B.P.R.D.: Hell on Earth – Russia #5

Last issue, Johann Kraus detonated a nuke on the zombies and monsters running amok underground in Russia. Did he survive? Well, yes, actually, he did, and he’s already gotten a new containment suit. Provided by the Moscow bureau director Iosif Nichayko, it’s actually based on his own, more advanced suit — and Johann would really prefer to keep it, no matter how much Kate Corrigan dislikes it. Meanwhile, Iosif tries to make nice with Kate, the Russians take out some of their own citizens, Abe Sapien goes through some changes, and we finally find out what happened to Varvara, the impossibly creepy, vodka-swilling little girl/demon who appeared in some earlier B.P.R.D. series.

Verdict: Thumbs up. An excellent end to this storyarc, with lots of changes for everyone, dire warnings of more trouble on the horizon, and a nice continuity nod for fans (like me) of Varvara.

American Vampire #23

Teen bad-boy Travis is chasing down the vampire who destroyed his family and has kidnapped Piper, his girlfriend — well, more like the girl he pretended was his girlfriend so he could kill the vampires who were making her run chores and errands for them. While this is all going on, we get some flashbacks of Travis’ past — held in a mental hospital and subjected to shock therapy as a child because he insisted on believing that vampires were real. Will Travis be able to save Piper? And who’s the vampire he’s been chasing all these years?

Verdict: Thumbs up. It’s one long car chase! Sure, there are the flashbacks, but this is pretty much the coolest car chase I’ve ever seen in a comic book. And the final page reveal of Travis’ opponent is pretty nice, too.

Today’s Cool Links:

• I love this — a blog dedicated to the opposite of Women in Refrigerators: women being awesome in superhero comics.
• Nice article about the hostility a lot of science fiction seems to have for the common folk.
• Alright, I haven’t actually watched this, because I’ve decided life is too short to spend watching “Star Wars” again. But if you want to see how a lot of people remade the film, 15 seconds at a time, then you’ll want to watch “Star Wars Uncut.”

Demon Knights #4

Most of this story is a flashback of the Shining Knight’s origin. She had sustained a fatal wound on the battlefield after the fall of Camelot when Merlin found her and gave her a sip from the Holy Grail, granting her immortality and an obsession with finding the Grail again. What’s Merlin’s connection to all of this? Well, he’s the sap who threw the Grail away. Will Sir Ystina rededicate herself to finding the Grail and redeeming the world? And what sort of unpleasantness awaits her once she emerges from her vision?

Verdict: Thumbs up. An offbeat issue, but nice to get a little more background on Ystina and the world around our heroes. And it’s interesting that she either names their little band of adventurers or identifies the alien forces opposing them.

Severed #5

Jack Garron, on the hunt to find his mysterious musician father, has lost his best friend Sam. He thinks she tried to steal from him, but she was actually killed by the Salesman, a psychotic with a set of shark teeth. Now Jack is traveling south with the Salesman and slowly learning that he isn’t everything he said he was. He won’t tell anyone his real name, and when Jack gets into trouble with a shady character on the road, the Salesman butchers the man with ease. How much danger is Jack in? Probably a lot…

Verdict: Thumbs up. A nice, dark, bleak, bloody story. Hard to figure out any way there’s going to be hope for Jack to escape all this unscathed… but if we remember the first issue, we actually know that he won’t…

B.P.R.D.: Hell on Earth – Russia #4

The Russians are trying to keep an abomination from exploding out of the ground, so they’ve recruited Johann Kraus to go down into the mines and blow it up with a tacnuke. The complications include the monster sending wave after wave of zombies at the troops aboveground while it takes over the minds and bodies of the Russian soldiers accompanying Johann into the depths. Can a soldier’s sacrifice help Johann destroy the monster? And will the Russians destroy Johann just to make sure the threat is ended?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Hopeless situations, bleak outlook, certain death, noble but doomed sacrifice, and tainted miracles — dadgum, it’s like reading Russian lit! And it’s a lot less wordy, so that’s a good thing…

Here are these three comics I got fairly recently:

All Star Western #3

The Unwritten #31.5

B.P.R.D.: Hell on Earth – Russia #3

Honestly, I liked all three of them. I thought all three were well-written and well-illustrated. But I’ve not been able to summon up an ounce of enthusiasm for writing about them in-depth. I think that probably still counts as a thumbs-up. But YMMV.

