Mighty Thursday #12

Batman: The Long Halloween

By Jeph Loeb (Writer) & Tim Sale (Artist); 2011

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Summary from Goodreads

Taking place during Batman’s early days of crime fighting, this new edition of the classic mystery tells the story of a mysterious killer who murders his prey only on holidays. Working with District Attorney Harvey Dent and Lieutenant James Gordon, Batman races against the calendar as he tries to discover who Holiday is before he claims his next victim each month. A mystery that has the reader continually guessing the identity of the killer, this story also ties into the events that transform Harvey Dent into Batman’s deadly enemy, Two-Face. This edition includes original 13-issue series as well as four additional story pages cut from the original series, which are presented fully colored and restored to their place in the story.Read More »

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Book Review – The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Summary

In this ingenious and captivating reimagining of Rudyard Kipling’s classic adventure The Jungle Book, Neil Gaiman tells the unforgettable story of Nobody Owens, a living, breathing boy whose home is a graveyard, raised by a guardian who belongs neither to the mortal world nor the realm of the dead. Among the mausoleums and headstones of his home, Bod experiences things most mortals can barely imagine. But real, flesh-and-blood danger waits just outside the cemetery walls: the man who murdered the infant Bod’s family will not rest until he finds Nobody Owens and finishes the job he began many years ago.

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The Graveyard Book is one of a number of works by Neil Gaiman that I frequently heard about, even before I was a fan of his. This was one of the reasons why I chose to read it next amongst the works of his I have. I’d thought I had a general idea of what to expect from it going in, but that changed a little when I discovered it’s a re-imagining of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book. Unfortunately, I’ve only really experienced the Disney adaptations of that story, as I expect is the case with most people, but that didn’t stop this knowledge from influencing my reading experience.Read More »

Mighty Thursday #11

The Incredible Hercules: Secret Invasion

By Greg Pak, Fred Van Lente (Writers); Rafa Sandoval (Penciler); Roger Bonet with Greg Adams (Inkers); and Martegod Gracia with Dennis Calero & Raul Trevino (Colourists); 2009

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Summary

The Secret Invasion has begun, and Earth is overrun by Skrull shape-shifters on a holy crusade to remake the universe in their image. But the goddess Athena has a solution: if you want to destroy the Skrulls: kill their gods. To this end, Athena’s brother, Hercules, leads a uniquely divine strike force — including Inuit demigoddess Snowbird, Eternal warrior-scholar Ajak, the monstrous god-eater Demogorge, and evil Japanese trickster deity Amatsu Mikaboshi, plus Herc’s boy-genius sidekick Amadeus Cho and his faithful coyote pup. Together, they embark on a celestial voyage to the realm of the Skrull gods, finding romance, camaraderie, and treachery among their ranks along the way. Featuring Nightmare and the Eternals!Read More »

Why Didn’t I Like The Witch?

As is traditional around Halloween, I’ve been watching a lot more horror movies in celebration of the season. One I’d been looking forward to seeing for quite a while was The Witch, the 2015 film directed by Robert Eggers. After watching it, I thought it was very good indeed. It’s finely crafted with good atmosphere, interesting characters, and genuinely creepy moments set in a wonderfully gloomy historical setting. What I’ve been trying to wrap my head around, despite all this and more, is the fact that I didn’t really like watching it.Read More »

Mighty Thursday #10

Kingdom Come

By Mark Waid & Alex Ross (Writers); Alex Ross (Artist); 2008

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Goodreads Summary

Set just after the dawn of the 21st Century, in a world spinning inexorably out of control, comes this grim tale of youth versus experience, a tradition versus change, while asking the timeless question: what defines a hero? Kingdom Come is a riveting story pitting the old guard – Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and their peers – against a new, uncompromising generation of heroes in the final war against each other, to determine nothing less than the future of the planet.Read More »

Short Story Review – The Dunwich Horror by H.P. Lovecraft

Summary from Goodreads

In the degenerate, unliked backwater of Dunwich, Wilbur Whately, a most unusual child, is born. Of unnatural parentage, he grows at an uncanny pace to an unsettling height, but the boy’s arrival simply precedes that of a true horror: one of the Old Ones, that forces the people of the town to hole up by night.

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“The Dunwich Horror” is a short story by H. P. Lovecraft first published in 1929. I read this story in Necronomicon, a large collection of Lovecraft’s “Best Weird Tales” including the complete Cthulhu Mythos cycle. I’ve always liked the idea of Lovecraft’s horror, telling of otherworldly monstrosities too terrible to behold or comprehend, but I’d never gotten around to reading any. I chose “The Dunwich Horror” because unlike other well known stories like “The Call of Cthulhu” or “At the Mountains of Madness,” which I’m intent on reading, I’d heard of this story but knew nothing of what it’s about.Read More »

Mighty Thursday #9

Hellboy: Seed of Destruction

By Mike Mignola (Story & Art); John Byrne (Script); Mark Chiarello (Colours); 2004

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Summary from Goodreads

When strangeness threatens to engulf the world, a strange man will come to save it. Sent to investigate a mystery with supernatural overtones, Hellboy discovers the secrets of his own origins, and his link to the Nazi occultists who promised Hitler a final solution in the form of a demonic avatar.Read More »

Book Review – Thirteen Degrees: 13 Scary Stories and Tales of Horror by Brenden Dean

Summary from Goodreads

Welcome the dreadful cold of terror with 13 original stories by Brenden Dean. Bring a blanket, huddle around the fire, and try to keep warm as you encounter psychotic abductors, deadly spirits and demons of the woods.

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Thirteen Degrees is one of the two horror anthologies I purchased months ago to get myself reading more of the genre. The book collects thirteen short horror stories by Brenden Dean, some as short as a few pages, others a fair bit longer. I won’t be going into anything too specific plot-wise, especially considering the book as a whole is a rather quick read.Read More »