Mellick, Carlton, III
Entry updated 20 February 2023. Tagged: Author.
(1977- ) US author who began to publish work of genre interest with "Playroom" in Parchment Symbols for December 1999. He has been recognized as the central creator of what he may himself have dubbed Bizarro Fiction (not connected to the earlier Marvel Comics Supervillain Bizarro or the DC Comics Bizarro world), a term which describes stories whose narratives are bizarrely and arbitrarily intrinsicate with tropes and topoi from any genre available (see Absurdist SF; Equipoise), including of course both sf and any other aggregate of storyable moves normally, in this encyclopedia, referenced under the Fantastika descriptor. Bizarro stories can have an effect of attempting to pull off unconscionable in-your-face scams, but seem absolutely not genuinely intended to deceive, for their point is to give joy through complicit outreaches of exorbitance. Perhaps consequentially, Bizarro Fiction cannot easily be understood to embed or convey significant story-engines of recognition and/or projected transformation.
Many of Mellick's numerous Bizarro texts contain fragments of sf, and his longer works are listed below on the plausible assumption that sf, along with almost any fantastically adjacent trope, in whatever tongue-in-cheek guise of quotation, can be detected in many or most of them. His first novel, Satan Burger (2001), features a protagonist surreally locked into the Perception of himself as a body inhabited in the third person, a metafictional concept radically harshened by the fact that, simultaneously, the tale presents the deadly effects of a Pandemic that afflicts those over twenty-five. Cybermetrix (2008) conveys a spoof Cyberpunk narrative en passant. Apeshit (2008) contains in the bricolage of its presentation the presence of Mutants. The Terrible Thing That Happens (2016) is set in a Post-Holocaust world. Neverday (2018) introduces Time Loops. But as noted almost all his tales contain something of sf interest, though inside-outside perhaps, or in drag, or manifestly beside the point, if the tale is sufficiently unBizarro for a detachable point to be recognized, perhaps only for an instant. [JC]
Carlton Mellick III
born Phoenix, Arizona: 2 July 1977
works (selected)
series
Satan Burger
- Satan Burger (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2001) [Satan Burger: pb/Helmut Wolech]
- Punk Land (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2005) [Satan Burger: pb/]
individual titles
- Electric Jesus Corpse (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2002) [pb/Ed Mironiuk]
- Razor Wire Pubic Hair (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2003) [pb/]
- Fishy-Fleshed (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2004) [pb/]
- The Menstruating Mall (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press/Afterbirth Books, 2005) [pb/]
- The Baby Jesus Butt Plug (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2004) [pb/]
- Ocean of Lard (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2005) with Kevin L Donihe [pb/Terrasa Ulm]
- Sex and Death in Television Town (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2005) [pb/Ed Mironiuk]
- Sea of the Patchwork Cats (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2006) [pb/]
- The Haunted Vagina (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2006) [pb/]
- Sausagey Santa (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2006) [pb/]
- Teeth and Tongue Landscape (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2006) [pb/]
- Adolf in Wonderland (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2007) [pb/]
- Ultra Fuckers (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2008) [pb/]
- Cybermetrix (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2008) [pb/]
- The egg Man (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2008) [pb/]
- Apeshit (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press/Avant Punk Books, 2008) [pb/]
- The Faggiest Vampire (Portland, Oregon: Spunk Goblin Press, 2009) [pb/]
- The Cannibals of Candyland (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2009) [pb/Ed Mironiuk]
- Warrior Wolf Women of the Wasteland (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2009) [pb/Ed Mironiuk]
- The Kobol Wizard's Dildo of Enlightenment +2 (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2010) [pb/Ed Mironiuk]
- Zombies and Shit (Portland, Oregon: Deadite Press, 2010) [pb/]
- Crab Town (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2011) [pb/]
- Fantastic Orgy (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2011) [pb/]
- I Knocked Up Satan's Daughter: A Demonic Romantic Comedy (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2011) [pb/]
- Armadillo Fists (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2011) [pb/]
- The Handsome Squirm (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2012) [pb/]
- Tumor Fruit (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2012) [pb/]
- Kill Ball (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2012) [pb/]
- Cuddly Holocaust (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2013) [pb/]
- Village of the Mermaids (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2013) [pb/]
- Quicksand House (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2013) [pb/]
- Clusterfuck (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2013) [pb/]
- Hungry Bug (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2014) [pb/]
- The Tick People (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2014) [pb/]
- Sweet Story (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2014) [pb/]
- Bio Melt (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2015) [pb/]
- As She Stabbed Me Gently in the Face (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2015) [pb/]
- Every Time We Meet at the Dairy Queen, Your Whole Fucking Face Explodes (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2016) [pb/Ed Mironiuk]
- The Terrible Thing That Happens (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2016) [pb/]
- Exercise Bike (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2017) [pb/]
- Spider Bunny (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2017) [pb/]
- The Big Meat (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2017) [pb/]
- Parasite Milk (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2017) [novella: pb/]
- Neverday (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2018) [pb/]
- The Boy with the Chainsaw Heart (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2018) [pb/]
- Stacking Doll (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2018) [pb/]
- Mouse Trap (Avant Punk Books, 2019) [pb/]
- The Bad Box (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2020) [pb/]
- Snuggle Club (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2020) [pb/]
- Full Metal Octopus (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2021) as Carlton Mellick [pb/]
- Goblins on the Other Side (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2022) as Carlton Mellick [pb/]
collections and stories
- War Slut (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2006) [novella: chap: pb/Ed Mironiuk]
- Sunset With a Beard (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2010) [coll: pb/]
- The Morbidly Obese Ninja (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2011) [novella: chap: pb/]
- Barbarian Beast Bitches of the Badlands (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2011) [coll: pb/]
- Fantastic Orgy (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2011) [coll: pb/]
- Steel Breakfast Era (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2012) [novella: chap: pb/Ed Mironiuk]
- Ugly Heaven (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2012) [novella: chap: pb/]
- Der Baby-Jesus-Anal-Plug (Festa, 2012) [coll: pb/Ed Mironiuk]
- Hammer Wives (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2013) [coll: pb/]
- ClownFellas: Tales of the Bozo Family (New York: Random House/Hydra, 2015) [coll: ebook: na/]
- Stacking Doll (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2018) [novella: pb/]
- Snuggle Club (Portland, Oregon: Eraserhead Press, 2020) [novella: pb/]
links
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