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armenianwriterman · 2 months ago

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So I spent the last few weeks going on a My Hero Academia fanfiction reading binge and here's some of my recommendations!

All It Takes is One Good Friend: An anthology fanfic where in each chapter, a different character meets Izuku Midoriya (usually but not always due to an exploding firework truck), becomes friends with him, and helps him deal with Bakugo's bullying in the process, often with hilarious results. Some examples include Iida becoming a delinquent in order to control delinquency at Aldera, Overhaul and the Shie Hassaikai taking over as the school's teachers, Pony challenging Bakugo to a spice off, and Kota punches Bakugo in the nuts so hard it ends up killing Muscular via the butterfly effect. For anyone looking for fun crack, sweet friendships and occasional seriousness, this is the fic for you! (Warning: not for fans of Bakugo).

The Future Briefing Island: Izuku, his friends and his teachers wake up on a mysterious place with a mysterious woman, who has something they're very interested in seeing. A "characters watch their own show MST" style fic differentiated by having an actual plot outside of its premise. Highlights include Izuku getting therapy, Nezu using the mystical realm they're stuck in to troll his students, and the most awkward sex ed lesson ever, starring Midnight.

Cain: After the Sludge Villain incident, Bakugo finds Izuku a bit later then he did in canon, and gets to overhear All Might offering Izuku One for All. He takes it poorly, very poorly, and decides to do everything in his power to prevent "shitty stalker Deku" from becoming All Might's successor. This fic takes pre-character development Bakugo and plays it for horror. It gets legitimately scary at times, especially since we're restricted to Katsuki's POV throughout the fic. A well written story with terrifyingly unhinged unreliable narrator, this is my recommendation for anyone looking for something more intense. (Warning: very not for fans of Bakugo).

Ignited Spark: In a world where Izuku manifested a Quirk, he gives up his dreams of being a hero after a horrible accident until a chance encounter with All Might leads him to become a part of the great Hero team Japan has ever seen. This is an elseworlds/alternate universe fic where everything is different: Ochako is Izuku's childhood friend, Kendo is the next wielder of One for All, Nejire is a part of Class 1-A, Tenko Shimura was rescued from the streets and became a hero, and that just scratches the surface of this story has in store. There are a few AU changes I'm not a big fan of but that could be just me. It's a very long fic and I'm still only about halfway through, but I'm recommending it anyway because of the well written prose and action sequences, intriguing re-imaginings of My Hero's cast, and an excellent dynamic between the three leads. (Warning: gets a bit nsfw later on)

rock'n'roll buckaroo: Kaminari and Shoto create the My Hero Academia version of Buzzfeed Unsolved where they talk about superhero conspiracies. This ends up butterfly effecting into the League of Villains becoming famous YouTubers. Another fic with a good mix of crack and feels.

to convince what joy can bring: A huge cold snap spreads across Japan and poor Tsuyu can barely deal with the temperatures. Fortunately, her friends are there for her. A cute fluffy, Tsuyu centric story.

Rules for 1-A: Aizawa gets sick of dealing with his class of chaos children, so he makes a list of rules for them. What seems like a by the numbers fic is enhanced by the genuinely funny jokes within. Lines like "Todoroki: You're not allowed to set a garbage can on fire and bring it to parent-teacher conferences in place of your father", "I have no desire to explain what a thot is to All Might", and "When someone asks you to pass the salt, please pass the salt, do not produce a hand-written list of every complaint Bakugo has made about Midoriya and begin reading them aloud in a whiny voice," make this fic a laugh riot from start to finish.

Things That Haunt Our Hallways: While on a class trip, the 19 kids of 1-A (Mineta doesn't exist here lol) get hit with Fear Toxin, and it's up to Aizawa to save them. A very angsty fic exploring the fears of the kiddos and lots of Dadzawa and Dad Might as they comfort their students. Recommended for those who love hurt/comfort.

old game (new rules): Jiro is starting a new life in UA and she's determined not to let anyone get close her, not after last time. Another angst fic about dealing with internalized homophobia and trauma from being bullied in middle school. A must read for any fans of Kyoka.

fs in the chat and other forms of emotional support: Ochako learns her friend is a lesbian and decides to set her up with one of her buddies. What follows is pure horny crack as Ochako, Jiro, Mina and Camie fight over Momo and talk about lesbian sex on Discord. Slightly OOC but funny nonetheless.

He's Mine: Ochako activates yandere.exe, Izuku's a little too into it and everyone else is terrified. I actually joked about Ochako being a yandere in my liveblog, so I was amused by this fic. Hope you like it as much as I did.

soulmates die ten years apart: A tragic story about a hero losing her life in the line of duty, and Izuku's grief. I read this when I was having a bad mental health day and it kinda fucked me up. Have some hurt/no comfort.

Colors of You: When Bakugo and Kirishima's relationship gets outed, the kids of Class 1-A come together to let them know they aren't alone. A story about realizing things about yourself and queer solidarity.

It's Called Polyamory: One day, various people from Class 1-A end up seeing Izuku, Kaminari, Momo and Jiro out together in public, and end up in a huge debate about who's in a relationship with who. Little do they know, everyone's right.

Her truest reflection: During the USJ attack, Izuku is hit by a Quirk that makes transforms your body to match your inner self...and gets turned into a girl. As she adjusts to this change, all the girls in 1-A collectively go "OH NO SHE'S HOT!" A sweet emotional story about Izuku learning to love herself, and her six future girlfriends loving her.

his hair's a mess and he doesn't know who he is yet: Kaminari comes into possession of a dress while dealing with some issues, and ends up learning a few things about herself in the process. A good fic about self discovery, friendship, and dunking on Mineta.

Hulk-akure: Toru is shredded as fuck. That's it that's the fic.

it was a grave yet bore no stone: Class 1-A finds out Izuku accidentally leaves his notebook at school while he's visiting his mom, and discover a huge secret about their classmate. Featuring Class 1-A actually getting to react to One for All's existence and be supportive without being interrupted by the plot (cough canon cough)

how to destroy a man and get two dads, a guide by Izuku Midoriya: After learning about Todoroki's backstory, Izuku decides to torment Endeavor by flooding the internet with Omegaverse fanfic of him and All Might. Hilarity ensues.

Fear No Evil: This fic takes the relatively common fanfic concept of All for One being Izuku's father, and takes it in an interesting direction by having Izuku be abducted by Humarise, forcing All for One to team up with All Might and Aizawa to rescue him. The novel and unique premise alone is worth reading, and it contains a lot of fun back and forth between the reluctant allies and well written tension as Izuku tries to survive a cult of genocidal fanatics.

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flowerbloom-arts · 7 months ago

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I suppose you could say they're a... Match made in hell........ (Design from Treehouse of Horror XXV, s26 ep4)

(Over-analysis of ChalmSkinn under the cut.)

Disclaimer: I know I'm overanalyzing silly gags and concepts from a silly animated sitcom that in its current state has what one could only describe as a rough approximation of continuity (and that the spooky anthology episodes in it are non-canon). Just let me exercise some media literacy for a bit.

Okay so like... What is it with Skinner, Chalmers, and being a two-headed creature? What is that meant to represent?? Once is a gag made in humor and twice is a little eyebrow raising, I think.

And it's not like they're using this as a gag because they have a kind of antagonistic relationship and it'd make for easy bickering jokes, it's actually the opposite! These representations of them with a shared body happen as a representation of them getting along!

ChalmSkinn Productions is their own production company that they originally used to submit films to the Sundance festival, and that episode was one where they got along the most, by far, as the two had a shared goal in being successful in the film industry.

(please ignore the video play bar at the bottom, thank you)

Now, the logo for the company when it got introduced as a concept was very different, it was a globe where Skinner and Chalmers' heads would spin on its surface (though, one could argue it's still their two heads attached to one thing which is roughly a similar idea to the shared body thing), but the association still applies. The company is the result of their two heads joining in an amicable way.

Demon ChalmSkinn (that's what I'm gonna call them) on the other hand is extremely fascinating to try and deconstruct into something of thematic implication.

They are... Technically not Skinner and Chalmers themselves? But they are a parallel version of them in this hell school dimension that Bart and Lisa discover and it's full of other demons that parallel characters from Springfield Elementary, so Demon ChalmSkinn might as well be Chalmers and Skinner for the purposes of this Treehouse of Horror segment.

And, given the vague idea of what Seymour Skinner and Gary Chalmers' relationship is like, you would expect the writers, when sticking their heads on the same body, to make them bicker, right? Have the Chalmers head yell at the Skinner had for some reason?

... They don't do that! They don't bicker at all! In fact, they are very much in sync in a non-hivemind sort of way, they don't interrupt eachother and they seem like very pleasant dudes in general (well, except for the part with they skinned Bart, that was a little uncool).

It's like... What are the writers trying to say with this, specifically? It almost feels like the fact they get along well is the joke.

You expect them to not get along? Well, they do. Their relationship in the regular world is so bad that it's better in hell.

And that's weird, right? If that's the joke then it sure as hell (heh) doesn't feel like it gets acknowledged as a joke. Why avoid such an opportunity for easy jokes? It clearly has to be some deliberate representation of something about their relationship, right? Why do they get along more when they're conjoined than when they're apart?

Maybe, just maybe this is saying something about the inseparability of Gary and Seymour, that they are unable to truly break apart from eachother and are actually far more miserable for it. No matter how many times Chalmers fires Skinner or plans on firing him or just gets annoyed at him for being a spineless kiss-ass around Gary, there's just no severing them. Perhaps a commentary on the status quo nature of the show.

One of my mutuals also suggested that these two would actually be happier if they were together instead of apart, that being stuck together makes them more whole and pleasant than just the sum of their parts.

Their relationship has been characterized by this great, invisible divide of some sort, where a blurry amalgamation of admiration and desperateness clash with an apathetic no-nonsense attitude. If they could just somehow bridge that divide and come to a deeper understanding of eachother then... they'll be happier for it, and maybe they'll be... Together. And inseparable.

