Greetings and Happy 2008 from a newly refurbished Rabid Dog HQ.Why refurbished you ask well,that is the reason why this issue,which should have been done back in November,is soooooo damned late.Let's see,start with some hot assed rain free August weather....add in some "careless smokers",according to the published reports,and you've got all of the ingredients for a nice little blaze.Once the smoke cleared,the fire had caused about $1000 worth of damage,according to those very same published reports,but the fire department had caused about $2000 worth of damage,mostly confined to my work area.For the record,my brother and I have been carelessly smoking on our back porch for the last fucking 30 odd years!!Of course it was 2:30 in the morning and the 'fire investigators' just wanted to go home......I know,I am an ungrateful prick.....Something good did come from it all though,I now have a new computer,a new keyboard and,more importantly,a new hero.My brother,Mike.If it hadn't been for him,the fire would have definitely been much worse and I might not have been here to tell you about it much less bitch about the fire department.I take sleeping pills,Mom is hard of hearing and the dog does not bark at fire alarms.Mike made the mad dash throughout casa de Charette making sure we all got up and out and tried his damndest to get the fire under control before the fire department showed up. For that, I am eternally grateful.In the end,most of the damage was confined to my studio,especially the computer work station.So,again,that is why this issue is so far behind schedule.But now ,on to what you'll find this time around.

First,I've decided to change things up a little and ammend the original statement about not including poetry.I've been turned on to some really powerful work out there from Gabrielle Lecomte and a young Romanian lady named Lithium that I thought definitely fit the Rabid bill.Ain't no Hallmark cards ever gonna'be made out of what comes from these two ladies.Got a few returning writers,like R.Lee and his Scene Report(along with the art of Jason Dean this time) and C.R.Boucher,who's put up with all of my shit for decades now and still calls me a friend,who knew.Also have part one of a disturbing new story from LexiFilm's David Souza.We've got some great new artwork from return visitors David Aguiar and Dr.Rodney Pygoya Chang as well as some new folks,the amazing Aunia Kahn,Randy Thurman and Miz American Nightmare herself,Andrea Charette.So,I hope you dig this issue and as always,if you do,please pass it on to your friends.And watch those butts......

The Rabid Dog-Jim Charette