Category: Horror

The Pug Dog

As many of you know, Hack lives in a van parked behind the Shakey’s pizza restaurant on Laurel Canyon Blvd. in Los Angeles. Once when the van was impounded, Hack was forced to sleep on his cover artist Jonny M.’s floor and he couldn’t help but notice Jonny’s pug Boris’ obsession with food (especially when Boris tried to eat his face as he slept one night). The experience inspired Hack to write this gothic epic poem about a ravenous pug, which only after it was published did he realize was a transparent rip-off of Poe’s The Raven. Hack was sued for copyright infringement and had to pay a massive settlement, which surprised legal experts because Poe died in 1849 and the poem had been in public domain for 150 years.

The Dimming

Hack has always been an admirer of the outdoor lifestyle of his cover artist Jonny M.’s Bro Joe and wrote the Junior Ranger series of book in tribute to him. But when Hack discovered that Joe was also a writer (and a much better one at that), he was consumed with jealousy and wrote this rip-off of The Shining with a thinly-veiled representation of Joe as the central character to try and discredit him.