Published in 1994, issue #5 of Cyber-Psychos adds some more page count, but maintains editor Jasmine Sailing's eclectic, idiosyncratic interests and style, with this one offering even more in the way of original fiction. After the issue's "Editorial Babbling" essay, it dives right into the hard stuff, with Bruce Boston's "Acid Faces" blending apocalyptic prose and poetry into a heady brew; Jeffrey Stadt's "Pervision #65" is a strange and disturbing horror tale; Don Webb gives us one of his excellent cosmic horror visions with "Comet Called Ithaqua"; sickening addiction horror in Sue Storm's "Mary's Need"; surreal experimental repulsion and black fantasy in Gregory Nyman's "Secret Deep"; some short-short prose pieces from punk-Lovecraftian legend William Hopfrog Pugmire and punk poet Steven Shrewsbury; "Even The Rich" is another vivid speculative fiction work from the mercurial Uncle River (aka Stephen Kaufman), and G.F. O'Sullivan's "Mr. Bibbette's Passenger" gets graphically demonic, with some killer writing in action.

Sailing continues her in-depth conversational interview style with a great piece on anti-authoritarian industrial outfit Vampire Rodents, and what might be the highlight of the issue for me, an interview with legendary industrial / psych / noise-rocker Bliss Blood / Pain Teens conducted by Joe Simon. Yon Von Faust discusses the tribulations of the music industry with Johnny Indovina and his long running post-punk band Human Drama, and the British anarcho-punk / ska legend Dick Lucas of Citizen Fish which goes into both Ancient Astronaut territory and experiences with socialized health care in the UK. Wild stuff. There's an artist profile on the dark surrealism of painter Dave O'Brien, and Sailing gets personal with controversial artist Joe Christ. Bruce Young does a Q&A with Julie Doucet on underground comics, her work in Drawn And Quarterly and her series Dirty Plotte . And new installments in the ongoing Schism and Nymph comic pages.

There's some more self-released band profiles for industrial metal crushers Golgotha (these guys were fucking awesome, truly bizarre interpretation of that Godflesh / Pitchshifter style, weird and crushing), an Ohio band called Taliesin Echos that played goth rock/post-punk, and an offbeat UK punk band called Ran. Chicago horror/crime author Wayne Allen Sallee has a non-fiction travelogue piece into the depths of his home turf with "Black Velvet And Slice", about a quasi-goth club called Europia; the place sounds like a blast. Sallee drops in some original poetry as well.

As always, there is a load of killer, wild-looking artwork that transcends the limits of underground horror, psychedelia, and cyberpunk aesthetics. Likewise, the now-regular column "The Bad Boy's View Of The World" again finds S. Darnbrook Colson mapping the terrain of the 90's horror culture, while "Incredible 2 Headed TV Casualty" continues to delve into the greasy gutters of late night television and cult / horror craziness found all the way at the end of the dial. This issue's "CyberCents" picks up from previous ish's how-to instructional on using home electronics to enact psychotronic warfare (!), in detail. And of course the reviews (which includes author Brian Hodge spilling some ink). Pages of smart writing on then-new albums from everything from Arcane Device and Nada to Lycia and Treponem Pal and Coroner. Book and mag reviews on cult art, Bukowski, horror from Edward Lee and Michael Shea and more, along with fanzine and comics coverage. Whew!

The old Cleopatra Records ad on the back cover is really icing on the cake.