A funny and entertaining look at outlandish ideas, wacky religious cults and the extremes of human beliefs, both in Australia and overseas. It is a celebration of strange and eccentric lives, with an emphasis on unsung Australian eccentrics, bringing together the best ten years of "Bizarrism" magazine.

The leading journal devoted to all aspects of popular culture and cult media, Headpress 25 turns its attention to the Dream, or Flicker, Machine. Featuring interviews with William Burroughs and Paul Bowles, Headpress 25 also includes a detailed look at the neglected life and career of the late Luis de Jesus, a star of diminutive stature whose film appearances range from sadistic sidekick in the cult 1976 feature Blood Sucking Freaks, to numerous hardcore porn features, of which the most notorious is The Anal Dwarf.

An indispensable sampling of the vast assortment of publications which exist as an adjunct to the mainstream press, or which promote themes and ideas that may be defined as pop culture, alternative, underground or subversive. Updated and revised from the pages of the critically acclaimed Headpress journal, this is an enlightened and entertaining guide to the counter culture - including everything from cult film, music, comics and cutting-edge fiction, by way of its books and zines, with contact information accompanying each review.

Bizarrism is a collection of strange-but-true tales, featuring a grand parade of eccentrics, visionaries, crackpots, cult leaders, artists, theorists and outsiders of every stripe. First published in 1999, this new, fully revised and expanded edition revisits a host of unique individuals, including: William Chidley, who believed that, when it comes to sex, we’ve all been making a terrible mistake; Arthur Cravan, who combined poetry with boxing; Slim Gaillard, jazz singer and dispenser of ‘vout’; William Lindsay Gresham, author of the classic noir novel Nightmare Alley; Rosaleen Norton, Australia’s most notorious witch; Harry Crosby, poet, sun worshipper and the best looking corpse of 1929; Reginal Levgiac, author of the mysterious pamphlet Drugs Virus Germs. In writing their stories, Mikul does not judge, but instead celebrates these characters for their fabulous weirdness. For him, they are the “beacons of shining if erratic brilliance in a world of sensible conformity”. The world would be a poorer place without them.

Bizarrism II collects further tales of high weirdness from around the world, including: • The curious death of Sherlock Holmes scholar Richard Lancelyn Green. • Baroness Eloise de Bosquet and the mystery of Floreana • The strange odyssey of William Seabrook – writer, adventurer, cannibal. • JLB Smith’s obsessive search for the coelacanth. • The cult that promised eternal life. • The unexpectedly appalling story of Madalyn Murray O’Hair and the American Atheists. • Leonard Lawson – comic book artist and killer. • Padre Pio, Italy’s celebrity stigmatic. • The strange fate of Napoleon’s penis and other illustrious male members. • Ferdinand Sauerbruch – the senile surgeon. • Murder and mayhem among the Hare Krishnas. • The enduring enigma of ‘Somerton Man’. Mikul brings these stories to life in meticulously researched accounts that will amuse, appal and intrigue, and leave you marvelling at the infinite strangeness of human beings.

Bizarrism is a collection of strange-but-true tales, featuring a grand parade of eccentrics, visionaries, crackpots, cult leaders, artists, theorists and outsiders of every stripe. First published in 1999, this new, fully revised and expanded edition revisits a host of unique individuals, including: - William Chidley, who believed that, when it comes to sex, we've all been making a terrible mistake - Arthur Cravan, who combined poetry with boxing - Slim Gaillard, jazz singer and dispenser of 'vout' - William Lindsay Gresham, author of the classic noir novel Nightmare Alley - Rosaleen Norton, Australia's most notorious witch - Harry Crosby, poet, sun worshipper and the best looking corpse of 1929 - Reginal Levgiac, author of the mysterious pamphlet Drugs Virus Germs.