Sex and Death in Television Town [Paperback]

Carlton Mellick III (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 14, 2005

A band of hermaphrodite gunslingers fight for their lives in a desert infested with crispy black demons. Along with a motley collection of survivors (including a sex-crazed female samurai modified to resemble a bipedal stegosaurus) they take refuge in the only safe haven left: Telos . . . a strange town near the end of the world, where the citizens have televisions instead of heads.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

"There is enough viscera to satisfy the most rabid splatterpunk, but it is also a tale with enough social satire and insight to satisfy the most jaded intellectual reader. A fun, crazy romp in an alternate reality wild west and also unlike anything else you have ever read!"
--DARK DISCOVERIES MAGAZINE

Praise for Carlton Mellick III

"Easily the craziest, weirdest, strangest, funniest, most obscene writer in America."
- GOTHIC MAGAZINE

"Carlton Mellick III has the craziest book titles... and the kinkiest fans!"
- CHRISTOPHER MOORE, author of The Stupidest Angel

"If you haven't read Mellick you're not nearly perverse enough for the twenty first century."
- JACK KETCHUM, author of The Woman and The Girl Next Door

"Carlton Mellick III is one of bizarro fiction's most talented practitioners, a virtuoso of the surreal, science fictional tale."
- CORY DOCTOROW, author of Little Brother

"Bizarre, twisted, and emotionally raw--Carlton Mellick's fiction is the literary equivalent of putting your brain in a blender."
- BRIAN KEENE, author of The Rising and Dead Sea

"Carlton Mellick III exemplifies the intelligence and wit that lurks between its lurid covers. In a genre where crude titles are an art in themselves, Mellick is a true artist."
- THE GUARDIAN

"Just as Pop had Andy Warhol and Dada Tristan Tzara, the Bizarro movement has its very own P. T. Barnum-type practitioner. He's the mutton-chopped author of such books as Electric Jesus Corpse and The Menstruating Mall, the illustrator, editor, and instructor of all things Bizarro, and his name is Carlton Mellick III."
- DETAILS MAGAZINE

Product Details

• Paperback: 184 pages
• Publisher: Eraserhead Press (December 14, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0976249855
• ISBN-13: 978-0976249856
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #211,903 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

CARLTON MELLICK III is one of the leading authors in the bizarro fiction movement. His influences range from offbeat children's book authors such as Dr. Suess and Roald Dahl to Japanese cult directors such as Takashi Miike and Shinya Tsukamoto to trashy B-movies such as those from Troma and John Waters.

He lives in Portland, OR, where the breweries, bookstores, and strip clubs are the best in the country.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A futuristic, punked-out western gunslinger tale, August 11, 2006

By 

Schtinky "Schtinky" (California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Sex and Death in Television Town (Paperback)

One thing I can guarantee from this book: it is the strangest apocalypse book you will ever read. In the new 'Bizarro Fiction' genre, Mellick is a strange and outlandish leader.

In an era where kids, adults, and seniors alike spend most of their time glued to their television sets, Mellick has written his craziest satire yet on modern human behavior. Using the grossness of 'Ocean Of Lard' and the surrealism of 'Sea Of Patchwork Cats', '$ex And Death In Television Town' with have you laughing while you barf.

The zany cast of characters includes Random and Typi (newlyweds), the hermaphrodites Battle Johnny, Sharp, Oxy, and Cry (a.k.a. $ex). There's also a strange, silent gunslinger named Jesus (a.k.a. Death) and a green-faced Hoak named Nixx. The story starts with these eight characters fleeing for their lives on a stagecoach, when Cry informs everyone they need to go to Telos to escape the pursuing black demons. (You don't want to know how Cry predicts the future, its just gross)

Once they arrive in Telos, Cry and Jesus split the town into two halves, each conquering the Telosians in their own ways; one with Death and the other with $ex.

Hermaphrodite gunslinger gangs, worm-trains, pot-bellied demons made from ash, babies that are really fruits growing from plants, a town filled with people who have televisions for heads, a machine factory that creates the world's colors, clear suits with names like Forest, Music, Food, etc, that come to real life when you wear them ... this book really is the most deviant, unusual, and outrageous apocalyptic survival book you will ever read.

Unfortunately, the publication and editing isn't great. There are lots of typos and grammatical errors in this book, but in this utterly gross and highly erratic tale of offbeat fantasy and humor, the errors actually tend to blend in. While not the best of Mellick's books, '$ex And Death In Television Town' is worth a read if you have a twisted mind and a warped sense of humor. Enjoy!

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful, hilarious satire, March 13, 2006

By 

Nuclear Blue Girl (Amherst, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sex and Death in Television Town (Paperback)

This book is the perfect afternoon read. It's a satirical take on Westerns with a dose of dark fantasy and magical surrealism. The main character is wistfully saved by the "vicious Crawler Gang. A group of renegade hermaphrodites that have been terrorizing innocent farmers and councilmen, wreaking havoc from the silver coast to the end of the world." One member of which is an incredibly charismatic snake skinned nymphomanic with stegosaurus spikes and blades that come out of her skin who can tell your future from having sex. And that is just the first two pages. This book is full of suprising and imaginative details that make it highly entertaining and fun. The style is fast paced and fun. For me, this book is how I'd see Shinya Tsukamoto directing a Spaghetti Western.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Weird Western Tale, February 12, 2006

By 

Charles Glover - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sex and Death in Television Town (Paperback)

Mellick's new novel is the best bizarre western to come along since Joe Lansdale's "Far Side of Cadillac Desert With Dead Folks." This book has it all... shoot outs... hermaphrodites... a woman with Stegosaurus spikes... a town of people with televisions for heads... Jesus, a.k.a. Death, a gunslinger who never misses his target.

The premise is great... Sex and Death take over the television town (set to an old west backdrop, but each television has a movie or television show on it that viewers well versed in television trivia will know) and divide the television people onto two sides. Any more would spoil the fun.

Mellick's signature surrealist style is in full bloom here, and his characters are quite interesting. This is a fast read and a great satire about a tv watching nation. Ed Mironiuk provided the illustrations.