“Diogenes,” Jules Bastien-Lepage, 1873

Oil on canvas.

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“Crying, my little one, footsore and weary” by Christina Rosetti, 1893

Crying, my little one, footsore and weary?
  Fall asleep, pretty one, warm on my shoulder:
I must tramp on through the winter night dreary,
  While the snow falls on me colder and colder.

You are my one, and I have not another;
  Sleep soft, my darling, my trouble and treasure;
Sleep warm and soft in the arms of your mother,
  Dreaming of pretty things, dreaming of pleasure.

 
 

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Cover to “Dark Horse Comics” #5, Dave Dorman, 1992

Dark Horse Comics.

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“If We Must Die,” by Claude McKay

If we must die, let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
Making their mock at our accursèd lot.
If we must die, O let us nobly die,
So that our precious blood may not be shed
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!
O kinsmen! we must meet the common foe!
Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,
And for their thousand blows deal one death-blow!
What though before us lies the open grave?
Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!

 

Mackey

Check out “In Darkness, Delight: Masters of Midnight!”

I just learned about a hell of an interesting horror anthology coming down the pike — “In Darkness, Delight: Masters of Midnight.”  The tome will be published on May 6th by Corpus Press, but you can pre-order the Kindle edition right here.

It looks like a great book with a diverse variety of modern horror tales.  (Read the synopsis on Amazon.)  As it happens, one of its featured authors is the daughter of a friend of mine. (This is Espi Kvlt, author of “Pulsate.”)  It also includes a story by Josh Malerman, who wrote “Bird Box,” the novel upon which Netflix’ hugely successful film adaptation was based.

And it’s only $3.99!

 

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Cover to “Grendel Tales: Devil’s Choices” #1 , Edvin Biukovic, 1995

Dark Horse Comics.

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“Washerwoman,” Stepan Kolesnikoff, circa 1920’s

Gouache on cardboard.

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“No Man is an Island,” by John Donne

No man is an island entire of itself; every man
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe
is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as
well as any manner of thy friends or of thine
own were; any man’s death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom
the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

 

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It’s 1:20 AM. Might as well e-mail a business proposal to DC Comics.

It’s about an insomniac member of the Green Lantern Corps.  His mental power to focus his ring’s energy results from hours of sleeplessness.

You think Guy Gardner was a $%^&?  This dude’s crankier.

 

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(I hope they skratch that idea.)

Here’s a thought. If the upcoming “Captain Marvel” introduces the shape-shifting skrull to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (as far back as the 1990’s, at least), then does it create the possibility that any major players we’ve seen since the MCU’s inception are Skrull in disguise?

Like in the comics’ “Secret Invasion” storyline?

I kinda hope not, because it’s a terrible idea. But still.

Weird world — I ran this same post on Facebook and it gave me the option of “tagging” the skrull characters on the cover below, in case they were my friends.  As Ford Fairlane would say, “Kooky.”

 

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Nurse Your Favorite Heresies in Whispers