Scary Book: Insects by Kazuo Umezu

 

(pb; 2003, 2006: second volume in Umezu’s Scary Book manga series. Japanese-to-English translation by Kumar Sivasubramanian; lettering and retouch by Kathryn Renta. Followed by Scary Book: Faces.)

 

From the back cover

“Kazuo Umezu, ‘The Stephen King of manga,’ returns with the second frightening volume of Scary Book. In ‘Butterfly Grave,’ a young woman, Megumi, is paralyzed by an inexplicable, devastating fear of butterflies, a phobia brought on by the mysterious and untimely death of her mother when Megumi was still an infant. Upon visiting her mother’s grave years after her death, Megumi becomes haunted by a black butterfly that only she can see and which seemingly causes waves of destruction and misery to Megumi’s family and friends wherever it appears. But when Megumi’s father decides to remarry. Megumi begins to fear that her new mother is turning into the very thing she dreads most.”

 

Review

As with the first Scary Book (Reflections), manga/J-horror fans may easily find much to enjoy in this second volume of Umezu’s Scary Book trilogy. The artwork is mainstream manga-realistic, plausibly slipping into its characters’ visualized mindsets and realities (veering between horror, silliness and bloody violence), its writing mostly solid, entertaining, at least until its last third.

Unlike Insects, this second volume is one 227-page story (“Butterfly Grave”), a mix of The Babadook (2014; director/screenwriter: Jennifer Kent), J-horror manga and Alfred Hitchcockian psychological mystery and intrigue. It’s Babadook-esque in that Megumi is often irritating and bizarre in her loud, violent constant-panic-mode behavior (like young Samuel in Babadook). It’s Hitchcockian in that as the story progresses, it seems Megumi’s off-putting behavior might be justified by the seeming intentions of some around her, who might not wish the best for her.

As noted before, Insects has a good, entertaining, steady build storyline for the most part. Near the end Megumi’s seemingly irrational flights of nightmare and its Reveal/climax scenes run a bit long. Still, it’s a fast, worthwhile read, one worth checking out. Followed by Scary Book: Faces.

The Town of Pigs by Hideshi Hino

 

(pb; 1983, English translation 2022: manga)

 

From the back cover

“One night, under a blood red moon glimmering with demonic beauty, a group of devilish creatures armed with axes and spears came riding into a quiet city on horseback.

“One by one, they loaded the villagers up into cages and carried them off without any explanation. . . I barely managed to escape alive.”

 

Review

This 185-page manga, with little-to-no explanation for its immediate, violent and gory events and its bizarre, character-centric end-twist, is a blast of a read, with great artwork, a confident tone (it doesn’t spoon feed anything to its readers) and overall impressive delivery. Great read, might be puzzling for those who aren’t big on reading between strange lines.

Clown in a Cornfield by Adam Cesare

 

(pb; 2020: YA novel. First book in Frendo/Clown in a Cornfield trilogy. Followed by Clown in a Cornfield 2: Frendo Lives!)

 

From the back cover

“Quinn Maybrook just wants to make it to graduation, but she might not make it to morning. When Quinn and her father moved to a tiny town with a weird clown for a mascot, they were looking for a fresh start. But ever since the town’s only factory closed down, Kettle Springs has been cracked in half.

“Most of the town believes that the kids are to blame. After all, the juniors and seniors at Kettle Springs high are the ones who set the abandoned factory on fire and who spend all their time posting pranks on YouTube. They have no respect and no idea what it means to work hard.

“For the kids, it’s the other way around. And now Kettle Springs is caught in a constant battle between the old and new, tradition and progress. It’s a fight looks like it will destroy the town. Until one homicidal clown with a porkpie hat and a red nose decides to end it for good. Because if your opponents all die, you win the debate by default.”

 

Review

Clown is a great, if sometimes overwritten (and sometimes plot-convenient-character-dumb, even for a slasher story) novel.

Criticism first.

I get that many of the characters are emotionally tumultuous adolescents and adults, but some of their melodramatic behavior (not adapting to oh-so-necessary survival mode when they have seconds to live) jarred me out of the otherwise beguiling read. I further understand that this is a YA novel where emotions are writ large in Crayola colors like obvious graffiti on an alley wall, but certain characters seem to be kind of dumb, having to learn the same fatal-for-others lessons over and over.

I also had difficulty buying into one of its central conceits, considering how many single-minded characters feel about others, and the violence resulting from those angry feelings. The sheer number of these aggressors, Frendo-friendly or otherwise, didn’t strike me as realistic, even with what’s going on now in the real world.

And some of the action/kill scenes run way too long, with certain characters getting way too much time to emote. Friday the 13^th (1980) kill-scene concise Clown is not.

It should be noted that for a Young Adult [YA] book, Clown has a lot of profanity, particularly f-bombs—this is not a complaint, merely a caveat for readers not anticipating Cesare’s constant, character-realistic use of profanity.

 

Praise.

For the most part, though, Cesare’s writing flows well, not a full-on horror book until six or so chapters in. It’s often pop-culture/our-current zeitgeist stellar, bordering on addictive, with cinema-worthy scenes—not surprisingly, the resulting film, directed and co-penned by Eli Craig, is scheduled for a stateside 5/9/25 release.

Reborn by F. Paul Wilson

 

(pb; 1990, revised in 2005: fourth book in the Nightworld Cycle, aka the Adversary Cycle. Wilson’s official site indicates that Reborn, story-wise, is the next/second chapter in the Nightworld Cycle after The Keep.)

 

From the back cover

“When an ancient artifact dissolves in the hands of a man calling himself Mr. Veilleur, he knows something has gone wrong. . . terribly, cosmically wrong.

“Dr. Roderick Hanley, a Novel Prize-winning geneticist, dies in a plane crash. His last words: ‘The boy! They’ll find out about the boy! He’ll find out about himself!’ When Jim Stevens, an orphan and struggling writer, learns that he is the sole heir to the Hanley estate, he is sure he has at last found his biological father.

