ITC 10. Good is near
Halloween recommendations special
New recommendations edition. Halloween Special! 🎃 A bit darker than usual, but don’t be afraid, not everything is horror and fear. I hope you like them!
AND: if you are going through a dark time, this is the quote of the day for you, directly coming from Don Quijote’s lips:
“Sábete, Sancho, que todas estas borrascas que nos suceden son señales de que presto ha de serenar el tiempo y han de sucedernos bien las cosas; porque no es posible que el mal ni el bien sean durables, y de aquí se sigue que, habiendo durado mucho el mal, el bien está ya cerca”
“Know, Sancho, that all these storms that happen to us are signs that the weather will soon clear up and things will go well for us; because it is not possible for evil or good to last, and from this it follows that, having evil endured a long time, good is already near”
Vamps!
Pick a vampire to spend time with during Halloween this year! 🦇🩸 (Sponsored by Fangtastic®, the dating app for Human-Vampire relationships):
Jules de Point du Mer (France, 200yo, embraced at 44)
Refuses to drink human blood and spends his nights reflecting on the nature of our existence, life and death. Expect long, long silences.Count Barlowicz (Poland, 800yo, embraced at 71)
A classic, extremely jaded nobleman. If he hasn’t exposed himself to the sunrise yet is because he doesn't want to lose sight of his enormous but unproductive fortune. He lives among shabby furniture, dust, and half-burned candles. Extremely good at Scrabble and Uno.Doña Rosinda (Spain, 115yo, embraced at 56)
Completely devoted to her immortality and the advantages of her vampire condition, but addicted to TV talk shows. Expect reruns of rancid Spanish classics from the 60-70s on a 14-inches tube TV.Lyubov (Unknown)
She stopped reasoning a long time ago and is now a beast that moves by instincts. Only music brings her back to a ‘normal’ state, in which she’s actually very fun. It could be cool to go to a club together, as long as the DJ doesn’t take breaks or plays reggaeton. In that case, you’re all dead.
Let me know your election in the comments section.
Recommendations
1 → Halloween costumes
Are you tired of skeletons, werewolves, zombies, etc? No worries. There’s a number of contemporary monsters you can dress up as. From politicians with dangerous ideas, to family constellations followers (or Bert Hellinger himself, why not), average users of electric scooters, cult leaders, members of the European nobility, people who send 10-minute voice notes, Sam Altman or, even worse, Susanna Griso… there are many despicable creatures out there to inspire you.
2 → Games
As usual, my focus is recommending very indie projects. Today I’m bringing some little interesting ones from itch.io and Steam.
Sorry, We’re Closed by À la Mode Games
With only a few days of freedom left, Michelle spends them searching for answers. Why has a dangerous and powerful demon placed a curse on her? And what can she do to save her own precious skin?
This project has been in the making for four years and it caught my attention because of its visuals. It looked like an extravagant version of a classic Resident Evil, with some new interesting mechanics. Although its creators defined it more as a mix of Silent Hill and Twin Peaks. Meaning: shut up and take my money.
I played the demo and I have to say it’s a very nice rendition to games of the PSX era, with a lot of what made those games special, some of the rough edges they brought with them in terms of user experience (camera, controls…), and a cool ‘double-reality’ system that makes things extra interesting. I’m definitely playing the full version when it’s published: November 14th! Just around the corner.
Fortunately for players like me, the number of stylised, low-poly neo-classic games with fresh ideas is increasing daily.
The Ruby Court by Dana McKay
In an underworld where the only thing more important than reputation is BLOOD, you are a vampire with a distaste for it. Make connections, kill victims, hide where your tastes don't lie, and perhaps lie to yourself, as you climb your way up The Ruby Court.
Dana McKay (aka Fixgritt) has been designing interesting narrative games for a while. Most of them pretty experimental and alternative. Special mention to A Long Goodbye (2021), a narrative game centred around two old friends who have to say their final goodbye over a phone conversation.
The Ruby Court is a visual novel, quite minimal in its scope and production, since it was created for a game jam, but very efficient. The sound, music, characters and above all, the writing, define a very satisfying vampire fiction in which options feel important and even determining. It’s a short experience, but you can get up to six different endings, and I’m sure you’ll want to explore it more once you get to the first one.
At moments, I enjoyed it more than the official VtM game books and visual novels that I’ve played so far. I wish it was longer, but the price is a bargain ($3.50). Highly recommended.
Bad End Theater by NomnomNami
Bad End Theater is, in short, a (relatively) complex game book. With some variables: you can play as one of the four main characters: the Hero, the Maiden, the Underling, and the Overlord. Follow their story, choose your path and get to an ending.
But that’s not all. New variables for each character will be unlocked, resulting in the possibility of playing a story with a specific defined trait for them (a polite Maiden, a disloyal Underling…), clearing new paths to alternative developments.