If the episode Road to Cincinnati is of any indication, their relationship seems to be heading for a dynamic shift, almost definitely a positive one. Now that Chalmers finally sees Skinner as more earnest than placating, maybe we'll see a Chalmers and Skinner that will evolve into something more. Something metaphorically resembling that two-headed demon they are in hell.

#art #simpsons fanart #the simpsons #chalmers x skinner #gary chalmers #superintendent chalmers #seymour skinner #principal skinner #chalmskinn #demon ChalmSkinn #treehouse of horror

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panlight · 2 months ago

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anon this time please!!!

anyway, hi hello! i think i saw you mention somewhere that you're a librarian and have read a bunch of vampire books (I think I also remember seeing you mention it as the reason why you were disappointed with the vampire elements in twilight, bc you expected it to read more as a vampire book than a romance iirc?)

So, i got curious with a few posts mentioning Alistair (one of those background character vamps in BD) and his backstory?? SHEITTT I'm a sucker (pun not intended) for that tragedy angle. Because of that, and because SMeyer really just gave all that and shafted it on the main story bc "they're not pretty things to write 🥺" I want to ask if you have any vampire stories/books to recommend that get into that tragedy? where the protagonist or at least even one of the main characters gets turned (likely against their will given the context) and deals with the horror of their transformation, goes through some Stages of Monster Grief trope being "What did you DO TO ME?!" (feel free to add in stories you know that do the whole I hate you vampire dad trope where they're bitter at their creator for turning them bc mmmm that's fun angst too lol!)

No Vampire Chronicles since I've seen them (though I like the existential angle of it all) Louis's experiences and Claudia's tragedy in Interview with the Vampire are great but I've read it already XD

thanks in advance!! 🥺🥺

You. You get it. That's the vibe. That's what I want in vampire stories, and why Breaking Dawn was just the opposite of everything I like about them. "Whee I'm so happy I was born for this" is maybe a neat subversion of "what have I become?!" but it was, for me, also boring. But the backstories, ugh, so many of the backstories were SO GOOD. Alistair's whole thing with his horse breaking its own neck in its attempt to get away from vampire!Alistair, his beloved falcons now being terrified of him, like SM went SO HARD with this backstory and does . . . nothing with it. It's just in the guide. It's so grim and tragic and devastating and for me, about 1000 times more interesting than anything that happens in Breaking Dawn.

And Carlisle!! I know I've harped on this before, but Carlisle's backstory is like 85% of why I kept reading the books after the first one, I LOVE it. The son of a monster-hunting pastor gets bitten and hides for three days in silence despite the pain because his knows if discovered his father will have him burned alive. Then he becomes a vampire and tries to destroy himself, but fails, so opts to banishing himself to the woods to starve. Mmmm. Delicious. Bring me 10 more stories just like this.

Regrettably I have not found many books that scratch that itch. So much of vampire stuff these days is romantasy and that's not what I'm looking for, I want to wallow in the dread and the horror and the angst and the crushing weight of eternal thirst, please and thank you.

If you haven't read Dracula yet, do give it a try. There's definitely dread and horror and angst over transformations. I really liked Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian but it's more like, spooky than horror but it's sort of like Dracula meets the Da Vinci Code but better written (and it has vampire librarians!). Stephen King's Salem's Lot is a pretty traditional vampire novel but it's been awhile since I read it and I don't remember a ton of wallowing in the angst, it's much more actual horror.

I do remember really enjoying some vampire anthologies when I was doing my marathon read. See if you can get your hands on some sort of short story collection of vampire tales. I can't remember what the ones at our library were called, but there was one story that I still remember about vampire who was a photographer and was obsessed with trying to photograph the sunrise . . . which posed the obvious problem.

If anyone has read a more recent vampire novel that's not a romantasy and DOES wallow in the existential angst, please please let us know!

#asks

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burins · 2 months ago

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I wrote up half of my Eisners roundup back in May and then my arm crapped out profoundly. But here is the rest of my thoughts about all the comics and graphic novels I read this year, of which there were many! As usual particular faves are bolded.

JAN

Delicious in Dungeon v6-12

FEB

MAR

The Chromatic Fantasy - HA

I think that if you are following me you will probably like this book. Great stuff on gender and sex and religion in a deeply fun art style. (Best I can describe it is the really trippy bits of Alice in Wonderland.)

Gleem - Freddy Carasco

Fluid, delightful linework.

APR

A Guest in the House - E M Carroll

E M Carroll has been doing some of the best horror comics in the business for about a decade and this continues the streak. Twisty, turny psychological horror

MAY

Where I’m Coming From - Barbara Brandon-Croft

Collection of Brandon-Croft’s wonderful 90s newspaper strips about Black womanhood.

Roaming - Jillian and Mariko Tamaki

Love letter to being messy and gay and young in the city.

Local Man v1-2 - Tim Seeley and Tony Fleecs

This is a fun little deconstruction of comics tropes. Inga, the love interest slash female lead, is the best part of the comic.

Danger and Other Unknown Risks - Ryan North and Erica Henderson

Great story, great characters, great art. What if you were in charge of preventing the second end of the world, and also your mentor figure was SO dubious, and also you had the world’s biggest, cutest dog?

Family Style: Memories of an American from Vietnam - Thien Pham

First of a number of immigration memoirs nominated for the Eisners. The storytelling here is excellent; the art wasn’t my personal favorite.

In Limbo - Deb JJ Lee

I always have such a hard time judging memoir comics, but I think this walks a good line between gesturing at and directly portraying its fairly heavy subject matter, and the art is stunning.

Last on His Feet: Jack Johnson and the Battle of the Century - Adrian Matekja and Youssef Daoudi

Probably my favorite thing I read in this batch. Lyrical, poetic art that plays with paneling and pagination to incredible effect. Does not shy away from the everyday brutality of either boxing, racism, or Johnson’s personal life.

Messenger: The Legend of Muhammad Ali - Marc Bernardin

I read this right after Last on His Feet and boy did it suffer for it. Unfortunately, this is just an entirely forgettable bio of Muhammad Ali.

Sunshine - Jarrett J. Krosoczka

I wish I liked Krosoczka’s art. This did make me cry but it’s a memoir about working at a camp for kids with cancer, so it would be pretty hard for it NOT to.

Blackward - Lawrence Lindell

This would have been a perfectly serviceable 2010s-era webcomic. Not everything needs to be a book!

The Out Side: Trans & Nonbinary Comics

Graphic anthologies are deeply hit or miss for me but this one was extremely solid!

Frontera - Jaco - Salcedo and Julio Anta

Excellent story about the violence of the border, deeply undercut (for me) by a very jarring ghost subplot.

A First Time for Everything - Dan Santat

Sweet little story about a class trip abroad with glowing art.

Shubeik Lubeik - Deena Mohamed

I'm so bummed I couldn't hear Mohamed speak at MICE because I LOVED this. Uses genies as a vehicle to explore the fault lines of class and politics in Egyptian society.

A Boy Named Rose - Gaëlle Geniller

Lovely art but this was entirely nothing. Remember Teahouse? This is that but sfw and also without any narrative tension.

Comics for Ukraine

Almost universally bad, with the exception of "Talking to a Hill." I think sometimes the medium of superhero comics is not the one with which to tackle every issue,

Parasocial - Erica Henderson and Alex de Campi

Tense paneling, solid art, I didn't care for the ending of the story.

Are You Willing to Die for the Cause? - Chris Oliveros

This relies almost entirely in first person accounts, which I like as a device for exploring who gets to claim historicity, but it means that the actual narrative is kind of incoherent.

The Great Beyond - Léa Murawiec

My other favorite from this batch! This is a story about celebrity and fame and being remembered, but the art is some of the most fluid and expressive stuff I've seen in years and the creativity of the conceit keeps it from ever feeling run of the mill.

Memento Mori - Tiitu Takalo

I am pretty down on illness memoirs, but I liked this more than I thought I would.

Swan Songs - W. Maxwell Prince et al

This collection of stories about endings was going to be a winner for me and then the final comic was SO bad it soured the whole experience for me.

Monstrous: A Transracial Adoption Story - Sarah Myer

This (like a lot of the comics in the teen category) did make me cry! The art is a little too scratchy for me at times- it's intentional, but not always deployed to best advantage.

Phantom Road v1 - Jeff Lemire and Gabriel Hernández Walta

Is this basically Alice Isn't Dead with a guy as the driver? Well, yes, but it is good. Lemire always nails creeping dread and Hernández Walta's art is ominously flat in an excellent way.

Black Cloak v1 - Kelly Thompson and Meredith McLaren

Compelling story undercut by webtoony art that's way too cute for the fantasy noir vibe of the narrative.

My Girlfriend's Child v1 - Mamoru Aoi

It's always kind of wild to me to see a completely bog standard teenage pregnancy narrative get nominations like this and then I remember that most people making these nominations do not like, know a lot of people who were pregnant as teens.

Godzilla: Here There Be Dragons - Frank Tieri and Inaki Miranda

This is simply not very good art or story.

The Cull v1 - Kelly Thompson and Mattia de Iulis

The story here is really intriguing! I wish we had a little more time to get to know the characters before getting thrown into Plot but it's real solid. I don't always love this hyper realistic 3D rendering but it works for the story.

The Summer Hikaru Died v1 - Mokumokuren

I could wish that the translator hadn't rendered all of the dialogue as weirdly southern but this is a really good gay rural horror. Came back wrong simply hits!

Mabuhay! - Zachary Sterling

Cute! Didn't really slam me but I would have had a lot of fun with this as a kid.

Mexikid: A Graphic Memoir - Pedro Martín

This was both lovely and deeply felt and also laugh out loud funny.

Saving Sunshine - Saadia Faruqi and Shazleen Khan

Extremely sweet sibling story.

Fire Power v1-4 - Robert Kirkman and Chris Samnee

The Good Asian v1-2 - Pornsak Pichetshote and Alexandre Tefenkgi

Eden II - Kenny Wroten

This has great moments and is also deeply irony poisoned. I would love to read a weird queer comic by someone who was not Online. Also I could not tell any of the characters apart, because they were all thin white-presenting people from fake Seattle. ALSO the speech bubbles were so clearly added in after the fact that it was often difficult to tell who was saying what. I'm not a purist about speech bubble rules or anything but I gotta be able to tell what order to read your dialogue!

