Hellshock

Hellshock by Jae Lee is your typical girl meets boy during her internship as a doctor in a madhouse, boy is delusional, girl falls for boy, boy goes into a persistent vegetative state, girl thinks boy might be an angel, girl takes boy out on the roof, girl flies away with her new boy, girl and boy, in reality, have just jumped off a building, boy breaks his neck and dies, girl gets committed and lives out her days as a split person, half her own doctor, half her own patient story.

Actually, I really loved this book. The story is haunting, touching and remorseful and the artwork is frequently breathtaking.

American Gods

American Gods by Neil Gaiman, sat in my ‘to-read’ pile for like a year. First, before Evil Darien starts calling for my head, let me say that I loved this book.

It’s now on the very short list of book I’m likely to read more than three times before I die. I had the thought when I read Coraline, with its many elements of The Thief of Always that Clive Barker had to be a huge influence on Gaiman, which is odd since they’re contemporaries, give or take a decade or so.

Reading American Gods, with so many ideas lifted straight out of The Great and Secret Show, (easily one of my ten favorite novels of all time) cemented the notion.

Ever since I first read Imajica, I’ve insisted that Barker is much more than a genre writer and I’m confident that I’ll be proven correct when he’s still being read after most of his peers are forgotten.

So, here’s the deal. Gaiman is brilliant. But so many aspects of his universe have been explored/created by Barker that I wonder just how good he really is.

I plan to read more Sandman to figure that out.

30 Days of Night & Dark Days by Steve Niles & Ben Templesmith

30 Days of Night & Dark Days is a collection of the first two series from 30 Days.

I really fucking loved it. It is a very simple, very familiar story.

There's not as much to talk about as with other graphic novels like Watchmen, the Sin City series or Wanted, but that's not to say that it wasn't memorable.

The artwork especially sticks with me. It’s not realistic at all, but it’s brutal and very disturbing. Ben Templesmith is truly a genius of the horrific.

Highly recommended.

Buffy the Vampire Season 8: The Long Way Home.

Dear Lord, if you do in fact exist, what the hell is up with you?

Sex and the City gets a movie but not Buffy? What the fuck, dude? Not cool.

Please stop falling asleep on the job. Amen.

Okay, for what we got, which is a series of comic books for Buffy season 8, this compilation is very entertaining.

Joss has not lost his sense of humor or his ability to surprise us. He has an amazing ability to follow a story arc, not just through a single season, but through the entire series.

His gift for foreshadowing without disappointing in the payoff is staggering. Yes, I would rather have more episodes to watch or even a movie, but Joss is a master storyteller and at this point, we’ll take what we can get.

The story here for season 8 is very compelling, moving, frightening and funny.

Plus, bringing back Warren, the one villain we have absolutely no fascination with (Adam, the First, Gloria) or any affection for (the Mayor, Faith) sounds like a bad move, but in fact, it is a master stroke.

The only thing we have ever wanted in Buffy’s dealings with Warren is for him to die and die horribly. Whatever is in store for us, it's bound to be fun.

The Last Temptation by Neil Gaiman & Michael Zulli with inspiration & cooperation from Alice Cooper.

Okay, this book is just creepy as hell. You would think that a villain who looks exactly like Alice Cooper wouldn’t be so menacing, but you’d be wrong.

Even after Wayne’s World and hanging out with Alice Cooper myself at a concert that Joia produced (one of the perks of her job) I was still scared fuckless by Cooper’s Master of Ceremonies who may or may not be Satan.

Okay, sidetracking to the funny story about hanging out with Alice Cooper.

So, we were talking about our backgrounds, and how similar they are, me being a pastor’s kid and he also being a PK.

He told me that I should seriously consider going back to church because it would provide peace and guidance.

Walking away, Joia just started laughing her ass off. When I asked what was so funny, she said, “How fucked up do you have to be for Alice Cooper to think you need Jesus?”

So, that was fun.

Back to The Last Temptation, the black and white artwork is by turns horrifying, sickening and gorgeous and the story really adds a lot to the too-often re-treaded fable of Faust.


Gaiman draws a convincing parallel between the interaction between Cooper’s Showman and the young Steven and the temptation of Christ in the wilderness by Satan himself.

Particularly haunting is the attempt to seduce Steven through Mercy, a troubled, beautiful and perhaps imaginary showgirl.


As we've come to expect from Gaiman, what we’re left with is more than just a morality tale or a horror story. The Last Temptation is a fresh, unsettling take on a familiar story. Buy this book.

Coraline by the great Neil Gaiman

We have eyes and we have nervses
We have tails we have teeth
You’ll all get what you deservses
When we rise from underneath

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Any list of the greatest minds of the 20th century would have to include, along with people like Einstein and Hawking, Dr. Seuss and I am officially declaring Neil Gaiman to be his successor. You can see parts of Seuss, Clive Barker, E E Cummings, Lewis Carrol and Kafka in Gaiman’s work, but it is not at all derivative. His vision is fresh and full of imagination. And it’s a tightrope Gaiman walks, painting genuinely frightening images that are still suitable for children. Coraline is made from the same stuff as nightmares and beautiful fantasies alike. Yes, it’s a kids book, but suck it up and read it anyway because, like The Cat and the Hat, it is also a work of art.

Baltimore: or the Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire

Based on Hans Christian Anderson's The Steadfast Tin Soldier, Baltimore: or the Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire maintains the charm and wonder of Anderson at his best while giving us a very affecting thriller. One of the tests of any genre piece (although squeezing this book to make it fit into some niche would be a mistake) is whether or not the story could stand on its own even if you removed the elements from it puts it into a genre and guarantees some kind of audience. And while the content of this book is not really appropriate for anyone under a certain age, it reads like a children’s book. (And yes, that is a compliment.) It follows the logic of a fairy tale. (Also a compliment.)

