Webberly Rattenkraft
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factrat.bsky.social
Webberly Rattenkraft
@factrat.bsky.social
880 followers 420 following 1.3K posts
Erstwhile lab rat, current bon vivant. Insisting on persisting in this relentlessly roiling morass of madness. Love is real, Love is the Answer, Love is the fulfillment of the Law. We will fix our hearts, or die.

Fun Fact: I love you all. Yes, even *you*.
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factrat.bsky.social
UPDATE! It arrived! It's officially #bookmail now! Go ahead, *gape* at this haul! Not just the zine in question, but also a mighty load of awesome extras from artist @patricbates.bsky.social, I'm gonna have to take this @orringrey.com frood's advice and get myself some more of his creations!
Against a weirdly-textured maybe red velvet? background lies Orrin Grey's "Starlight Theater Halloween Double-Feature," which is the zine what I bought and said you should buy, but hokey-methylated-smokes did I get more, a dazzling array of bonus art thanks to Patrick Bates, illustrator of the volume in question. There's a 16"x20" (?) poster tribute to The Nightmare Before Christmas done in pen&ink plus watercolor, a lovely print of a 3D relief of an assortment of ghoulish critters emerging from the closet underneath the stairs to gape at a ringing telephone, a bookmark fulla skeletons, and even a personalized card with even more art inside!
October 3, 2025 at 1:08 AM
factrat.bsky.social
Uhhh... right, trying to boost positivity or w'ever, yup, check out this #bookmail of late from @eibonpress.bsky.social and @vinsyn.bsky.social, eh?

You gotta have ovoids like church bells to try to create sequels to Fulci's ZOMBIE and THE NEW YORK RIPPER, but these gorgeous bastards pulled it off!
What we have here is one rat's sincere attempt to make a nifty photo array of three (technically two) graphic novels from the essential Eibon Press, recently rescued by the equally essential Vinegar Syndrome. In the middle is ZOMBIE II, featuring the stars of Lucio Fulci's ZOMBIE, Ian McCulloch and Tisa Farrow, in an extremely James Bond and Bond Girl pose. Don't worry, it will live up to that cover. Left and right are the two different covers for the two different editions of THE NEW YORK RIPPER. I'm running out of steam here, so if you want to know the difference between the two editions, let me know. Otherwise, I'm gonna go nap.
August 23, 2025 at 10:02 PM
factrat.bsky.social
Oh, right, I was attempting to boost positivity into this relentlessly wretched realm, this dumbest of all possible timelines, this... I mean, fuck all this nowaday Nazi shit, eh? Uhhh... hey, look! It's books! What a handy refuge from our daily meat-grinder reality, eh?
I'm going to be honest with you. This is a photo of some of my To Be Read piles, and there's way too many damned books therein for me to name. I like to think the composition is both dynamic and buoyant, but who knows, right? Not very helpful if you can't see it. Anyway, basically there are two columns, so if you want to pick a random number from 1 to 24, and a column from A or B, I'll read that book for you and I will let you know one rat's opinion.
August 20, 2025 at 7:12 AM
factrat.bsky.social
Bookmail! I love when multiple pre-orders drop! There's @chucktingle.bsky.social's LUCKY DAY, because how do you not pounce right the heck away on an upcoming release from that mensch, eh? Plus @haileypiperfights.bsky.social's A GAME IN YELLOW¹, because, I mean... CRANBERRY COVE, right? VHRRI²!
It's books! Pre-ordered, newly-released books! The inimitable Chuck Tingle's LUCKY DAY has cover art featuring a visual riff on the King of Hearts playing card, traditionally depicted as looking like he's shoving a sword through his becrownèd head (tho it's meant to pass behind his head, in this case it's clearly piercing his skull), but while both Kings have untraditionally popped out an eyeball in the process, the 180° symmetry of face cards is otherwise violated, as the top King's head has flesh and the bottom King's lacks same, plus there's luck symbols and Void Sign and does anyone need this level of detail? Yikes. Anyway, Hailey Piper's A GAME IN YELLOW features the sort of artistically drippy erotic nude image framed by a background of bright yellow and bold pink title typeface that would scream "RENT ME!!" in any video rental place with a giallo section.
August 14, 2025 at 2:10 AM
factrat.bsky.social
It creeps. Of course your To Read stack is under control, don't be gauche. You're the Rat Who Reads, mein Nagebro! You'll get to them all soon enough, eh?

