Gary Larson’s The Far Side: Hell and Back
Gary Larson’s iconic comic strip The Far Side, which ran from 1980 to 1994, frequently featured hell, devils, Satan, and various forms of infernal punishment, often in Dantean fashion. In one panel, Larson illustrates a projector slide reel of the recent vacation photos of a couple. Showing a picture of a grinning Satan with his arm around a sunglasses-and-beachwear-clad woman standing in front of a raging fire, the man narrates, “Oh! Now this is from last summer, when Helen and I went to hell and back.”
Contributed by Dennis Looney
Iced Earth, “Burnt Offerings” (1995)
“This is Iced Earth’s heaviest album, but it still retains powerful symphonic sounds and heart-twisting acoustic passages. It also has all sorts of song structures, time changes, and cool stuff packed everywhere. Iced Earth had some long songs on the previous albums, but on this one they show their ability to create a full-fledged epic. ‘Dante’s Inferno’ takes us through the Nine Planes of Hell for sixteen minutes, each plane something new and demonic. This album was written during angry times — and it shows.” —Iced Earth
Lyrics include: “Damned, the wrathful and the vain / Suffer the fifth plain / Cross the river Styx / Heed your crucifix / The muddied corpses cry / Howling to the sky / Reach the other side / Open wide the gate!”
Cited in Loudwire’s “11 Metal Songs Inspired by Dante’s Inferno” by Katie Irizarry (August 15, 2018).
Robert W. Smith, “The Divine Comedy”
“From the pen of Robert W. Smith has come some of the most impressive writing for contemporary bands and wind ensembles. THE DIVINE COMEDY, a monumental four-movement work, is presented along with other memorable compositions on this compact disc, which features conductor Anthony Maiello and the George Mason University Wind Ensemble. Titles include The Divine Comedy (The Inferno/Purgatorio/Paradiso/The Ascension) * The Tempest * Africa: Ceremony, Song and Ritual * Twelve Seconds to the Moon and others.” —Alfred Music