“He’s only half right. The true nature of his inheritance—and the truth about his conception—will crush him. In New York City, a group of charismatics has been drawn together with a sense of great purpose. Satan is coming, and they have been chosen to fight him.

“Mr. Veilleur has been drawn to the group as well, but he realizes it’s not Satan who is coming. Stan would be a suitable au pair compared to the ancient evil that is in the process of being. . . Reborn.”

 

Review

Reborn didn’t thrill me as much as its prequel, The Keep. A big reason for this might be Keep’s setting—I love WWII-era horror novels that waste no time jumping into character-centric action, something Reborn is not. (Please note that I'm not condemning any choices that Wilson might've made with Reborn; I'm merely stating a personal leaning.)

Reborn is a different type of novel. Set in stateside 1968, it mostly focuses on Jim and Carol Stevens, husband and wife, and what happens when Jim—a temperamental, struggling horror writer with mysterious parentage—inherits a fortune from a man he’s never met (Dr. Robert Hanley). In addition to the fortune, though, there are terrible secrets, secrets which may have something to do with the struggle between Rasalom and Glaeken (possibly now going by the name Gaston Veilleur) in Keep.

Reborn, with its relatively slow, steady setup (as well as more characters), is an above average, sometimes clever read from a great writer. When it comes together at the end, it generally delivers, but ultimately, it—like the rest of Reborn—feels like a setup for larger story that does not come about in this book. Fans of Ira Levin’s 1967 novel Rosemary’s Baby (and Roman Polanski’s 1968 cinematic adaptation of it) might especially enjoy Reborn, which explicitly acknowledges the 1967 novel’s influence.

Worth owning, this. According to F. Paul Wilson’s official website, Reborn is followed, story-wise, by F. Paul Wilson’s The Touch (1986).

Epic Collection: Ghost Rider—Hell on Wheels by various artists and writers

 

(oversized pb; 1972—1975, 2022. Collects Marvel Spotlight #5-12, Ghost Rider #1-11, and Marvel Team-Up #15.)

From the back cover

“In 1972, one of the most iconic characters in comic book history, the flame-skulled Ghost Rider, burned his demonic presence into readers’ minds. Forevermore, a legion of fans were addicted to the Rider’s combination of hell-on-wheels drama and action-horror adventure. And it begins here when Johnny Blaze makes a deal with the devil to save his friend’s life. The payment due? Transformation into the Ghost Rider. The stories that follow will take the horror hero to Hell to battle Satan, pit him against the tempting Witch Woman and team him with Daimon Hellstrom, Son of Satan. Written by Gary Friedrich and Tony Isabella and gloriously illustrated by Mike Ploog, Tom Sutton and Jim Mooney.”

 

Overall review

Caveat: (possible) minor spoilers in this review of these fifty-year-old comics.

GR = Ghost Rider

JB = Johnny Blaze

These opening issues of GR are fun, sometimes above-average reads, especially toward the later issues shown in this collection. Initially, there’s a lot of repetitive framing in consecutive issues (Satan, having made a crooked deal with a naïve, curiously childlike JB, seeks to reap JB’s soul via different, malefic operatives). Then there’s the issue of why JB sells his soul, his reasoning—beyond his short-sightedness and masochistic personality—reading as paper-thin. If you can get past that (I eventually did), GR, at least in these issues, is entertaining, with more plot variation and character deepening. Good tween-to-teen-mindset stuff, for the most part, with consistent, stellar artwork.

Followed by Epic Collection: Ghost Rider—The Salvation Run.

 

Review, issue by issue

Marvel Spotlight: “Ghost Rider” (#5): A desperate situation leads an adolescent, stunt-motorcyclist Johnny Blaze to make a dumb decision: he sells his soul to Satan, who cheats Johnny via a sly loophole. Johnny now turns into a flaming-skull, nighttime demon (Ghost Rider), even though Satan has yet to fully claim Johnny’s soul.

This origin-story issue works if Johnny is a sixteen-year-old; such is the adolescent emotionalism that drives him to sell his soul. . . for what? That an emotionally abusive old man and supposed friend (Crash Simpson) has a few more years of life? Both Crash and his daughter, Roxanne—also Johnny’s potential girlfriend—treat Johnny like crap over a misunderstanding, one he doesn’t bother correcting them on. This is all too plot-convenient dumb, even for a comic book. While this doesn’t entirely ruin the issue, it makes for an at-times badly written read with two key emotionally schizophrenic characters (the Simpsons) who are wildly inconsistent in their mood swings.

 

Marvel Spotlight: “Angels from Hell” (#6): Johnny Blaze tangles with a biker gang, led by the temperamental, ginger-Afro’d Curly Samuels. When it’s revealed that Curly worships Satan, who seeks to claim His bounty on Johnny’s soul, things get worse for Johnny.

This is an interesting, okay issue story-wise, as Curly’s character (and his true identity) ring strange, when one considers that he’s eager to sacrifice Roxanne “Roxie” Simpson (Johnny’s emotionally schizophrenic romantic interest) to Satan.

 

Marvel Spotlight: “Die, Die, My Darling!” (#7): Curly Samuels, Satanic biker—revealed to be the angry soul vessel of Crash Simpson (Roxanne’s father)—is commanded by Satan to sacrifice Roxanne, something Samuels/Simpsons struggles with.

Meanwhile, Blaze/Ghost Rider, looking for his kidnapped girlfriend (again, Roxanne) evades motorcycle cops and maintains his stuntman roadshow while his surly road manager (Bart Slade) plots against Blaze.

Fun, slightly ridiculous issue: Why would Simpson sell his soul to Satan to right a minor-at-worst slight against Johnny? Still, the artwork is appropriately dramatic, as is the dialogue and overall writing.

