March 31, 2015
Nous en avions brièvement discuté lors de l’équinoxe d’automne dernier :
Spectacular Optical Announces Upcoming Second Book:
SATANIC PANIC: POP-CULTURAL
PARANOIA IN THE 1980s
In the 1980s, it seemed impossible to escape Satan’s supposed influence. Everywhere you turned, there were warnings about a widespread evil conspiracy to indoctrinate the vulnerable through the media they consumed. This percolating cultural hysteria, now known as the “Satanic Panic,” not only sought to convince us of devils lurking behind the dials of our TVs and radios and the hellfire that awaited on book and video store shelves, it also created its own fascinating cultural legacy of Satan-battling VHS tapes, audio cassettes and literature. The second book by Canadian micro-publisher Spectacular Optical, Satanic Panic: Pop-Cultural Paranoia in the 1980s, offers an unprecedented and in-depth exploration of how a controversial culture war played out during the decade, from the publication of the memoir Michelle Remembers in 1980 to the end of the McMartin “Satanic Ritual Abuse” Trial in 1990. This new anthology, expected to be released in summer 2015, follows on the success of KID POWER!, Spectacular Optical’s inaugural book about cool, tough and sassy kids in cult film and television.
Satanic Panic: Pop-Cultural Paranoia in the 1980s features 20 new essays and interviews addressing the ways the widespread fear of a Satanic conspiracy was both illuminated and propagated through almost every pop culture pathway in the 1980s, from heavy metal music to Dungeons & Dragons role playing games, Christian comics, direct-to-VHS scare films, pulp paperbacks, Saturday morning cartoons, TV talk shows and even home computers. The book also features case studies on McMartin, Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth and Long Island “acid king” killer Ricky Kasso. From con artists to pranksters and moralists to martyrs, the book aims to capture the untold story of the how the Satanic Panic was fought on the pop culture frontlines and the serious consequences it had for many involved.
Satanic Panic’s roster of contributing authors and media critics includes GAVIN BADDELEY (Lucifer Rising: Sin, Devil Worship and Rock n’ Roll), LIISA LADOUCEUR (Encyclopedia Gothica), DAVID FLINT (Sheer Filth), ALEXANDRA HELLER-NICHOLAS (Rape Revenge Films: A Critical Study), ADRIAN MACK (The Georgia Straight), FORREST JACKSON (Cosmic Suicide: The Tragedy and Transcendence of Heaven’s Gate), ALISON NASTASI (Flavorwire), LESLIE HATTON (Popshifter), DAVID CANFIELD (Twitch), DAVID BERTRAND (Fangoria; Spectacular Optical), ALISON LANG (Rue Morgue), KEVIN L. FERGUSON (Queens College/CUNY), WM CONLEY (Deathwound), KURT HALFARD (Twitch), SAMM DEIGHAN (Satanic Pandemonium), STACEY RUSNAK (The Postnational Fantasy: Essays on Postcolonialism, Cosmopolitics and Science Fiction), RALPH ELAWANI (C’est complet au royaume des morts) and JOSHUA GRAHAM, alongside co-editors KIER-LA JANISSE (House of Psychotic Women: An Autobiographical Topography of Female Neurosis in Horror and Exploitation Films) and PAUL CORUPE (Canuxploitation). The book will also feature comic art by RICK TREMBLES (Motion Picture Purgatory) and original illustrations by Toronto artist MIKE McDONNELL.
The book’s launch in summer 2015 will be accompanied by screenings and panel events in multiple cities. Stay tuned for more developments on that front, as well as a full table of contents list to be announced later this spring. Please see attached for cover art, which will be printed with metallic silver ink on black matte.