"I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?"
Another gritty but beautiful coming of age masterpiece fr"I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?"
Another gritty but beautiful coming of age masterpiece from Different Seasons. Crazy to think Shawshank Redemption and Stand by Me both originated from this single collection. Two fantastic stories adapted into two unforgettable films that are just as good, even better in some ways.
No other Stephen King story captures the essence of boyhood quite like this one. A bunch of goofy immature little boys going on a dangerous treasure hunt in the woods just for shits and giggles. Cracking mom jokes, stealing dirty magazines from their dad, smoking and cursing up a storm because they think its cool and grown up, getting into serious debates about which cartoon characters could beat up each others favorite superheroes, all while discovering themselves, venting their insecurities to their mates and having each others backs when the going really gets tough.
The story starts with Gordie and his childhood pals sitting in their treehouse goofing around like a couple of good blokes. Their friend Vern pops in and warns them that there are rumors going around that a boy from their home town of Castle Rock was killed near the train tracks in the woods. Letting morbid curiosity get the best of them, they decide to venture out into the woods all on their lonesome one fine summer day to see if the rumors are true.
Along the way they bond, fight, vent, joke, tell stories, share their feelings and tackle their deepest fears in the hopes that maybe one day they'll be able to overcome them. It's a story about how the simple fleeting moments of childhood adventures and adolescent confusion shape us into the adults we eventually become. Though childhood often feels like a distant dream, it's always lurking in somewhere deep in the back of our heads, for better or for worse.
The perfect blend of raunchy humor, whimsical adventure, heartache, suspense, and the morbid nature of pondering about how death comes for us all when we least expect it....more
An english instructor named Wesley Smith gets himself a kindle e-reader after an upsetting break up with his girlfriend, and commits the ultimate sin An english instructor named Wesley Smith gets himself a kindle e-reader after an upsetting break up with his girlfriend, and commits the ultimate sin of reading books off the computer instead of the old fashioned way. Once overcoming his own literary snobbery, Wesley begins to see just how cool e-readers can actually be however, but he also experiences the existential terror of just how limitless they are, their convenience and ease of use opening up infinite gateways to an infinite number of stories that no human being could ever hope to consume in a single lifetime. And that’s not all, this mysterious pink kindle in particular seems to offer glimpses into alternate realities with books and futures that do not exist in his own world...
Not among King’s absolute finest work, but it turned out to be a lot cooler than I expected. It has a lot of existential dread that makes the narrative surprisingly chilling at times, and it also has some interesting connections to The Dark Tower and Hearts in Atlantis which I really enjoyed.
Kindles and e-readers are kinda spooky now that I think about it. The infinite opportunities and gateways into other worlds they open up can consume your own life if you’re not careful....more
"I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?"
Another gritty but beautiful coming of age masterpiece fr"I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?"
Another gritty but beautiful coming of age masterpiece from Different Seasons. Crazy to think Shawshank Redemption and Stand by Me both originated from this single collection. Two fantastic stories adapted into two unforgettable films that are just as good, even better in some ways.
No other Stephen King story captures the essence of boyhood quite like this one. A bunch of goofy immature little boys going on a dangerous treasure hunt in the woods just for shits and giggles. Cracking mom jokes, stealing dirty magazines from their dad, smoking and cursing up a storm because they think its cool and grown up, getting into serious debates about which cartoon characters could beat up each others favorite superheroes, all while discovering themselves, venting their insecurities to their mates and having each others backs when the going really gets tough.
The story starts with Gordie and his childhood pals sitting in their treehouse goofing around like a couple of good blokes. Their friend Vern pops in and warns them that there are rumors going around that a boy from their home town of Castle Rock was killed near the train tracks in the woods. Letting morbid curiosity get the best of them, they decide to venture out into the woods all on their lonesome one fine summer day to see if the rumors are true.
