I’ve been having a great time watching connected films and a variety of horror books this season, but it’s very possible that re-visiting the Batman run by Doug Moench and Kelley Jones has been one of my favorite experiences so far. As I mentioned in the first part, these post-KnightFall books were bedrock-forming for my knowledge of not just the Dark Knight, but also the imagery of horror as put through Jones’ incredibly capable lens. As good as the Batman developments are in these issues as he regains his life after the Bane and Azrael incidents, it’s equally exciting to see these two creators work their magic on a variety of villains and co-stars.
Last year I did this thing where every horror movie I watched during the scare season (which starts in September for me) would have a connection to the previous film. I fully intended to write about all 60-some films and my path from Return Of The Living Dead 3 to the new Halloween, but life gets in the way of our best intentions. At the moment, I’m feeling a renewed interest in blogging, so here we go with this year’s entries. Let’s see if anything can even come close to the horror show of a year we’re living through (it won’t).
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!
Even though this week’s Trade Pile isn’t quite as robust as others, I still wanted to get a few thoughts down on three books that I read this week that I thought were pretty darn spiffy. One set an established character out on his own in a way that really worked for me while the other two featured brand new characters, one set in an equally new world an one rooted in a far more familiar one!
Welcome to the tenth meeting of The Midnight Comic Club! After the extensive look at Frankenstein over the past three episodes (and a week off due to illness), we’re back with a new segment called The Sinister Sixpack wherein I grab a half dozen horror comics I’ve never read before and see how that goes.
Not a day goes by that I don’t think,”Gee, I should blog about this thing I just read, watched or saw that I really dig.” For me the reason for this blog is two-fold. First, I want to let people know about cool things that they might also enjoy. The second is as a kind of pop culture digital back-up memory. With both goals in mind, I think I’ll take to this format of quick hits every week (maybe, we’ll see).
In this fourth meeting of The Midnight Comic Club, I talk with my buddy Alex Kropinak, one of the best toy animators in the business. He chose to read Batman: Arkham Asylum by Grant Morrison and Dave McKean. It’s an absolute, must-read classic for any comic AND horror fan.
Do yourself a favor and check out Alex’s fantastic animation work on YouTube and Vimeo and also give his blog a look. See the bottom of this very post for one of the Twisted ToyFare Theater strips he animated that I helped voice!
So, enjoy the episode and read on for a few more notes. In the following gallery you can see the covers to Arkham Asylum and The Cult, plus an image of the lettering by Gaspar Saladino and the big spread towards the beginning we both talk about.
The Arkham Asylum inspired story of is was called “Trial” from Season 2. Paul Dini and Bruce Timm came up with the story and Dini scripted.
Batman Gothic was drawn by Klaus Janson and originally appeared in Legends Of The Dark Knight #6-10.
I happened to talk with artists Brent Schoonover and Mark Laming at New York Comic Con after recording this episode and Laming told me that McKean’s artwork was actually mixed media and photographed!
We also talk about Batman: The Cult by Jim Starlin and Bernie Wrightson, which I haven’t read yet!
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Welcome to the first meeting of The Midnight Comic Club! A few months ago, I got an idea that just would not leave me alone: a podcast about horror comics. There are plenty of shows about horror and many about comics, but this cross-section seamed relatively uncovered. It’s time to fire up those flashlights and read some creepy comics!
This first episode focuses on some of my favorite Superman-related horror stories that I read not long after getting into comics in 1992. I cover everything from hugely popular stories like the Death of Superman to smaller, but still-hard-hitting tales like the sad story of Adam Grant.
If you have any questions or want to suggest topics for future shows, hit me up in the comments! Also, if you like the show, tell your friends and head on over to Apple and rate the podcast!
Alright, so going through the top half of this pile was pretty fun on the previous post. I had a great time with Lumberjanes/Gotham Academy, Batman ’66 Meets The Man From U.N.C.L.E. AND the first volume of Mockingbird so there’s no reason to expect I didn’t also enjoy the bottom half (mostly because I tend to follow the old “if you don’t have anything nice to say” adage). Want to hear about Shutter, Aquaman, Batman: Dark Knight, Dark City and the first volume of Gerard Way’s Doom Patrol? Then you know what to do! Continue reading Trade Pile Part 2: Shutter, Aquaman, Batman & Doom Patrol
Well, I guess I’ve been at it again. Even though I spent a good deal of my last vacation burning through the first few books of Alan Moore’s amazing Swamp Thing run, I’ve also taken time out to plow through another pile of trades, most of which come from my local library.. I thought about separating them out into various themes and writing a bunch of different posts, but don’t want to forget too much and have decided to do a good, old fashioned quick-shot pair of pile posts! You know you want to hear what I thought about these books, so hit the jump! Continue reading Trade Pile Part 1: Lumberjanes, Gotham Academy, Mockingbird, Batman & The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