 

Marvel Spotlight: “The Hordes of Hell” (#8): At the end of the last issue, GR and Crash Simpson/Curly Samuels were about to fight in front of the altar where Simpson’s daughter (Roxanne) was soon to be taken by Satan. Simpson’s strange revenge on Johnny (over an imagined “cowardice”) is reiterated by the frustrated Simpson.

Melodrama takes a downturn as a bigger threat to Crash and GR appears—a threat that Simpson/Samuels might have to fight too. This situation gets a curious, just-as-shifty-dangerous resolution.

Johnny Blaze/GR finds himself in further (possible) danger when he preps for a stunt, a motorcycle jump across Copperhead Canyon (part of the Grand Canyon). This section of canyon is a hotly contested territory, once part of Apache/Native American land: seems the Apache want it back, and they’re willing to fight for it anew, led by a fierce-minded shaman (Snake Dance), who has an intense dislike of Blaze/GR—as do Snake Dance’s followers.

Another cliffhanger finish to this action-packed, uneven but ultimately entertaining issue.

 

Marvel Spotlight: “The Snakes Crawl at Night. . .” (#9): Blaze/GR has a thought-to-be-fatal encounter with his Copperhead Canyon motorcycle jump.

Meanwhile, Bart Slade (Blaze’s surly road manager) tries to take over his Blaze’s traveling roadshow. Not only that, Snake Dance, the Apache shaman, with help from an ambivalent fellow tribesman (Sam Silvercloud, introduced in issue 8) mean to sacrifice Roxanne Simpson to their fiery snake god!

 

Marvel Spotlight: “The Coming of Witch-Woman!” (#10): GR rushes to get Roxanne Simpson to the hospital before she succumbs to the snakebite she received during Snake Dance’s sacrificial ritual.

Meanwhile, Sam Silvercloud and other Apaches challenge the gone-wild Snake Dance—just as Linda Little-Tree (aka Witch-Woman), Snake Dance’s twenty-something daughter, shows up. Can she provide the anti-venom snake serum that Roxanne desperately needs.

 

Marvel Spotlight: “Season of the Witch-Woman” (#11): Linda Little-Tree, aka Witch-Woman—in the employ of Satan—recounts her life journey to Johnny Blaze/GR thus far while holding him prisoner in a metaphysical realm. (Is there anyone in this comic book who isn’t somehow under Satan’s sway?) She means to give him over to the dark overlord, but GR manages to escape, rushing to make his scheduled/roadshow jump across Copperhead Canyon.

 

Ghost Rider: “A Man Possessed!” (#1): Johnny Blaze, shot by police—unlike his GR alter-ego, he isn’t bulletproof—rides to protect Roxanne Simpson and winds up in a hospital.

“Several miles away” from Blaze’s “crash site,” Sam Silvercloud and Snake Dance (the latter no longer under malevolent influence) grapple with how to waken Linda Little-Tree (aka Witch-Woman) from her Satan-induced coma. To do so, Sam contacts a helpful Daimon Hellstrom, also known as a “Son of Satan.”

At Copperhead Canyon, Blaze’s treacherous road manager (Bart Slade) prepares to make the jump that Blaze can’t make (given Blaze’s injuries and hospital stay). Few, it seems, believe Slade can make that jump.

 

Ghost Rider: “Shake Hands with Satan” (#2): GR confronts Satan, who’s possessed Linda Little-Tree (aka Witch-Woman) in the netherworld while a biker gang (Ruthless Riders), led by Big Daddy Dawson—a huge, intimidating man—threaten Roxanne Simpson, Blaze’s girlfriend.

Daimon Hellstrom, rebellious “Son of Satan,” arrives at Snake Dance’s house, only to find Linda/Witch-Woman gone. But there’s a greater danger Sam Silvercloud and Snake Dance must face, one even Hellstrom can’t save them from.

 

Marvel Spotlight: “The Son of Satan!” (#12): Daimon Hellstrom, now under the nighttime influence of his aggressive alter ego, seeks Satan to usurp his power.

Elsewhere, Big Daddy Dawson and his bike gang menace Roxanne Simpson; Dawson claims the cowering young woman as his property.

This is an entertaining, good issue that brings together GR’s multiple characters and plotlines from previous Marvel Spotlight – GR issues. Unlike issues 5-11 of Spotlight, this issue ends on a less dire cliffhanger note. There’s still danger and imminent death situations for its lead characters but it’s relatively less melodramatic.

 

Ghost Rider: “Wheels on Fire” (#3): Daimon Hellstrom leaves GR and Linda Little-Tree (now free of Satanic possession) in the desert—thing is, when GR reverts to his Johnny Blaze alter ego, the wounds he sustains while GR (when he’s impervious to bullets, broken bones, etc.) afflict him when he’s no longer his flaming-head self. . . this is important, because in recent issues, GR/Blaze has accrued some physical damage. Can GR maintain his relative invulnerability to natural wounding until he and an unconscious Little-Tree escape the deep desert?

Meanwhile, Hellstrom has more pressing issues. One aspect of his alter (“night”) ego is that he wants to rule Hell as an innovative head—this means he must depose Satan first, while he’s still in his “night” self, and not in his “day” (more chill, humble) self. And since he’s in “night” mode.

GR finds a way to try and rescue Roxanne Simpson from Big Daddy Dawson, lead biker of his gang; when that rescue goes awry, Blaze (now the predominant alter ego) winds up in the hospital. Can he recover in time to track the on-the-run Dawson, who’s kidnapped Roxanne Simpson, Blaze/GR’s love? And is GR willing to commit murder to protect her?

This is one of the best GR issues I’ve read. It’s consistently solid, good, with no melodrama and it reveals a latent power GR didn’t know he had: he can create an on-fire motorcycle, one that exists while he’s in his GR persona.

 

Ghost Rider: “Death Stalks the Demolition Derby” (#4): After running afoul of a police roadblock—Blaze/GR is wanted for some of his supposed actions in previous issues—he’s arrested and hospitalized anew, his wounds still fresh. A new employer (the shady Duke Jensen) hires Blaze after he’s cleared of charges, and two months later, Blaze, as GR, rides in Jensen’s destruction derby, one that might kill GR.

