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Historically, the Sad Bastard Book Club was founded in Crescent City, California by Denton Aspler in 1988. The word “club” is a bit of a misnomer considering Denton was the only real member. The guy was a kook. Taxidermist by trade, Denton populated his book club meetings with the unclaimed property of his clients. To put it a bit more bluntly, he would discuss what he was reading, in length, with a number of dead, yet lifelike animals. While the meetings were held in his shop, no one knew what he was up to.

However, in the summer of 1990, he began to hold meetings in Brother Jonathan Park out on West 8th St. Denton would cart the whole menagerie out to a shady area and they would spend the day there. It was quite a scene. Picnic blanket, glasses of wine, and a bunch of preserved, beady-eyed animal corpses sitting in a circle around Denton while he expounded upon the book of the month. While people certainly stared, no one intervened since it wasn’t harming anyone.

Or it wasn’t until a certain “Mr. Badgerface” attacked a kid. The police report states that Denton claims he tried to hold Mr. Badgerface back. But most of the people who saw the scene unfold describe Denton picking up a taxidermy badger that Joseph Elich (the kid) touched and brutally attacking him with it.

Needless to say, that was the end of the Sad Bastard Book Club. Joseph was shaken, but ultimately not hurt too badly. Denton was sent to a psychiatric hospital and the animals were destroyed.

We are not that Sad Bastard Book Club.