The Unwritten #31

Tom Taylor has decided to take a more active role against the Cabal, essentially declaring war on them. He ambushes them in supposedly safe locations, using magic spells lifted from the Tommy Taylor children’s fantasy novels his dad wrote. His friends, Lizzie Hexam, Richie Savoy, and Frankenstein’s Monster, aren’t sure how well he really understands magic, but Tom is able to find out plenty of secrets using magic. But magic may prove to be a fickle power…

Verdict: Thumbs up. Lots of action, good dialogue, fun plot developments. I’m still fairly jazzed by the idea of Frankenstein’s Monster being an actual member of the cast.

The Dunwich Horror #2

The Horror comes after our small band of heroes, but they manage to elude its grasp. Doesn’t mean they’re out of the woods yet — so they need to find a way to send it back to the horrific dimension it hails from. To do that, however, they’ll need the Necronomicon from Miskatonic University’s library — but the university recently decided to scan the decaying book to preserve it, and the librarian who scanned it went nuts, burned the original book, swallowed a flash drive with the files, and then died in the hospital when the flash drive blew her apart. Our heroes have finally managed to break the code on her computer — but how can you read a book when everyone who looks at its pages goes mad?

Verdict: I think I may thumbs this one down. The story has an interesting Lovecraftian feel to it, but there’s really not a whole lot to tie it in with Lovecraft’s classic short story. We get the Necronomicon, madness, mentions of Wilbur Whateley… and there needs to be a bit more if we can really call this an adaptation of the story. Plus, it still comes with “The Hound” as a backup — and the lettering is still mostly illegible. No need to subject yourself to eyestrain for just a backup story…

Today’s Cool Links:

• Just one link today: Here’s the most intensely sad thing you’re going to read about a comic creator this month: Marvel Comics giant Bill Mantlo, writer of hundreds of comics in the 1970s, is currently living in a nursing home after a hit-and-run accident in the ’90s left him with severe brain damage. He gets few visitors, has almost no possessions, and is just a whiff away from dead broke. It’s a long, sad story, but read the whole thing.
• Okay, one more link: The HERO Initiative tries to help out creators who, like Mantlo, are down on their luck and need help. I know the economy is rough, and we’re getting closer to Christmas. But please consider sending a contribution their way, if you can.

The Dunwich Horror #1

This adaptation of one of H.P. Lovecraft’s most popular stories is written by horror writer Joe R. Lansdale, which is definitely a step in the right direction. It’s a fairly loose adaptation of the story — for one thing, it’s set in 2011, not in the 1930s. We’re focused on a group of friends getting back together after another friend has been killed and beheaded by persons unknown. But the friends know who the culprit is — an otherworldly, invisible horror who they all summoned in a ritual a long time ago. It’s loose now and stalking them, and the only way to avoid being eventually torn apart by the monster is to find it and send it back where it came from. They’ve probably got quite a task in front of them — a local barn has been blown apart by the thing, and it’s stacked up a gigantic pile of dead, bloody animals that it’s partially eaten. And since it’s invisible, they have no idea if it’s far away, or if it’s getting closer and closer…

There’s also a backup feature — an adaptation of Lovecraft’s “The Hound” by Robert Weinberg and a guy called menton3. I couldn’t actually make heads nor tails of it, primarily because the lettering was tiny and crabbed and just plain too much trouble to read.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Yeah, I didn’t get much out of “The Hound,” and it’s a bit odd to see an adaptation of “The Dunwich Horror” that doesn’t start out with Wilbur Whateley and his awful, awful family, but I’m still enjoying what I see. There are enough elements from the original story for me to recognize, and I’ve got enough faith in Joe Lansdale that I expect he won’t steer the story wrong.

Wonder Woman #2

We get to meet Hera — queenly, haughty, hates Zeus, hates his consorts worse — and Strife — skinny, gothy, devious, chaos-loving — before we move to Wonder Woman, arriving on Paradise island with Hermes and Zola. They meet Hippolyta and engage in a tournament — but when Strife herself pays a visit to the island, all bets are off. What secret is the goddess of chaos and discord hiding?

Verdict: Thumbs up. The whole thing is quite nicely done, with great writing, great art, lots of action, intrigue, suspense, and weird stuff. I’m digging this quite a bit.

Today’s Cool Links:

• Ya know what you need? You need a zombie in a penguin suit.
• We could learn a lot about Halloween costumes from our ancestors. We don’t need store-bought costumes — a burlap bag is the best costume of all.
• Can he swing from a thread? Take a look overhead.