The Touch by F. Paul Wilson

 

(pb; 1986: third book in the Nightworld Cycle, aka Adversary Cycle. Originally published as a standalone novel, later incorporated into said Cycle.)

 

From the back cover

“After a dozen years of practicing medicine as a family physician, Dr. Alan Bulmer discovers one day that he can cure any illness with the mere touch of his hand.Although he tries to hide his power, word inevitably leaks out, and soon Alan’s life begins to unravel. His marriage and his practice crumble. Only rich, beautiful, enigmatic Sylvia Nash stands by him. And standing with her is Ba, her Vietnamese gardener, who once witnessed a power such as Dr. Bulmer’s in his homeland, where it is called Dat-tay-vao. Ba knows too well that the Dat-tay-vao always comes with a price. And Alan has only begun to pay.

(This edition includes the short story ‘Dat-tay-vao,’ prequel to The Touch, which tells the story of the events bringing the Dat-tay-vao to the USA.”)

 

Review

Touch, the third thematically (and later character-)linked book in F. Paul Wilson’s Adversary Cycle, is an excellent fiction read/thriller, with its vaguely supernatural/warm humanity Good versus violence/darkness theme, fully realized/complex characters, sly humor, warmth and steady-build, vividly described situations and physical locations. Touch doesn’t begin to come together until three-quarters of the way into it, and when it does, it truly pays out, with a few instances of brief splatterific gore and violence.

My favorite character in Touch is Båo, whose devotion to those he cares about as well as his balancing of light and (sometimes violent) darkness provides the balance I wish other characters in this book had, e.g. Alan Bulmer, people-dumb and addicted to dat-tay-vao (“the Touch”) who’s so naïve, he almost makes Jefferson Smith (Jimmy Stewart) in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) look cynical. At several points, I mentally retitled Touch as Mr. Smith Gets a Healing Power.

While reading Touch, I didn’t see any specific links to the first two Adversary novels The Keep and Reborn. One reddit user (schlam16) has noted that “the [Adversary] finale, Nightworld [1992] also draws in Repairman Jack from The Tomb [1984], and characters from The Touch.”

Great read, The Touch, worth owning. Followed, story-wise, by The Tomb.

The Brave by Gregory McDonald

 

(hb; 1991)

 

From the inside flap:

“Rafael’s world is a place where armed guards patrol a dump to prevent poor families from foraging through the garbage. With his family, Rafael lives on the edge of the refuse heap in a forgotten corner of America’s Southwest.

“Desperately poor, he is determined to give his family some respite from their dire poverty, even if it means trading his own life to do so.

“Rafael finds a man who says he will pay many thousands of dollars in exchange for his life:  so he agrees to ‘star’ in a snuff film.”

 

Review

Brave, with its stark language, grim-flat tone and likely doomed characters is a work of horrific beauty, with Rafael (a simple, largely illiterate young man) willing to sacrifice his life to improve those of his family and his also-impoverished community. No words wasted in this fast-moving, taut-emotions-between-the-lines (and relatively short) novel, its third chapter—which comes with a foreword/warning from Mcdonald—fairly (possibly) stomach-churning for those not used to bluntly stated inhumanity and potential horror (in a weird way, Brave put in the mindset of director/co-screenwriter John McNaughton’s 1986 film Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer). This is one of the best books I’ve ever read in any genre, up there with Robert Bloch’s Psycho (1959) and Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange (1962), and highly recommended for fans of Cormac McCarthy and Richard Stark’s twenty-four-book Parker series.

#

 

The resulting 1997 film, directed, co-scripted by and starring Johnny Depp, was not released stateside. Depp was upset by the negative reaction of U.S. film critics and refused to release it in that country. It debuted at Cannes Film Festival in May 1997 and was released in other countries throughout the remainder of that year. (Brave’s co-screenwriters also included Paul McCudden and D.P. Depp.)

Depp played Raphael (not spelled “Rafael” as it is in Mcdonald’s source novel). Marlon Brando played McCarthy, a snuff filmmaker who spells it out for Raphael. Marshall Bell played Larry, McCarthy’s shifty nephew.

Floyd “Red Crow” Westerman played Raphael’s “Papa.” Luis Guzmán played Luis, Raphael’s older brother. Pepe Serna played Alessando, Raphael’s other brother, who whines a lot and is an especially doomy do-nothing.

Frederic Forrest, Brando’s co-star in Apocalypse Now (1979), played Lou Sr. Clarence Williams III played Father Stratton. Max Perlich played Lou Jr. Iggy Pop played “Man Eating Bird Leg.”

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.

Nightlife by Thomas Perry

 

(pb; 2006)

 

From the back cover

“When the cousin of Los Angeles underworld figure Hugo Poole is found shot to death in his home in Portland, Oregon, homicide detective Catherine Hobbes is determined to solve the case. But her feelings, and the investigation, are complicated when Hugo simultaneously hires Joe Pitt. As Joe and Catherine form an uneasy alliance, the murder count rises. Following the evidence, Catherine finds herself in a deadly contest with a cunning female adversary capable of changing her appearance and identity at will. Catherine must use everything she knows, as a detective and as a woman, to stop a murderer who kills on impulse and with ease, and who becomes more efficient and elusive with each crime.”

 

 

Review

Nightlife, like Perry’s best writing, is a near-impossible-to-set-down, tautly penned and edited police-procedural thriller, with well-developed characters worth rooting for or hissing at (even the emotionally immature/defensive, cold-blooded killer,Tanya Starling, aka Charlene Buckner, aka other names, can be sympathized or at least understood, given her fully realized backstory). That Perry provides effective character motivations imbues the resulting violence, all of it masterfully edited and written, with an impressive, reads-fresh, character-sourced intimacy, even as he sidesteps certain action-thriller tropes, and an ending that deftly blends key-character trepidation and hope into a “would love to see these characters again” finish. Top-notch book, top-notch author.

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: second book in the Nightworld Cycle, aka the Adversary Cycle.)

 

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.

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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.