Three Rocks: The Story of Ernie Bushmiller: The Man Who Created Nancy - Bill Griffith

The frame narrative is solid, but the best part of this was just the actual Nancy comics included within.

The Horizon v1 - JH

This is just apocalypse torture porn tbh.

Thing: Inside the Struggle for Animal Personhood - Sam Machado

Here's the thing. I think there are compelling arguments for animal rights. I would also like to see us put that same kind of energy towards ensuring full rights for people first. Also the art and writing here are simply not very good.

Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons - Kelly Sue deConnick, Phil Jiminez, Gene Ha, and Nicola Scott

I wasn't sure I would love this because of my noted Picky Feelings about feminist Greek myths but I liked it more than I thought! The art is phenomenal.

Superman (2023) v1 - Joshua Williamson

The annual is what was nominated, but the single issues are the actual stars of this trade. Williamson does a really solid job of situating Clark in community.

Wonder Woman (2023) v1 - Tom King

I find the story pretty grating (why does Diana need to be fighting the entire US government?)

Poison Ivy (2022) v1 - G Willow Wilson and Marcio Takara

YAY we love an ecoterrorist getting her due. Takara's art leans full Annihilation.

My Picture Diary - Maki Fujiwara

This suffered in comparison to last year's alt-manga diary comics from a similar era, Talk to My Back, which was one of my favorite books of the year. Fujiwara's art is very stolid and pretty simplistic and while it works for the subject matter it wasn't my favorite.

River’s Edge - Kyoko Okazaki

This is SO messed up! We are right in the violence and emotional mess of teenagerhood.

The Yakuza’s Bias v1 - Teki Yatsuda

This gets a little one note by the end of the collection but yakuza falls right into Kpop stan culture is such a funny premise that I didn't mind.

How to Love: A Guide to Feelings and Relationships for Everyone - Alex Norris

This is much cuter and more charming than I thought it'd be.

The Talk - Darrin Bell

Bell is best known for his political cartoons and this brings the same kind of incisive political wit to a longform piece while adding a great deal of empathy.

Transformers (2023) v1 - Daniel Warren Johnson

I am so sorry to DWJ who did his very very absolute best to make me care about Transformers. The art and writing are great I just don't go here.

Kill Your Darlings - Ethan Parker and Griffin Sheridan

Pretty mid dark fairytale.

PeePee PooPoo - Caroline Cash

Diversity win this lesbian alt comic is just as annoying as the straight ones!

Superman: Lost - Christopher Priest and Carlo Pagulayan

Ugh. Superman: Lost was one of my favorite takes on Superman and Lois last year and I still think the first like… five issues are phenomenal. As soon as we get the weird infidelity/assault/pregnancy narrative I was out.

Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees - Patrick Horvath

I simply hate cutesy animal horror.

The Devil’s Cut, edited by Will Dennis

I know I read this but I have no memory of it. My notes say I liked it, and I'm generally in support of DSTLRY and creator-owned comics as a concept.

Marvel Age #1000, edited by Tom Brevoort

Deeply masturbatory.

JUN

Deep Cuts - Kyle Higgins et al

I liked this so much it was my end of the year staff pick! It's hard to do comics that really capture the collaborative and improvisational feeling of a good jazz session but this anthology absolutely does.

Somna: A Bedtime Story - Becky Cloonan and Tula Lotay

Tula Lotay's art is absolutely gorgeous but I was kind of bored by "what if a Puritan housewife was fucking the devil."

Watership Down: The Graphic Novel - James Sturm

I think these rabbits are too cute to really capture the horror of Watership Down.

Delicates - Brenna Thummler

It's really difficult to tell a story about a kid who is bullying someone else and have it land sympathetically for both parties and Thummler manages it with an uncommon emotional depth.

Buzzing - Samuel Sattin and Rye Hickman

OOF this hit me right in the psych kid feelings. Very sweet and really captured the feeling of the complicated family dynamics that surround kids with mental illness.

#DRCL midnight children v1 - Shin’ichi Sakamoto

Insane choice to make Lucy Westenras a bishie.

Doctor Strange: Fall Sunrise - Tradd Moore

Did not think I would ever be rooting for a Doctor Strange comic but this is the kind of psychedelic universe bending art I would love to see more of from his whole character premise!

Bea Wolf - Zach Weinersmith

Absolutely delightful adaptation of Beowulf for children. Weinersmith really captures the feeling of the old English language in a story about a bunch of little kids defending their treehouse.

HP Lovecraft’s The Shadow over Innsmouth - Gou Tanabe

I don't feel qualified to examine the choice by a Japanese artist to adapt a story about Lovecraft's fear of Chinese and Pacific Islander genes entering Massachusetts. I haven't read much actual Lovecraft but did we all know it was that racist? I mean, I knew he was racist but my god.

The Monkey King v2 - Chaiko Tsai

EXCELLENT adaptation of Journey into the West! I couldn't get v1 in time for voting but the art and the pacing here are just so much fun.

It’s Jeff! - Kelly Thompson and Gurihiru

This is extremely cute but it is ultimately just a cute animal comic.

Earthdivers v1 - Stephen Graham Jones and Davide Gianfelice

I hope you don't need me to tell you Earthdivers is good. It's good.

Birds of Prey (2023) v1 - Kelly Thompson and Leonardo Romero

I was so dubious about this one that I ended my yuri zine piece talking about it. And then it was in fact really really good. The team dynamics are excellent here and the art is perfectly suited to it (except for one issue with a guest penciller where the art is execrable.)

Shazam! (2023) v1 - Mark Waid and Dan Mora

Waid and Mora are sort of the DC powerhouse couple at the moment and I know that at any minute Mora is gonna switch to only doing covers, which will make me very sad. This was way more fun than I expected to have with a Shazam comic but the kids here are delightful without being cutesy and Waid does a great job balancing Billy being a real character and also a believable hero.

Four Gathered on Christmas Eve - Eric Powell, Mike Mignola, Becky Cloonan, and James Harren

Becky Cloonan's was the story that was nominated in this but unfortunately I didn't really care for it.

Spa - Erik Svetoft

This was hard for me to read because it is just body horror from start to finish. I think it runs a little long but as far as the horrors of capitalism and the tourism industry go it doesn't get much better than this.

JULY

The Most Costly Journey: Stories of Migrant Farmworkers in Vermont Drawn by New England Cartoonists

Really, really good cartooning and storytelling. Vermont is not really what you think of as the front lines of immigration but it's a farming community!

Green Arrow (1988) v1-9 by Mike Grell and others

Honestly the highlight of these for me is that the scans on (website redacted) maintain the letters pages! Grell's Green Arrow tackles a lot of capital I issues with mixed results but I do enjoy seeing the attempt. And it comes off a lot better than Batman comics of a similar vintage that attempt the same thing.

Robin (2021) v1-3 - Joshua Williamson, Gleb Melnikov, and Roger Cruz

Honestly? Delightful. I love to see Damian come into himself and I love to see his cute little romance and I love to see him reading shoujo manga.

AUG

Are You Listening? - Tillie Walden

Tillie Walden always hits!

Hunter x Hunter v 1-13 - Yoshihiro Togashi

Sometimes you read 38 volumes of manga in two months after watching 130 episodes of the show and listening to hundreds of hours of podcast about it. And that's just what HxH does to you. It's normal, and fine.

The Yakuza’s Bias v2 - Teki Yatsuda

The bones of the premise are starting to show - I think this really would have been better as a single volume. Still very charming but probably not gonna pick up any third volume.

The Boy Wonder (as it came out) - Juni Ba

BOY WONDER COMIC OF ALL TIME! Wonderful take on Damian wonderful art wonderful Al Ghuls.

SEPT

The Summer Hikaru Died v2 - Mokumokuren

Hunter x Hunter v13-38 - Yoshihiro Togashi

OCT

The Concierge At Hokkyoku Department Store, v1 - Tsuchika Nishimura

What if working retail was not a horror show but was instead deeply fulfilling for everyone involved? This can only happen in a world where the customers are animals.

NOV

Iris: A Novel for Viewers - Lo Hartog van Banda and Thé Tjong-Khing

The gender of this is kind of crazy (derogatory) and it could not more clearly be from the 60s. I don't think I'd recommend it but I don't regret reading it as like, a historical document.

Space Mullet - Daniel Warren Johnson

DWJ really doesn't miss. This is a very classic grungy space noir in the vein of a Cowboy Bebop or an Expanse but I liked it quite a bit despite being made to feel sympathetic for a space Marine.

DEC

Nightwing (1996) v1-3 - Chuck Dixon and Scott McDaniel

Flush! Those! Blood pressure! Meds! Is Nightwing 96 a good comic? Who can say. Babs is there and Dick Grayson is experiencing the full spectrum of human emotion deep in his #failgirl 20s so I'm having a great time.

#comics not even once #recs #library haint

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utilitycaster · 1 year ago

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you got me. i binged all of midst in two days and it was great, but now i dont have a lot of other podcasts to listen to. do you have other good fiction podcasts you like?

DO I. I am not the Most Podcast Person I know but I definitely follow a lot because I drive a lot and walk a lot and put them on in the background while I do chores. Also, I'm sticking to scripted/plotted fiction here and not actual play but I can provide some actual play podcast recs too, though none are terribly obscure.

Wolf 359 is a completed podcast but a great binge. It also is science fiction and deals with capitalism and corruption and complicated characters and weird space stuff; it regularly makes the "great fiction podcasts" to check out and I think is closest to Midst in that it's also a tightly plotted work that goes to a natural end point.

I frequently talk about and recommend the Silt Verses and the thematic nature is remarkably close to Midst, but the vibe is very different. It has a lot of folk and body horror elements (audio-only, but they are absolutely present). Also covers the "man what if capitalism and religion were working explicitly in tandem" element of Midst with the added dimension of "what if there were many many gods and and they all demanded literal, physical sacrifices". Sister Carpenter is cut from a similar cloth as Lark and I love her dearly. To draw other comparisons would be to spoil it. It's on season 3, which will be its last. It is extremely intense in that when I fell behind I found it tough to binge without taking breaks, but it's really fucking good. (I also recommend this to people who like Candela Obscura, though that's more for eldritch horror vibes).

