The period following the publication of Anne Rice’s Interview with a Vampire saw vampire fiction entrench itself not as a subgenre of horror, but as a substantial body of fiction in its own right. Author David J. Schow would look back on this state of affairs in his 2018 collection DJStories: You know how zombie-flavoured…
Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen is Comics’ The Good Place
I heard people rave about The Good Place for years before I actually watched the show, mostly because I don’t consider myself to be a sitcom person. I then I read Sam Anderson’s article in The New York Times, “What Makes ‘The Good Place’ so Good?” which convinced me that there was something going on…
I Went to Narnia and All I Got was this Lousy Complex: Lewis, Gaiman, Grossman, Fearscape
In October 1950, C.S. Lewis’s novel The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was published, and this was the birth of Susan. In this novel four kids are evacuated to the large country house of an old professor, because the war—World War II—is on. In this house they find a gateway to another, more magical…
Adoption Papers for Rahne Sinclair
New Mutants #1, in addition to being a great issue in its own right, had a very important highlight: like other mutants, Rahne Sinclair is alive again. That brings us to an important point of discussion regarding her: She’s ours now. By ‘ours’, of course, I mean that she belongs to trans people. You may…
“God’s Country” is a ’90s Story of Small-Town Corruption that Remains Relevant
Editor’s Note: This author has chosen to remain anonymous, due to the very specific geographical knowledge contained here. I grew up in Stanwood, Washington, a small town a couple miles off the interstate. Its got that quintessential small-town feel: the dairy farms handed down through generations, the locally owned businesses being edged out by big…
Poltergeist Girls, Part 4: The Enfield Variations
In 1977, the British press reports an outbreak of alleged poltergeist phenomena that occurred in the Enfield home of single mother Peggy Hodgson and her four children Janet, Margaret, Johnny and Billy. Claims of strange activity at the house continued until 1979, and the case of the Enfield poltergeist has provoked heated debate ever since….
Chastity Jack: Judging a Book By Its Variant Covers
Chastity #1 Daniel Maine (artist), Carlos M. Mangual (letterer), Bryan Valenza (colorist), Leah Williams (writer) September 11, 2019 Chastity Jack is a character who could feel recognizable to anyone: she has creative dreams she can’t quite achieve, she’s frustrated by how slow the NYC subway moves, she doesn’t take attitude from anyone. But unlike most New…
The X-Men’s Dissipating Storm
In 1975, Len Wein and Dave Cockrum introduced us to Ororo Munroe, aka Storm. An amalgamation of a shapeshifting character called Black Cat and a weather controller named Typhoon, the creative team tweaked some of the details and gave us the mutant we know today. Holding on to her Black Cat origins, she had cat-like…
Comics and Kink: Marco Mancassola’s Erotic Lives of Superheroes
2008 was an interesting year for superheroes in pop culture. At the time, Marvel Studies was busy launching its cinematic universe with Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk. Christopher Nolan was classing up DC’s previously campy Batman mythos with The Dark Knight. Hellboy continued to dazzle audiences in its critically acclaimed sequel, while Punisher fans suffered a decisive blow from its adaptation….
Poltergeist Girls, Part 3: Fact and Fiction in The Exorcism of Emily Rose
The Exorcism of Emily Rose was released in 2005; this was long after the 1970s heyday of the poltergeist girl subgenre, but the film nonetheless has its roots in that era. It was based on a real-life incident that occurred in 1976 – one far more horrific than the 1949 case that inspired The Exorcist.
Poltergeist Girls, Part 2: From Carrie to Carol Anne
The Exorcist was part of a flurry of late sixties and seventies films about supernatural children. Rosemary’s Baby (1968) was the trendsetter, and in 1976 The Omen would expand upon the theme with the exploits of young antichrist Damien Thorn. That year also saw the release of Carrie, based on the 1974 debut novel of…
Poltergeist Girls, Part 1: The Exorcist and Regan’s Rebellion
After she foolishly plays with a Ouija board, an innocent and cheerful early-adolescent girl begins showing a distinct change in personality. Her behaviour becomes strange, even sinister. Before long, she is the focal point of apparently supernatural phenomena: objects around her are moved by unseen forces, while her body undergoes hideous transformations. All the time…