B.P.R.D.: Hell on Earth – Russia #2

Kate Corrigan and Johann Kraus meet the director of the Russian Occult Bureau, and he’s not what they expected. In fact, he’s a stitched-together corpse wearing a protective suit similar to Johann’s. But he’s intelligent, erudite, and not particularly sinister. In fact, he’s Iosif, the same walking corpse who Abe Sapien met in a state of extremely advanced decomposition on the ocean floor in last year’s “Abe Sapien: The Abyssal Plain.” Iosif is now smarter than he used to be and has managed to become director of the entire bureau. But Johann soon learns that Iosif may not be the most stable guy as he uses harsh methods to deal with a man he claims is possessed. And what’s going on in the mysterious city of Rampayedik?

Verdict: Thumbs up. A really interesting story with lots of intrigue and supernatural zing. Iosif’s return is amazingly welcome, as “Abyssal Plain” was a big favorite of mine.

Dark Horse Presents #5

Another bunch of great stories in this comics anthology — including new chapters for Filipe Melo and Juan Cavia’s “The Adventures of Dog Mendonca and Pizzaboy,” Robert Love and David Walker’s “Number 13,” Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse’s “Resident Alien,” Steve Niles and Christopher Mitten’s “Criminal Macabre,” Neal Adams’ “Blood,” Carla Speed McNeil’s “Finder: Third World,” and Howard Chaykin’s “Marked Man,” along with new stories — Eric Powell’s “Isolation” and Andi Watson’s “Skeleton Key: Dead Can’t Dance.”

Verdict: Thumbs up. Anthologies are always a mixed bag of brilliant and not-so-brilliant, but there were a lot more good stories here than bad ones. Definite high points would be Powell’s robot debauchery mini-epic “Isolation,” Chaykin’s always amazing “Marked Man,” and McNeil’s tribute to strange futures “Finder.”

Blue Beetle #2

Jaime Reyes has an alien super-weapon wrapped around him and screaming in his ear while he tries to avoid killing everyone around him. And the Reach has noticed that Earth’s scarab has just activated, so they start making plans to invade.

Verdict: Man, so not enthused about this right now. This is the problem with rebooting a new series like this — especially when you’re not really changing much of anything about Jaime and the scarab’s origins. We could’ve skipped all the repeat of Jaime’s origin in favor of telling some new Blue Beetle stories. Nevertheless, the writing and art are A-OK, and I’m still a big fan of the character, so I reckon I’ll be sticking with it.

Today’s Cool Links:

• Looks like Marvel’s recent layoffs were apparently done for the same reason most other layoffs happen — greedy managers who want to make themselves look like big profit-grabbers for their bosses.
• What the 1% have but can never appreciate, and what they want but can never have. (By sci-fi/horror megastar author Charles Stross)
• NINJA FIGHT!

Wonder Woman #1

First new Rebooted Wonder Woman comic from Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang. And the biggest surprise about this isn’t that Azzarello’s writing is great, or that Chiang’s art is even better — the big surprise is that this isn’t really a superhero story. It’s horror.

We start out with Apollo in Singapore manufacturing his own oracles out of a trio of partygirls. After that, we get someone who looks likely to be Hera creating some centaur assassins by hacking off a couple horses’ heads and letting freakish human torsos claw their way out through the necks. Ewwww. This is all leading up to the centaurs attacking a woman named Zola who is being protected — against her will — by a weird looking guy with blue skin, big black eyes, and wings on his feet. He gives her a key that teleports her into Wonder Woman’s apartment in London. After they teleport back, Wondy beats the centaurs, reveals that Zola’s defender was actually Hermes, messenger of the gods. What the heck is going on here?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Like I said, Azzarello and Chiang are quite outstanding. I don’t know if I like the idea of this being a horror comic from now on, but there’s no doubt that the gods are depicted amazingly horrifically. And it really feels like an amazingly apt interpretation — if the idea of gods doesn’t creep you out a bit, you’re not really thinking about it enough.

B.P.R.D.: Hell on Earth – Russia #1

It’s not a good time to be in the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense. Horrific monsters are roaming almost unchecked across the Earth, Liz Sherman has gone into hiding, and Abe Sapien has been shot, is in a coma, and is probably dying. Kate Corrigan and Johann Kraus are on a trip to Moscow to meet with Russia’s Occult Bureau. And Russia is undergoing some sort of fungal plague that is turning people into monsters. Kate learns from the Russians that many of the B.P.R.D.’s secrets have been revealed to the world by Wikileaks. And the biggest surprise for Kate and Johann comes when they meet the man running the Russia Occult Bureau.