Along the way they bond, fight, vent, joke, tell stories, share their feelings and tackle their deepest fears in the hopes that maybe one day they'll be able to overcome them. It's a story about how the simple fleeting moments of childhood adventures and adolescent confusion shape us into the adults we eventually become. Though childhood often feels like a distant dream, it's always lurking in somewhere deep in the back of our heads, for better or for worse.
The perfect blend of raunchy humor, whimsical adventure, heartache, suspense, and the morbid nature of pondering about how death comes for us all when we least expect it. ...more
There is no heaven or hell, only a purgatory where you must be reborn to live the same life over and over again with the knowledge that you won’t be aThere is no heaven or hell, only a purgatory where you must be reborn to live the same life over and over again with the knowledge that you won’t be able to change anything, no matter how many times you relive the same events.
This is literally the ‘would you punch a little kid in the face for a million dollars?’ meme turned into a Stephen King story. Or maybe it was the othThis is literally the ‘would you punch a little kid in the face for a million dollars?’ meme turned into a Stephen King story. Or maybe it was the other way around? Either way, it’s pretty good.
Chad is a teacher struggling to get a contract for an upcoming book. His wife Nora is a home nurse. Both are struggling to make ends meet. Nora gets approached by her employer who claims he wants to know what it’s like to commit a horrible sin before he dies because he’s spent his whole life as a virtuous man. He’s willing to give Nora a huge sum of money if she does something horrible on his behalf.
This almost feels like the diet version of Apt Pupil. Someone getting pushed into a life of cruelty and immoral acts by a strange old man. This isn’t nearly as gruesome or extreme as Apt Pupil and the ending kinda fizzles out before reaching its full potential, but it’s still pretty interesting overall. One of the better stories in Bizarre of Bad Dreams....more
A fun, sleazy and chaotic parody of retro horror slasher movies. Volume one contains the original three oneshots.
***
Euthanized
A pair of slasher horrorA fun, sleazy and chaotic parody of retro horror slasher movies. Volume one contains the original three oneshots.
***
Euthanized
A pair of slasher horror villains who work together to hunt down other slasher horror villains out of some twisted, skewed sense of hateful justice. Or maybe just an excuse to have fun brutally murdering things while trying to morally justify it? Eh, semantics.
In this story, a gun slinging goth chick with an appetite for bloody vengeance named Cassie and a deformed masked dual-bladed slaughterer of the undead named Vlad team up to hunt down a depressed necromancer who reanimates the corpses of abandoned animals to seek revenge on those who have wronged them.
Just the type of cheesy retro slasher story I’ve been in the mood for lately. Channels all the fun stuff about 80’s slasher horror movies while playfully poking fun at them at the same time. I like the satire, the wicked character designs and gruesome gory action. The story behind Cassie and the main villain is also surprisingly sympathetic given the morbid and ridiculous tone of the series.
***
Girls Gone Dead
Hack and Slash are on the hunt for an undead serial killer priest that preys on horny pleasure seekers committing the sin of having sexy time without his approval. They disguise themselves as participants at a spicy hotel beach party to unravel the mystery behind who or what brought the evil priest back from the dead to seek vengeance on lusty horndogs.
A horror slasher parody of Girls Gone Wild with some vulgar religious humor sprinkled on top. Cassie Hack gets to experience what it’s like to be an ordinary college-age girl having fun with normal people trying to let loose for once in her life and it ends up being surprisingly wholesome and pleasant. Minus all the death, murder and nudity of course.
Shows a more fun, natural and silly side to the deadly duo.
***
Comic Book Carnage
Hack and Slash try to put an end to a crazy comic book nerd with a killer parasitic twin. They attend a comic book convention where famous horror comic authors are being killed over making darker changes to classic characters without the killer’s approval.
A funny meta story that actually features big horror comic artists as characters being hunted down by the villain, authors such as Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead), Steve Niles (30 Days of Night) among others. It’s a riff on how classic wholesome stories are constantly being rebooted into dark, edgy R-rated versions of their former selves while simultaneously poking fun at folks who can’t accept change or different interpretations of classic stories at all.