The Penumbra Podcast is great because it has two separate storylines (it was originally intended to be an anthology, but people fell in love with Juno Steel specifically). I like both, but Juno Steel is the more popular one - it's set in the future, in our solar system but in space, and follows Juno Steel, a private eye. It's extremely weird neo-noir. There is a homme fatale and a fantastic cast of characters, and it's also an interesting ongoing plot. The Second Citadel is more fantasy rather than sf though it's also kind of in that general New Weird bucket and is even harder to describe but I think it's underrated. It's also on its final season but it's been going on a while so it will take a bit for you to catch up.

Within the Wires is also a podcast I've recommended in the past. It's by the people who do Welcome to Nightvale which isn't listed here both because I assume you are aware of it, and because that's an ongoing slice of life sort of thing; there are plots but there's sort of that sitcom-esque "nothing really changes the status quo" element though the earlier era had some more structured stuff. Anyway, Within the Wires is found audio, so each season is different - the first is relaxation cassette tapes, the second museum audio guides, the third voice memos, etc. There are callbacks/connections between seasons at times, and I would recommend listening to at least the first two seasons in full (which are very strong) to get a sense of the world before hopping around later. The reason I recommend it here is because the worldbuilding is spectacularly done in a way that reminds me of the elegance of the worldbuilding in Midst, and because it's found audio, while it's one narrator per season you will get those weird asides and interesting tonal choices.

Tentative rec for Camlann, a roughly modern day post-apocalyptic take on Arthurian legends and the folklore of the British Isles only because it just started and has 3 episodes. I like it, but I don't know what plot it's building to (nor how long it will be; they have funding for one season but aren't sure about future ones.)

#answered #Anonymous

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all-souls-matinee · 5 months ago

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Quick-bite reviews: V/H/S/Beyond (2024) dir. Jay Cheel, Jordan Downey, Virat Patel, Justin Martinez, Christian & Justin Long, Kate Seigel

I finally decided to stop covering this franchise (last year's '/85' remains unwatched) when '/Beyond' had to go ahead and be pitched as an alien-centric V/H/S with a segment written by my horror enemy Mike Flanagan. I've seen a fair chunk of alien horror movies and never have much to say about them because... they're bad... but I'm always rooting for a good one to come into existence. They're like my now-horrible home baseball team; I KNOW the storytelling optics aren't there, it wouldn't be a problem if we could assemble the perfect cast and crew and have infinite time and infinite money. The original V/H/S actually had a memorable piece of alien horror so that's encouraging? It wasn't good but it was memorable! It was there! My feelings on Flanagan only made for extra incentive; if I couldn't have a good alien horror movie at least I could have another alien horror movie to be performatively mad at.

Mike Flanagan has been forgiven; alien horror has made it to first base.

Beyond is still very much a V/H/S movie so was never going to be my thing, but I think it's successful(!) because every segment understands that the job of a V/H/S movie is to feel like a theme park haunted house. The usual buckets of gore and barf and what have you are coordinated this time around, showman-like. The frame story, notoriously the worst part of even the best anthology horror, re-grounds the aliens when segments stray and is a great example of how to lovingly and effectively mock cable-cum-YouTube documentaries. The creature design and bad acting of the first segment are fun enough, while the second segment is a commentary on Mumbai's Film City that feels like homage to and improvement upon the original V/H/S. The third segment goes crazy; UFO attack on a skydiving plane?? and then aliens with interesting designs chase everyone in broad daylight and rip them apart into Halloween decorations??? That's what we've been waiting for! The momentum is building! Then there's Justin Long's abysmal segment. Most unfunny comedy torture-horror I've ever seen, made me think I was going to have to rate this even lower than past panned V/H/Ses, Saw 18 directed by Doug Walker, etc., etc., until, finally, we lose the haunted house angle and Flanagan takes center stage.

His alien story is so good I didn't want to believe it was him writing it, and so painfully UNBEARABLY Stephen King I knew it couldn't be anyone else. Clever sci-fi concept that does my favorite thing in the world by focusing on the UFO itself, eye-rollingly maudlin over American family values, intentionally funny in places, and scary!!! I said 'no way' out loud when I realized how it was going to end; timed just right, not too early but still well before the protagonist. I'm giving Flanagan so much credit because it's the kind of short story I would've been completely enraptured by as a kid, but on film its function is really thanks to director Kate Seigel and near-solo actress Alanah Pearce. They use their medium (infrared camera!) and place in the framework to full advantage, which is why I'm glad it's a little treat within a schlocky horror anthology instead of a short film in its own right.

Buy a ticket? With these V/H/S reviews I always say 'no it's bad don't watch it unless you already like the franchise,' and THIS time... still no lmao. It isn't quite good enough to merit a recommendation, but that's on high highs and low lows rather than the kind of mediocre stickiness of past entries. If you're interested in going through a haunted house (these things continue to hit right at my limit for gore and body horror) to include one gnarly alien story and one interesting one? You could do worse. Not a home run, but first base. They hit the ball <3

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hostess-of-horror · 11 months ago

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I'm having so many ideas and not enough energy to do or finish any of them AAAAAAAAAAAA-

Just so that I don't just wallow in my inability to get off my ass and do this shit, I'm going to type it all down!

1. The Haunted Mansion movie (done right!)

- This one is actually based on a slew of Discord convos between me and AJ (@sneklover). It was mostly just me ranting about how God awful Disney's live action remakes are getting and what I would've done if I were to make the iconic attraction a film or t.v. show.

- I have seen the original live action Haunted Mansion movie with Eddie Murphy but not the newest one, BUT MY POINT STILL STANDS! Both are literally the same thing where the story focuses more on the Foolish Mortals than the Happy Haunts and I do not like that.

- If I were to film a Haunted Mansion movie/show, I would make it an anthology horror movie. Think Tales From The Crypt or Creepshow but with Master Gracey telling the stories behind iconic characters such as the Hatbox Ghost, Constance Hatchaway, the two Dueling Ghosts in the ballroom, etc. At some point towards the end, Master Gracey would then tell his story, of how he inherited the mansion, was cursed as the Ghost Host by the mansion itself, and how he tried in vain to lift the curse.

- I remember telling my mom about my idea and, while she loved it, did say that Disney would not like it because they want to put out a more broad demographic. "They're not catering to us," she said (paraphrased). Which makes sense, I just jokingly mentioned to AJ how Disney wouldn't hire me for stuff like this lmao.

- My Haunted Mansion would be a love letter to the Gothic Horror genre and dark humor. An old Louisiana mansion that's haunted in more ways than one, its owner an unwilling slave on the brink of insanity, and all the tales of death kept within its walls. And these tales are nothing short of harrowing, as well as hilarious!

2. Vincent Price x Self-Insert Fanart

- I love this old man so fucking much I wanna kiss him I wanna dance with him I wanna cuddle with him I wanna slowly drive him into insanity so that I can see him smile lovingly at me I wanna be the harbinger of his downfall and his eternal bride aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa- 🖤🖤🖤😩🙌🥴🥴🥴

- So yeah, pretty much what it says on the tin. I was inspired by the very talented @theboarsbride for the idea and Corman's The Masque of the Red Death, starring the Handsome Devil of Horror himself Vincent Price, and wanted to make an AU.

- Masque AU where Francesca (the main character) does give in to the dark side, but of her own volition, transforming into the Red Death. The Red Death is both a Reaper and a Resurrection - a purveyor of plagues and a damsel turned demon. A Bride in Blood...

- It's basically a sort of rewrite of the original ending and now it's sorta... 🌶️spoicy🌶️ so, um.... yea. smexy monster lady x human stuffs.

- ANYWAYS...!

3. Walt Disney's The Great Mouse OC

- I've been wanting to do something with the GMD fandom for a long while now, and I think a hypothetical OC from an hypothetical sequel fanfic would be a good introduction!

- So, in a nutshell: She's a mad scientist spider who is the new secondary villain of said sequel. She has no name as of yet, but she is mute (either from an injury or is simply nonverbal), extremely passionate about her grotesque experiments, and very, very lonely. Unlike Ratigan, the Greatest Criminal Mind, she is more somewhat spontaneous, preferring the tasks of stitching her family together over anything tactic. In other words, she's the brawns while Ratigan is the brains (and brawns). Her goal in villainy is to build and destroy - to build her long lost family and to destroy all of micedom.

- While she is the one who caused the whole case, the main focus on the story is mainly the ✨tension✨ between Basil and Ratigan. In other words, opening up old wounds... by resurrecting the dead!

- Yup, Sherlock Holmes: Furry Edition is now becoming a Gothic horror story. Heavily inspired by Little Nightmares II, Jack the Ripper, and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, the sequel is a tale of murder and madness, with a bloodcurdling case and a rivalry that won't stay dead.

- In this fanfic, I interpreted that Ratigan did die in GMD and so that he could be resurrected by my OC in the sequel! I also wanted to have Fidget resurrected but AJ doesn't like to think of her lil guy dead, so... Yeah, Ratigan is the Frankenstein's Monster and Phantom of the Opera of the plot. (POTO because I thought of the sequel's climax being set during an opera)

- Meanwhile, Basil and Dawson are having a Very Bad Time, with Basil constantly being haunted by the professor and Dawson mentally reliving his days at the regiment.

- Disney will never hire me.

#my bullshit #i just. hate being unable to DO #like just DO.#and I feel like the only thing that I can do is have lil animatics in my head and just talk about them #my mind is all over the place #the Haunted Mansion #Vincent Price #roger corman #the masque of the red death #the great mouse detective #basil x ratigan #GMD OC #oc concept

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djwiththejd · 1 year ago

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The Fall of The House of Usher (2023) Episode 2

I'm back, back in the New York Groove ~

Like I said before, I'm writing this because I need a hobby. I do feel like after sleeping on everything I typed up for with episode 1 that I can do with a reorganization of sorts. I simply cannot point out every one liner, clue, and reference to something obscure in this show without developing carpal tunnel.

