Mike Philbin (born 1966 in St Helens, Merseyside) is an artist, editor and author who, as of 1996, resides in Oxford in the United Kingdom. In his twenties, he had three known one-man exhibitions of his psycho-realist paintings at St Helens Museum & Art Gallery, Hanover Galleries Liverpool, the basement gallery of the Acme bookstore in Brixton, London and due to a customs error a cancelled exhibition at Galerie Erotique in Amsterdam.
Philbin has worked as a 3D character artist/animator on the PlayStation games Medievil and MediEvil II and the PC game Ghost Master and the PSP game From Russia With Love EA . He was part of the animation team on the PS2, Wii and PSP versions of The Simpsons Game for EA.
Philbin's short story writing career began back in 1988 with prose pieces in the New York publication Dreams & Nightmares, writing as Michael Paul Peter and Jane Louxis .
In 1989, Creation Books published Philbin's psycho-erotic novel Red Hedz (writing as Michael Paul Peter). Since then, he has been independently published by Eraserhead Press, Medium Rare Books, Double Dragon Press, Massacre Publishing, CyberPulp Press and Silverthought Press (in 2008).
In 2007, Philbin earned the ire and condemnation of many of his literary peers by announcing guidelines for a Chimeraworld anthology involving stories of sex with minors. He termed this "the last taboo." The issue's theme was eventually changed.
Philbin recently signed with the New York-based Silverthought Press.
According to a Philbin-penned spoof science article in issue 14 of Dementia 13 Magazine , the Hertzan Chimera Unit is a fundamental particle (equivalent to a free neutron) that predicts that gravity is the driving force in the universe via something called U.E. Universal Equillibrium, light travels backwards towards the source as U.E. fill in, and matter is the true repulsive force. For the last fifteen years since the Dementia 13 article, most of Philbin's writing has been published as Hertzan Chimera.
Philbin is an advocate of the collaborative fiction form , his collaborative book projects are listed below.
Published Titles * 1989 Red Hedz (as Michael Paul Peter) - novel, Creation Books (ISBN 1-871592-02-X ) * 2000 Neurone Fry Up (as Hertzan Chimera) - short story collection, Eraserhead Press * 2001 Szmonhfu (as Hertzan Chimera) - novel, Eraserhead Press (ISBN 0-9713572-4-2 ) * 2002 Broken' - collaborative short story collection, Medium Rare Books, (writing partners Alex Severin and Wrath James White) (ISBN 1-55404-111-2 ). * 2002 Animal Instincts (as Hertzan Chimera) - fully-illustrated short story collection, Double Dragon Press (illustrator Mitch Phillips) (ISBN 1-55404-111-2 ) * 2003 BoyFistGirlSuck - collaborative short story collection, Massacre Publishing, (female writing partner Alex Severin). * 2003 Chim+Her - collaborative short story collection, Cyber Pulp Press, (female writing partners Destiny West, Queenie Tirone, Dawn Andrews, Brutal Dreamer, Charlee Jacob, Amy Grech, Christina Sng, Alex Severin). * 2003 Chim+Him - collaborative short story collection, Cyber Pulp Press, (male writing partners Simon Logan, Mark McLaughlin, Vincent Sakowski, Greg Wharton, John Edward Lawson, D.F. Lewis and M. F. Korn). * 2005 Jane's Game - novel, Chimericana Books (ISBN 1-4116-5155-3) * 2005 The Best of Him+Chim+Her - collaborative short story collection, Chimericana Books (female writing partners Destiny West, Queenie Tirone, Dawn Andrews, Brutal Dreamer, Charlee Jacob, Amy Grech, Christina Sng, Alex Severin, male writing partners Simon Logan, Mark McLaughlin, Vincent Sakowski, Greg Wharton, John Edward Lawson, D.F. Lewis and M. F. Korn) (ISBN 1411650522) * 2005 Horror Quarterly - retrospective of the first three issues of defunct extreme rock/horror website Horror Quarterly, Chimericana Books (ISBN 1-4116-5409-9) * 2005 The Life and Death of Hertzan Chimera - biography of an invented persona, Chimericana Books (ISBN 1-4116-4927-3) * 2006 Twilight's Last Gleaming (as Hertzan Chimera) - novel, Chimericana Books * 2006 The Hoo-Hoo Are Coming (as Hertzan Chimera) - novel, Chimericana Books * 2008 Bukkakeworld - novel, Silverthought Press * 2008 Planet of the Owls - novel, Silverthought Press
Chimeraworld
Chimeraworld is an anthology of extreme writing from around the world edited by Mike Philbin and published annually through Chimericana Books. The themed guidelines deal with socio-political and moral issues of our contemporary world.
Chimeraworld 1, 2004 Theme - grand guignol, body horror and altered states of perception.