Has cute friendship moments between Cassie and Vlad and some self aware meta humor....more
A bar patron describes a terrifying expedition into the jungle of an unnamed land to an unknown audience, a large party went in and very few came out.A bar patron describes a terrifying expedition into the jungle of an unnamed land to an unknown audience, a large party went in and very few came out.
Stephen King's attempt at a narrative poem that channels Robert Browning (and maybe a little bit of Robert E. Howard) and does a decent, but not so great job of it. It's definitely the weakest part of Bazaar of Bad Dreams. King even admits himself that he doesn't consider himself a poet. He's written hundreds of them and only felt 2 or 3 of them were somewhat worth publishing.
Jim Trusdale is a slow-witted man sentenced to death for a crime he may or may not have committed. He’s believed to be hiding a silver dollar from theJim Trusdale is a slow-witted man sentenced to death for a crime he may or may not have committed. He’s believed to be hiding a silver dollar from the ten year old girl he supposedly murdered. It doesn’t matter either way, he’s deemed guilty before his trial even begins.
A straightforward whodunnit story with an unexpectedly ambiguous ending. Jim Trusdale’s intelligence, maliciousness and motive are all up in the air. It’s hard to say if he’s guilty or framed, cunningly wicked or depressingly unaware. No matter the answer, the dreary and foreboding outcome and atmosphere of the tale are solid. ...more
An evil ginger kid with a propeller hat devotes his demonic existence to relentlessly bullying an innocent man named George Hallas until the boy causeAn evil ginger kid with a propeller hat devotes his demonic existence to relentlessly bullying an innocent man named George Hallas until the boy causes a string of supernatural disasters that haunt George until his breaking point. The only way to put an end to the bad little kid’s reign of terror is with a deadly weapon, and even that might not be enough.
A predictable but fun short story that has a nice flow to it. George narrates the story in past tense from a prison cell and it plays out exactly how you probably think it will go, but it’s got a classic urban legend vibe to it which makes it feel like an eerie campfire story. ...more
The Kingdom of Delain is finally free from the oppressive threat of Niner the Dragon, but a new beast haunts the halls of the royal castle now, and heThe Kingdom of Delain is finally free from the oppressive threat of Niner the Dragon, but a new beast haunts the halls of the royal castle now, and he wears the face of a man. The dark sorcerer Randall Flagg poses as the right hand of King Roland the Good, but he has many sinister tricks up his sleeve to turn the royal family against each other and burn the whole kingdom to the ground from the inside out. It’s up to the young princes Peter and Thomas, King Roland’s sons, to get to the bottom of Randall’s treacherous plans before it’s too late.
Stephen King’s spin on classic epic fantasy tropes. It takes elements from Lord of the Rings, Wheel of Time, Shannara, Belgariad, Riftwar and a whole bunch of others with King’s usual spin of creepy shenanigans and morbid humor sprinkled on top. It’s a familiar story with a unique authoritative voice.
Famous recurring villain Randall Flagg (he pops up in The Stand, The Dark Tower and a few others) is up to his old tricks again, sneaking around shadowy halls, whispering sweet nothings into the ears of kings and sewing an epidemic of death and chaos wherever he goes. He’s up against some sly rascals this time around though, so he’s got his twisted work cut out for him. The story has a satisfying build up with sympathetic heroes and a climactic finale.
It’s always fun seeing King outside of his usual brand of whacky horror stories. I think he does fantasy, slice of life and literary fiction especially well....more
The Old Geezer and his murder clean up crew strike a blow against one of the most dangerous Yakuza crime families in Japan’s red light district, killiThe Old Geezer and his murder clean up crew strike a blow against one of the most dangerous Yakuza crime families in Japan’s red light district, killing their boss by employing the help of deranged crybaby assassin Ichi. They score their marks and earn their blood money, but Masao Kakihara, son of the assassinated crime boss, is even more brutal, cruel and ruthless than his father. He’ll torture and kill anyone that gets in the way of him hunting his target and he’ll have a wonderful time doing it.