But it creeps. There's a subtle rustling. You'd swear that pile used to be smaller. And... wasn't that corner empty before?

It creeps.
This offshoot of the main TBR stack is quietly spreading, stealthily adding books to the pile when it thinks nobody's looking. So many books. Please don't make me list them all, lest I discover books that no one remembers buying. Private requests will be entertained as appropriate. I know, compositionally speaking, there's a great big yawningly empty gap in the top left corner, but did you ever think that maybe it was ordained to be that way, or maybe it's Art On Purpose, or maybe you just think too fucking much?
July 4, 2025 at 6:57 PM
factrat.bsky.social
Check this out, eh? Here's Korrok giving a Death Stare to whomever gifted us this shitweed, but I have a sneaking suspicion that he's also glaring at me personally, wondering if I'm ever going to back up all my talk about how bad things have gotten with any kind of actual action. Yikes. Ow. #ow
Here's my good pal Korrok, a one-eyed, blue-eyed creature with a sort of Admiral Ackbar color palette and very strong opinions about politics. He's staring directly at you, because he's wondering if you're gonna stand up in these times of murderous fascism, or if you're just gonna lie back and hope everything somehow works out. And by "you," I kinda mean "me," because he's really making me seriously question what I'm willing to do to stop "all this fucking fascism," eh?
June 23, 2025 at 3:02 AM
factrat.bsky.social
Hey, speaking of delightful surprises brought by mail, check out this treat what the postm'n done brung me, eh? Got myself a great big box of #Munchkin, I did, but this was the clear outstander among all the many lovelies!
A display of some of the highlights of the MUNCHKIN RATS expansion for MUNCHKIN, a card game that boils the experience of dungeon crawling down to the very basics of "Kill the monsters, steal the loot, betray your companions." So many rat puns! Fearsome beasts you might face include the Gym Rat, the Pie-Rat, and the dreaded Lab Rat. Plus there are rat-based bonus cards and such!
June 21, 2025 at 2:40 AM
factrat.bsky.social
Yowza, going full-metal-nitpicker on a simple attempt to take a photo of part of my To Read pile¹ successfully kept my mind off... you know, fucking *EVERYTHING*?!, for thirty minutes. Highly Ratty-Recommended Indeed as a way to zone out for a bit! Growlix's judgmental glare² just fed my fire!
Hoo-boy, this is a lot to describe. While Webberly calls this chaotic mess his "To Read pile," it's really just an assortment of heaps, stacks, and slouching pillars of books, vaguely arranged by theme, author, or impulse. Growlix the Lookah Bear stares in a judgmental fashion at the books that somehow ended up sorted into a basin with the horror coffees. Jeezum-Crow, please don't make me type in all these authors and titles. Should anyone ever read these words and have a legit need for me to specify what's in the photo, fine, just... when you demand, be kind, eh?
June 14, 2025 at 6:29 PM
factrat.bsky.social
UPDATE: Look what the latest #bookmail done brung me, eh? Check out this incredible back cover pitch: "Asher Black is one of—if not the best thieves in the town of Majestic Forest. He's also a squirrel."