Verdict: Thumbs up. We’re just in the process of establishing the plot right now — but what really has me excited about this one is that it may give us a chance to catch up with the creepy demon girl Varvara, who we haven’t seen in quite a few years.

Severed #2

The year is 1916, and teenager Jack Garron has run away from home to stow away on a train. He wants to make his way to Chicago so he can meet his real father, a musician who he hopes will help make him successful as a performer. Jack has another run-in with the train cop who tried to throw him off, but this time, he’s able to get the better of the man and get his possessions back with the aid of a new friend named Sam. After they get to Chicago, they agree to rent a room together, and Jack learns that Sam is actually a girl disguising herself as a boy to avoid being assaulted or killed on the road. But Jack ends up missing his father — and he’s gone all the way back home to Mississippi. Sam suggests they earn some money by having Jack play his violin so they can take a train south — but the murderous traveling salesman with the horrific shark teeth has Jack’s scent now, and there may be no escape.

Verdict: Thumbs up. A rough-hewn, dirty story set in a rough-hewn, dirty country — it’s easy to forget that the U.S. wasn’t always the clean, heroic place we’ve invented for our myths. Good dialogue and tension — and more tension on the way, from the looks of it.

Today’s Cool Links:

• Just one today. There are a lot of the books in the DC Reboot that I’m very glad I’m not reading, and this article includes a lot of the reasons why. DC looks a lot like they’ve given up on producing comics that are acceptable reading for either children or for mature adults — too much of their focus is on producing comics for, about, and by immature man-children.

Detective Comics #881

The hunt is on for James Gordon, Jr., the son of Commissioner James Gordon. Jim Jr. is a psychopath, and he has been since he was a little boy. The Commissioner has discovered Jim’s collection of trophies — a box full of keys from the people he’s murdered. And the Commissioner and Babs Gordon have learned that Jim has managed to make his anti-psychotic medicine work backwards — instead of making him feel empathy, it strips empathy from people who take it. And he intends to add the drug into Gotham City’s baby formula, creating a generation of sociopaths. And on top of all that, he’s also managed to kidnap Barbara, who he’s hated since childhood because she was the only person who could tell he was insane. And he plans to kill her, too, slowly and bloodily.

As Batman tries to track them down, he gets a call from Jim, who had long ago figured out that Dick Grayson was now the man inside Batman’s cowl. He’s never been a fan of Dick, either, because he was the member of the Bat-family who had the most empathy for others. Can Dick save Barbara, stop Jim, and foil the plot to poison Gotham’s infants, all without compromising his principles?

Verdict: Thumbs up. It’s a great final issue for this version of “Detective Comics,” with Scott Snyder and Jock providing a story that’s claustrophobic, deeply suspenseful, and action-packed. Jim Gordon winds up as an incredibly chilling villain as he describes his motives and plots — I don’t know if DC will be able to use him in future issues, but I hope they can bring him back — he’s too scary to leave behind.

B.P.R.D.: Hell on Earth – Monsters #2

Liz Sherman is temporarily without her pyrokinetic abilities and on the run from everyone. She’s been hiding out in a rednecky trailer park and impressing her no-good roommates with her ability to whup the tar out of anyone who pisses her off. But things go sour when she discovers that there’s a murderous cult hiding out inside the trailer court — and things get even worse when she finds out that the only people who aren’t in the cult are her two no-good roommates. Does Liz stand a chance against a horde of angry, semi-human cultists? Does she stand a chance when the cops think she’s the bad guy? And what’s the latest bad news coming out of the B.P.R.D. headquarters?

Verdict: Thumbs up. This one isn’t quite as shocking as the previous issue — a whole trailer park of cultists ain’t nothing once you’ve had the dismembered hillbilly corpse dropped in your lap. But the action’s good, the dialogue is fun, and the art is awesome. It’s also cool to see what’s going on with the B.P.R.D. — they’re all watching England blow up, just like you saw if you read “Hellboy: The Fury” — and there is a big surprise for all of us on the last page, too…

Today’s Cool Links:

• The guys behind “Reed Gunther” have a great introduction for anyone interested in all-ages comics.
• I was kinda expecting this to be some generic “Superman should be dating Wonder Woman” wishfulfic. It was a lot more insightful than I was anticipating.
• I’m still reading Grant Morrison’s “Supergods” but I’ve been grooving on the idea of the superhero as the champion of optimism and opponent of nihilism. The blog post author and business pundit Dylan Ratigan specifically point out how this can be seen as a statement about how society, business, and politics should operate.