Roxanne Simpson works undercover for the local Attorney General in Jensen’s office, to catch crooked operator Jensen. When she overhears a conversation she wasn’t supposed to, she’s in immediate danger again.

 

 

Ghost Rider: “And Vegas Writhes in Flame!” (#5): As cops bust into Duke Jensen’s derby-arena office, he reveals his true form; he’s Roulette, a reptile-faced demon! Alongside him, his right-hand man (Slifer) also transforms into his demonic self before they vanish into a ring of fire—Roxanne Simpson is safe from the demons, but the fire enveloping the office may claim her life.

Roulette, slinging fire bolts at GR, give him a choice: save the tied-to-a-chair-in-the-burning-office Roxanne, or save Las Vegas, NV, which is being set aflame with Roulette’s fire bolts. This is Roulette’s revenge, getting back at the crooks who ruined his life when he was a mere mortal. Can GR save Roxanne and Las Vegas, or will one, or both, be torched out of existence?

Good issue, with a villain whose backstory is interesting, and who (of course) is in the employ of Satan.

 

 

Marvel Team-Up: “If An Eye Offend Thee. . .” (#15): During one of Johnny Blaze/GR’s roadshows (poster-advertised as “Ghost Rider’s Motorcycle Extravaganza”), a new villain—The Orb, with his round eyeball-shaped helmet/mask—hypnotizes most of the packed arena while kidnapping Roxanne Simpson. Seems The Orb wants Blaze/GR to sign over ownership of his roadshow to him; years ago, he was merely Drake Shannon, Crash Simpson’s original/former partner, from decades ago, before an accident disfigured his face and nearly killed him. Now The Orb wants what should’ve been his!

Fortunately for GR, Peter Parker/Spider-man happens to be in the audience. Of course, having encountered GR in the past in a cooperative manner, he helps “flame-head” (as Spider-Man calls him) take down The Orb and his motorcycle thugs while GR tries to rescue Roxanne (again).

Good, entertaining issue, one that seeds GR with an interesting/recurring villain (The Orb).

 

Ghost Rider: “Zodiac II” (#6): In San Francisco, California, a quartet of costumed villains (Leo, Libra, Gemini and Sagittarius)—former members of Cornelius Van Lunt’s Zodiac gang—heist money from their ex-boss’s transport trucks. Their thieving tracks, character-wise, except all of them are also physically in prison!

Meanwhile, in Las Vegas, Nevada, Johnny Blaze/GR tries to rescue Roxanne Simpson from gone-mad kidnapper Dave Barnett. Dave is the son of Vegas Attorney General Barnett (also a former FBI agent). It seems Dave was incensed by Blaze/GR’s reluctance to travel to San Francisco to stop the ex-Zodiac gang doppelgängers.

This is a fun set-up issue for GR’s next showdown with Zodiac (next issue), though Dave Barnett’s motivation is especially irrational and short-sighted (even for a comic book character), resulting in a paper-thin plot for this issue (#6)—it’s almost as paper-thin as Blaze’s teen-dumb reasoning for making a deal with Satan at the start of GR’s original run: Satan, as anyone who’s Christian-biased might guess, is almost certainly going to cheat his deal-partners, especially in a Marvel universe work!

 

Ghost Rider: “. . . And Lose his Own Soul!” (#7): GR and The Stunt-Master (making an impromptu decision to aid GR) pursue former Zodiac supervillain Taurus on motorbikes. Can they stop him before his full powers—and true identity (“Aquarius. . . the one man Zodiac!”)—are revealed, and the one who makes them possible (duplicitous demon Slifer, from GR #5) succeed in their plans?

This is another fun read, a solid wrap-up to the Zodiac II storyline (began in issue 6), with a clever, character- and GR-true twist, making this is one of my favorite GR issue-endings.

 

 

Ghost Rider: “Satan Himself!” (#8): Satan works against JB/GR on two fronts: first, he torments Roxanne Simpson with  visions of her father (Crash) in Hell—he does this because Roxanne is Blaze’s pure-soul key to staying out of the Devil’s clutches. Second, Satan transforms diminutive sized demon Slifer (GR, issues #5-7) into a kaiju eiga-sized, Cyclopean hell-beast, “Inferno the Fear-Monger.” With his terror-causing hand rays, Inferno creates widespread panic in San Francisco, CA.

Meanwhile, Satan reveals to Roxanne that he was actually the robed, seemingly benevolent “Messenger” who told JB that he’d take Crash Simpson’s soul out of Hell (Marvel Spotlight #8)—a promise that wasn’t kept!

This is an exciting, firing-on-all-creative-cylinders issue, one of their best thus far.

 

 

Ghost Rider: “The Hell-Bound Hero!” (#9): GR, still warring against Inferno in San Francisco, CA, seems doomed. Satan has him dead to rights when an unexpected, but-not-entirely-egregious divine being blocks Satan’s intentions, reframing the elements, relationships and limits of JB’s life and powers: as GR, he’s no longer invulnerable to bullets and other weapons, but he’s also no longer beholden to Satan for the crooked deal he made with the giant, horned demon king.

Not only that, Slifer—no longer in his Inferno manifestation—gets a new physical form and more powers, to further bedevil JB/GR.

While the last-minute divine intervention element/character feels cheesy, bordering on writerly, this shift and its repercussions also ushers in a new, possibly more varied and exciting period for GR and those around him. . . a mixed-bag issue, it’s still above average for most of its visual and plotted delivery.

 

Ghost Rider (#10): This issue is a reprint of the August 1972 issue of Marvel Spotlight (#5), where GR battles The Incredible Hulk. See that issue review for details (it’s the first listed issue in this collection).

