Ecce Sigum

Immanentize the Empathy

Tag: Metal Hurlant

June 2025 Books and Reading Notes

John Winkelman

June was a pretty good month for reading, considering the almost complete lack of free time, thanks to an intense work project and the arrival of summer with all of its related activities. I think the standout was Zig Zag Claybourne’s Breath, Warmth, and Dream, which was absolutely beautiful. I backed the Kickstarter campaign for book two of the trilogy, and am eagerly awaiting its arrival.

It was interesting to dive into Heavy Metal, which I first read in the early eighties, I think, when I was probably a little too young to be reading things which were DEFINITELY aimed at an older audience. The writing and artwork for this new generation of Heavy Metal compares quite favorably to the original run from more than forty years ago.

Acquisitions

  1. Voices 2025 [2025.06.07] – Picked up at the Dyer-Ives Poetry Competition winner’s celebration.
  2. Inque Magazine #3 [2025.06.24]

Reading List

Books

  1. Heavy Metal #001 [2025.06.01]
  2. Metal Hurlant #1 [2025.06.02]
  3. Voices 2025 [2025.06.07]
  4. Zig Zag Claybourne, Breath, Warmth, and Dream [2025.06.18]
  5. Wolfgang Hilbig (Isabel Fargo Cole, translator) , Old Rendering Plant [2025.06.25]

Short Prose

  1. Kameron Hurley, “Not My City” (Patreon post)

May 2025 Books and Reading Notes

John Winkelman

May was a pretty good month for both reading and acquiring reading material. A brief illness over the Memorial Day weekend allowed me more quiet time, and I took advantage of it by binge-reading the excellent Kraken Rider Z books. This was the first time I binge-read a series in at least a decade. Highly recommended.

Acquisitions

  1. Jim Harrison, The Theory and Practice of Rivers (Copper Canyon Press) [2025.05.06] – Purchased from the publisher.
  2. Frank O’Hara, Lunch Poems (City Lights Books) [2025.05.07] – Purchased from The Book Nook and Java Shop in Montague, Michigan
  3. Jack Hirschman, Front Lines: Selected Poems (City Lights Books) [2025.05.07] – Purchased from The Book Nook and Java Shop in Montague, Michigan
  4. Naomi Klein, Doppelganger [2025.05.09] – Purchased from Books and Mortar in Grand Rapids, Michigan
  5. Soliloquey #2 [2025.05.13] – Purchased from the author at a Grand River Poetry Collective meeting.
  6. Dan Davies, The Unaccountability Machine: Why Big Systems Make Terrible Decisions and How the World Lost Its Mind (The University of Chicago Press) [2025.05.19] – Purchased from the publisher after reading about it in a comment on a Naked Capitalism post.
  7. Metal Hurlant #1 [2025.05.20] – From a Kickstarter campaign run by the publisher.
  8. SJ Kim, This Part is Silent – A Life Between Cultures (And Other Stories) [2025.05.23] – Received from the publisher.
  9. Heavy Metal #001 [2025.05.27]

Reading List

Books

  1. Robin McLean, Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing [2025.05.08]
  2. Frank O’Hara, Lunch Poems [2025.05.13]
  3. Soliloquy #2 [2025.05.19]
  4. Dyrk Ashton and David Estes, Kraken Rider Z [2025.05.24]
  5. Dyrk Ashton and David Estes, Kraken Rider Z: Thunder Kraken [2025.05.26]
  6. Jack Hirschman, Front Lines: Selected Poems [2025.05.31]

Short Prose

  1. Kameron Hurley, “When the Stars Fell” (Patreon post) [2025.05.01]
  2. Jim C. Hines, “Launch Day Milkshakes” (Patreon post) [2025.05.01]
  3. Kameron Hurley, “The Wake” (Patreon post) [2025.05.01]
  4. Kameron Hurley, “The Sea of Ruin” (Patreon post) [2025.05.01]
  5. Robin McLean, “Get ’em Young, treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing”, Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing [2025.05.02]
  6. Robin McLean, “True Carnivores”, Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing [2025.05.02]
  7. Robin McLean, “Big Black Man”, Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing [2025.05.02]
  8. Robin McLean, “Judas Cradle”, Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing [2025.05.03]
  9. Robin McLean, “Cat”, Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing [2025.05.03]
  10. Robin McLean, “House Full of Feasting”, Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing [2025.05.04]
  11. Robin McLean, “Cliff Ordeal”, Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing [2025.05.06]
  12. Robin McLean, “Alpha”, Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing [2025.05.08]
  13. Jim C. Hines, “The Haunting of Jig’s Ear” (Patreon post) [2025.05.19]
  14. Frey Lylark, “Changeling” (Patreon post by Apex Book Company) [2025.05.20]