So, with that, I'm going to change the layout of how I type up this episode and see if I like it better. At the moment of writing this, I have already finished Episode 2 and I'm chomping at the bit to write about it. SO without further ado, some analysis I was too tired to bring up in my first post.

Firstly, once I saw that The Murder in The Rue Morgue had its own episode title, I got the gist that each episode would be focused around the death of each sibling. I sincerely hope by now that this isn't a spoiler however, as the entire family has to die in order for the fall of the House of Usher to actually come to fruition. Luckily everyone in the family except for possible Lenore and Juno are shit people. So anyhow, the 8 episode layout where Episode 1 begins with the introduction, six episodes in the middle each center around the death of a sibling, and then the last episode will probably be reserved for the death of the twins. What's great is that you can assume that structure is what is intended and still be surprised by plot twists and modernization elements to make the story new, fun, and exciting. It's the journey, blah, blah, blah.

ALSO, I've never seen any other piece of Mike Flanagan's works, so this is my first time delving into a horror anthology. I am sure I liked Hill House things when it first came out bc people were very funny about it on here, but I was too much of a chicken to watch it.

Anyhow, now we move onto the next bit, background and plot!

So first, I have not read The Masque of the Red Death. I am literally just copy/pasting the first paragraph of the plot summary from Wikipedia, hyperlinks and all:

The story takes place at the castellated abbey of the "happy and dauntless and sagacious" Prince Prospero. Prospero and 1,000 other nobles have taken refuge in this walled abbey to escape the Red Death, a terrible plague with gruesome symptoms that has swept over the land. Victims are overcome by "sharp pains", "sudden dizziness", and "profuse bleeding at the pores", and die within half an hour. Prospero and his court are indifferent to the sufferings of the population at large; they intend to await the end of the plague in luxury and safety behind the walls of their secure refuge, having welded the doors shut to ensure no one enters or leaves.

Unfortunately, the episode does not start with our young prince Prospero. It starts with a flashback of Dupin in 1979 taking a photo of an exhumed and empty grave. At this point Dupin's plaque titles his as "Junior Fraud Investigator," and apparently isn't a police officer. The most important bit here is how Dupin pushes back against his boss and the boss asks him: "Say you win. If you could catch them all, take all of it, all the greed, the foulness, the rot in the world and sit down across from it, what would you say?" and then it immediately cuts to Dupin in that dilapidated childhood home of Roderick and Madeline Usher, and Dupin gets to ask "Was it ever going to be enough?" There's more there, but the callous way Roderick responds indicates that the mask has come up again briefly. He's defensive about Ligodone, he's defensive about his wife, he refuses to explain why there is no number of dollars in the world that will make him and Madeline feel satisfied with their success.

It was also important that in the past, Dupin tells his boss that "This world needs changing." This is the same ideal that the twins have, but the intent and the implication behind those same words these people said at approximately the same time culminates in them leading very different lives. For now, that's all I have to say on the matter.

Now, moving on. Perrie's corpse appears behind Dupin this time. This time Dupin does turn around but sees nothing, so we can assume that the corpses are just visions. The ghosts of Roderick's past coming back to haunt him, quite literally.

So when we first see Perrie in this episode, he's introduced in bed surrounded by naked bodies, sex toys, etc. I'm sure it is meant at first sight to shock the senses, but personally I couldn't stop thinking about how we are visually seeing Perrie being "boxed in" this hedonistic cage of his own making. This is Perrie's own bed, the people he chose to spend his time with, but as we see in the episode when we look at how his family interacts with him and how Verna speaks to him, Perrie has basically put himself into a box of his own deadly sin, Lust. In this vein, I wonder if I can do an analysis of each child as one of the deadly sins, omitting Pride. Pride has historically been seen as the worst sin, or the highest sin that brings forth all the other sins, so if I did do this analysis, I would immediately take Pride out of the equation only because I would ascribe it to the twins as the head of the family and as the parents of all of the other sins. I haven't watched the other episodes yet so I'm not sure if this analysis will keep up going forward but for now I have a general idea which sin I would ascribe to which child.

So moving on with the plot, Perrie wakes up and comes out to two people in his apartment and I recognized one of them! Molly Quinn, famously known for being Richard Castle's daughter and also the daughter of the other RV owning family in We're the Millers. She's a fond part of my childhood, and I'm loving her haircut. However, we see a weird, almost violent display of power when Perrie thinks his expensive eggs were eaten by his "friends" and I put friends in parentheses because I'm not entirely sure yet if Perrie does see these people as his friends, lovers, or even equals.

They discuss disappointment at Roderick vetoing supporting the Prospero club venture he had pitched, and Perrie says it might have been an overall good thing. He gets a call from Frederick, lovingly saved in his phone as Dickwad. Apparently he's supposed to be shadowing Frederick, but as soon as he walks in, his immaturity and naïveté derails the entire meeting with the Feds over Fortunato's poor environmental business practices. This enrages Freddie, and he accuses Perrie of being the mole informant. The continuous bit that Freddie struggles to differentiate between the two is actually quite funny, especially because Perrie has just shown his ass to not be the brightest bulb in the bunch, but even he can keep those two different concepts straight in his head. Freddie really says some demoralizing shit to Perrie though, you can tell he sees himself above the other children, similarly to how Tamerlane's musings about the informant likely being "one of the bastards" from the first episode. Just because Roderick says you're family doesn't necessarily show that the children saw it the same way even when paternity is established.

Perrie lays out the details for the sex and drug-fueled club event to his two lackeys, and Verna briefly pops up on the roof of the building before Perrie looks back and sees that she's gone. We cut to the Rue Morgue, and Victorine and Alessandra lose another monkey. Victorine takes it hard and Alessandra tells her the last thing they should be talking about right now is human trials. However, we see that she's lying through her ass to her father, who is fast tracking this process because he's the person who needs that surgery.

Cut to Perrie asking Leo for drugs. So many drugs. Leo has funny quip in heres, but he's important because he tells Perrie that he's "better than a dealer, smarter than a DJ," and that "this is beneath you." Leo sees potential in Perrie that I saw a glimpse of when he was crunching numbers and setting entry fees for the guests. It is a shame that Perrie doesn't choose to listen to him in the end. And yes, another funny viagra quip.

We cut to Bill T. Wilson's...workout video? So that's what BILLT nation is. I will say the half-confused, half-concerned, half-disgusted, half-almost fascinated face Camille has is priceless here. We then cut to her watching a testimony from an alleged whistleblower at the Fortunato trial. Camille's willingness to find something about this whistleblower if there isn't anything to find speaks a lot about how she is as a PR manager. Ruthless, merciless, and focused on the ends to justify the means. The informant issue is eating at her because it was a factor she could not see or control. She zeroes in on Vic's clinical trial because she thinks it stinks, and we know it does, but she's got some ulterior motive that we don't know yet. The guy was admittedly fair in asking what Vic did to her, but it was one of those things you keep inside and never voice because Camille 100% has the ability to ruin you. Her glare was iconic. I was scared but also a little excited. I was hoping for some action but we cut to Perrie again instead.

A drop of water from the ceiling drips and lands on a phone. We talk about how to access the party, Molly Quinn uses her vocal fry to whisper sing an ad-libbed version of WAP, and we see the sprinkler again while Perrie asks about the water. We move to discussing the sprinklers to "make it rain" for the party and the guy for it says the sprinklers are shut off and Perrie calls bullshit because they dripped on his phone. He has this entire bit about hooking up the sprinklers to the filtered water tanks on the roof, etc, and starts talking about "The Golden Rule." I know this rule well, and while Perrie doesn't get to finish saying it before we cut to Roderick, I can confidently say as someone without money that money can solve many, many problems. So yes, whoever has the gold, does make the rules.

Roderick tells Dupin about the comic where he read about it. Before he can also finish saying "rule" Perrie's corpse appears to stand before him, and WOW he looks horrific. The SFX team deserves major props for this work, because he looks like a human anatomy model. 100% my money is that there's acid rain in the sprinklers/in the water tanks in the roof, and I'm probably right, but once again, the beauty of good media/literature/stories isn't about guessing the plot twist or the ending of the story before you get to it, it's about enjoying the process as you go along. I'm having a great time.

Roderick switches to something called CADASIL. Cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy. (The subtitle person for this deserves a raise.) It is apparently a hereditary form of vascular cognitive impairment. "Before it kills you, it causes symptoms very much like dementia. Affects thinking, problem solving, spatial reasoning and memory. It can even cause hallucinations."

Ah. There it is.

Roderick has this. And there's no cure. And he's refusing all the medications. AND the only hope is preventative. THE EXPERIMENTAL SMART HEART MESH HE SPENT $200 MILLION ON THAT HIS DAUGHTER IS WORKING ON?! Ah, so he is spending the gold to make sure the rules can work for him. Even if it means cutting corners and costing lives. Amazing how much money can really take away your sense of humanity though.

He brings up Rufus Griswold and that unfortunate cemetery business. What I laughed at was the dry, subtle way Roderick just calls Gris "the original gangsta." I had to rewind to make sure my eyes and the subtitles weren't playing tricks on me. So apparently all of this, as we are finding out, starts there. In Gris' office. With the Gris himself, "the original cocksucker."

Oh, it is a flashback. Young Roderick goes in to talk to Gris, but what about? Gris pours himself a drink and acerbically mocks the FDA. The "Fuck Dicks Association." Roderick is clearly not used to this kind of vibe, but he plays along poorly, not that it seems to matter much to Gris. Then again, this is a man who succeeded the helm of Fortunato. When he talks, he expects others to play along, he doesn't care how badly they do it as long as he's the one speaking and in charge. Roderick tries to make a pitch but Griswold is unhappy to hear it. He's about to kick Roderick out but decides fuck it, he's already here. Might as well just pretend to listen and kick him out. Obviously he doesn't say that, but I did debate for most of high school. Some judges walk in biased and you know you've lost before you even open your mouth. This happens with WASPy soccer moms judging their kids' debate tournament, this happens with judges on a local and federal level even though we pretend it isn't true, and it is certainly happening right now with Roderick Usher about to try to pitch something to Rufus Griswold. It is a shame Roderick doesn't know it yet.