 

Ghost Rider: “Desolation Run!” (#11): During a desert motorcycle race—JB was told about it by The Stunt-Master (GR, #8 and 9)—GR and his fellow bikers are forced to contend with The Incredible Hulk, who’s been tricked into thinking that GR attacked him earlier that day. The trickster in question is Slifer, shape-shifting demon, and recurring GR villain (issues #5-9).

The writers included the following “Note”: . . . these events “occur between page 6, panel 2, of Hulk #184 and page 10, panel 3 of that same issue.”

Fun, solid issue, one that is “respectfully dedicated to the memory of [Batman co-creator] Bill Finger, giant motorcycle and all.”

Empires of Edomia by J.M. Kind

 

(oversized pb; 2024: fourth book in the Edomia series; aka Empires of Edomia: Tales from the Edomian Mythos (Book 4). Followed by the forthcoming Warriors of Edomia.)

 

From the back cover

“All that glitters is not qualicite in the legendary queendom of Quavex: The long-standing Daughter of the City of fabled Taugwadeth is rocked to its foundations by a crisis of regal succession and the threat of war between shadowy adversaries who see the power vacuum as a means to their own self-serving ends. And what’s to stop their sinister agenda when the ancient legacy of the enlightened Goddess-worshipping matriarchy hands by a thread in this city on a mountain where privilege now outweighs simple justice, and once-pure, well-meaning religion has itself become a tool of greed?

 

“Meanwhile, a beautiful slave’s virtue is jealously guarded by a wealthy merchant who intends to sacrifice the girl to gain favor from the old gods; a lowly monk, ignorant of his parentage and past, becomes a pawn in his superiors’ schemes for political advantage; a once-and-would-be queen struggles to recall her duty and her desinty in a foreign land where she and her family are being hunted by fanatical inquisitors; and a group of young refugees from late-20^th century Earth hide in plain sight, trying to blend in with their neighbors in this strangely-backward alien civilization. Together, all of them may hold the key to the fate and future of Edomia.”

 

Review

Kind returns to Edomia for the fourth time with Empires, which blends the first book’s neologism-and-action-heavy first quarter with the streamlined writing of Rogues of Edomia, third entry in the series. (It should be noted that Empire is less dense with new Edomia-centric vocabulary than Edomia: A Fantasy Adventure, and that Kind’s writing provides vivid context and footnotes for the neologisms.)

All the elements that make up an Edomian work are here: high-adventure fantasy; a feminist/LGBT+ friendly tone (which includes R-rated sexuality); sometimes loquacious and fierce characters who embody and reinforce its free-love-clashing-with-brutal-religiosity-and-kakistocracy tones, including an abbreviated, rough male-on-male rape scene. All of this comes together in another ambitious, engaging, immersive and character-intricate work from Kind (who also writes under other names in other genres).

Empires, like its predecessor Edomian books, is highly recommended for fans of J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1977 encyclopedic Silmarillion, George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones series and those who appreciate complex-ilk, erudite, Old School fantasy that doesn’t shy away from necessary-to-the-work sexuality, politics and action/brutality. Followed by the forthcoming Warriors of Edomia.

Scary Book: Reflections by Kazuo Umezu

 

(pb; 2003: first volume in Umezu’s Scary Book series. Japanese-to-English translation by Kumar Sivasubramanian; lettering and retouch by Kathryn Renta.)

From the back cover

“The spine-chilling influence of Japanese horror cinema has taken hold of Western audiences, with many of these terrigying films being adapted from classic manga stories. The acknowledged grandmaster of horror manga is Kazuo Umezu—known as ‘the Stephen King of manga,’ with several of his stories being adapted to film—and Dark Horse Manga is proud to bring his Scary Book horror anthology to Western readers for the first time. Reflections offers two feature-length tales of terror: ‘The Mirror,’ in which a narcissistic girl’s reflection begins to take ruthless command of her life; and ‘Demon of Vengeance,’ where a sadistic warlord bent on seeking retribution for his selfish and reckless son’s injuries finds the tables of revenge turned against him. . .”

 

Review

Manga/J-horror fans may easily find much to enjoy in this first volume of Umezu’s Scary Book trilogy. The artwork is mainstream manga-realistic, plausibly slipping into its characters’ visualized mindsets and realities (veering between horror, silliness and bloody violence), its writing solid, entertaining. “The Mirror,” less traditionally violent than its follow-up (and shorter) tale, “Demon Vengeance,” provides a leavening counterbalance to “Demon”’s grim samurai tale. An above-average work (“Mirror” runs longer than I might’ve liked), Reflections is worth checking out, possibly owning if you’re into collecting worthwhile manga. Followed by Scary Book: Insects.(2003).

The Keep by F. Paul Wilson

 

(pb; 1981: first book in The Nightworld Cycle, aka the Adversary Cycle)

From the back cover

“The message is received from a Nazi commander stationed in a remote castle high in the Transylvanian alps: ‘Something is murdering my men.’

“Immediately an elite SS extermination squad is sent to destroy whatever enemy dares to challenge the might of the Third Reich.

“And the battle is joined. A battle more awesomely terrifying than anything ever experienced. Between the ultimate evil created by man. . . and the unthinkable, undreamed of, undead horror it has awakened from centuries of darkness to suck the life from living souls again.”

 

Review

Keep is one of my all-time favorite reads. Its setting (World War II-era Romania), with its pulp-meets- classic-story elements, is immediately immersible, Wilson’s penwork deftly balancing horror, story- and character-organic development and turns, action, pacing, and overall writing. It takes familiar tropes and characters and adds intriguing wrinkles to them, making Keep stand out in a wow-that's-great way—worth owning, this, if the above description sounds intriguing to you.

Keep is the first of seven theme- and character-linked books, originally titled The Nightworld Cycle (later, it was supposedly officially renamed the Adversary Cycle). While the first technical sequel, publishing-wise, is The Tomb (1984), Wilson’s official site—according to Wikipedia in February 2025—suggests that the next story-chronological entry is Reborn (1990).

