Capitol Hell by Pete Von Sholly
Denis Kitchen Publishing, $11.95, 52pp, tp, 9780971008090.
See our teaser for this book from November. Pete Von Sholly is a very good computer artist (the writing isn’t bad, but let’s face it: you buy a postcard book for the pictures). In this volume (more suitable for Halloween or Election Day, but now you can get it early to get ready), he’s taken the best and the brightest (or is that the worst and the dimmest?) of Washington politics and shown us what’s truly hiding under their smiling exteriors, using them as the stars of horrific movies that ought to have been. As a New Yorker, the first page is plenty horrific enough: Nosferudy. For you music fans (especially combining with the early ’80s), look out for Ron Zombie (“The party faithful will never let him die.”). Were there ever two more frightening smiles than on the Clintonsteins (“She’s cold and calculating and he’s often stiff, but the seemingly indestructible stars of this hair-raising double feature still horrify many viewers.”)? And just when you thought it was safe to sit in the sun comes the Gorelem
But it’s not all politicians: some of those talking about politicians find themselves suffering from Von Sholly’s ministrations, including Maher’s Attacks and the Creature from the Black Community.
Combining a love of good bad horror films and politics, Von Sholly tickled my humor bone. Now if only we could get the stars of these pictures to leave the screen after two hours…
[For the humor-impaired, and those who just didn’t get it: Nosferudy is Rudy Giuliani; Ron Zombie is Ronald Reagan, the Clintonsteins are Bill and Hillary Clinton the Gorelem is Al Gore, Maher’s Attacks is Bill Maher, and The Creature from the Black Community is Rev. Al Sharpton.]