He pitches ligodone, the same drug that dupin is in modern times currently trying to nail Fortunato and the Ushers for for falsely advertising as everything Roderick is pitching to Gris now. It is a really good pitch, very idealistic. I think Roderick may believe ligodone is the cure for everything, but I'm hooked on his line "this world...needs changing." He's as idealist as young Dupin at this time. I am so committed to seeing what goes wrong.

The pitch continues, Griswold pushes back, and Roderick suggests that Fortunato will become a miracle and Griswold will become the new Messiah. This piques my interest. We've got the ultra-religious mom, the children being allegories for the deadly sins, and a reference to the head of Fortunato with ligodone as the next Messiah. It certainly invokes a sense of hubris with inevitable downfall. But then Roderick brings it back to his mom and how much pain she was in. It really throws me for a loop because I think the humanity of it all is really at the bottom of Griswold's mind.

We cut to a new location and a crying baby. we see Madeline first and then a woman with the crying baby. We quickly figure out this is Roderick's wife Annabel (hur hur Annabel Lee) who consoles him for not winning his pitch. Madeline looks out of place, uncomfortable being there and more focused on things outside of the domestic sphere like Roderick's failed pitch. When we cut to the silent time after the baby is quiet at night, we see Roderick in the middle of these two women, with Madeline at his right hand side. When Annabel expresses remorse about the familial ties Roderick has with Fortunato, with his mother and father, Madeline seems shocked that he would have told his wife about such a detail? Like ma'am, that is your brother's wife. I just get this codependent vibe from the two of them that really gives me the ick. Annabel really does her best to bring them back to humanity by saying money isn't everything, but Madeline is not buying it. Madeline is completely jaded, turned off by men, turned off by love, basically anything where human emotion can show off even a sense of vulnerability. and she's just kind of disrespectful towards Annabel. (There's a bit here about AI writing movies and TV shows, I see that insert, I acknowledge it, I will move on.)

Madeline starts salivating at the thought of using algorithms to mimic human consciousness and ho it speaks to immortality. This is the first time I've seen her care about anything since I've seen her in this house, so I'm writing this immortality bit down as a note for later.

"Fuck that tiny little man in his big office with his tiny little ideas. WE are going to change the goddamn world, and if Fortunato won't help us get there, we will trample them on our way."

Ah. Spoken like a true capitalist, Madeline. Annabel can't fight off this insatiable, almost rabid thirst of Madeline's to move forward, and clearly since she isn't in the present with us, clearly Madeline must have won Roderick over to her side either by force or by choice. Shame, since Annabel was the paragon of virtue and humanity in this argument, and just goes to show how almost inhuman Madeline has become in this pursuit to change the world.

In the present, Madeline is talking to Lenore about answering a bunch of questions. Apparently she's making an Ai-approximation of Lenore by havingher write a journal every day for four months, answer 10,000 questions, and have it worm its way through the internet and collect all of her virtual data. This is impressive, actually. I'm doing some research on AI right now for an old law school professor so I've learned a lot about AI in the past few months and I have some background on this AI approximation that Madeline is trying to create. I might write a separate post about it altogether.

Back to Madeline. She assumes everyone wants to live on after they die, like the ancients. She had her Ancient Egypt phase, I see. This is Madeline's Roman Empire. She unboxes the mummification tools the Ancient Egyptians used to scoop out the brain, but there's a bunch of other artifacts behind her as well, propped up like trophies. She calls it her "immortality collection," so it isn't about Ancient Egypt, her hyperfixation is the concept of immortality.

Pym comes in and tells her she was right about something. Perrie's bank statements show that he's spending less. It either means he's "coming down in his old age" or that he's spending more cash. If so, he's dealing, pimping, or taking a payout in cash from the Federal government. Juno doesn't have her own accounts, she's co-signed on Roderick's. MAdeline here treats Juno with derision, calling her "the child bride" but ma'am. Once again, the common denominator here is that your brother picked these women to marry! Those are his decisions, deal with it! Either way, she's also intent on finding the informant.

Lenore walks in on Juno and Roderick being handsy in his office, but they quickly settle themselves. Juno is hilarious here, but it does highlight that Juno and Lenore are closer in age and interests than anyone else in this household. Blegh. Ok, maybe Madeline's comment about the whole child bride thing was on point. Juno is such comedic relief here, I'm not gonna lie, this actress is stellar, and I love her Irish accent. I think after all that tension and analysis, it was good to have a break. These things are too long, I need to shorten them for Episode 3.

Oh, cut to Perrie trying to drop off documents for Froderick. Dickwad. Frederick. Freddie. Morrie answers the door and tells him she's sorry about how Freddie can be. She tells Perrie she gets it, and idk, am I getting "battered wife" vibes here or is this just an act to try to get him to warm up? Perrie instead decides to be a degenerate and invite his shitty's brother WIFE to his expensive orgy. She scoffs and rebukes him, but he pulls some psycho manipulation about sex that as a demi person I can't relate to, but I appreciate her being all "How dare you!" about it. I still think if the show is going to put moving music in the background on it that she's going to end up going though, so maybe an early RIP to Morella Usher? Perrie's a whole ass freak, but Morrie is considering it, so wow.

Cut to Tamerlane. She's watching Bill set the table and then the bell rings. Off screen she invites a woman in who asks if a wig works for her? Ok, so this girl looks a bit like Chloe Fineman from SNL, but she just walks in wearing a wig and says hi to Bill like she's done this a million times before. Is this some type of roleplay? Ok, they're paying her in cash and Tamerlane is explaining her roleplay? She wants a romantic, intimate dinner? But she wants this girl to pretend to be her? Wait, she's sitting down and watching? Ok, so Tamerlane is sitting down and watching a hired girl pretend to be her, watch Bill treat her like he treats her, and Tamerlane gets off by watching it all as a third party observer? Her sexual fantasies literally start at dinner. I mean I just said Perrie's a whole ass freak, but Tamerlane kind of is one on a whole other, more voyeuristic, self-insertion level. I am confusion.

Cut to Camille watching Bill's workout video and kind of following his workout in a fascinated way? I'm also confusion. Anyway, her interns walk in and she turns it off, but then asks for updates on Vic's clinical trials and is frustrated that Toby can't get any results. She then goes into background of the testing facility "Roderick. Usher. Experimental." R.U.E. So she sets up the bit about the Rue Morgue. My favorite Poe short story. Tina goes into the paralytic nerve agent but Camille is uninterested. She looks through photographs and then..gets up to join them in bed? I had to rewind again. I didn't even realize they were undressing while debriefing her. And Camille's wearing a rope bra. And they're her interns! Besides the ethical and workplace violations from the freaking PR person for Fortunato, this whole family is FULL of sexual deviants. Wtf. I am confusion. AGAIN.

Cut to ships in a bottle. Frederick is showing Lenore how to make a ship in a bottle for Grampus Roderick. Morrie is headed out and apparently she's going to the orgy party. Great...

Everything is stuffed into lockers and masks come on. Perrie is overlooking this domain like the young Prince Prospero from the story. He gets excited when he sees and realizes his dickwad brother's hot wife showed up to his orgy. Morrie plays dumb, but Perrie tells her to try some drugs and one of the twelve bedrooms before he says he will find her later.

Cut to security cameras. Perrie points out all the famous/famous adjacent people who showed up. He reveals his plan to use the security footage form this hedonistic orgy to blackmail everyone who arrived at the party. Suddenly, inviting his dickwad's brother's hot model/actress wife makes a lot more sense, and he says it out loud. He drops a tidbit about Freddie is afraid of using elevators. Mght be useful for later. He then proceeds to give his lackeys ecstasy through mouth to mouth and they all head out to continue partying before a woman in a skull mask walks through the door. We know it is Verna, but Perrie doesn't know who she is. Verna and Morrie briefly make eye contact before Verna slips away and Perrie follows her to ask her who she is.

Verna finally removes her mask and she and Perrie somehow end up in a private bedroom. I don't know if the red lights are indicative of the seventh room in the original story, but if it is just a stylistic option, it also looks fitting. Verna tells him he can take off his mask. He asks her if she knows him, and she says she knows everyone here because this is her kind of party. She talks about the music, the lights, the beautiful flesh. She really leans into "the smells of it." And no, it isn't what you would think. "All the sweat, the perfumes, the lotions, the musk. sex, yes. But with a dash of Rome."

Verna asks him to tell her, and not lie, if this party is everything he wanted it to be. He says, "Not yet. Almost." She responds that "nearly realized is the sweetest. It is better...in the moment just before than in the moment after." She tells him he did it, and there's still time. For what? He asks. Verna responds..."To stop it."

She tells Perrie "Things like this, all things in fact, have consequences." He tells her that's not what is happening here based off of his invite (even though he KNOWS he plans to blackmail everyone in this room later.) Verna responds there are always consequences and talks about him. About choices that lead to consequences, and how his existence is a consequence. I wrote down the whole speech because those sequence of choices will likely be illuminated once the entire series is over, so I want that to reflect upon during each episode.

It is a shame, because even though Verna tells Perrie that tonight he is consequential, he doesn't even realize how serious she is. She gives him a chance to take it all back, and then the two of them could have had fun, and that she's got a weakness for bad boys. She tells Perrie "you are a pretty, pretty little thing" before she disappears into the party again. Perrie chases after her but she's gone. He takes something, puts his mask back on and returns to the party. Verna is seen whispering into the ears of the security guards, the bartender, etc before she appears behind Morrie and tells her to "Go. Now." So Morrie is given due warning. Now the decision is up to her whether to leave or stay as midnight approaches. Morrie stays, and has to deal with the consequences of her choices.

The acid rain in the sprinklers rains down and proceeds to basically liquify the entire party. Everyone looks like anatomical models, but Perrie is still moving a bit. Verna approaches his melted body and whispers "You beautiful boy" and kisses him on the lips as he dies before placing her skull mask on his face. And that's the end of the episode.