I’ve read that Wilson also has stories linked to the Nightworld/Adversary universe but I’ve yet to check them out.

#

The studio-butchered film was released stateside on December 16, 1983. Director/screenwriter Michael Mann’s 210-minute version was trimmed to 96 minutes by the studio; because of this, Keep is said to have a jump-around-storyline feel.

The film features these actors: Jürgen Prochnow as Klaus Woermann; Gabriel Byrne as SS Commandant Erich Kaempffer; Ian McKellen as Dr. Theodor Cuza; Alberta Watson as Eva Cuza (in the book her name is Magda Cuza); Michael Carter as Radu Molasar; Scott Glenn as Glaeken; and Robert Prosky as Father Fanescu.

The Big Brain #3: Energy Zero by Gary Brandner

 

(1976: third book in The Big Brain trilogy. Publisher: Zebra Books.)

 

From the back cover

“THE BIG BRAIN IS POWERLESS. . .

“And so is the rest of the country. Call it energy crisis, black-out, magnetic warp. . . call it what you will, but there is just no electricity, plain and simple. Lights won’t light, motors won’t start, auxiliary generators are dead. And without any AC, DC is on its knees, ready to surrender.

“Even Colin Garrett, whose super bain can untangle the most incomprehensible technical problem, finds this truly a current conundrum. But even if he has to short every circuit in his brain, Garrett must learn who pulled the switch on Washington!”

 

Review

The Chinese are again the (probable) villains in Energy Zero, this time operating an “oil exploration” station in the frozen hell called the North Pole—it seems they, while seemingly working on a legit program, might be using a mysterious machine whose broadcasting power nullifies its targets’ electrical power, rendering them completely helpless energy-wise.

Of course, Energy has familiar setups and characters (again, Garrett gets a case partner: this time Ko Chun, who seems on the up-and-up, but is he really?). But Brandner ups his game here, plays with men’s adventure genre/Big Brain expectations with new-to-the-series twists and character motivations which, along with Garrett’s second-to-third-act survivalist situation (truly harrowing and inventive, with luck thrown in), make Energy (at least for this reader) the best entry in the already-fun, smartly written Brain trilogy. Garrett’s proclivity for casual sex (usually with affection—he is truly a lover of women) is in evidence as well, keeping with the first two books, so readers who enjoy that aspect can smile at it anew. Excellent, humorous and fun-in-a-men’s-adventure-way read, this crisply written and edited adventure is a great, playful ending for the Big Brain series.

“Moon Knight” Omnibus, Vol. 2 by various authors and artists (Part 2 of 2)

(oversized hb; 2021: graphic novel. Collects Moon Knight #21-38; Iron Man #161; Power Man and Iron Fist #87; Marvel Team-Up #144; Moon Knight #1-6 [second run, 1985]; Marvel Fanfare #30, 38 and 39; Solo Avengers #3; and Marvel Superheroes #1.)

From the inside flap

“Moon Knight’s first solo series comes to a close, including the climax of Doug Moench and Bill Sienkiewicz’s artwork continues to evolve before your eyes, he and Moench put their tortured hero through a series of trials—including the return of the waking nightmare that is Morpheus and the vigilante Stained Glass Scarlet, now wielding a crossbow as her weapon of choice. But while encounters with these and other deadly adversaries take their toll, they have nothing on the task of juggling the identities of mercenary Marc Spector, millionaire playboy Steven Grant and cabbie Jake Lockley—not least the strain that puts on his love life. And just as Marlene Alraune starts to doubt their romantic future, her brother gets caught up in the madness—and things go from bad to worse. When a mystery man is inspired to seek power by becoming Moon Knight’s dark nemesis, will the schemes of the Black Spectre drive a final wedge between Marc and Marlene—or perhaps destroy the silver-and-ebon-clad marauder once and for all? Though that task may fall to Moon Knight’s very first foe, the Werewolf By Night—back and more ferocious than ever, as only Sienkiewicz could draw him.

“Other creators take Moon Knight in new directions as he fights killers, super villains and zuvembies—and shares adventures with Brother Voodoo, Iron Man, Doctor Strange, Spider-Man, Power Man and Iron Fist, the X-men, the Fantastic Four, and more. But as he falls further under the influence of a certain Egyptian god, he emerges stronger than ever—as the Fist of Khonshu! It’s the dawn of a new era for Marc Spector, but where does that leave Marlene?”

 

Overall review

Caveat: (possible) minor spoilers in this review. Part 2 of the review is here. Vol. 2 (Part 1) starts here.

The creative team behind Moon Knight really upped their game in these final Volume 1-run (1980-1984) issues. A lot changed, not just for Moon Knight, but its supporting characters (e.g., Gena, MK’s diner-owning friend and mother of two energetic teenage boys), and those wild changes made equally big waves in the storylines as well as Spector/Grant/MK’s bruising, who-am-I mindset and life. The first five issues of this omnibus wrap up the Volume 1 run, leaving MK (as well as his friends and family) in a good place.

The Volume 2 run (six issues, 1985) shatter MK’s quiet life—Spector/Grant had left his vigilante lifestyle behind—and compel him to don the jet and silver spandex again, this time without his usual supporting characters (e.g., Marlene Aulrane) always close by. Volume 2 issues also bring to the fore a more supernatural element in MK’s life (the Volume 1 creators had left the extent of MK’s mystical elements open for readers to decide), and the Volume 2 really run with those elements, connecting MK (now truly “the Fist of Khonshu”) with three immortal Thebes Valley priests who regularly unsettle Spector/MK’s peace of mind as they alert him to incidents of global malfeasance and terror. The Volume 2 run ends on a solid, entertaining note.

The five remaining non-Moon Knight issues in this hardback (and physically heavy) collection place MK in a guest role.  Some of them are strange (even for a MK read), as if any superhero could’ve been inserted into his role(s)/appearances, while others are entertaining in a general way.

