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Bowing to political pressure due to my all-too-public contention that 'the bizarro literary movement' was just a cover story to help promote the writings of Carlton Mellick 3 and Eraserhead Press, I am no longer a 'bizarro writer'. But before we went our separate ways, I did this interview for issue 3 of Chainsaw Magazine(now defunct) to talk about my opinion of 'the bizarro literary movement' I was a part of and what it means to write outside accepted literary genres. It was very tongue-in-cheek and subversive in tone but (strangely) prophetic. Interviewer - Kyle Kucek.

Kyle Kucek: So who exactly are you, for those of us who don’t know?

Mike Philbin: I’m an artist/writer from England; that’s in Europe, close to London. My major artistic focus is subversive creative _expression that explores the difference between perceived reality and pre-ordained social morés. Mine is a battle with ‘normality’, ‘marketability’ and ‘mediocrity’, which I have vowed to eradicate via my creative output. Being this much of a prick is a serious business but one that I think is worth pursuing, as a legacy. I don’t think you can be a worthy creative talent and hope to sell paintings for millions or sell millions of books – the best one can hope for is a hatred by the masses, revulsion among ones peers. I aim to be one of those artists who are reviled and denounced by contemporary society so that a later generation can re-evaluate their error – that is my aim, to be discovered after my death.

KK: Now, bizarro is definitely a genre many people aren’t familiar with. Four words or phrases that you think describe it?

MP: Who. Gives. A. Fuck. The bizarro manifesto states that, “Bizarro isn't really a new genre. Just a new term. For decades, people have been going into bookstores and video stores looking for the weird stuff. To them, "weird stuff" is a genre, just like horror or science fiction. But it has never been given an official name before. Until now.” but to me it’s more about placing mind bombs inside the readers’ heads until they explode. I want my readers tortured to death by my books. I want my readers to immolate and leave only a pile of despondent ash where their armchairs used to be. If I hear of one of my readers dying with a copy of my book in their hands I will ejaculate spontaneously. You’ll be cleaning my shit off the ceiling, baby.

KK: In late 2005, you started Chimericana Books to publish some of your own projects. What made you decide to start such a risky venture?

MP: At the time I was being published by Cyber Pulp of Houston, TX and when they folded I got the rights back to the Chimeraworld anthologies which I had edited. There had been two published by then and I had Chimeraworld #3 all ready to go. So, I thought, I’ll start my own print-on-demand company Chimericana Books to continue the Chimeraworld franchise – it wasn’t really about self publishing, it was more about offering the reader an alternative to the dull, grey horror product. There was no financial risk involved the way I did it. And I could print out books that contained the sort of stories and the sort of themes that I enjoy reading. I’m a very hands-on editor and I’ll suggest sweeping changes to stories to help them fit with the themes rather than coldly reject a promising story that needs a helping hand. I decided to re-release books such as HIM+CHIM+HER (collaborative stories I did with 16 male and female writers), the BEST OF HORROR QUARTERLY (first three issues of the now defunct website) and THE LIFE AND DEATH OF HERTZAN CHIMERA (the official biography of an invented writing persona).

KK: Tell us a bit about Hertzan Chimera, your writing persona. Since his “death”, do you think people’s reactions have changed toward you?

MP: Well, as far as I can gauge, my “Hertzan Chimera” writing and online persona wound up a lot of my peers. For some the wounds have not yet healed. For others the scars are still visible despite the forgiveness. I’ve never been a people person and I suppose I came across as a real cunt. I’m the sorta guy who’ll call a spade a spade. I’m the sort of guy who doesn’t suffer fools gladly. Maybe I’ve just mellowed a bit since I first unleashed the Hertzan Chimera Unit on an unsuspecting genre. People did expect me to just be somebody totally different having gotten the Hertzan monkey off my back but that’s not how it works. Hertzan Chimera was always a strong part of the real me and I can sense his persona peeking out every now and then to wreak his havoc once more.

KK: Would you say your work is well-accepted in the UK, your current residence?

MP: Apart from one or two ‘anorak’s in the horror/sci-fi industry on this side of the Atlantic, I am mostly unknown in the UK. Most of my stories and all of my books have been published in America/Canada and that gives me review problems as no English journal will review one of my, technically, import book. Oh, the irony. I remember going to a British Fantasy Society meeting and one fan turns up to eagerly shake my hand and as soon as I opened my mouth he goes, “But you’re not American?” I wonder whatever gave him that idea?

KK: What do you think the best way that we, the people, can promote bizarro?

MP: The best way to promote bizarro is to assassinate all those 'bizarro writers'. That’s the only way to secure a future for that bunch of amoral reprobates. Most of their stuff isn’t even funny. It’s a polluting dribble of cumm pouring from the end of a shrivelled cock or a bitten clitoris that needs dousing in petrol and setting light to. That or the bizarro-ite should be strung up in the centre of town while small children flay the worthless flesh from their grease-dripping bones. That would be a fitting ad campaign for Bizarros.

KK: Where do you hope bizarro will go in the (possibly near) future?

MP: That’s a hard one. The central premise of the Bizarro Movement seems to be tacit inactivity, aka inertia, at best their manifesto encourages organic infestation of the mainstream via the ultimate clique of ‘word of mouth’. One or two of the bizarro writers are actively out there trying to make people understand why they’re a part of this wild, mad rodeo of hope but it’s hindered by having no core philosophy like Islam or Christianity, it’s neither militant nor mainstream enough just yet. It needs one of those bizarros to go and set up his own death cult and fuck-to-death a million daughters or even better run for senator of some southern cock-roach infested State and make a constitutional amendment that makes bizarro mandatory. If I lived in the States, I guess I’d be obliged to hang out in bizarro bars a lot and have loads of flings on the side with all those fucked up individuals male or female. That’d be the expected lifestyle for one known as a bizarro, right? The fact that most of us are public non-entities who’d freeze up like a deer in the headlights if we ever got any fame, or fortune. Heaven forefend.

KK: Anything else we should know?

MP: Ice cream and apple pie – that’s all one needs to know.