There's a lot there. I feel like I have to immediately start Episode 3 in order to recover from the whiplash of all of that, but this is going up now. I think for Episode 3 I will take it "scene by scene" as I plan to watch the entire episode in full since Rue Morgue is my favorite short story and I wanna see how it plays out with Camille. If I'm lucky I'll get Episode 3 up today but I am very much at the whim of my moods and medication.

Overall this was a good episode, we saw everyone else's freaky sex interests and I do think Perrie gives me "lust" deadly sin vibes, especially because his penchant for lust is what got him killed. Verna calling him beautiful before and after the acid rain is intriguing. She could be saying his demon-esque look is appealing because she herself is a demon. I got a google notecard/ad type of thing for an article saying that Verna is the Raven because it is an anagram, but I'm interested in seeing other explanations as to what Verna could be. She could be the literal devil that the twins made a deal with to get where they are, I'm not entirely sure. I just want to get through this series with as little spoilers as possible to see how accurate my guesses are.

#the fall of the house of usher #house of usher #tfothou #tfothou spoilers #carla gugino #molly quinn #mike flanagan #fall of the house of usher #tv series review #netflix series #netflix #seven deadly sins #prospero usher #verna #the raven #rue morgue

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hideyourautumn-milkteeth · 26 days ago

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Hiya! I've been following your blog for a little while and I think your vibes are pretty cool. I'm also someone who really likes horror stuff and am always on the lookout for others who I can yap about it with haha I wanted to ask if you had any good recs for horror media or even like what your favorite is! Apologies if I come off a bit awkward (that is because uhh I am very awkward.)

NAH SHUSH UR NOT AWKWARD UR FINE!!

I have plenty of recommendations! However it depends on what your tolerance level is lmao whwghwgw my taste in horror ranges from the easy silly stuff to the super extreme stuff. So I’ll give a good range!

In terms of easy silly ones, “The Return of the Living Dead” is one of my favorite horror comedies! It’s a zombie film from the 80s and is actually the origin of the whole “zombies loving brains” trope! Very funny and great special effects, highly recommend

In the middle, theres “V/H/S 94” which is apart of the V/H/S anthology series. Tbh most of the VHS series is pretty mid or just bad lmao, BUT 94 is an outlier and the short films in it are so so good. There’s some body horror, some fun monsters, and in one of em you get to watch stupid ass proud boy type characters get blown to shit which is always entertaining LMAO

And on the more extreme side, I recommend “Ichi the Killer” however I must preface this w/ a warning that there IS sexual violence in this film. Theres not too much on screen but it is a reoccurring part of the plot. HOWEVER if you can deal w/ that, it’s a VERY good film, very fun w/ great characters. It’s VERY gorey tho as well but that’s more of an appealing aspect to me rather than a bad thing LMAO

And as a bonus, for something kinda between extreme and medium, I highly recommend the French film “MARTYRS” while the injuries shown are pretty intense it’s so worth it, the story is so compelling and the acting is top notch. Collectively agreed to have one of the most impactful and profound ending to any horror film to date. So if you can deal w/ blood and some torture it’s definitely worth the watch. There ARE self harming scenes tho that are kinda graphic so if that might be an issue for you I recommend using your best judgement. THERE IS NO SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN IT THO so that’s a good thing. MAKE SURE YOU DONT WATCH THE SHITTY AMERICAN REMAKE THO ITS SO SO BAD

Not only do they shoehorn in sexual violence for no fucking reason but they change the narrative so much that it butchers the entire story. AND THEY COMPLETELY CHANGE THE ENDING WHICH COMPLETELY CHEAPENS THE STORY. ALSO THE AMERICAN REMAKE ERASES THE GAY RELATIONSHIP OF THE MAIN CHARACTERS. It’s widely known as one of the worst American horror remakes to date and for good reason. Don’t even get me fucking STARTED I will start crashing out.

#wolvenwhispers #ask #horror #horror movies #recommendations #MARTYRS is one of my all time favorite horror movies TEEHEE #it’s known as being SUPER DUPER GROSS AND SHOCKING LIKE WHOAAAH but imo #it’s heavily exaggerated and overblown #what’s shown IS intense but like it’s fairly average for the genre

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gaylittleguys · 2 months ago

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2024 movie recap

New watches:

2024 releases:

I Saw The TV Glow: AUGH. Amazing. Definitely top movie of the year. Heartbreaking and gutwrenching, stunningly beautiful and extremely hitting all the boxes of things I love. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie that captures the feeling of suffocating in yourself that this does. Had to get it on dvd though I have yet to prepare myself to rewatch it… haven’t stopped thinking about it since I saw it in July.

Smile 2: ACTUALLY really really good! I didn’t really like the first one (which I watched the day before seeing this) but 2 is LEAGUES better. Really makes use of the premise and is scary and unsettling AND has some really sick practical effects!

Cuckoo: I really liked this. I didn’t see a lot of talk about it, though. It was weird and PLEASE watch it without looking anything up. I went in pretty much blind and it was great. Hunter Schafer is amazing and we should get Dan Steven’s to play more unsettling European creeps

Abigail: Dan Stevens again lmao. This was really really fun it was everything it needed to be! Watch this vampire child attack the fun cast of characters!

The Wild Robot: sooooo cute 😭 such a gorgeous movie too. I cried most of the way thought it (positive) (bc it was very cute) aughhh the robot learning emotions got me augghhhhh noooo

Dune 2: I actually didn’t like it as much as the first half, but that’s also a pretty high bar to be fair. Stunning movie.

New to me:

Brazil: wow! Definitely taking a lot of inspiration from 1984, this has such an interesting intricate world. Not as ‘weird’ as I had been told, but definitely a surreal dystopian journey.

Dark City: I have no idea how I hadn’t heard of this movie until this year??? I loved it, such a strange distinct style, and the kind of weird story I like. Near the ending I think it wasn’t quite as strong as the rest of it, but really good!! Check it out!!

Silence of the lambs: watched for the first time somehow. I did really like it, it’s extremely well acted, and sickeningly tense. It’s objectively a really amazing movie, definitely worth its status as a classic. But. It’s really hard to ignore how much it pushed real life transphobia which adds another layer onto an already difficult watch.

(Sillay) anthology horror: Campfire Tales, The Monster Club, and Creepshow. Apparently I’d seen some of Campfire Tales before?? It was silly, very campy (ha) very much the caliber of stories told around a campfire. Monster Club was unique, the in-between story was a lot more memorable than the actual tales, much help from Vincent Price. I LOVED Creepshow, it was 100% up my alley and was such a treat, a really fun homage to old horror comics.

2024 was the year of Alien a bit lol, watched the rerelease of the original in theatres for my birthday, which was fantastic. Watched both Prometheus and Covenant in a weekend while sick, and Romulus as well. I don’t think Prometheus deserves the dislike it got, Covenant was pretty bad (except for the little chestburster guy) and Romulus was fun and had some excellent practical effects.

The Exorcist (1973) and The Pope’s Exorcist double feature was a blast, I think The Exorcist would have hit better at the time or if I was more religious, but I liked it. The Pope’s Exorcist was a BLAST however it was very fun and kind of bad and I do keep telling people about the Catholic Avengers ending and the funniest sequel bait I’ve ever seen

Redline kicked ass what a fun movie and just stunning to look at. Lu Over The Wall was so so good too, I loved how gloopy the animation was.

Nimona was honestly kind of disappointing for me :( I was definitely holding it to the book which I loved and was rly important to me as a teen. It was cute and would have probably been better if I didn’t have something to compare it to, but honestly it felt a little toothless? I wanted to like it a lot more than I did. Rip goldenloin’s hair too 😔

Cursed and Wild Country: my only 2 werewolf movies this year :( I’m falling behind… Cursed had the bones of a good movie, you can really tell it was screwed over by the studio. The sfx are great and the werewolf suit is fantastic, but they ditch it to use ugly cgi or just have the werewolves in human form 😔 Wild Country was fun in a kind of bad way! The werewolves look kinda like boars? Bears??

The Sudbury Devil and The VVitch: New England religious horror lets gooooo. The Witch was great, loved the sense of atmosphere, and it was really immersed in the time in a way that’s rare to see. The Sudbury Devil was definitely trying really hard, but I don’t think it quite achieved its aims. It’s disorienting in a confusing way, not a surreal way, and it doesn’t feel as grounded in the time somehow, although I do like its commitment to period accurate pronunciations! A strange watch.

Barbarian: REALLY good. Nauseating horror. Didn’t know much before going in and I think that was a good choice!

Donnie Darko: was ok. Seemed like it was Trying to be really smart without reeeaaallllyyyyy saying anything smart. Was expecting it to be weirder than it was.

Blue Velvet: 4th times the charm on finishing this lmao. I did like it, but not as much as Lynch’s other work I’ve seen.

Singing in the rain: this one’s a classic for a reason!!!! It’s great!!

DnD delayed double feature: Dungeons and Dragons (2000) was uh. A journey. I actually would not really recommend it as it was stretching even a so-bad-it’s-good watch with friends. I don’t know why a dnd movie is seemingly so allergic to having anything dnd-ish in it. Not even Jeremy Irons as the villain and his strange blue lipped henchman could save this. The cast of heroes are completely forgettable and contribute somehow basically nothing to the plot. #ripSnails. HOWEVER, the new one, which I’ve seen before, is great!! Really fun to watch again with my dnd group. :)

Legend: what the fuck. Just check this out. How’d this get made. What’s going on.

Honourable horror mentions: Tucker and Dale vs Evil, Bloody Valentine, High Life, Infinity Pool, The Others

Rewatches:

The Green Knight: yesssss my beloved green knight ❤️ bought the special dvd for this this year. The people I know have seen this are pretty split on it, but I love it.

Jaws my angel ❤️

The Thing my love ❤️

Dead Poets Society: hadn’t seen this since I saw it in high school, still heartbreaking. What a good movie.

