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Halloween Scene: The Nest (1988)

Posted on June 11, 2020June 10, 2020 by TJDietsch

Earlier this week, I wrote about how reading the excellent Paperbacks From Hell lead me to the delightfully gnarly Valancourt reprint of The Nest by Gregory A. McDonald (actually Eli Cantor). During the time it took me to actually read the book, I stumbled across the fact that a film was made of the 1980 book in 1988. I was admittedly skeptical as the novel features large, but not movie-humongous insects systematically attacking, killing and stripping humans for parts. I haven’t seen a lot of killer bug films, but the ones I had usually relied on forced perspective to make the diminutive members of Club Earth gigantic. How would director Terence H. Winkless deal with that in a film adaptation?

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Symbiote Jamboree: Venom, Absolute Carnage & More!

Posted on June 10, 2020June 10, 2020 by TJDietsch

I’m not sure about anyone else out there, but I’ve always found myself drawn to certain characters in comics and repelled by others based on nothing more than their designs. I’ve read very few Creeper comics, but can say that he’s absolutely one of my favorite characters based solely on design and aesthetics. As a kid coming up in comics fandom in the 90s, I saw a lot of darker themed characters that I did not want anything to do with. One of those characters was Venom. Back then, the large-tongued symbiote muscle man was the king of of the edgy miniseries and I was admittedly a bit nervous about his whole deal (which, as a die-hard DC fan, I only really knew about from looking at covers and reading Wizard). The great thing about being a human, though, is that we can grow past our early thoughts and evolve into new people who are ready, willing and able to read Venom comics (that’s what evolution’s all about, right?).

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My Favorite Movie Experiences Of 2019 – Quick Hits Part 2

Posted on January 22, 2020January 21, 2020 by TJDietsch

Yesterday I knocked out eight or so quick hits of movies I enjoyed in 2019. I should have mentioned in that first post that I’m talking about movies I watched in that year, not necesarily movies that came out in said year. If that were the case, I probably wouldn’t have much to write about as someone who mainly gets their entertainment from Netflix (digital AND disc, like an O.G.), Amazon Video, the library and Hulu! Let’s get back to it!

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My Favorite Newer Horror Movie Experiences Of 2019

Posted on January 12, 2020 by TJDietsch

Okay, so I already talked about by favorite older horror movie experiences of last year, so now it’s time for the newbies! I rarely see horror films in the theater, but do try to keep up on the new hotness mainly by listening to Shock Waves and hearing what they’re enjoying on any number of streaming services. Between that, the library and my subscription to Netflix DVD (yup, I’m the one keeping them in business, apparently), I try to stay on top of the genre, but miss a lot. These are the ones I caught!

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Trade Pile: Black Canary, 3 Geeks & Harlan Ellison

Posted on November 21, 2019November 21, 2019 by TJDietsch

It’s been way too long since I wrote about comics here on the site, so let’s jump back in. Between library borrows, my existing To-Read boxes (roughly two long boxes at current count) and the recent discovery of a store that sells super cheap trades, I’ve got a lot to read. Let’s get into it!

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Halloween Scene: Animal Man Vol 5 & Red Thorn!

Posted on October 17, 2019October 17, 2019 by TJDietsch

My journey this fall through the weird worlds of Vertigo has taken me to some strange corners of the comics world and I couldn’t be happier about it. This time around I tackled another volume in the proto-Vertigo post-Grant Morrison Animal Man saga and also made my way through a series based on Scottish mythology that was fun and bloody.

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A Few Thoughts On The World’s End, Dark Forces & Six String Samurai

Posted on March 9, 2019January 8, 2020 by TJDietsch

Between a mix of business and less-than-desirable equipment, I’m bummed to say I haven’t done nearly as much blogging as I wanted to this year. However, as I sit here under my brand new laptop — one with the luxurious benefit of a fully working keyboard — I wanted to get into a trio of movies I’ve seen recently that I really enjoyed!

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Riding With The King: End Of Watch (2016)

Posted on January 25, 2019September 24, 2019 by TJDietsch

I keep a checklist on my phone of all the Stephen King books out there that I use to keep track of which ones I own, in what format and whether I’ve read them or not. Dude’s got so many offerings that it’s hard to keep everything in my head and I’m not a big fan of buying the same book more than once, even at flea market or yard sale prices!

After writing about the four King books I read in 2018 and looking at my list, I realized that I’ve actually read more of his most recent dozen books than his first dozen. I dig this fact because it means I still have plenty of his works to read, but also it reminds me that he’s still spinning yarns that I can’t wait to get my hands on and tear through.

My Favorite Book Reading Experiences Of 2018 Part 3

Posted on January 9, 2019September 27, 2019 by TJDietsch

Alright folks, we’re hitting the home stretch here with the last post about books I read in 2018. Hopefully, I’ll keep up on writing about the novels and non-fiction works as I read them, so these year-enders (or beginners at this point) don’t become so unwieldy, but we’ll see about that. Check out parts one and two here and here then hit the jump for the last entry.

My Favorite Book Reading Experiences Of 2018 Part 2

Posted on January 9, 2019October 2, 2019 by TJDietsch

Over the course of my reading in 2018, I found myself drawn to the dark corners of the library and my own book collection. As you can see from this photo of the books I read and gleaned from the first in this three-part series, darkness makes its way into a lot of my book selections.

With this post, I’m going to focus on two horror writers who captured my imagination repeatedly this year: Stephen King and Lauren Beukes. I may not have torn through the books as quickly as I’d hoped, but I still walked away from all six of these thankful that I’d stuck with them and gone on those rides.