Jef Rouner (he/she/they) is an award-winning freelance journalist from Houston, Texas. He is also the author of The Rook Circle an Stranger Words, and a former member of The Black Math Experiment.
It’s 1974, and in Round Rock, Texas, the devil is about to die a gruesome death. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre* released in theaters, and horror has never been the same. The occult almost completely dominated the horror film scene of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Just a
The mask is a cornerstone of Halloween. Some people wear them to frighten others, enhancing the spooky nature of the season. Others use them as a form of trickery or roleplay, paying homage to the idea that Halloween is a time when the veil between worlds thins. Something about the
Thirty years ago this month, the San Jacinto River caught fire. Storms thrown off Hurricane Rosa in Mexico resulted in heavy rains in Houston, flooding the city and rupturing a 40-inch gasoline pipeline. Fuel poured into the river and quickly caught flame. Waves of fire flowed down the water, destroying
Houston’s oldest movie theater, the River Oaks, opened its doors again for the first time since 2021 on October 3. Under new direction and local ownership by Culinary Khancepts, it’s poised to become the beating heart of film in the city as it was over most of its
The ferry ride to Bolivar Peninsula in Galveston County is the first time in months I’ve stepped out in the daylight and not immediately made a rude gesture at the oppressive sun. The air over Galveston Bay is a good ten degrees cooler than the asphalt oven of Houston,
I needed a wing transplant for my tooth fairy, and that’s how I met Ashley Worhol for the first time in a decade. We were both vending at the night market at the National Museum of Funeral History in Houston this past summer. I was hawking my horror story
Walking up the steps to the 134-year-old RavenWolf Manor, I start thinking about Anne Rice’s The Witching Hour. One of the protagonists, Michael Curry, would stare through the fence every day at a New Orleans mansion rumored to be the home of witches. If I had to pick one
It’s the third Saturday of the month at the Hardy & Nance Studios. Nominally, the crowd is here for the Portraits in June show, one of the many themed gallery events that Hardy & Nance host twice monthly. While that part of the gallery certainly draws a crowd thanks
It’s a scary time to be LGBTQ+ in Texas, but the state’s horror authors are using their voices to make sure the terror is felt both ways. Gabrielle Faust is among the loudest queer horror voices in Texas. Since 2008, she has released twelve novels and anthologies. Her
Outsiders call Burning Flipside an art festival; people who actually go there call it a burn. Set in the hill country around Central Austin, Burning Flipside is the Texas take on the Burning Man global phenomenon. Every May, thousands hike into the woods to live in what is essentially a
John Simons is the man who put Houston back on the comic convention map with Comicpalooza until he stepped away in 2018. Now, he’s back as an honored guest thanks to his new career as a fantasy and horror novelist. He’ll appear at Comicpalooza this weekend, hosting a
The line between a superhero costume and a fashion statement is razor thin and, at Houston’s Comicpalooza, it will disappear entirely thanks to a joint venture between Houston First and Houston Community College. Comic Couture is a competition between HCC design students for an opportunity to showcase their talents
There has been a mini renaissance of paganism in Houston over the last decade, a movement accelerated by the trauma of COVID and political unrest. Walking into the Rosewood Enchantikal Cottage feels like stepping into another world where there are fewer missiles and more fairies. “I want to have a
There is something unsettlingly medical about Deborah Jack’s exhibition at the Houston Center of Photography. Intertidal Imaginaries: The Resistant Geographies of the Shore(coast) in the Aftermath of Saltwater(storm) surges an exploration of the devastation that hurricanes wreak on the environment and human structures of her native Saint-Maarten.
Music legend Prince may be gone, but his legacy lives on through albums, film, iconography, and a college level course taught by Marc Newsome at the University of Houston this semester. “He is the perfect poster kid for any type of study,” says Newsome. “Like Michelangelo, he did all these
Texas’s premiere gathering of indie comic and tabletop creators, STAPLE!, is returning to Austin after a five-year hiatus brought on by the pandemic. It will be open April 13 and 14 at the Malbee Ballroom of St. Edward’s University. Tickets and more information can be found at their