The new issue of Britain’s number one fiction and comics periodical is now on the stands in the UK. Everywhere else in the world you can grab a copy from Murky Depths on-line for a few pounds sterling or a few more dollars American (you can still blame Bush).

Turn to the back page (the print real estate traditionally reserved for obituaries. Coincidence or providence, you decide) for “Dedicated Flesh,” my latest Depth Charge column. This time around I went deep down another one of my personal rabbit holes on what it means to be a creature of skin and blood and bone and sticky, gooey gray matter in an increasingly less physical world.

Here’s a cocaine sprinkle excerpt:

“I’m not advocating violence. I’m not a proponent of war. I’m simply not content to replace the ugliness of what we’ve done to each other’s bodies in the past with the banality of what we’re trying to do to our own minds with all of this manmade bullshit. I say it is no less savage. I look at a hyper-mature ten-year-old who has more gadgets on his belt than Batman and has already forgotten more about popular culture and cutting edge technology than I will ever know. Our children stop suckling at the tit and start suckling the internet. Their intellect is accelerated while their emotions and spirit are arrested, or even worse jaded beyond any and all repair. Meanwhile the physical wakes up every day to find itself less.”

I highly recommend this issue. In addition to my soon-to-be-legendary ramblings, it re-teams two very talented cats that wrecked shit several issues ago. BSFA award-winning artist Vincent Chong and award-nominated author DK Thompson are back for another one of Dave's spiritual noir joints-this one entitled "Heart of Clay"-and the result is an endorphin double shot of the visual and the cerebral. I was still editor when Dave sent me "St. Darwin's Spirituals"-the first story in this series. It inspired Vinnie Chong to create some truly sick, luscious art, and the second time around is no different. Also just like last time, you can catch Dave's story in audio form over on Variant Frequencies. It's a storytelling experience for every single one of your fragile senses.

This issue is also about killer comics from usual suspects Luke Cooper and Richard Calder, slamming spacey poetry, and hot, talented Asian chicks. It’s a fiery three-ring circus of artistic debauchery. It’s the Murky Depths universe.

To paraphrase the immortal words of The Ultimate Warrior, load the spaceship with the rocket fuel and go get it.