News & Blog

Brian Keene’s out of print, four-issue miniseries for Marvel, Dead of Night: Devil-Slayer, which resurrects the old horror-tinged superhero Devil-Slayer for a new generation, has risen from the grave once again in digital form.

Not only is it a very good story, but it features a shout out to me in the form of a character named Isaac Kaufmann. Years later, I was able to get Brian back by naming a character Isaac Keene in Dying Is My Business. In case you were wondering where the name came from. (There’s a related story behind Underwood’s henchmen’s names Tomo and Big Joe — they’re the nicknames of two of Brian’s friends in real life.)

Fred Van Lente’s comics series The Mocking Dead also features a Kaufmann shout out (you have to look closely to spot it), which I suspect is reprisal for my naming Dying Is My Business‘s Van Lente Box after him.

And now you know!

In addition to what I purchased with my Barnes & Noble gift cards, I was also gifted this Christmas with over $100 in Amazon gift cards. It was quite a bookish Christmas! So what did I buy with them? Quite a bit, as it turns out:

 The first collected trade of a comics series I’ve been wanting to check out for a few years now. In fact, before writing this blog post I already read the trade and loved it. I’ve subsequently ordered volumes 2-5 as well.

   The next three volumes in one of my favorite comics series. Alan Moore may be crazy, but he’s also brilliant.

And because it is widely known that I cannot spend these kinds of gift cards without using them on Doctor Who videos, I also bought:

An instant classic, featuring the first and only appearance of the Zygons until the 50th anniversary special, “The Day of the Doctor.” This one fascinated me so much as a kid, especially the design of the Zygons and their biomechanical spaceship.

 Another one of my favorite serials, with probably the best writing ever for the Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith. Scripted by someone who used to write for The Avengers and was not all that familiar with Doctor Who, it not only features the classic era’s snappiest dialogue, but it also has the Doctor jumping out of a helicopter, smashing through a skylight, and drawing a gun on the bad guy. “Very impressive. What do you do for an encore?” the villain asks. To which the Doctor replies, “I win.” HOOKED FOR LIFE!

Locke and Key, Vol. 1: Welcome to Lovecraft by Joe Hill
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A great start to a promising horror/dark fantasy series. There’s lots of big plot happening, but Hill chooses to focus on the characters, which is what helps make the story so memorable and effective. Rodriguez’s art, on the other hand, takes some getting used to. It’s not bad, but it can be overly angular, and from a distance many characters look the same. But he does draw Keyhouse itself very, very well. I’m eager to see where the story goes after this. I’ve already put the next volumes on my Amazon wish list!

View all my reviews

I don’t do end-of-year posts about my writing career or life stuff, but each year I do one about all the books I’ve read between January 1 and December 31. I don’t know why. It’s just something I do. And now you all have to suffer through it.

As always, my list does not include magazines, short stories, or individual comics issues, only books and graphic novels/trade comics collections. So, without further ado, here is the list of books I read in 2013, presented in the order in which I read them:

Roots of the Swamp Thing by Len Wein & Bernie Wrightson
Mister B. Gone by Clive Barker
Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? by Alan Moore
The Amazing Screw-On Head and Other Curious Objects by Mike Mignola
The Devil In Silver by Victor LaValle
Lucretia and the Kroons by Victor LaValle
Engines of Desire by Livia Llewellyn
Little Book of Vintage Horror by Tim Pilcher
The Ballad of Ballard and Sandrine by Peter Straub
Let’s Play White by Chesya Burke
In the Mean Time by Paul Tremblay
Mountain Home by Bracken MacLeod
Life Itself: A Memoir by Roger Ebert
The Year of the Storm by John Mantooth
Hair Side, Flesh Side by Helen Marshall
The Rocketeer: Hollywood Horror by Roger Langridge
The Rocketeer: Cargo of Doom by Mark Waid
The Talisman by Stephen King & Peter Straub
Black House by Stephen King & Peter Straub
The Damned Highway: Fear and Loathing in Arkham by Brian Keene & Nick Mamatas
SuperNOIRtural Tales by Ian Rogers
Noirotica: An Anthology of Erotic Crime Stories edited by Thomas S. Roche
Every House Is Haunted by Ian Rogers
Essential Tomb of Dracula, Vol. 1 by Marv Wolfman, et al.
1969: Califormication by Robert N. Lee
1968: Finest Kind by Robert N. Lee
1967: The Live Lady of Down Town by Robert N. Lee
The Look of Horror: Scary Moments from Scary Movies by Jonathan Sternfield
Remember Why You Fear Me by Robert Shearman
Dark Fusions: Where Monsters Lurk! edited by Lois H. Gresh
Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? by Neil Gaiman

That’s 31 books this year, just over my annual target of 30. If I had to sum up my 2013 reading list, I’d say it was a year of very strong fiction collections: Llewellyn, Burke, Tremblay, Marshall, Shearman, and not one but two by Rogers. It was also the year I discovered two very accomplished debut novels, Mantooth’s The Year of the Storm and MacLeod’s Mountain Home. I expect to see great things from both authors in the future. Additionally, 2013 was the year I finally completed the Straubathon, which I started in….I want to say 2005? The entire experience was very gratifying and certainly cemented Peter Straub’s place at number one on my list of favorite authors.

That’s it for 2013, folks. Here’s wishing you a 2014 filled with happiness, health, prosperity, and lots of great books to read!