The publishing world has just received its bill of health, and the prognosis isn't pretty. Literary marauders are rising up from the hazardous material bins labeled Horror, Surrealism, and Science Fiction. Here the pen is not merely mightier than the sword; it is a plague heralding the apocalypse for convention, writing a dirge for complacency. The stories herein explore illness in all its forms: physical, mental, and societal. These sick stories are horrendous, hilarious, and stupefying dissections of creative minds on the scalpel's edge.

Author's sledge expedition along the Arctic coast of Siberia from Waigatz Island to Lapland, 1893-94, to test cold weather clothing and equipment and to study the Samoyed people.

The use of psychedelic drugs plants is rising, and with it the number of reports narrating encounters with otherworldly visionary beings. Approaches to these experiences have often been literal, archetypal or dismissive. Evolutionary psychology and the cognitive science of religion suggest innate and non-imagistic mental foundations for these phenomena arising from easily-triggered evolutionary functions during emotive periods of high cognitive demand. Such functions include agent detection, social intelligence faculties and metacognition. This wide-ranging book explores how our deepest mental processes predispose us as humans to believe in supernatural agents, and presents a new hypothesis of how these same cognitions facilitate the emergence of those agents to become present when psychedelic drugs and plants are ingested. Bruce concludes that visionary beings shimmer within as awe-inspiring products of the mind, an experience which rests at the heart of what it is to be human.

This book brings together as complete a record of traditional Yupik rules and rituals as is possible in the late twentieth century. Incorporating elders' recollections of the system of ruled boundaries and ritual passages that guided their parents and grandparents a century ago, Ann Fienup-Riordan brings into focus the complex, creative Yupik world view - expressed by ceremonial exchanges and the cycling of names, gifts, and persons - which continues to shape daily life in communities along the Bering Sea coast. Her analysis is illustrated with many contemporary and historical photographs. Identifying "metaphors to live by, " Fienup-Riordan tells of "the Boy Who Went to Live with Seals" and "the Girl Who Returned from the Dead." She explains how in Yupik cosmology their stories illustrate relationships among human beings, animals, and the spirit world - the "boundaries and passages" between death and the renewal of life.

For the first time ever, Comet Press brings you their infamous THINGS anthologies in one terrifying trio, featuring authors such as Ramsey Campbell, Graham Masterton, Tim Curran, John Shirley, Simon Wood, Fred Venturini and many more. Three anthologies in one, with 700 pages and 42 stories, including the newest book in the series, STIFF THINGS! VILE THINGS: EXTREME DEVIATIONS OF HORROR -- the ultimate collection of extreme horror from award-winning masters and up-and-coming authors of macabre fiction. SICK THINGS: EXTREME CREATURE HORROR -- a disturbing collection of extreme creature horror with 17 deviant and gore-soaked stories featuring demons, cannibals, mutants, golems, werewolves, and many more vile creatures, monsters, and beasts. STIFF THINGS: THE SPLATTERP0RN ANTHOLOGY-- ratchets up the er0ticism and visceral intensity with twisted hardcore stories that penetrate new depths of psychosexual horror. Not for the squeamish or prudish. Don’t get any on you. EDITORIAL REVIEWS "This book is a definite for any extreme horror fan. Full of terror, sex, and gore, I don't recommend this for the faint of heart or for a light read at a beauty salon." --FANGORIA (on Vile Things) "But dismembered members aside, there are no cheap gross-outs here; even though the focus is clearly on the vile and unpalatable these don't feel like stories that were written with the sole purpose of being labeled 'extreme horror' or to merely revel in their graphic, gory descriptions. Simply put, VILE THINGS is every deviant horror fan's wet dream." --RUE MORGUE "VILE THINGS is one of the stronger horror anthologies I have come across in some time, its theme literally appears to be centered around creatures, topics, or situations that are so vile it would send a shiver down your spine. It includes stories from both established and newer horror authors, and some of the stories are more extreme than the usual fare."--MONSTER LIBRARIAN "Cover every orifice. Comet Press' new collection is making a beeline for the soft contents of your body--and it doesn't care one bit where it makes its grand entrance, orbital sockets or otherwise. Rest assured this violation will be painful, given the tight confinements of our fallible frames of flesh—but anything less than a full-on ass-rape would probably seem insufficient in the eyes of editrix Cheryl Mullenax…Mullenax has assembled a rogue's gallery of intelligent grotesqueries that will temper one's appetite hours after closing the book…" --FANGORIA (on Sick Things) “I thoroughly enjoyed reading this Anthology. Like I said in the beginning, no story fell short for me. Everyone brought an er0tic taste that stimulated every sense of my being. I highly recommend this book who love some deranged er0tic horror.” -- SPLATTER CAFE (on Stiff Things)

Comet Press presents the ultimate collection of extreme creature horror with 17 deviant and gore-soaked stories featuring demons, cannibals, mutants, golems, werewolves, and many more vile creatures. Brace yourself for a wild and bestial ride in these disturbing tales of Sick Things. FANGORIA MAGAZINE REVIEW "Cover every orifice. Comet Press' new collection SICK THINGS: AN ANTHOLOGY OF EXTREME CREATURE HORROR is making a beeline for the soft contents of your body—and it doesn't care one bit where it makes its grand entrance, orbital sockets or otherwise. Rest assured this violation will be painful, given the tight confinements of our fallible frames of flesh—but anything less than a full-on ass-rape would probably seem insufficient in the eyes of editrix Cheryl Mullenax. Read on at your own stomach's peril." FATALLY YOURS REVIEW "If you are an extreme fan of horror looking for the ultimate in disgusting, vile and disturbing fiction, Sick Things: An Anthology of Extreme Creature Horror is a must-read…just make sure you have your barf bag handy!" TOXIC GRAVEYARD REVIEW "Recently I’ve discovered the awesomeness that is Comet Press. There is a myriad of small press horror publishers out there, and more seem to be popping up all the time. Many times these small press companies promise “extreme” horror but often what you get is a poorly edited book riddled with grammatical and spelling errors with mediocre unknowns sandwiched between old stories from established authors. Thank goodness for Comet Press. I’ve reviewed their previous releases Vile Things and The Death Panel and loved em both. The bar was set high for Sick Things, and it soared over it on cloven hoof."

In this analysis of human history and myth, “[Calasso’s] flow of associations leaves you feeling not out of your depth, but smarter and better read” (The New York Times Book Review). A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice There was a time, even before prehistory, when man was simply a defenseless animal. The gods he worshiped took the form of other beasts or were the patterns of the stars he saw above him each night in the sky, which he transformed into figures and around which he created stories. Soon, however, man learned to imitate the animals that attacked him and he became a hunter. This transformation, Roberto Calasso posits, from defenseless victim to hunter was a key moment, the first step on man’s ascendance to power. Suddenly the notion of the hunter became fundamental. It would be developed over thousands of years through the figures that became central to Greek mythology, including the constellations. Among them was Orion, the celestial hunter, and his dog, Sirius. Vivid and strikingly original, and expertly translated from the Italian by Richard Dixon, The Celestial Hunter traces how man created the divine myths that would become the cornerstones of Western civilization. As Calasso demonstrates, the repercussions of these ideas would echo through history, from Paleolithic to modern times. And they would be the product of one thing: the human mind. “Calasso is vital.” —The Guardian “At a moment when atavistic kinds of peril, awe and terror seem close at hand, it feels no great stretch to share Calasso’s core belief that ‘The gods always return.’” —Financial Times “Elliptical, allusive and dazzlingly eclectic.” —The Spectator “Thought-provoking.” —Publishers Weekly