The Pops Gallery: The Exorcist

Ah, October, when a young man's thoughts turn to pumpkin spice, Charlie Brown, demons, and masturbating with crucifixes (crucifixi?). I am a very picky fan of the genre of horror, and it takes a lot to get me really spooked. For my money, the scariest film of all time remains William Friedkin's 1973 adaptation of William Peter Blatty's THE EXORCIST (just out in a swanky new 40th anniversary Blu-ray set). What makes my perpetual spine-tingle from this film so odd is that I cannot buy its premise. I don't believe in God, I don't believe in the devil, I don't believe in possession, I just think our brain does some crazy ass shit when it wants to.

Then again, I've always found much of the imagery and ritualism of the Catholic Church to be fairly creepy, so maybe that plays into what makes this film work for me no matter how many times I see it. For this Pops Gallery, I've cobbled together a gallery of imagery both from and inspired by the movie (kicking it off with my own alternate poster, done for an art show of redux movie pone-sheets in 2010). For more fun, go to Captain Howdy for everything EXORCIST! The power of Christ compels you!

Chris Dibari

David O'Daniel

Makinita

Devin Faraci

Adam Rabalais

Rejected poster by Bill Gold

Deadman visits by Steven Howard

Vee Chayakul

Collector's Edition Photo Preview

So, with Collector's Edition: Confessions of a Pop Culture Obsessive-Compulsive done (aside from the kind of updating a book like this needs to be as contemporary as possible when published), I've been going through the arduous and agonizing process of trying to find an agent to sell the darn thing to a good olde-timey publisher who makes books out of paper. Which means that a final format has yet to be decided upon. My ultimate goal (and I think the logical one) is for the book to feature many illustrations, so the uninitiated can see what a Dr. Fate Super Powers action figure looks like instead of simply relying upon my thousand words describing it.

But I mostly want to feature the great photography of my pal Gary Ashley, who generously spent much time and effort taking amazing photos of things in my collections and from my own nerdy pop productions for the book. Gary has the true eye of an artist (his prints and sculptures are likewise things of beauty), and it was exciting to see him bring that to these artifacts, spanning over four decades of accumulation. And, if all goes according to plan, Gary and I will work even more closely on a follow-up book, the details of which I'm keeping to myself for now.

But for now, here's a mere sampling of just some of the hundreds of beautiful photos by Gary taken for Collector's Edition. For more of Gary's work, go to his website, the Gary Ashley Show.

All photos are ©Gary Ashley and may not be reproduced.