The quality of Moon Knight’s (and associated titles) artwork varies with who’s doing the drawing, linework and coloring. Most of it’s good (in that gritty, experimental and pulpy series-true way). The rest embraces a new aesthetic, one that may or may not grab you, depending on when you came up reading comic books (and if you grew up reading them).

Ultimately, “Moon Knight” Omnibus, Vol. 2, with its complicated, often tormented and hallucinating title character, is as great a read as Vol. 1, worth owning (despite their not-for-the-casual reader priciness).

 

Review, issue by issue

Moon Knight: “Primal Scream”/”Scorecard” (#34)—“Primal Scream”: Gena , local diner owner and Moon Knight’s [MK] friend, is viciously attacked by a young man (Frank) exposed to a dangerous chemical (the result of a secret experiment, code name: “Project Primal”—an operation MK’s alter-ego, Marc Spector, once confronted). In the now, MK must track down Frank as well as locate the source of his poisonous infection, before it spreads to others.

Excellent issue, art-, character- and writing-wise, with its planetary environment-focused message, reminiscent of elements in Dan O’Bannon’s 1985 film The Return of the Living Dead. This issue is scripter Tony Isabella’s first work for MK.

 

“Scorecard”: This fun, experimental issue is narrated by a decrepit, macabre-humored host (the Scorekeeper) in a riff on the EC horror-esque works like Marvel’s The Vault of Evil (1973-1975).

In “Scorecard,” the Scorekeeper asks readers if MK’s anti-crime efforts are effective, actually help society at large. The answer is obvious, yes, shown in an overview of MK’s street encounters, including the trouncing of two thugs pretending to be werewolves while they prey on local (New York City) shopkeepers. This mini-story also continues the storyline of “Primal Scream,” with Gena making a post-Frank-attack, life-changing announcement to her adolescent sons (Ricky, Ray).

 

Moon Knight: “Second Wind” (#35, double-sized issue): Excellent issue!

A battle with a winged thief (The Fly) leaves MK seriously injured—possibly unable to walk for the rest of his life. As if that weren’t bad enough, a Soviet mutant (Bora), with her tornado-creating powers, is on a mission to hunt down and blow into oblivion those who defected ballet dancers who betrayed her and their country.

When MK (as Steven Grant) and Marlene Alraune cross paths with her, and he is unable to stop her, he enlists the aid of the Uncanny X-Men and the Fantastic Four. Can they stop Bora? Can MK/Grant regain his ability to walk? And what is it that Gena, MK’s diner-owning friend and anti-crime ally, feels the burning need to tell him?

There’s a lot happening in this issue, even for a Moon Knight comic book, all of it entertaining, tightly penned and risk-taking (series- and character-wise) in the best ways.

 

Moon Knight: “Ghosts” (#36): A Nubian demonic necromancer (Anmutef) from the twentieth century B.C. is accidentally resurrected by MK’S Khonshu-enhanced presence, threatening the world anew, and necessitating initially unwanted-by-MK assistance from Stephen Strange, master of the mystic arts. MK and Strange should remove Amutef from our earthly realm, but MK (who’s sworn off any belief in Khonshu’s supernatural intervention and powers in his life, must somehow rediscover his wonder about the albino-statue god.

Excellent game-changing issue in the Moon Knight series, one whose repercussions are likely to ring loud in future issues.

 

Moon Knight: “Red Sins” / “Crawley” (#37) – “Red Sins”: Elias Spector, Marc’s rabbi father, lies on his deathbed while Marc/MK processes that fact by pummeling neo-Nazi punks. Once MK comes back to himself, he and Marlene Alraune go to see his father just as a bizarre turn of events sets everything on its head. Excellent, with a cliffhanger finish to this.

 

“Crawley”: Bertrand “Jake” Crawley, one of MK’s key street informants and friends, recounts how he helped MK deal with a neighborhood mob of people. Fun, okay story.

 

Moon Knight: “Final Rest” (#38): In the cliffhanger conclusion to last issue’s first story (“Red Sins”), a curiously familiar red-robed and -masked magick practitioner (Zohar), who took Elias Spector’s corpse, is tracked by MK and Marlene Alraune. But Zohar has a few insidious tricks up his voluminous sleeves. This is a particularly dark and life-changing conflict for Marc Spector/MK, especially fun (for the reader) and intense.

This is the final issue of the original run of Moon Knight, a good send-off.

 

Marvel Team-Up: Spider-Man and Moon Knight — “My Sword I Lay Down!” (#144): The two heroes come together to battle The White Dragon, a white- and red-spandex clad villain who means to take over New York City’s Chinatown district after one of MK’s friends and Chinatown leader (Do Yang) dies. Good, entertaining issue.

 

Moon Knight: “Night of the Jackal” (#1, volume 2): In this first-issue, series reboot (and sequel series to the original run of Moon Knight), Steven Grant has sworn off his MK-related vigilante activities and is living a happy life with his longtime, live-in girlfriend (Marlene Alraune). Alraune, like Spector/Grant is thrilled; she no long has to worry about her lover’s safety.

It all comes to a crashing end when a new villain, a resurrected priest (“Araamses, brother to the pharaoh Seti” and “priest to the god Anubis, Slayer of souls and dweller of darkness”) threatens to destroy Khonshu, the moon god who resurrected MK. A reluctant Grant, after a visit to Thebes, the Valley of the Kings, is (again) compelled to by three seemingly immortal priests to become “the Fist of Khonshu,” even if it means losing those he loves in the process.

Entertaining going-back-to-MK’s-roots reboot, worth reading. This first Volume 2 issue kicks off a more supernatural take on MK’s adventures, a take that was absent the Volume 1 stories (Bill Sienkiewicz preferred MK’s world and adventures to be more real-world.)

