooth here in Milwaukee and Quimby’s in Chicago. You can order a print copy via the QWERTYFEST MKE Etsy page: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1778576030/political-monsters-how-presidents
And an e-book version is available through Kindle/KU: https://www.amazon.com/Political-Monsters-Presidents-Influence-Horror-ebook/dp/B0DFJ7DZKQ/ref=sr_1_1
Tea’s Weird Week: OUT NOW: Political Monsters are Creeping Your Way This Fall
I’m thrilled to say that I have a new publication (a short zine/ e-book) out in time for the horror season (Halloween and Election Day) titled Political Monsters: How Presidents Influence Horror Movies. It’s a study of a pop culture/ sociology/ horror film trend.
Hell’s Bells, here’s a blurb:
“Political Monsters explores a theory that dates back to the Obama administration that suggests that we get more vampire movies during Democrat administrations and more zombies during Republican ones. During Trump’s MAGA Party reign, journalist Tea Krulos noticed a new trend– lots of killer clown themed movies were being made, in fact the single biggest cluster of this theme in film history (vampires returned with Biden). Krulos decided to look at some data in his mad scientist lab to determine how much truth there was to this theory. Did it hold up? The answer is: for the most part, yes. The main section of Political Monsters explores the trends and data, but there’s also some bonus appendix material about the history of these genres.”
You can buy a print copy of the zine at the QWERTYFEST MKE Etsy store here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1778576030/political-monsters-how-presidents
E-book version available on Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DFJ7DZKQ
I’ll also have copies at these fantastic events:
Sunday, Sept. 22, 11am-5pm: Awkward Nerd Events Book Fair @ Tripoli Shrine Center (3000 W. Wisconsin Ave.)
Sunday, Sept. 22: 5-7pm: Records and Typewriters QWERTY Quarterly #6 Release Party @ Wiggle Room (2988 S. Kinnickinnic Ave.)
Saturday, Oct. 19: Milwaukee Paranormal Conference 2024 @ Irish Cultural and Heritage Center (2133 W. Wisconsin Ave.)
Sunday, Oct. 20, 4pm: Political Monsters Party @ Lion’s Tooth (2421 S. Kinnickinnic Ave.)
You can also buy a copy at:
Milwaukee: Lion’s Tooth (2421 S. Kinnicknnic Ave.)
Chicago: Quimby’s Bookstore (1854 W. North Ave.)
If you’re interested in having me for an appearance or on your media outlet, drop me a line at: teakrulos@gmail.com
The fang-tastic cover art is by Ashley Altadonna.
teakrulos.com 