31 Witches | Katrina Van Tassel

"The pickity witch. The pickity witch. Who's got a kiss for the pickity witch?" -- Katrina Van Tassel, Sleepy Hollow (1999)

Art Show: Me Tarzan

This is How They Getcha



Artist Unknown [Admiral Calvin]

Treehouse



Artist Unknown [Animation Backgrounds has a ton of cool background art from Disney's Tarzan.]

Tarzan and Jane



[Golden Age Comic Book Stories ran a fantastic post full of classic Hollywood romance for Valentine's Day. There's some Captain Blood in there too.]

T-Rex Love



By Mathieu Reynès.

Doctor No



By Michael Gilette (beware of music in that link). I know I've shared his fantastic Bond covers before, but they're always worth revisiting.

Batgirl



By Ted Naifeh.

Batman



By Victor Santos.

Alpha Flight



By John Byrne. [Giant-Size Marvel]

The Headless Horseman



By Francesco Francavilla.

Native Drums



By Genevieve Tsai.

The 31 Monsters of Halloween: The Headless Horseman

Awesome List: Spooky comics, Hellboy 3, nightmare playgrounds, the B-52s, and more

"The Haunted Forest"

I'm linking to some short comics stories today. The first one is "The Haunted Forest" from Web of Evil #15. I've always loved spooky, bare trees with faces and finger-like branches. And giant spiders.

I really need to pay more attention to music

When the B-52s have a new album out and I don't know it... that's just very, very sad.

"The Headless Monster of Bloodrock Castle"

It's cool enough that there was a '40s pulp comic about about a war correspondent who fought crime and enemy spies in a rubber Halloween mask.

It's even cooler that he occasionally tussled with headless suits of armor.

Hellboy 3, but that's it

Guillermo del Toro has an idea for Hellboy 3, but he doesn't want to push the franchise past that point.

If there was ever a third one, I would really make sure that we at least sign a contract that there is no more. No prequels and no sequels: nothing. If that happens, then there is a third one we have planned, and the seeds are planted in this film...

The idea for me is to bring back the Nazis characters, but bring them back in a way they would operate now. Meaning, what public face would the Nazis have in 2009/2010? How rich would they be? How in charge could they be? It's not this group of freakies that hide in the sewers, but people that are incredibly rich.

"Gorilla Man"

I'm a huge fan of Jeff Parker's Agents of Atlas. (Okay, I know it's really Marvel's Agents of Atlas, but I still think of it as Parker's.) Where else are you going to find a talking gorilla, a killer robot, a spaceman, an undersea queen, and the goddess of Love fighting evil spy organizations? Nowhere, that's where.

And having fallen in love with the team, I'm pleased as punch that Karswell has posted the Golden Age origin of said talking gorilla: Gorilla Man.

Pirate Freedom

SF Signal really liked Gene Wolf's time traveling pirate story, Pirate Freedom. I've already got it on my Amazon Wish List, but this review makes me want to add it again.

"She's just CGIed that way"

Those real-life versions of Homer Simpson and Mario were just creepy, but... okay, this one's creepy too, but in a sort of hot way.



Wolverine: First Class

As much as I'm enjoying Jeff Parker's (there's that name again) X-Men: First Class, my Wolverine ennui runs deep enough that I wasn't even tempted to try Wolverine: First Class. I figured I'd buy the Alpha Flight issue when it came out, but that would be it.

That is until I read that another upcoming issue will feature Shang Chi: Master of Kung Fu. If Fred Van Lente's cool enough to want to include both Alpha Flight and Shang Chi in his comic, I'm not going to be able to ignore him. If he announces he's got an upcoming Rocket Raccoon issue, my head will explode.

Nightmare Playgrounds



I wouldn't want to send my son to any of these scary playgrounds, but man they look cool to go to as an adult. (Via.)

Truth Serum

One of my new favorite web comics. Really funny, low key superhero stuff. (I'll tell you about my other new favorite later this week. If you're reading the Newsarama blog, you already know about it.)

Did You Know...?

I'm doing a little reading on Washington Irving for my novel. Did you know that he was buddies with Sir Walter Scott and had an affair with Mary Shelly? I didn't either, but that's so cool.