The Last Unicorn: didn’t really like this as a kid, but I hadn’t seen it for a while. It’s soo pretty. I really loved it on this rewatch.

#not all my watches this year just the ones I have something to say about #not putting the shitty Christmas movies on here tho #ALTHO that Christmas in Netflix was cute!!#will update bc the years not over and I want to see Nosferatu today #missed seeing conclave too I will get around to it #actually adding on to my nimona point I didn’t like that the ending didn’t rly have the same concequences.#.doc #movies

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burningexeter · 5 months ago

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Let's give this show more attention, shall we?

Here's a damn solid amount of all the different kinds of media that I like to think both can definitely fit well in and could legitimately share the same universe as what is in my opinion the best children's horror anthology series of all time and one of the best horror anthologies ever made in general, R.L. Stine's The Haunting Hour: The Series, which you can both read and see below for yourself right about here:

First off, here's what I mean by including the show, in my mind every episode of the entire series (at least most of them which we'll immediately get to) are all set in the same universe as each other since none of them over-step each other. However, not all of them will be for the fact that they don't fit and they suck hard in terms of quality and I've narrowed it down to five exceptions with the following reasons.....

- Red Eye, because it never lives up to its potential and has a cartoonishly written bad mother who never gets her comeuppance.

- The fucking cheese puff one, because the episode is all around trash and everyone hates this one even the creators/showrunners themselves.

- The G rated Critters rip-off, because like I said it's a shitty Critters rip-off and also has an abusive asshole father who never gets his comeuppance at all somehow.

- Mrs. Worthington, because even though it has a great performance from Margot Kidder, it never lives up to its great premise and again has an asshole mother who never gets her comeuppance.

- The leprechaun one, because it's just plain ass and AGAIN has an asshole adult (in this case, grandfather) that never gets his comeuppance.

Other than those shitty five, every. single. episode. are all set in the same universe. All of them are in the same twisted world — the Lilly D. trilogy, Scary Mary, Flight, Dreamcatcher, Creature Feature, Swarmin' Norman, the Pumpkinhead duology, Long Live Rock and Roll (AKA Doom Metal) and so on, so forth.

Also, I'm making a big deal out of the adult assholes that never get what's coming to them in a HORROR ANTHOLOGY SHOW is because in this universe we're talking about, everything is fair. Doesn't matter how old you are, your gender, your race, if you're a bad person than you end up getting what you deserve.

Second, now for the actual shared universe —

• Michael Dougherty's Trick r Treat & Krampus

• Mark Waters' The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008)

• Stephen Sommers' The Mummy (1999) & The Mummy Returns (2001)

• Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones Series (1 - 4)

• Jeff Kline's Transformers Prime & Transformers Prime Beast Hunters: Predacons Rising

• Troy Wagner & Joseph DeLage's Marble Hornets

• Warner Bros.' Wizarding World Series (Harry Potter 1 - 8 & Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them)

• Julius Avery's Overlord (2018)

• Matt Reeves' Let Me In (2010)

• Leigh Whannell's The Invisible Man (2020)

• M.J. Bassett's Solomon Kane (2009)

• Tim Schafer's Brutal Legend

• Remedy Entertainment's Alan Wake & Control

• Andrew Stanton's John Carter (2012)

• Andrew Davis' Holes (2003)

• Gore Verbinski's Pirates Of The Caribbean Trilogy & Rango (2011)

• Jon Turteltaub's National Treasure Duology

• Joe Johnston's The Rocketeer

• John Carpenter's Big Trouble In Little China

• Brad Bird's The Incredibles

• Adam Andrewson's The Chronicles Of Narnia Duology

• David Lowery's Pete's Dragon (2016)

• Zack Snyder's Legend Of The Guardians: The Owls Of Ga'Hoole (2010)

• Travis Knight's Wildwood (2025)

• Jordan Peele's Get Out & Nope

#the haunting hour #rl stine #horror anthology #children's horror #nostalgia #october #fall #halloween

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doctorstrangereview · 5 months ago

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0042: Strange Tales #148

Cover Date: September 1966 On-Sale Date: June 9, 1966

"The Origin of the Ancient One" is something a lot of readers were probably clamoring for (maybe.) The ancient sorcerer who has been a mainstay of series since its inception is a bigger mystery than the main character. We find that his history is intimately tied to our arc's villain, Kaluu. One would think that the origin of such an important character would include his name, but no. We will need to wait another 38 years to find that out in Epic Anthology #1. (Sneek Peek: It's Yao. Young Ancient One. Get it? Yeah, it fell flat for me, too.) The colorist was more progressive than usual for the time. The Ancient One, Kaluu and all the Kamar-Tajians have the same flesh tones as Doc. Maybe sickly yellow ink was in short supply that month.

Picking up from the end of last issue (but skipping over the mystery eyes that were peeping into the Sanctum) Doc and The Ancient One are staring at the empty lectern that held the Book of the Vishanti. Despite the fact that they are in Doc's Sanctum, the are surrounded by starts and planets. Ditko reserved the craziness for when characters travelled to different realities. Everett is just being weird.

Doc attempts to conjure an image of Kaluu. It doesn't work and Everett uses the opportunity to draw some more weirdness, this time very derivative of Ditko. Especially that snake jaw.

The Ancient One gets impatient. As I said last issue, he is out of character as written by Denny O'Neil. Ditko and Lee always wrote him as maintaining an aura of serenity and it's gone here. He keeps coming across as a jerk. He pretty much tells Doc that he's not being serious enough about the threat. This is actually unlike Doc who usually is careful take a measure of his foes before engaging them. This, combined with Everett's open and "billowy" style is a bit disconcerting. The Ancient One is like "Shut up, Doc! I guess I have to tell you how it all began as I appear to have kept my entire history secret from you even though you were my student for years and years and this is actually pretty important."

Picture it, Sicily, uh Kamar-Taj, 500 years ago from whatever year this is. Well, Marvel's history is still pretty new yet and they haven't instituted their sliding time line to keep Reed Richards and Ben Grimm from being centenarians. So this is probably contemporary with the year it was printed or close to it. Anyway, OAO (Old Ancient One, get it? Yeah, it sucks too, sorry.) tells of his people, a bunch of simpletons who were great artists and farmers. Ancient and Kaluu were different. They found a bunch of old scrolls and scream MAGIC! Ancient One is like "I'm gonna help our people so hard!" and Kaluu is like "I'm gonna conquer everything around me so hard!"

Kaluu then leaves so his farmers can train to be soldiers and be strong enough to ferry him around on a sedan chair. The Ancient One does nothing but hang around under the "keep your friends close and your enemies closer" doctrine he learned by peering into the future and watching The Godfather movies (except that last one where the biggest horror is Sophia Coppola's "acting".) The not-yet-Ancient One stands next to Kaluu and helps out his conquest.

"The people need a king," says Kaluu, "it should be you but it's gonna be me because I'm greedy and power hungry and stuff." It gives Everett the opportunity to draw some more weirdness and give the two sorcerers a giant classroom globe that, for some reason, shows the Americas even though we're in the far east.

An interlude brings us back to the present and Doc asks why Kaluu's magic is so much more powerful and the now-Ancient One says it's because Kaluu's been hanging out in the dimension of Raggador. This is a convenient excuse to switch to camera two and check out Raggador for ourselves. Present day Kaluu has exchanged the bare-chested barbarian-sorcerer look for a spiffy new outfit. He needs to impress that stolen Book of the Vishanti after all.

Back at base, the Ancient One, still sitting on his flying carpet above a magical jungle gym continues his tale.

The people of Kamar-Taj are puppets barreling through nearby villages like Sherman through Georgia. Kaluu looks in on a nearby unconquered village and thinks "I have a clever plan! If we steal all their food and crops my farmer-soldiers can spend all their time training to be nasty and evil! Oh boy, I am so smart!"

After they conquer the village, the not-yet-Ancient One finally decides to speak up. "We got enough now, man! Let it go!" Elsa gives good advice in this matter. Kaluu isn't satisfied and says he's gonna turn not-yet Ancient One into his personal slave, but instead freezes him like a statue. Kaluu gives his army spiffy new armor and goes on with conquering dragging his frozen buddy along in a cart. As the months (years?) go by, everyone else is doing the Kamar-Tajians work for them. Like those guys from Well-E, they turn into a bunch of cute, roly-poly lay abouts.

Apparently eating grapes right off the bunch is a universal sign of hedonism. While the not-yet Ancient One appears helpless, he has his own clever plan and has called down a spell/curse on Kaluu and his Kamar-Tajians. Things don't go quite as planned and suddenly a nearby serving girl is struck dead. This is soon followed by the complete collapse of Kaluu's empire in record time. Kaluu bolts, swearing vengeance, but is too polite to actually shake his fist. The not-yet Ancient one is freed from Kaluu's spell, which had the ironic effect of protecting him from his own curse.

While not explicitly stated, it appears that Kaluu is cut off from our dimension. Unfortunately, when Dormammu and Eternity blew themselves to bits, the barrier fell and badda bing, badda bang, Kaluu is here. Thus endeth the tale of the Ancient One. And endeth the tale this month. We will continue in the next installment. Lee/Ditko were much better at endings than O'Neil/Everett. The last panel is very anti-climactic.

I think this was a story many regular readers would have been interested in. When I discovered what was in this issue (published before I was even a twinkle in my daddy's eye) I sought it out and managed to snag a copy at a reasonable price. I was surprised that the serene, grand mage had such a violent past. Also, that his powers were very DIY "we found some old scrolls lying around, let's learn magic" instead of the more traditional sought out or stumbled onto a magician and become a disciple. Characterization for the regulars we have seen so far still seems off. Looking back, I think I like this less traditional origin for a beloved character and that his hands aren't as lily white as we previously suspected. Kaluu is still barely seen. He seems a one-note character so far. We'll see more next issue. When Kaluu returns in a couple of decades he is given some depth and is actually cool and somewhat likeable. Next issue awaits!

#doctor strange #doctor strange reviews #strange tales #stephen strange #ancient one #kaluu #kamar-taj #marvel #comics #denny o'neil #bill everett

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