Lovecraft in Riverdale

Disturbed that I could find no Archie fanfic inspired by Lovecraft, I've decided to write my own. Here then is the first part of....

The Strange Case of Forsythe P. Jones

Being an account of Archibald Andrews

1

It had been some years since I had walked the streets of Riverdale, being away seeking my fortune in the wild Pacific islands trading with the natives for various curious treasures. I was returning to wed my childhood sweetheart, as soon as I decided between Elizabeth Cooper and the wealthy Veronica Lodge.   I had wired ahead seeking accommodations with my childhood friend Forsythe Jones.  We both attended history classes at the RAU*, it was there he earned the nickname “Jughead” for having a fondness for Grecian urns.  Riverdale was a classic Massachusetts harbor town that didn’t seem to have aged in over a hundred years.  The sun was setting on the bay when I arrived at the Jones residence to find that Forsythe was still at the university, apparently obsessed with some new translation of a piece of pottery I had sent over three months ago.  His father let me in and showed me to my guest room.  I had intended to freshen up and go out to see old “Jughead” and find out what he had discovered, but fatigue overtook me and I slept.  It was after midnight that I was awoken by some unusual sound and once I gathered my wits I sought out the source.  I soon found myself in the Jones’ kitchen where a terrible sight lay before me. It was Forsythe, seemingly possess of a terrible hunger, attempting it seemed to consume the entire of their larder.  The sound I had heard was a shattered jar of some jam that he was now scooping off of the floor and shoving into his mouth.  I called out to him, quietly at first, then shouting his name in a more forceful manner he soon came to himself and whimpered my name.  He then collapsed in the filth on the kitchen floor and wept.  I helped him to his feet and together we set about cleaning up the debris.  We were done soon enough and I escorted him to his bed.  He offered no word of protest and as he drifted off to sleep I heard him whisper distinctly the word ‘crown’.  I watched over him for a time before returning to my quarters where I lay awake until first light. 

*RAU is the acronym for the Riverdale annex of Arkham University.

Top 5 Reasons the New Spiderman Movie Is Going to Suck

5) They're retelling the origin. This is something of a pet peeve of mine with Superhero films. Retelling the origin over and over. Especially when you can sum it up like this: "He got bit by a radioactive/genetically altered spider".

4) It takes place in High School. They're probably trying to reach a younger audience, but they whole setup feels designed to alienate fans of the comic.

3) Spider-man is white. The new Spider-Man (in the Ultimate titles anyways) is Miles Morales, half black, half Hispanic. I don't think this will doom the movie so much as it further alienates current readers and I'd like to see Hollywood do a superhero movie with some diverse heroes. They couldn't get Falcon into Avengers instead of Hawkeye? Will War Machine make an appearance? I digress...

2)Gwen Stacy, mainly for canonical reasons, Gwen didn't meet Peter til he started college and the movie takes place during high school. A little nit-picky on my part, but are they really going to go forward with Peter being responsible (somewhat) for the death of her father and ultimately Gwen?

1) The Lizard looks like crap. I'm not a big fan of CGI, but the guy looks ready to stomp Tokyo not skulk around New York sewers. I love Pez, but will be skipping the Lizard dispenser as it is really creepy looking. The Lizard should've been almost completely CGI, he should be able to keep up with Spidey in wall-crawling and the like, he looks most like a guy in a costume and least like a threat. Hopefully they will add some power to him in post with animation, but that's doubtful, as we've seen the Pez and at least one released pic.

Crystal and Brad Halloween Podcast Episode 1

Our first official podcast kicks off with Halloween 2011! It's not bad?

A plea to DC and Marvel

I have a question for DC Comics and Marvel Comics as well. Why won't you let me give you my money? I am 2-3 hours from the nearest store that sells comics now. Why can't I get comics at Wal-mart? I live in NW Alabama and can find Ice fishing magazines locally, but not an issue of Batman! If you go to the DC web site the link for subscriptions leads to this: https://ssl.drgnetwork.com/ecom/dcc/app/live/dcc_redirect. Which is just a place holder for a website "under construction". I know DC has digital comics now, but there is no obvious link on the webpage (have to go to comixology for their digital wares, Marvel failed wonderfully there). I know your upcoming reboot is to get new readers, but if a new reader wanted to get your comics and didn't know where to go, your website and promotions in general fall short.

I may be a rare and isolated case. But I grew up reading comics, comics fueled a love for reading my entire life. Most of my life I could find comics literally anywhere and everywhere. Please answer my questions if you can. Where have the comics gone?

Southern Gothic Horror Show

We're still working on our spook show! Hopefully we'll have the first episode in the can before the end of the year!

southerngothichorrorshow on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free

Super Punch: Weta made a mermaid tail for a double amputee

Super Punch: Weta made a mermaid tail for a double amputee

Monsters: A review

I was excited to find a pre-theatrical rental of the film on Amazon this weekend, excited enough to pay as much online to see the film as I would in the theater and then disappointed to have paid that much.

I found Monsters to be incredibly disappointing for such a good movie. I am a huge fan of Cloverfield, The Mist and District 9 and after watching the trailer I expected a good mix of all three of these films in Monsters. The film was beautiful, the acting well-done the monsters looked neat. I really blame the trailer for my disappointment in the film, everything you see in the trailer makes up about 90% of the aliens in the movie, except for one scene right at the end.

Let me be clear, Monsters is a good movie, but Monsters is not a monster movie...it's not horror, it's just barely sci-fi. Imagine Cloverfield was about people being evacuated, but instead of being at the epicenter of the attacks, the movie was about a couple being evacuated from New Jersey and we'd see Clover on a television in the background sometimes. That's how much of a monster movie this was. You know how some Godzilla movies take a long time getting to the big monster fight? I've always imagined hell was a really long version of that...Godzilla and Ghidorah moving slowly closer to each other across Japan while the military and scientists talked about the upcoming fight FOR ETERNITY! That's how Monsters played me...I kept waiting and waiting for a sudden vicious monster attack, danger, suspense, fear...monsters!

But, if you go into the movie with no presuppositions, you're one of those insane people who run into a video store and ask the person behind the counter to surprise you, you could like this movie. I think the studio is selling it wrong and is going to piss a lot of people off. It's a good movie, a movie about people, a movie with a subtle (for a change) political message and it is very beautiful to watch. And after finding out it was made for only $15K? I am really impressed by it. Once again though, if you want to see Monsters based on the trailer, you may be disappointed. If you want to see monsters, see the Mist or Cloverfield. If you want political messages delivered with rockets and lasers, see District 9. If you want to see a surprising well made movie about two people with a backdrop of alien invasion, see Monsters. It's really not that bad.