Category Archives: Uncategorized

Cover to “Hack/Slash New Reader Halloween Treat” #1, Tim Seeley, 2008

Devil’s Due Publishing.

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Throwback Thursday: “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark” (1973)

I was only a baby when ABC debuted the original “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark” in 1973, but I caught it when it was rebroadcast around the end of the decade, when I was … six or seven years old?  And dear GOD did it scare the crap out of me.

Since then, it’s become a minor legend in the horror fan community as one of the rare made-for-television movies that is easily as scary as something you’d see in a theater.  This was the film that was remade in 2010, produced by Guillermo del Toro and with Katie Holmes in the lead role.  (And I thought that the remake was a fun horror fantasy, even if it wasn’t terribly scary.)

I actually caught the film again about ten years ago, courtesy of Netflix’ DVD-by-mail service.  And it was still creepy enough.

 

Cover to “Detective Comics” #587, Norm Breyfogle, 1988

DC Comics.

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“My own opinion is enough for me.”

“My own opinion is enough for me, and I claim the right to have it defended against any consensus, any majority, anywhere, any place, any time. And anyone who disagrees with this can pick a number, get in line, and kiss my ass.”

 

 

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Barnhill, in the Scottish Hebrides.

House on the island of Jura occupied by George Orwell when writing the novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four.”

 

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Cover to “Detective Comics” #590, Norm Breyfogle, 1988

DC Comics.

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The Coincidental Cat.

I ordered my copy of the Peeking Cat Anthology 2018 this morning, and the poetry gods were evidently pleased enough to thank me via emissary.  (The little lady below accosted me at the stores a little while ago and made it clear she wanted to be my new best friend.)

She was a weeee bit scratchy for someone hoping for human companionship.  But I didn’t hold that against her, even if I couldn’t take her in.

What’s weird is that there are very few stray cats at all in Roanoke — it’s not like New York, where they’re everywhere.  (Rabbits, deer and groundhogs are far more plentiful; it’s just a different ecosystem. And I might have seen a badger once.)  But this is the first stray cat I’ve seen since I arrived a year and half ago.

Hey, if you want to order a copy of the anthology, you can find it right here.

 

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Cover to “Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight” #54, Mike Mignola, 1993

DC Comics.

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“I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,/ And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings …”

“High Flight,” by John Gillespie Magee, Jr

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of –Wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air …
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark or even eagle flew —
And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

 

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Cover to “Batman Annual” #15, Scott Hampton, 1991

DC Comics.

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