The Headless Horseman guy and the Frankenstein lady. I gotta know more about that.

Happy Headless Jesse Honey Day!

I'll have to think of a better name for it, but today's an important day for me. Most importantly, it's my wife's birthday. So even though you're not reading this: Happy Birthday, Honey!

It's also the anniversary of the day Bob Ford shot Jesse James in the back of the head.



We just watched The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford again a couple of nights ago and I was reminded of how inappropriate Casey Affleck's Best Supporting Actor nomination was. I understand why for political reasons they went after Supporting, but Best Actor would've been more appropriate. That was his movie.

It also reminded me that I really want to go to Defeat of Jesse James Days in Northfield this Fall.

Finally, it's the anniversary of Washington Irving's birth, which is serendipitous because I just got to the part in my novel where the Headless Horseman comes up. And I didn't even plan it that way.

To celebrate, enjoy some Horseman art by Frank Frazetta and Gil Kane.

Demons of Sherwood

There's only about 18 pages done so far, but Bo Hampton's Demons of Sherwood over at ComicMix is off to a chilling, exciting start. After a brief re-introduction to the Robin Hood legend, the story picks up with a mob of villagers chasing a gypsy girl through Sherwood. They think she's in league with the Devil, but they quickly discover something truly demonic in the forest mists.

Bo Hampton is a master horror illustrator. His work is beautiful on its own, but he also knows exactly how to present a scene for maximum creepy. I've been a big fan of his adaptation of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow for a long time and it's great to see him back at comics with Demons of Sherwood. He opens the story with a thrilling, scary chase scene (the villagers are portrayed almost like serial killers, which is a fantastic take on them) and doesn't waste any time getting to even greater chills.

I have no idea where it's headed, but I'm excited to find out. It's free to read, so click the link above and check it out.

Burn Notice, She Wrote

We watched USA's new show Burn Notice last night. It actually debuted on Thursday, but "Yay, TiVo!"

Really good show. Jeffrey Donovan has a ton of charisma and makes a fascinating lead as newly ex-CIA agent Mike Westin. He's a good-looking guy, but unconventional enough to be interesting. And he's got this smarmy kind of delivery that makes him funny and quickly likable. In that way, having Bruce Campbell in the supporting cast as another ex-CIA man is a great match. They play well together with neither upstaging the other.

It's also nice to see Gabrielle Anwar again. I had a crush on her back when she played Queen Anne in the Disney version of The Three Musketeers. Here, she's Mike's ex-girlfriend Fiona Glenanne, a former IRA member who's got a nasty violent streak, but also obviously cares about Mike. She'll be as fun to watch as Donovan and Campbell.

The only character I didn't care for was Mike's mom, played by Sharon Gless. We used to watch a lot of Cagney & Lacey when I was growing up, so it's great to see her again, but the character is a stereotypical, nagging mom. Maybe Gless can do something with her as we go along. This was just the pilot episode after all. And I do like what her character brings out in Mike. He tries hard not to have anything to do with her, but he can't help but worry about her. It adds a sweet element to him that makes him even more endearing.

The plot was good too. The meta plot involves Mike's trying to figure out why he's been blacklisted from the CIA and is now being followed around now by the FBI. There's some danger in a plot like that because it could take over the whole show, but the characters are all strong enough and -- if the pilot's a good example -- the weekly plots should be good enough to carry the show just fine whether or not Mike ever solves the larger mystery.

One of my favorite spooks is the Headless Horseman, so TiVo snagged an old episode of Murder, She Wrote that featured a Headless Horseman plot. Watched that last night too.

I was never a big fan of that show, but it was fun to watch and try to guess the murderer. I had it figured out about five minutes in, which reminded me why I was never a fan, but as a nostalgic experience, I had a good time. The nerdy dude from Riptide (now that was a good '80s show) played the Ichabod Crane character and Greg Brady played an unconvincing hoodlum/ladies' man a la Brom Van Brunt. Ubiquitous '80s TV guest-stars Doug McClure and Judy Landers played the sheriff and a tavern waitress. And Dr. Stanley Riverside II from Trapper John was the town dentist. Good times.