There's more, but em-dash fail aside, fucking *SOLD*, right?
#squorror #ShowUsYourNuts
The Lair's official travel mascot, a plush panda named Monium, proudly displays a copy of Patrick Barb's new novella THE NUT HOUSE. The cover features a low-angle view from behind assorted critters looking up at a possibly abandoned house with an overgrown lawn. It looms over them all most ominously.
June 14, 2025 at 1:29 AM
factrat.bsky.social
Look, I'm not meaning to say anything, but I'm just saying that if you want people to be scared of your movie's Satan figure or whomever, maybe don't make them all heckin' digitigrade tail-hoisting sexy-hawt, maybe?
#TheLastDriveIn #MutantFam
On the left is one demonically sexy demon, with the classic hoofy action stance and tail proudly curled high, clearly all set to launch into one epic knock-down, drag-out ass-kicking brawl. On the right, facing them down, is one human warrior, admittedly also classically superhero-sexy, and she's got some weapon or other. Shit is about to get real, fun fact.
June 7, 2025 at 5:59 AM
factrat.bsky.social
Don't wanna brag about where I am right now, but, uh.....
That's right, I'm in the Orinda Theater watching the new CKMT documentary, but I'm gathering death stares, sorry, gotta shut this down, the point is, the pic is from the very first CKMT season, wow, Balrok was so young!
June 1, 2025 at 2:06 AM
factrat.bsky.social
Even after she moved in, Prickles at first only trusted Momma Kobold. She would always just happen to be where MK was, and should anyone else enter her space, she would very nonchalantly just happen to need to be somewhere else. I won her over, though! Look at this shot she let me take!
It took forever for Prickles to relax enough to let a rat sprawl himself out on the floor in front of her to get a fancy-pants low-angle shot while she subtly glammed it all the H up, but in the end, we got the shot. We all loved you, Prickles.
May 11, 2025 at 7:23 PM
factrat.bsky.social
We knew this day was coming, and on Friday it came. Prickles was maybe twenty years old? She'd orbited the Lair for years, a shy, shaggy spectre, reluctantly accepting our nightly dinner offerings until she finally deigned to accept our offer of shelter.
A disappointingly beige-toned photo of our recently late and forever lamented Prickles lounging in her hooded bed. She's staring contemplatively into the middle distance, as was her wont.
May 11, 2025 at 7:04 PM
factrat.bsky.social
BookMail Update!

Sweet hickory-smoked pine-scented fudgulating ¡kerDANGUS! but that was fast! Check it out, look at what rich bounty the postm'n just brung me, eh? Thanks, @dimshores.bsky.social!
Hoot mon, what an array, eh? We've got Scott Nicolay's newest novella CATERPILLARS, plus Kurt Fawver's novella THE THIRTEEN WAYS WE TURNED DARRYL DATSON INTO A MONSTER, and Dim Shores also included a cool assortment of stickers and bookmarks, I love it when small presses do that, fun fact!
February 22, 2025 at 2:08 AM
factrat.bsky.social
SO ANYWAY, here's the Big Reveal! It's the February 2025 haul from monthly subscription service Night Worms, are they awesome or what, eh? Haven't heard of either book, but I trust Night Worms' judgment, they just don't disappoint, fun fact. #NightWorms
The February subscription package from Night Worms is displayed, spread against a plaid background, as a Noir Penguin appreciates the spread and poor Growlix the Lookah Bear lies supine, gobsmacked by the splendor revealed. MASK OF THE DEER WOMAN, a novel by Laurie R Dove AT THE BOTTOM OF THE GARDEN, a novel by Camilla Bruce Plus some milk chocolate cinnamon cocoa from Moonstruck of Portland, Oregon and cool stickers plus a bookmark, you get a load of cool stuff from Night Worms, fun fact!
February 15, 2025 at 3:36 AM
factrat.bsky.social
Growlix contemplates a mysterious package, tantalized by the prospect of delights concealed within.
#NightWorms
My pal Growlix the Lookah Bear gazes thoughtfully upon a mysterious black bubble-wrapped package labeled "Night Worms" in a round logo involving what one assumes are "night worms" crawling out the bottom of a skull that lacks its mandible, the tooth rainbow of the human skeleton. Oh, "nightcrawlers"... woah....
February 11, 2025 at 8:06 PM
factrat.bsky.social
Hey, speaking of delivery hats and adornments thereof, check out another batch of art I've recently acquired and brought into rotation, featuring Series 5 of @pixelelixir.bsky.social's inimitable Terror Kitties line! It's a new beginning!
#TerrorKitties
A delightful array of enamel pins from the fifth series of Pixel Elixir's "Terror Kitties" line, featuring cartoony cat versions of all your favorite horror icons (I love their work, fun fact, been buying these since series one). Clockwise from 11 o'clock are kitty versions of Sadako from RINGU crawling out of the TV, then Beetlejuice, that murder Santa from SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT, the Ghostbusters ghost-bustin' logo, and the Crypt-keeper. All very kitty-like, all very cool. VERY cool.
January 31, 2025 at 3:50 AM
factrat.bsky.social
It kinda seems like a whole bunch of long-tottering systems are all gonna go tits up at roughly the same time in the near future, falling at last to the dumbest barbarians ever, so look! I found a stash of long-ago pins I can now add in rotation to my delivery hat!
#GoodNews #DistractionTactic
Behold six pins, buttons, badges, or whatever your own particular idiolect might call round, laminated images that one attaches to a garment with a pin-back. There's two that feature Sandy Cheeks, everybody's favorite factual squirrel from the world of SpongeBob SquarePants; a mini-pin for Argento's 3-strip Technicolor terpsichorean nightmare SUSPIRIA; a merrily grinning J.R. "Bob" Dobbs, his immortal pipe clenched in his iconic choppers to promote the Church of the SubGenius; a sea of blank-faced microcephalics boosting Zippy's Nation of Pinheads; and course, a profile shot of the crafty Louise from BOB'S BURGERS, everybody's favorite bunny-eared chaos agent.
January 29, 2025 at 2:38 AM
factrat.bsky.social
Hooooot mon, what a read! You don't even need to have seen Andrzej Żuławski's POSSESSION (1981) first, but it wouldn't hurt, I guess? Either way, you're definitely going to want to watch it immediately after finishing the story whether you've seen it before or not, so either way, it works out! #yay
A close-up of the sales pitch on the book cover that promises, in stark yellow sans-serif, that you’ll be experiencing “an erotic horror fiction after Andrzej Żuławski’s POSSESSION (1981)," and that's no lie, fun fact.
January 26, 2025 at 12:59 AM
factrat.bsky.social
Right, this one!