 

Moon Knight: “Deadly Knowledge” (#2, volume 2): Northern Yucatan, Mexico. Still grieving over being dumped by his longtime love (Marlene Alraune), MK, with help from über-feminist scientist Dr. Victoria Grail, tries to stop a Nazi experiment-obsessed scientist (Dr. Arthur Harrow) from completing his jungle-secret mission—it’s an especially personal quest for Harrow, whose twisted-mouth visage, the result of his “trigeminal neuralgia, tic douloureux,” might be cured by the human suffering he’s causing.

Good, fun issue; it introduces not just one (possibly) recurring villain, but several—including those working for the imposing O.M.N.I.U.M., Harrow’s financial benefactors.

 

Moon Knight: “A Madness of Dreams!” (#3, volume 2): Morpheus, within the body of Peter Alraune (Marlene’s brother), awakens anew (Morpheus was last seen in Moon Knight, #22 volume 1). The dream demon escapes Seaview Research Hospital where he was interned, his violent rampage resulting in a hospital-hostage situation, a full-blown nightmare event that the police, cordoned outside, are helpless to end.

Can MK rescue the hospital-trapped Marlene Alraune and put down, again, the contagious insanity that is the ebon-energies-blasting Morpheus? This is another good issue that ties together Spector/MK’s personal life with that of his vigilante life. Lieutenant detective Flint, MK’s New York cop buddy, last seen in Moon Knight #30 volume 1, also makes an appearance!

 

Moon Knight: “Bluebeard’s Castle” (#4, volume 2): Female Fortune 500 executives—four so far—have been kidnapped and are being held for future execution by the misogynistic, seething Bluebeard, a new villain in MK’s gallery of foes. It looks like the modern-day pirate’s crime spree will continue unless the police stop it, something they’ve been unable to do. A desperate Detective Flint asks a reluctant MK to help stop the neuron-ray-blasting, newspaper- and cop-taunting kidnapper, a request Spector/Grant struggles with.

Fun, solid issue. It’s not difficult to figure out who Bluebeard really is, but considering it’s a comic book it’s a non-issue, at least in this case.

 

Moon Knight: “Debts and Balances” (#5, volume 2): Khonshu’s three mystical priests from Thebes (specifically the Valley of the Kings), first seen in “Night of the Jackal” (#1, volume 2), compel MK to leave New York City to go to Chicago, IL to save sacrificial children from the immortality-seeking White Cobra Cult and (possibly) three black-clad assassins, who are somehow linked to the cult. Good, entertaining work.

 

Moon Knight: “The Last. . . White Knight” (#6, volume 2): An unspecified South Caribbean island. MK, with help from a junkie US Customs Special Agent (Lynora Goode), sets out to take down a heroin-dealing gang . Led by fierce and imposing Mama White, a priestess and “keeper of the old faith, protector of ancient rites,” the gang also kidnaps children for a mysterious “Sacrament” ritual—one which MK might be forced to take part in!

Solid, entertaining finale to the Volume 2 run of Moon Knight.

 

Marvel Fanfare: “Real to Reel” (#30): MK and Marlene Alraune (who was not with Steven Grant/MK in the Volume 2 run of Moon Knight), hanging out in a small backwoods town, are drawn into a crazy-weird situation where a cinema verité filmmaker draws the wrath of locals and a spectral bodied Mother Nature—the latter partially born of a once-in-a-lifetime planetary alignment, a “Syzygy Quadrature.” The filmmaker has accomplished this massive piss-everyone-off event by killing a herd of deer for a scene in a film shoot, then leaving their corpses to rot, waste away.

This one-off issue is a disconnected-from-Moon-Knight-Volume-2 work, a forgettable, weird and bland trifle of a Moon Knight tale (it could almost be applied to any superhero, with MK’s name filling in the character-blanks. It also has a ridiculous Marlene/MK-argument subplot, one that belongs in a teen romance work, not worthy of Moon Knight.

 

Solo Avengers #3: Hawkeye and Moon Knight—“Tower of Shadows”: MK, seeking leads on a criminal (Cornelius Van Lunt), is given a late-night address to visit by his former-foe-turned-friend Jack Russell (aka Werewolf By Night)—but when MK has to run a gauntlet of death traps as well as fight a blue-cowled and -caped phantom of sorts (The Shroud), MK questions whether or not he’s being “set up” and: is there more to this situation than he initially thought?

This issue, like the MK-visiting Marvel Fanfare: “Real to Reel” (#30) issue, feels off as a MK-centric work. When MK, frustrated by the “Tower of Shadows” traps and attacks by The Shroud, begins questioning Jack Russell’s loyalty to MK—something that Russell has repeatedly proven during the original runs of Werewolf By Night and Moon Knight—it just reads wrong. Sub-par writing as a MK-centric work.

 

Marvel Fanfare: “Whatever Happened to the Podunk Slam?” (#38): At an all-female orphanage (Danielle Clarke Home for Lost and Friendless Girls), young girls begin disappearing just as old women begin appearing in their place and a boy band (pop quintette Podunk Slam) is in town. MK, ditching his Steven Grant persona (and merged its millionaire status with his birth name, Marc Spector), investigates this strange situation, with help from his right-hand man and copter pilot (Frenchie) and his art-collection advisor (Spence).

 

“Podunk” is an especially fun and wild-for-a-comic-book issue, one that recalls some of more enjoyable Volume 1 Moon Knight entries.

 

Marvel Fanfare: “#*@%&c” (#39): Relatively light entry in the Moon Knight series where MK fights off terrorists. Fun, offbeat read.

 

Marvel Super-Heroes: “Old Business” (#1): Houston, Texas. Marc Spector, visits an old friend—Gena, former owner of Gena’s Diner (and one of MK’s “Baker Street Irregulars”) in Moon Knight Volume 1 run, now the co-owner and manager of a fancy restaurant. His visit is interrupted when he must don MK’s silver-and-jet outfit to stop a jewel thief (The Raptor).

While The Raptor feels like a lightweight villain, it’s entertaining, and the scenes where Gena and Spector are talking are heartwarming, a nice capper to the just-after-Volume 2 Moon Knight run.