Deranged killers hunting deranged killers, great evils against slightly lesser evils. The plot sets up an interesting protagonist/antagonist dynamic between Ichi and Kakihara. Both are psychotic killers. Both get sexually aroused by extreme violence and murder. One is an unstable crybaby with the mind of a child, the other is a cruel predator that feeds on pain. They’re both evil and twisted in similar but slightly different ways.
There are no good guys here. Everyone is seriously messed up. I can’t help but feel a bit sorry for Ichi though, he’s clearly unstable and being taken advantage of....more
A hilariously gruesome, offensive and explicit rodeo of extreme violence and superhero satire.
Dave Lewzeski is your typical high school comic book nerA hilariously gruesome, offensive and explicit rodeo of extreme violence and superhero satire.
Dave Lewzeski is your typical high school comic book nerd that daydreams about being a superhero. After beating the stuffing out of some run of the mill thugs while dressed in a ridiculous green spandex uniform, he starts a crazy new trend of normal everyday folks dressing up in imaginary superhero costumes to beat the crap out of lowly criminals to go viral on the internet. Seems like a pleasant trend at first, but it quickly spirals out of control into a deadly fiasco of murder, kidnapping and extreme gang violence. There’s only one superhero that might just be the real deal, and she’s a katana wielding middle schooler named Hit-Girl.
This was a lot of fun, like Scott Pilgrim with the brutal insanity of Preacher and The Boys. The characters are incredibly flawed, but they are so batshit crazy and maniacally outrageous, you can’t help but love their wild antics....more
An elderly father and son duo (80 something and 60 something years old) get dinner at Applebees, reminisce about dressing as Batman and Robin on a funAn elderly father and son duo (80 something and 60 something years old) get dinner at Applebees, reminisce about dressing as Batman and Robin on a fun Halloween night several decades ago and get into a deadly brawl with a road raging ex-prisoner, testing the strength of the love that has kept the two men together through sickness, dementia and hard times.
The first story in Bazaar of Bad Dreams that I really liked. Sweet, funny, a little dark but a cozy uplifting ending. ...more
Fran is a beautiful Frankenstein's monster created by the deranged genius Dr. Madaraki. Stitched together with the flesh of various dead experiments aFran is a beautiful Frankenstein's monster created by the deranged genius Dr. Madaraki. Stitched together with the flesh of various dead experiments and brought to life with a cheery disposition, Fran carries on the experiments of her twisted creator by performing mysterious acts of kindness on patients in need of help. The problems these patients have require unnatural treatments, and Fran is more than happy to deliver the terrible solutions necessary to solve their problems in the worst ways imaginable.
A funny and slightly erotic horror parody of Frankenstein. It’s like if Victor Frankenstein’s great great great ditzy granddaughter opened up her own underground body modification shop using illegal surgeries to mess around with life, death and human anatomy, playing God for sick kicks.
From the story of a girl undergoing butterfly insect metamorphosis devouring her unfortunate lover to plastic surgeries turning an entire academy into walking nightmare fuel, there’s some bizarre and entertaining oddities going on here....more
A crossover episode that features the usual Hack/Slash duo going up against the iconic comic horror villain Evil Ernie, a heavy metal loving psycho thA crossover episode that features the usual Hack/Slash duo going up against the iconic comic horror villain Evil Ernie, a heavy metal loving psycho that worships Lady Death and promises to sow as much senseless murder and destruction in the world of the living as possible to please her.
Part outlandish action horror brawl, part forbidden twisted romance, part wholesome platonic love bonding between broken friends at a goth strip club. A good and chaotic episode with lots of raunchy metalhead humor....more
A heartthrob newscaster that draws in high ratings for his good looks and boyish charm is living a double life as a cheating spouse abuser that rules A heartthrob newscaster that draws in high ratings for his good looks and boyish charm is living a double life as a cheating spouse abuser that rules over his family with an iron fist. A drunken sexual deviant harasses tourists at a local spa resort. A disgusting pedo teacher that sexually blackmails his students and bullies people to suicide...
