Francis E. Dec, Esquire

You've probably not heard of Francis E. Dec.
Long before "viral videos" passed from one e-mail box to another, there was the glorious days of cassette trading and dubbing. You could get all kinds of crazy stuff on cassette if you knew the right person. I heard my first "Tube Bar" prank call recordings from a bootleg cassette back in 1990. At that same time, I was given a copy of the recordings of Francis E. Dec's manifestos read by radio DJ Boyd "Doc on the ROQ" Britton. Britton recorded these back in 1985 after receiving a fist full of Dec's mimiograghed rants at his Milwaukee radio station. Britton recorded 6 different rants, in varying styles and back ground music, and at some point, these were set free to the underground tape traders.
Rev. Ivang Stang, head honcho and Grand Pubah of the Church of the Subgenius, handed me the tape back in 1990 on the set of an MTV film shoot we were on. He really didn't say much about the contents except that the guy reading the tirade didn't write it...he was a voice guy.

After hearing the first rant, I was mesmarized. What the hell was clickin' in this guys head? It was like watching a train wreck.

The below links are to some of Dec's manifestos (as read by Doc Britton) sprinkled throughout the wonderful World Wide Web. Keep in mind, these rants are written by a heavily paranoid schizophrenic, and his observance of politically correct procedures have been removed by the repeated beatings from "gangster communist police" while incarcerated. This, keep in mind, is a sick man.
I would type more in this blog about Dec and his important writings, but since the tapes have traveled the globe (pretty much) I'll let the other fans who have chronicled these rants explain the life and misery of this man.
Five of his rants have been transcribed here for your reading pleasure. It's suggested that you read along while listening to the rants...sort of like a Peter Pan Read A Long record.

Rant 1:"GANGSTER COMPUTER GOD WORLD-
WIDE SECRET CONTAINMENT POLICY!!"

Rant 2:"TO ALL JUDGES!"

Rant 3: "WORLDWIDE OPEN SECRET!"

Rant 4: "LONG ISLAND LUNACY"

Rant 5: "MASTER RACE FRANKENSTEIN
RADIO CONTROLS!!"

If you wish to download and collect all the rants and burn them onto a CD, I have made a jewel case jacket, front and back, for these collected works of insanity.



(back and end panels)


Many people have been obsessed with Dec and even have tried to speak with him (Britton tried in '89). One person, Forrest Jackson, met Dec at a V. A. hospital in '95. His account is here.
(One thing of note: Jackson's meeting with Dec was a direct action from my having the cassette in hand. He heard the Dec Rants at a party here in Dallas. One of the people attending the party was Jason Cohen. Jason had, at this time,(1993) borrowed my only cassette and dubbed it, then apparently played it at this "Party". It all goes full circle.)


The last thing known of Dec, is that he probably died in the V. A hospital in '95 or '96. The Mad Deadly Communist Gangster Computer God had finally found him.

Comic Ads 1979

A while back I scanned the old comic bin at the Half Price Books store, and found a small cache of Micronauts comics from '79. I bought the handfull, not for the riveting adventures of the Micronauts (which I never got into...I was in high school by then), but for the great ads from that time. I'm sure a few readers would like to have a copy of these ads, as they might have been of the right age then. As usual, click, save, print out, and frame to hang in your cubicle.

The Saturday Morning Line-up!!
ABC


CBS


NBC


Goofy Marvel swag!




...and finally...


..the coolest Shogun Warriors ad ever!! These guys ruled when I saw them in '78 at the M. E. Moses 5 & Dime!