We start out following Captain Henry Baltimore, leading an assault against the Hessians and losing every single man in his company. As he regains consciousness, he sees the bodies of his soldiers all around, over and under him and then, to his horror, bat like creatures swoop down and start to feast. He manages to wound one of the little monsters, inadvertently starting a war between vampire and man. Most of the characters in this story are fueled by loss and revenge. The wounded bat avenges himself against Baltimore and Baltimore in turn devotes his life to hunting down the monster that destroyed everything he loved. He hammers a nail into his wooded leg for every vampire killed until it is so heavy that he has to drag it along.

The bulk of the story centers around three men who knew Baltimore and obey his summons to meet in a small city, overrun by the Red Plague. The three of them sit and swap stories about Baltimore and other implausible experiences they’ve each had. Much of the book reads almost like a collection of shorts, but they are skillfully woven together into one story arc. After following each of these men, along with Baltimore back into their bizarre past encounters with profound evil, I felt the weight of the fear and imminent loss during the final climax when everything comes together.

The only complain I had with this book (and it’s a minor one) is that the anti-war message felt a little preachy at times. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t overbearing. Mignola and Golden don’t beat you over the head, but it is there. I didn’t really mind it too much since I’m very sanctimonious and further to the left than like anyone I know. The only reason I mention this is that it came right at the climax of the book and was just a bit distracting. The message could’ve been a bit more subtle. It moves it from a 9.9 out of 10 to a 9.85 out of 10. At any rate, this is a minor complaint. Fucking read this book.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

American Gods by Neil Gaiman, sat in my ‘to-read’ pile for like a year. First, before Evil Darien starts calling for my head, let me say that I loved this book.

It’s now on the very short list of book I’m likely to read more than three times before I die.

I had the thought when I read Coraline, with its many elements of The Thief of Always that Clive Barker had to be a huge influence on Gaiman, which is odd since they’re contemporaries, give or take a decade or so.

Reading American Gods, with so many ideas lifted straight out of The Great and Secret Show, (easily one of my ten favorite novels of all time) cemented the notion.

Ever since I first read Imajica, I’ve insisted that Barker is much more than a genre writer and I’m confident that I’ll be proven correct when he’s still being read after most of his peers are forgotten.

So, here’s the deal. Gaiman is brilliant. But so many aspects of his universe have been explored/created by Barker that I wonder just how good he really is.

I plan to read more Sandman to figure that out.

Bad Blood by various writers & artists

This is actually an anthology of three different graphic novels, Sweetmeats by Steve Tanner & Pete Venters, Sugar Virus by Warren Ellis, Martin Chaplin & Garry Marshall and Night Vision: Intermezzo Bette Noir by David Quinn & Hannibal King. Then, there’s some naked vampire artwork by John Bolton thrown in at the end and you know, you just can’t go wrong with that. Sweetmeats, the first in the anthology is by far the best of the bunch. We follow a young vampire from her days as a child prostitute (don’t worry, the would-be sexual predators ended up getting more than they bargained for) through her adolescence in an asylum to her liberation by a young doctor. The characters are very complicated and interesting and the story has several effective surprises.

Sugar Virus leaves a lot to be desired, from a storytelling standpoint. It’s more than a little muddied, but the artwork really makes it worth checking out. At one point, we get to see what happens when somebody tries to see just how far he can go in torturing a vampire while keeping her alive. (Okay, since we’re talking about vampires, alive really isn’t the right word. Animated probably fits better.) At any rate, the pictures of that poor, tortured vampire are the stuff that nightmares are made of. Very chilling, disturbing imagery.

The third story, Night Vision just isn’t very good at all. But, Bolton’s naked vampire art at the end is definitely worth looking at.

Grimm's Grimmest

Grimm’s Grimmest is a collection of some of the Brothers’ Grimm’s stories with an introduction by Maria Tatar and illustrated by Tracy Arah Dockray. Evidently, these fairy tales, as originally told were hardly suitable for children. I have to say, it’s been quite a while since I’ve laughed out loud this hard at a book. The scenarios are horrifying, grotesque and simply hilarious. It’s awesome how casually they are with the brutality. You’ll just be reading a nice little fairy tale and then, all of a sudden, you’re reading something like, “After this, he caught a cat and gouged his eyes out.” How can you not like that? My favorites were The Juniper Tree and The Goose Maid. Fucking hysterical.

The Books of the Abarat

Books #1 & #2 of the Abarat by Clive Barker are a kind of odd mixture in tone between The Thief of Always and Imajica. Much like Thief, it has a very innocent and childlike quality, making it three books total that I can have Ethan read (Ethan is my 14 year old son, for those of you who don't know me.) but Barker also develops a rich, fascinating world like he did with Imajica.. Also, the Books of the Abarat feature some of his greatest villains and monsters to date. Christopher Carrion, who wears his nightmares, translucent eel-like creatures, around his face in a tank, breathing them in and out is both frightening and pitiful. He's kind of a mix between The Jaff & Kissoon from The Great and Secret Show, only without the shit & cum worms. (If you've read Show, you know what I'm talking about, if you haven't, don't ask.)

And then there's Mater Mosley, Carrion's grandmother with her army of stitchlings, creatures sewn together, filled with mud and brought to life. When Carrion was a child, she sewed his mouth shut because he said the word 'love.' Now that's a fucking grandma.