Friend of Dorothy #2

The first issue of this series came out all the way back in September, so let’s review a bit: the comic is created by Brian Anderson, creator of “So Super Duper,” the relentlessly funny and unquestioningly LGBTQ-positive superhero webcomic. “Friend of Dorothy” is Brian’s newest project — part superhero comic, part tribute to “The Wizard of Oz,” part character study of life for gay teens.

So last issue, our hero, Scott-John, was granted his powers by the shirtless wizard Gorlindo, met his grumpy adviser, a little black dog named Dodo, and fought off an attack by the scarecrow-like Scrows. In this issue, Scott-John learns that his boyfriend Mason also received a visit from Gorlindo and is eager to appoint himself as Scott-John’s sidekick. After they battle another horde of Scrows, Scott-John leads them to Oz and a little candy shop called the Lollipop Guild. Unfortunately, the shop is run by an evil Munchkin, and they’re attacked by the mind-controlling Mankeys. Can our heroes survive these attacks, or are they destined to fall?

Verdict: Thumbs up. It’s funny and exciting, with solid dialogue and pretty good characterization. I love the way Mason keeps irritating Dodo with his chatterbox tendencies, and the little details about all of Scott-John’s Oz-related weapons. The Mankeys and their mind-controlled victims are really creepy. And I like the relatively low-level of angst on display here — Scott-John and Mason are both out-of-the-closet, and though they may not be entirely happy with how their families may have reacted to their sexual orientation, they don’t let that get in the way of doing what needs to be done, whether that involves hitting bad guys with axes, scolding the increasingly grumpy Dodo about keeping secrets from them, or even just unashamedly expressing their love for each other. They’re relatively badass — kinda giggly badass, but badass nonetheless.

There’s a preview of this issue of “Friend of Dorothy.” And don’t forget to order the full issue, too.

Batgirl #23

The penultimate issue of Bryan Q. Miller’s mega-brilliant series finds Batgirl back in Gotham and discovering that the Reapers have tracked down the Gray Ghost and killed him. He was able to leave a recording warning Stephanie about some of their plans, but she’s already too late to stop a group of the power-suited Reapers — Figment, Miranda, and Jabberwock — from slaughtering a bunch of cops and busting Harmony and Slipstream out of jail. Can Stephanie Brown take these five down solo? Not a chance. Luckily, she’s got some backup. But no, for once, it’s not anyone else from the Bat-family — it’s Supergirl, Miss Martian, Stargirl, and Bombshell. But who’s pulling the strings behind the scenes?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Oh, so very many thumbs up. It’s not just for how awesomely Stephanie is written, or how great the humor and action are. But it’s also so wonderful to see those other four heroines before DC abandons them for their New-’90s Reboot. This is going to be another comic that I’m going to miss a lot.

B.P.R.D.: Hell on Earth – Monsters #1

Liz Sherman, pyrokinetic former agent of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, is hiding out from the BPRD in a little nowhere redneck trailer park. And she’s not fitting in very well. She busts up the jaw of one of the local thugboys and generally gets on everyone else’s nerves. But they all know she’s a badass, rumored to be a secret agent, and when the belligerent Jubal is seen threatening his wife with a shotgun, they come running to Liz to help defuse the situation. But what she finds isn’t anything like what she was expecting.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Love the writing by Mike Mignola and John Arcudi, and I love the artwork by Tyler Crook. Outstanding mood and dialogue, and the completely unexpected twist really brought this into the win column. Dagblasted awesome horror.

Today’s Cool Links:

• Congrats to SpaceBooger on the birth of his new daughter!
• Marvel and DC never liked Dwayne McDuffie, and the San Diego Comic-Con decided they’d rather protect their connections to the Big Two.
• I normally try to ignore this cross-company smacktalk, but this has the ring of truth to it.
• Troll Quotes is the grandest thing I’ve seen in at least a week.
• Great, now our idiot treason-loving governor’s hoping he can get the really crazy theocrats to push him into the White House.

