Grok #3: Nameless Horror

Grok #3: Nameless Horror

Dec 17

The holidays can be a bit much, eh? We’ve already spent way too many hours stuffing our faces with eggnog-flavored gagh, shoving through the mall in search of discontinued Mighty Muggs, and avoiding the handsy Skrulls that always seem to be lurking under the office mistletoe (yes, we know He Loves Us; no, we do not need a one-on-one demonstration).

And yet, we can’t help but be gripped by a certain joyful spirit and goodwill toward geeks and we want to make sure your year-end festivities are as stupendously awesome as possible. So we have a little gift for you…Grok #3!

If you’ll recall, this is our PDF zine that you can read on your computer screen or print out and tote wherever you desire. Within, you will find fiction, essays and other general hilarity dedicated to geek culture and the nerd experience. This time ’round, we went a little Lovecraftian with the theme and called it “Nameless Horror.”

Grok #3: Winter ’08, Nameless Horror (PDF)

In this issue (which, incidentally, is our fattest edition evAR and features glorious cover art by the amazing Toren Atkinson)…

One Con Glory, Part III, by Sarah Kuhn: As Julie’s tale of “sex and woe and fandom” finally wraps up, the following things occur: People chase each other. There is a very important Buffy debate. Braidbeard meets his fate. Oh, and someone Twitters something.

So This Ghost Walks Into a Bar… by Jeff Stolarcyk: Jeff shadows some professional paranormal investigators for a night and has a few close encounters of the extremely spooky kind. As some dude once said, the truth is out there.

Love, Lovecraft Style, by Matt Springer: Becky loves her Coo-coo-lulu as only a 16-year-old “world-weary veteran of the battlefield of love” can. But does Coo-coo-lulu feel the same way?

Autotaxonomy, by Samantha Rich: Choosing your internet pseudonym is one of those excruciating experiences that involves hours of pondering, teeth-gnashing, and swapping out “Y”s for random vowels. Samantha explores the pain.

So Perfect, by Stephen Graham Jones: Teenage girls. Ticks. The quest for perfection. To say anything more would be to spoil things, but rest assured: you will have nightmares.

My Tattoo, by Chris Stewart: Chris has a dirty little secret. OK, so it’s sort of given away in the title, but as with most interesting stories, there’s a lot more to it than that. Horror — capital “H” — is involved.

The Tale of the Gallant Sailor, by Matthew Walden: Long ago, when wishes still came true, there lived a father who performed his service to the world as a reactor operant on a nuclear submarine. Second class petty officer of the United States Navy, Sir!, was his rank and Northrop Glitten was his name. This is his story.

Yelp Reviews of the Arkham Waffle House, by Ivan Sian: I ordered my hash browns “scattered, smothered, and covered,” NOT “scattered, smothered, covered, slimed and coated with entrails.” OK?

Plus: filler jokes! Throwaway quizzes with funny art! Scintillating contributor bios! And another letter from your pal Fake George Lucas! Check it out…if you dare!