BY JEFF COMPTON The drive from Zugdidi to Mestia is 90 miles of twisted mountain road. Some through small towns and villages, some snowy, some icy, and some just plain old muddy. All told it takes 5 hours of pot hole dodging, rock slide swerving, livestock weaving, and assorted pee and view breaks. We make it […]
Ralph Steadman's Viral Menace in the New Age
The following are original stories by guest authors who submitted their stories to accompany Ralph Steadman's Viral Menace artwork. I am publishing them in the order they were received. Thank you! Anita Thompson
WHAT IS THIS FEELING?
BY JUSTIN CATES The beast of virality has taken on multiple troubling meanings in the modern age, especially now. Certainly there’s the 50/50 proposition that exists on the Internet where a wonderful and heartwarming cause has the same chance as an utterly opposite and vile sentiment to take off and burrow into the public consciousness. There’s also […]
COVID FOG AND A SCREAMING MIMI
BY KIMBERLY DOWSON It begins at the grocery store. I don’t usually go to the grocery store just after the new year, but we needed things. I tell my mother and daughter to go on ahead, that I’d stop and get the cart. Walking over, I notice the woman beside me wearing a mask. An […]
BYPRODUCTS OF A FOREIGN SITUATION
BY MAX SASSAMAN Editor’s Note: And We thank you too, Max. Keep up the good work! AT The Viral Menace is no singular entity, it is all of us. We are all that strung-out, decaying creature. We were before the pandemic and may remain to be after. We are trying to stand tall in the midst of […]
THE WOODED ACRES OF HELL
BY LANIE ADDISON We decided rustic camping would be the best way to spend our first overnight outside of the house. “You can’t catch Covid in the forest”, we convinced ourselves. Like many, the pandemic clobbered us with fear and kept us hostage in our own home for a total of 3 seasons. By the […]