I couldn't resist the chance to read Joe Koch's answer to everyone's favorite burning question, "What exactly did that big slimy guy with the tentacles think about all the human shenanigans going on around him while he was just trying to find Love?" Time to find out, fun fact!
Check it out, it's the cover of Joe Koch's chapbook COME AND ADMIRE HIM! It features an inverted close-up photo of Isabelle Adjani during a fraught moment in Andrzej Żuławski's harrowing 1981 film POSSESSION, wrapping from front cover to back, with the title in a stark yellow distressed typewriter font, and the author's name in a clean, precise sans serif font, same stark yellow.
January 26, 2025 at 12:36 AM
factrat.bsky.social
Dang, what a fortuitous grab that was very random! Got a mysteeerious delivery a few days ago with a potentially spooky glyph on the envelope, could be ink-stamped, could be well-trained fungus? Better recklessly investigate to show the Fates that I'm no sissypants!
I mean, it looks like some sort of glyph that's based on a simple eye design? Like, the classic Egyptian "Eye of Ra," but subtle enough that it might just be random but you're pretty sure it's not.
January 26, 2025 at 12:16 AM
factrat.bsky.social
Fun Fact: Every so often, Growlix likes to take a moment to gaze pensively across a stretch of water. We all know better than to intrude upon his moments. Taking pictures is OK though, he's cool with art.
Growlix, a silicone bear striped in what looks a lot like the colors of the trans flag but not quite because it's a coincidence, but he's absolutely a trans ally, don't get him wrong! Anyway, he's gazing pensively across San Francisco Bay, because if you can't set aside a little time in your daily schedule to gaze pensively, you need to sit right down and give your life a good old-fashioned rethinking, fun fact.
January 12, 2025 at 3:56 AM
factrat.bsky.social
Hypothetically speaking, if one were stuck in traffic with this scenic view, and one suddenly got a tsunami warning, should one be concerned?
A lovely view of the San Francisco Bay as viewed by a person stuck in traffic who has just received a tsunami warning.
December 5, 2024 at 7:12 PM
factrat.bsky.social
Meet my new pal Growlix! I met him at Rincon Valley's dioramatastic dispensary The Sweet Spot, where we bonded over a shared love of excessively verbose punk rock. His hobbies include vaporizing and obscenities, and he likes you... so far.
A silicone bear with cartoon swears in his eyes and ears. Behind him lurks a mysterious although irrelevant figure.
November 17, 2024 at 12:39 AM
factrat.bsky.social
Whoopty-snork, what a read! You ever wonder how society would adapt if that tape from RINGU was not only a real thing, but ever more such "paracontagions" kept popping up? Well, Nadia Bulkin has thought about it, and the result is rated as Very Highly Ratty-Recommended Indeed. Dang!
The cover of Nadia Bulkin's brilliant novella, RED SKIES IN THE MORNING, which, like... OK, there's this person with big bright soul-lights blasting from their eyes, white light trending to red, with what one presumes are tortured souls therein, based on their hollow-eyed shrieks. Also, ribbons of the light are trickling down the person's cheeks like tears.
October 8, 2024 at 4:03 AM