Dan might be trying to enjoy a nice relaxing vacation with his humble coworkers, but his righteous thirst for bloody justice rings out. He might be a little psycho, but his resolve to protect hurt women, children, animals and other vulnerable members of society from the predatory abuse of evil scumbags never fails to be satisfying. The newscaster is despicable and the teacher is definitely one of the most depraved villains yet.
Also really love the bond with his new dog Pazuzu....more
Hack and Slash try to put an end to a crazy comic book nerd with a killer parasitic twin. They attend a comic book convention where famous horror comiHack and Slash try to put an end to a crazy comic book nerd with a killer parasitic twin. They attend a comic book convention where famous horror comic authors are being killed over making darker changes to classic characters without the killer’s approval.
A funny meta story that actually features big horror comic artists as characters being hunted down by the villain, authors such as Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead), Steve Niles (30 Days of Night) among others. It’s a riff on how classic wholesome stories are constantly being rebooted into dark, edgy R-rated versions of their former selves while simultaneously poking fun at folks who can’t accept change or different interpretations of classic stories at all.
Has cute friendship moments between Cassie and Vlad and some self aware meta humor....more
Hack and Slash are on the hunt for an undead serial killer priest that preys on horny pleasure seekers committing the sin of having sexy time without Hack and Slash are on the hunt for an undead serial killer priest that preys on horny pleasure seekers committing the sin of having sexy time without his approval. They disguise themselves as participants at a spicy hotel beach party to unravel the mystery behind who or what brought the evil priest back from the dead to seek vengeance on lusty horndogs.
A horror slasher parody of Girls Gone Wild with some vulgar religious humor sprinkled on top. Cassie Hack gets to experience what it’s like to be an ordinary college-age girl having fun with normal people trying to let loose for once in her life and it ends up being surprisingly wholesome and pleasant. Minus all the death, murder and nudity of course.
Shows a more fun, natural and silly side to the deadly duo....more
A pair of slasher horror villains who work together to hunt down other slasher horror villains out of some twisted, skewed sense of hateful justice. OA pair of slasher horror villains who work together to hunt down other slasher horror villains out of some twisted, skewed sense of hateful justice. Or maybe just an excuse to have fun brutally murdering things while trying to morally justify it? Eh, semantics.
In this story, a gun slinging goth chick with an appetite for bloody vengeance named Cassie and a deformed masked dual-bladed slaughterer of the undead named Vlad team up to hunt down a depressed necromancer who reanimates the corpses of abandoned animals to seek revenge on those who have wronged them.
Just the type of cheesy retro slasher story I’ve been in the mood for lately. Channels all the fun stuff about 80’s slasher horror movies while playfully poking fun at them at the same time. I like the satire, the wicked character designs and gruesome gory action. The story behind Cassie and the main villain is also surprisingly sympathetic given the morbid and ridiculous tone of the series.
Never read a Hack/Slash comic before, so I thought it was best to read them in chronological order, starting with the origin stories of the two protagonists. I’m definitely going to be reading more of them....more
After a severe accident in the ring, Lona Steelrose has been living in the shadow of her mother who was once a famous wrestler. Pursuing a wrestling cAfter a severe accident in the ring, Lona Steelrose has been living in the shadow of her mother who was once a famous wrestler. Pursuing a wrestling career with the ghost of her mother haunting her reputation, Lorna has her work cut out for her. Close to giving up hope, Lorna is given the unexpected offer of a lifetime from a crazy necromancer from another dimension to fulfill one wish of her desire. The only catch is, she must compete in an otherworldly death match against warriors gathered from all across the universe with all the odds stacked against her and her unexpected partner. Thus begins an absurdly over the top wrestlemania saga that defies the laws of time and space.
This comic has everything. 80’s and 90’s action film aesthetics. Coming of age nostalgia. Wholesome parent/child bonding. Attitude era wrestling. Heavy metal punk rock culture. Intense Dragon Ball Z style tournament battles. Lovable characters and lots of heart in between the comedic dramatics.
It's a funny, bizarre and emotional joyride with lots of action and humor....more