Cum Ba Ya

Sunday night, Penny and I were relaxing, eating dinner, and watching two episodes of Davey and Goliath ....the Halloween Special "Who-Dun-It" and the episode called "Cum Ba Ya".
The Halloween episode had the kids dressing up and going out on "Mischief Night" and causing all kinds of havoc. They didn't even mention trick or treating...just running around and busting' things up. "Cum Ba Ya" was about Davey and some other kids singing "Cum Ba Ya" in their church. The trio breaks up right before the performance because one of them keeps questioning why Davey can hear Goliath speak English..and nobody else can.
Right as this is about to wrap up, I glance out the back french doors to my right. I'm only 3 feet away, and on the patio I see a skinny hunched over shadowy person inching toward our lawn mower. For about 3 seconds I stare dumbfounded at the audacity of this ass, and then I yelled to Penny sitting next to me, "There's someone on our back porch!" and then I banged the glass with my fist.
He jumps like a cat...I run to the back via the garage and open the doors there to see a dust cloud shaped like a skinny audacious thief. He's gone over the fence.
A few seconds go by, and then Penny comes barreling out the french doors with her Remington .22 long rifle. Standing in in the spot where the dust cloud was, Penny screams to me, "Watch out...!" she shoots a warning shot high over the alley, then screams "Yea...You better run, mutha f**ka!"

I'm reminded of Granny Clampett, momentarily...she's then gone in an instant, and has apparently run off, barefoot, and is in hot persuit for the thief in our truck.
Brandishing the .22, a high powered spot light, and gritting her Scotch Irish teeth, she combs the neighborhood for a guy who almost stole our lawn mower.


Tomorrow night I think we'll watch Gumby.

Chickenshoot

Deanna Molinaro is a mean little girl and she makes me laugh. I wanna bite her. Go to her cool site and her journal/blog thingy. Go look at her sculpts(I want one)....and art ( I want that too). Go now.

Monster Cartoons Too

I've finished the 5th painting for the Elbow Room showing. It's up and you can go see it whenever you like. There was supposed to be some kind'a opening night, but that disappeared in a puff of cigarette smoke, so go by when you can.

"Secret Suburban Sacrifices" 16x20 acrylic on canvas

Ultraman DVD Heaven

Oh man...finally after all these years....The first season, box one, of Ultraman!! I've waited for good copies of these episodes for many years. I bought it off'a Deep Discount DVD for $21!!
I saw this show for the first time, not in 1968 when it aired in English across America's small market TV stations, but in 1981 when local channel 21 aired it after school.

It was sort of a secret indulgnace. I totally loved goofy monster suits, martial arts, spaceships, etc...and this show had all that. I watched the Godzilla movies to see the guys in the suits beat the crap out of each other and you had to wait about an hour for that, though. BUT...with Ultraman, you got some rubber suit throwdown pretty quick...15 minutes!
This box set has the options of the original Japanese language version with subtitles, or the English dubbed versions as we saw it. There's an interveiw (apparently at some convention) with some of the voice talent of the English versions...Corinne Orr, Peter Fernandez, and the late Earl Hammond. This is the same troup that voiced Speed Racer and other Japo-Imports. (Peggy Lobbin also voiced on Ultraman, but was not present during the interveiw.)
It's nice to see good, bright copies of the episodes after all this time. I've spent years squinting at 3rd generation VHS dubs made from 16 mm TV prints. Ironically, I got 20 episodes, in pristine quality, for the same price that I've paid for 4 episodes on VHS...and I didn't have to deal with an unbathed convention leech to get it.
I use to be quite the Ultraman collector, as matter of fact. Here is a pic to show the collection in it's prime. It's been sold off, piece by piece.

Monster Cartoons

I've got some paintings up for sale, finally. This is the first time I've had a showing of my work. It's not a gallery, thought...it's a bar, which is more my speed. I've got 4 paintings up on the brick walls at the Elbow Room near downtown on Gaston.
(click for much larger images)


"Man Discovers Fire (Granite Foot Flintstone's Weekend Project) 12x12 acrylic on masonite





"Robotmonster" 16x20 acrylic on canvas




"Goodwill Ghoul" (You Can't Take It With You) 16x20 acrylic on canvas



"Racing for Pinks" (Was the Space Program the Ultimate Drag Race?) 16x24 acrylic on masonite

I've got a 5th one I'm working on now...I'll post that when I'm done.

I'm hoping to get other shows down the line, and if I don't sell any, at least I have a look people can watch for. Most of the paintings I do are these cartoon monster themes. I paint what I love to look at...all the crap I grew up and remember from when I was a kid...cereal box art, toys and toy box art..comics...cheap monster movies...y'know, stuff we all seceretly love.