In a world where babies are bought as luxury pets, a couple answer an advert giving Baby Jesus's to a good home (i.e. not for adult entertainment use). The Jesus they get is odd, it's creepy and plays weird music and then it starts raising the dead.

If you can make it past the title and you enjoy weird fantastical horror then I would give this short illustrated novella a try (although maybe buy it as part of The Bizarro Starter Kit. It's not just cheap shock tactics but a nice blend of nightmarish science fiction (cloning, insane corporations) and horror (zombies, gratuitous violence). It's fact paced, occasionally humorous and very very odd. Plus it has one of the creepiest covers I have seen in a long time. ( )

Carlton Mellick III brings us a strange little tale about a couple who adopt a baby jesus after responding to an ad offering a litter of baby jesuses to good homes. By good homes, they clearly mean that these baby jesuses are not meant to be used for adult entertainment, like so many are. The couple soon realise that this baby jesus they have, is something special. They don't know just how special.

Little Bobby, as they name him, soon shows his unique personality which leaves the husband feeling more than a little nervous. One day at work, he gets a phone call from his wife and she tells him that he is right, there is something really strange about the baby jesus. She is terrified and hiding from it. Joe decides he needs help with this and slips to the nearest copy shop to have a few copies made of himself to help him in his battle.

A very freaky story that I actually liked a lot. I won't claim to have made sense out of it but it is wickedly fun and imaginative. It was inspired by an actual adult product which can be found at Divine Interventions. It definitely isn't a read that is for everyone but if you like the works of Chuck Palahniuk or Brian Keene, you might want to check this author out too. I know I am glad I did. I especially liked the illustrations (done by the author) within the pages. Very simple but they add a great deal of character to the book, as does the haunting cover image which is illustrated by Tom Andrews.

Author's website: http://www.carltonmellick.com/

Illustrator's website: http://www.t-designs.co.uk/ ( )

Wonderfully written and absolutely sick. Certainly more depth than some people might expect, but it doesn't stray too far from the bizarre and awesome realm of zombies, clones, and gratioutous violence. While Mellick's been compared to Palahniuk, I think that this is an unfair comparison - if Palahniuk wrote this well about stuff this weird he'd be much less popular and much more entertaining. ( )

It's as if Richard Brautigan fused his soul to Anne Rice (writing as A. N. Roquelaure), and this writing was created as a result of an ongoing war between them to possess the body. Oh wait, now Orwell wants in, too. Loved it. ( )