iZombie #14

Gwen finds herself in an even stranger situation than normal — the most recent brain she’s eaten was from a skeeball nut who wants her team to win the league championship. Yes, apparently, there is a such thing as competitive skeeball. So Gwen is posing as a skeeball whiz from out of town who’s doing the team a favor for her “late friend” — and she suddenly discovers Amon the mummy hanging out watching everyone play. Turns out he really is a genuine over-the-moon near-demented skeeball fanatic. Horatio is having to deal with an unusually large number of zombies than Eugene, Oregon normally has to deal with. And where are Ellie the ghost and Spot the were-terrier? Well, Spot’s stuck underground where he’s been fighting off zombies for quite a while, and Ellie is trying to figure out how to get him free. Meanwhile, with the more-secret-than-normal covert ops group called the Dead Presidents, the team is planning their next moves against a mysterious zombie master — and they may be heading for Eugene soon.

Verdict: Thumbs up. The extremely rational and sophisticated Amon’s obsession with skeeball comes completely out of nowhere and is absolutely hilarious. Plus we’ve got tons and tons of intrigue and more fun stuff with the Dead Presidents.

How to improve this series: Definitely keep writer Chris Roberson on board this series. He’s announced he’ll stay on this comic as long as he can, even though DC just kicked him off the Superman comics after he saved them from J. Michael Stracyzski’s mishandling. Roberson is an incredible writer, and Vertigo needs to make sure they stay on his good side.

Hellboy: The Fury #1

Lots of backstory needed for this one: the sorceress Nimue has crowned herself the Goddess of War and plans to lead an army of monsters to destroy humanity. Hellboy has learned he’s descended on his mother’s side from King Arthur himself, making him the rightful king of England, but he’s decided he doesn’t want to lead the army of England’s noble dead, and he’s set out to battle Nimue’s forces alone — and he’s booked passage to Nimue’s castle through the Russian witch Baba Yaga, in exchange for one of his eyes.

As Hellboy gets to the castle, Nimue is having some serious trouble with unwelcome transformations and a growing realization that she’s merely a pawn of the Ogdru Jahad, who will destroy everything on Earth, including her. Alice Monaghan hands Excalibur over to an impossibly old man, who turns out to be Arthur himself, and Hellboy battles his way through Nimue’s army — and through Nimue, who turns out to be Hecate. Having come so far, is there anything Hellboy can do to stop mankind’s destruction?

Verdict: Thumbs up. So awesome to see Mike Mignola and Duncan Fegredo doing work this amazingly beautiful.

How to improve this series: Right now, there’s nothing that can be done to improve this. It’s pretty near perfect.

B.P.R.D.: The Dead Remembered #3

Young pyrokinetic Liz Sherman has traveled to a small town with Professor Bruttenholm of the B.P.R.D. to try to stop a haunting. But while the professor and the local priest try to exorcise the house, Liz and a local boy she’s befriended have realized that the house isn’t haunted — it’s the woods around the house. And their attempts to dispel the spirit aren’t turning out well — though Liz assumes the ghost was an innocent woman executed as a witch, it turns out she really was a witch, and not a very nice one. She’s using Liz’s powers to make herself stronger. How will they be able to get rid of the ghost before she kills someone?

Verdict: Thumbs up — but the ending was a lot weaker than I expected. Up ’til then, there was great mood, outstanding art, colossally awesome escalation of the action, especially jumping back and forth between the present and the past. The ending was weak, but it was still fun to read.

How to improve this series: Well, like I said, a stronger ending, with more stuff for Liz to do, would’ve been good. And the art by Karl Moline and Andy Owens was just grand, so I’d like to see more from them somewhere down the line.

iZombie #13

Gwen, Ellie, and Spot are on top of the world — they’ve solved a Scooby-Doo-esque case and have been invited to dine with Amon, the wealthy mummy who’s taken an interest in Gwen’s welfare. Amon tells them about Galatea’s dire plans for the world, Horatio ends up stuck on his own as the lone monster hunter in town, and Spot gets stuck in a bad place during a zombie outbreak. Meanwhile, we are introduced to a new group of characters called the Dead Presidents — government operative with their own strange supernatural abilities.

Verdict: Thumbs up. The entire story was great, but I really enjoyed the Dead Presidents. I suspect they’re being prepped for a mini or ongoing series of their own…

B.P.R.D.: The Dead Remembered #2

Pyrokinetic teenager Liz Sherman is on her first “mission” with the Bureau — basically tagging along with Professor Bruttenholm while he investigates a low-level haunting. But she’s stumbled onto a much more terrifying haunting in the woods. Liz meets a local boy she likes and remembers how her new powers ended up killing her family. So what’s the secret of the haunting in the forest, and why does it react so strongly to Liz?

