Southern Gothic: Chapter Nine

A Visitation of Spirits

Dec 21, 2022

∙ Paid

Why hello y’all—

I hope that the tail end of 2022 is being kind to you! Thank you for spending a little time with us here at the New Futurists as we head into the holiday season.

I cannot thank you enough for supporting our print sale in support of Eastern Kentucky Mutual Aid Flood Relief and Appalshop. Thanks to you, we were able to donate $300 to help folks in Eastern Kentucky and an additional $200 to Appalshop. What a way to wrap up our first year on Substack!

Speaking of Appalshop, some folks have written asking about the source material for our last few chapters. John Fox Jr.’s The Trail of the Lonesome Pine was a blockbuster in the first half of the 20th century and if you visit Big Stone Gap, Virginia during the summer, you can see an outdoor drama based on the novel. A great deal of my thinking about The Trail of the Lonesome Pine and the historical Doc “Red Fox” Taylor has been informed by Don Baker and Dudley Cocke’s Red Fox/Second Hangin’. A production of Appalshop/Roadside Theater, you can watch a live 1982 performance of Red Fox/Second Hangin’ on YouTube and I highly recommend it!

Okay, a couple business items. Our Visionary Tier subscribers should have received a care package with your 2022 rewards. If, for some reason, you haven’t received your rewards, send us a message and we’ll get you taken care of!

Next month we’ll bring you the second installment of our reader letter feature, “The Purloined Letters.” So if you have a question, comment, fan theory, or joke, write us by the end of December at thenewfuturists@gmail.com and please indicate “OKAY TO PRINT.”

Alright, let’s get to it. Please be advised, Southern Gothic is a horror comic and is not suitable for all readers. Chapter nine features depictions of blood, psychological horror, gun violence, capital punishment, and supernatural horror. Reader discretion is advised.