So in the end the idea is to unlock all of the configurations of the story. There are a lot of them! Cutely illustrated, written and designed by NomnomNami using Ren-py, one of the leading indie tools for visual novels creation. Also available for Android.
3 → Films & series
The Legend of Vox Machina
I didn't know anything about Critical Role and the events that set the foundation for this animated series. I started watching it a while ago and I didn't really like the recurrent and unnecessary use of gore and bad words. I thought it was another one of those shows that think adult animation is essentially a mix of foul language, extreme violence and/or sexuality.
But I admit I was wrong with this one. Once you get into the characters, especially during the second season, you end up with one of the best D&D-based fantasy series ever made. The third season is just glorious. The art is really impressive. Special mention to the color design, the fantastic animation, the great voice acting... Titmouse is behind it, after all. You can watch it on Amazon Prime.
Dorohedoro
Dorohedoro is a hard to classify work. A rather clever mix of dark fantasy, sci-fi, action, mystery... The original art by Q Hayashida was dirty and sometimes a bit crude. It reminded me of western underground comics from the 80s-90s. Despite the seemingly bizarre starting point, the series is interesting, funny and, surprisingly, you end up loving even most of the villains, who are actually quite cruel, twisted, sadistic and selfish.
In short: in a world divided between sorcerers and humans, the latter relegated to a decaying post-apocalyptic city, a guy named Caiman has lost his memory due to a spell that turned his head into that of a lizard. He fights sorcerers alongside his friend, the chef Nikaido, in search of information about his past. I promise that once you step into the craziness, you’ll need more. You can watch in on Netflix.
4 → Books
Ghost by Illustrátus
A beautifully edited book by Chronicle Books. Essentially a collection of thirteen haunting tales generously illustrated by prominent artists like Chris Sasaki. A pretty traditional concept for a book (that I love), with a delicious balance between content and form.
The Skull by Jon Klassen
It seems Jon Klassen is only able to create best sellers for the children’s books industry (This Is Not My Hat, The Rock from the Sky, Triangle…). The Skull is a loose adaption of an old Tyrolean tale about a child finding a talking skull in the forest.
The illustrations feature a beautiful limited palette of black, mute greens, and browns, full of textures, with which Klassen ends up creating memorable atmospheres that deserve to be contemplated. The edition is gorgeous. Format, paper, printing… everything breathes quality.
If you like picture books, Klassen has a newsletter on Substack called Looking at Picture Books that you may find interesting.
5 → Artists
Joe Sparrow
I've been following Joe's career as a character designer for many years. Obviously close to the animation sector, he was the art director for the new season of Gumball (still to come out as today) and was the main character designer for Amphibia. In fact, one of the characters is named after him, literally.
But he is also the author of various comics that I have been collecting over time and that have always left a great taste in my mouth: The Hunter, Harvest, Homunculus, and his longest work to date, Cuckoo. Also highly recommended is his curious Tarot deck, without any kind of symbolic fidelity, but full of compact and beautiful illustrations.
Santiago Sequeiros
Santiago is one of those authors whose career has been defined by a precocious, enormous talent and… alcoholism. An abyss from which he finally managed to emerge, not without a few scars. His work is raw, dark, even unpleasant. But in my opinion, full of truth and courage. I have always been impressed by his vigorous pencils, his powerful ink and his approach to the grotesque.
He currently works as a permanent illustrator for some newspapers and from time to time we receive a complete publication of his. Among them, his latest comic work, Romeo Muerto (2021), which took a couple of decades to complete and that Reservoir Books published in an impressive edition. An indispensable Spanish artist that, I suspect, will be infinitely much more appreciated in the future.
6 → Music
Murmur by Elliott Power
Recommended by Manu because both of us love Massive Attack and… it seems that “living with his mum, Elliott would hear Massive Attack and Björk's first albums.” Not surprised, considering his sound. Powerful trip hop vibes.
Terrible Things by AG
Sabrina (Netflix) had an impressively dark and witchy start to end up becoming a silly show in record time. But it still had some very cool moments. One of them, accompanied by this song in Season 1.
Bye Bye by Kim Gordon
Recommendation via María Latorre. Ex-Sonic Youth Kim Gordon is still crushing it. Seventy-one years old an making music seventy-one times more interesting, valiant and alternative than… well, 95% of the what you can find out there. Bye Bye is part of his last album: The Collective, full of screeching sounds, distorted echoes, dark passages and direct lyrics.
Thank you for reading In the Cave. Currently, I’m using social media just to promote this newsletter, share other people’s work or send memes to friends. Nothing else. So if you like this newsletter, please share it and recommend it. You can also find me on my website or Dribbble.
See you soon and enjoy Halloween!
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Great quote, you hit it again.
My Halloween costume: A.I. ChatGPT. What's yours?
All my love to Lyubov. Happy Halloween to all the little creatures in the cave!