Verdict: Thumbs up. I’m loving the artwork here. The dialogue is good, the story is advancing nicely, but I really am jazzed about the work Karl Moline, Andy Owens, and Dave Stewart are doing with the art.

Sir Edward Grey, Witchfinder: Lost and Gone Forever #4

Sir Edward and Morgan set off to find an abandoned mine that Edward has dreamed about. They argue along the way about Edward’s hard-headed attitude about magic, but as they explore the mine, they discover that Eris has left a nasty surprise for them — a bunch of missing — and dead — churchgoers who have been raised by the witch as zombies. While they escape, Eris has more trouble in mind for them. Can they escape — and do they have allies they weren’t expecting?

Verdict: Thumbs up. The best thing about this series has been the outstanding characterization. Sir Edward, Morgan, and Isaac are all very strong characters, and it makes reading about them great fun.

Today’s Cool Links:

• Just one link today — haven’t had a lot of time for websurfing lately… But I thought this was a really excellent essay on the severe racial problems afflicting both DC and Marvel. The folks in charge think diversity gets in the way of reviving the Silver Age characters that few modern readers really care about — and ultimately, their lack of commitment to any kind of diversity puts the comics industry way, way in the back of the pack. And as long as the people running DC and Marvel feel free to claim that that 99% of superheroes should be white, there’s not going to be very much progress made.

Dungeons & Dragons #5

Adric Fell’s gang of adventurers have discovered what’s going on in the old dwarven ruins — a bunch of enslaved eladrin (high elves, to you and me) have been forced to create a stable portal to another dimension, so an invasion force led by a monstrous cyclops can invade the world. And the cyclops knows they’re watching him, so he sends his hobgoblin minions after them. So while Adric and Varis the elf try to destroy a furnace that’ll flood the caverns with lava, and while Bree the halfling thief is trying to decide whether to warn the citizens of Fallcrest or just to skedaddle and seek her fortune everywhere, and while Khal the dwarven paladin tries to trick the cyclops into keeping him alive for another few minutes… while all this is happening, what’s Tisha the tiefling up to? Well, apparently, she’s dead. Oopsie.

Verdict: Thumbs up. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again — this series has outstanding action, great dialogue and characterization, excellent artwork, and is pretty much a bucket of fun from the first page to the last, every single issue. Whether or not you’re a fan of D&D the game, you should be reading this awesome fantasy comic.

Herc #1

A new beginning for the Prince of Power — after the end of the Chaos War, Hercules has lost his immortality and most of his superpowers, but he still has an arsenal of magical weapons from the ancient world. Will they be enough to keep him in the crimefighting game? He meets some new friends — a Greek restauranteur, his daughter, and his gorgeous bartender, and he meets a new foe — namely, the Hobgoblin.

Verdict: Thumbs up. No powers, no Amadeus Cho? Ehh, so what, it’s still written by Greg Pak and Fred van Lente, so it’s still gotta be worth reading.

B.P.R.D.: The Dead Remembered #1

A flashback to pyrokinetic Liz Sherman’s first mission with the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense — when she was just 14 years old and still recovering from the emotional trauma of accidentally killing her family the first time her powers activated. Professor Bruttenholm takes her along, mainly to give her a break from the inside of the BPRD facilities, as he investigates a Massachusetts haunting tied to the witch trials in the late 1600s. Some of the house’s bumps and groans startle Liz into accidentally conjuring a fireball out of the chimney, and while the damage is minor, she heads for the woods, hoping she’ll be less destructive. One of the local boys follows her to try to pick up on the pretty redhead girl from out of town — and something a lot scarier than a creaking house is stalking Liz…

Verdict: Thumbs up. Great artwork by Karl Moline, and a very nice beginning to this new story from Mike Mignola and Scott Allie.

Today’s Cool Links:

Hope you guys like awesome rap, ’cause that’s what I’m serving up today.

• First, here’s Blackalicious doing amazing hyperspeed rhymes about chemistry.
• And because Blackalicious is so amazing, here they are doing the alphabet.
• Here’s Sir Mix-a-Lot teaming up with Metal Church…
• And as far as great rap/metal collaborations, you can’t go wrong with Public Enemy and Anthrax.
• And I can never, ever get enough of this. First rap ever? Beats me…