Contents * THE PERFECT CUNT - C.C. Parker * LETTER TO GIOTTO - W. Bill Czolgosz * THE WOMAN FROM THE PLACE OF THE STONES - Greg Beatty * MOTHER'S LAST WISH - John Peters * LOVE NEST - L. Marie Wood * THE LAND OF ELECTRIC FIRE - Latricia L. Lane * A MATTER OF ETHICS - T.M. Gray * BORING, BORING, BORING - Ken Goldman * STRANGE BREED - Queenie Tirone * IN THE DARKNESS - Jaime L. Burvato * THE MAN WITH THE ABSINTHE EYES - Alex Severin * FOR THAT YOU PAY EXTRA - William S. Brock * ADVERTISING AGE - polycarp kusch * FERALUST - Joseph Miles * WEB - Kevin Anderson * ABACUS SLIDING - J. M. Heluk * FIXING DAD'S MICE - Isaac Fellows * SWIMMING IN ENDLESS NIGHT - Kevin L. Donihe * STICK - Tony Richards * RESCUING LAURA - S.J. Hinton * NEED - Steve Short * TWELVE HELLS OF THE HELL LICKER - John Edward Lawson * UGLY LITTLE FUCK - Rickey Windell George
Chimeraworld 2, 2005 Theme - orphans, decay and depression.
Contents * DAMP - Steve Lockley & Paul Lewis* * THE DANCE - Brian W Keen * THE STAGNANT PONDS - Kurt Newton * A TASTE FOR DEFORMITY - Dustin LaValley* * THE ABORTION PEOPLE - David L Tamarin * IT'S YOUR TURN - Derek Gunn * TWISTED JUSTICE - Michele Acker * THIS COLOSSAL WRECK or Fuck You and the Virus You Rode in On - Anthony Cain * CUNT - William D. Carl* * THE FORT - Glen Alan Hamilton * ASKING FOR IT - Quentin S Crisp* * EMBALMING 101 - J. M. Heluk * AT THE ORPHANAGE - Charles Richard Laing * DREAM LOVER - Ken Goldman * BLIND FEELING - Nicholas Alan Tillemans * GREY LOVE - Suzanne Church * FIZZ - Eric Shapiro * LITTLE BOY BLUE - Tony Richards. * BIRDCAGE - Karen James * SIN AND SORROW - John Meany * ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S CHILDREN - Andrew Zimmerman Jones * THE FINAL WAIT - Richard Lee * THE FORGOTTEN - Destiny West
Chimeraworld 3, 2006 Theme - misogyny, atheism and terrorism.
Contents * THE TEST - Ralph Greco, Jr. * THREE-HEAD FULL FISH TANK - Dean R. Winters * FEED THE MACHINE - Michael De Kler * SPREADING THE LOVE - Jenny Ashford * MISFORTUNE SMILES TOO - Nicholas Alan Tillemans * CAVE DWELLER - C. C. Parker * FAMILIAR FACES - Joshua Scribner * CHANGED HIS MIND - Sean Logan * PATIENT VIRTUES - Chet Gottfried * MOUSER - D.L. Snell * KEY MAN - C.L. Russo * CRUSH FREAK - Anthony Armstrong * STENCH MAN KILLER BOY - Paul Pinn* * AT THE SOUND OF THE TONE - Tim McDaniel * TRUE CROSS - Will McIntosh * TEN WARNINGS - Michael A. Kechula * MR. ARNOLD'S WINDOW - Kevin James Miller * MEESTER CLIN & THE SECRET OF THE PAIN-MAKERS - Richard Pitaniello * THE BARK THAT BITES - Richard D. Moore * BALLOON - Liam Davies * WHAT SOLDIERS DO - Tonya Price * I FEEL THE NEED - Glen Alan Hamilton * TOP O' THE NEWS - David L. Tamarin
Contents * THE MOTOR BOYS - Mark Zirbel * THE SEAT - Christina Kinnan* * BROKEN - Paul Murray Collrin * PAINTED WINDOWS - Jenny Ashford * I LOVE MY CAR - Liam Davies * CAR LOVER - Courtney Burback * LENNY - Mark Robyn * TINGLES - M.P. Johnson * BETTY ACID - Tyler Runde * BONES, CHROME AND THE OCCASIONAL ODD BUTTERFLY - J. M. Heluk * DRIVING HER HOME - Kelly Stevens * SHE TURNED EVERY HEAD IN TOWN - Ken Goldman * A DREAM OF AN ENDLESS HIGHWAY - Ray Wallace * ROAD RAGE - Gerard Brennan * 405 - Brad C. Hodson * GO! GO! GO! - M. Jones * THE ONE FATE DARED - Suzanne Burns * MY STOMACH HURTS WHERE I'VE BEEN STABBED - Jeff Drake * BREAKING DOWN ON THE HIGHWAY OF MISSING CEMETERIES - Cameron Pierce * MECHANICAL LIFE, MECHANICAL DEATH - Sean Rickards * THE LOST HIGHWAY - David Mitchell Turnbull * GOING NOWHERE FAST - Kek-W * BETWEEN HIS SKIN AND BONES - Alex Severin
Those Chimeraworld stories marked* received Honorable Mentions in their respective Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2006 and 2007, St Martins Press, USA (editor Ellen Datlow).