Sunday, March 24, 2013

A Sunday Review

DCBS
Here are reviews of the DCBS comic books that I've gotten around to reading and reviewing, sorted by the original shipping date:
  • Feb 6th
  • Doctor Who V3 #5 - That's really not the guest star I was expecting to see in the comic book. Nice. I wonder if her journey will be explained, or left for the show?
  • The Legend of Oz: The Wicked West Ongoing #4 - I'm not sure who those folks are at the end, but I kind of like this version of Jinjur.
  • Earth 2 #9 - Ah, there's another player in the big game of the other Earth. What's happening to poor Jay (and his mother) really isn't fair.
  • World's Finest #9 - And another little twist. At some point it'll be worth rereading this series from the start to figure out the twists and turns.
  • Young Romance New 52 Valentine's Day Special #1 - I only really bought it for the Aquaman story, which was a fine story despite some quibbles I have with the art. But the rest of the anthology was pretty good, too.
  • Smallville Season 11 #10 - Ma Hunkle! That makes up for lots of strange nonsense in this book.
  • Road to Oz #5 - Ah, the wrap up and lead up to the big party at the end. They spend a lot of time partying in Oz.



Fortean Times #288
Fortean Times #288 (Special 2012). Another cover that somehow hits some resonant spot inside me. The vampire-killing kit, fake as it is, still reaches some level of squee inside me. It's utterly ridiculous and yet surprisingly cool. The article about it, that looks to the origin of such kits, is fun as well with all the examples of kits. Good stuff!

The Illustrated Police News visits a Welsh hermit defended by rats from 1879. Fun picture (which, of course, is the main appeal of the illustrated news, the worst newspaper in England). Konspiracy Korner tackles the rumors about Julian Assange. Archaeology has four little pieces, including a bit on the origin of blue eyes. Classical Corner is about hedonism in Sybaris.

Strangedays has a fun round up of April Fools Day jokes, but a "serious" piece is about e-mails from the dead. Another section has weird eating habits, including soap and bricks. Yikes. Nice collection of Fortean Follow-ups too. There's also a good section on long-lived animals and a bit on a faked Templar tomb.

The 2012 Watch has more apocalyptic literary nonsense. Science takes a closer look at the famous dingo attack in 1982 in which a woman claimed a dingo killed her child, noting that in the last few years there have been 12 significant dingo attacks and three deaths.

Ghostwatch has a look at the media coverage of the Enfield Poltergeist case and the apparent inability of skeptics to ask the right questions or pay attention to all the evidence. Alien Zoo is about newts and a horsefly named after Beyonce. Fairly normal UFO Files, with more on strange flights in the casebook.

Blasts from the Past is about Eve, the Snake Woman of Virginia. It's a kind of sad look into the lives of people who were considered freaks, with speculation that Eve was one such person. The Fortean Bureau of Investigation goes to the world of werewolves and vampires, or rather, people who arrange their lives as if they are those fictional creatures.

Speaking of vampires, an article covers the vampire outbreak of 1730 to 1735, discussing the origins of the stories, including a rather impressive account of a series of autopsies carried out on bodies suspected of being vampiric. The article gives some good explanations for what the investigators found, namely natural decomposition that wasn't understood at the time. Another article discusses vampire tourism in Transylvania, and the guys who started it.

The Forum has a great article about locked-room mysteries by John Dickson Carr that makes me want to go find some to read, particularly since they are considered 'fair play' mysteries, in which the reader has all the information required to solve the mystery. Another forum article is about mass hysteria and the role of the internet in new cases.

Added a new book to my wishlist from the reviews, and the letters had a fascinating little question about a strange tiny thing (with pictures) that somebody just found one day. Fun magazine, as usual.



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