benito-cereno

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We did a Kabbalah one

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New from me

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Podcast! It actually started happening before Christmas! Just the first of many this year. And the story contest show is almost done, too.

This one's about Scandinavian gnomes/elves (nisse, tomten) with Benito Cereno. @benito-cereno

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Lineup for the podcast this year. Episodes will NOT appear in this order, most likely.

Linda Raedisch on her surprisingly disturbing History of Christmas Baking.

Ellen Datlow on her new collection Christmas and Other Horrors with stories from a ton of great sf/f/horror writers.

Two shows with @benito-cereno, one on travelling thru European Xmas markets and the other on some freakish Christmas legends you've never heard of.

Thomas Ruys Smith on his new collection of Mary Wilkins' Christmas Stories from Mark Twain's time.

Another Christmas Murder Ballad show with my other-podcast-partner James. (The first one was super popular.)

A ghost story.

The flash fiction contest show.

Maybe more? Maybe?

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🤯

truck or trout

Trout please

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truck or trout

Trout please

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Happy Halloween, we watched a terrible movie

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Hi! I am interested in watching the Universal Monsters movie this October. Which movies from the original Universal Monster Universe would you recommend? I've never seen any of them

Hello! I’m glad you’re planning on digging into these, they’re very fun. Plus a lot of them are available on Peacock right now, making them pretty easy to access.

I don’t know how many you’re wanting to watch, but I would say the “essential ones” are

Dracula

Frankenstein

The Invisible Man

The Bride of Frankenstein

The Wolf Man

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

Creature from the Black Lagoon

If you want to do a few more than that, The Black Cat (1934), Son of Frankenstein, and The Raven (1935) are underrated gems.

If you want to do the “shared universe” playlist of the movies that end up crossing over (with very inconsistent continuity), you’ll miss some of the good ones and watch some bad ones, but it’s still a pretty fun time. That list goes like this:

Dracula

Frankenstein

Bride of Frankenstein

Dracula’s Daughter (optional)

Son of Frankenstein

The Wolf Man

The Ghost of Frankenstein

Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man

House of Frankenstein

House of Dracula

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

Happy viewing! 👻 🎃 💀

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Whoops I accidentally posted this on the Apocrypals account

Wake up, significant other. New Halloween streaming rec list just dropped

Also: bonus list

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"The best thing we can do with power is give it away" - On the leftist critique of superhero narratives as authoritarian power fantasies:

The ongoing "Jason Todd is a cop" debate has reminded me of a brilliant brief image essay by Joey deVilla. So here it is, images first and the full essay text below:

"A common leftist critique of superhero comics is that they are inherently anti-collectivist, being about small groups of individuals who hold all the power, and the wisdom to wield that power. I don’t disagree with this reading. I don’t think it’s inaccurate. Superheroes are their own ruling class, the concept of the übermensch writ large. But it’s a sterile reading. It examines superhero comics as a cold text, and ignores something that I believe in fundamental, especially to superhero storytelling: the way people engage with text. Not what it says, but how it is read. The average comic reader doesn’t fantasize about being a civilian in a world of superheroes, they fantasize about being a superhero. One could charitably chalk this up to a lust for power, except for one fact… The fantasy is almost always the act of helping people. Helping the vulnerable, with no reward promised in return. Being a century into the genre, we’ve seen countless subversions and deconstructions of the story. But at its core, the superhero myth is about using the gifts you’ve been given to enrich the people around you, never asking for payment, never advancing an ulterior motive. We should (and do) spend time nitpicking these fantasies, examining their unintended consequences, their hypocrisies. But it’s worth acknowledging that the most eduring childhood fantasy of the last hundred years hasn’t been to become rich. Superheroes come from every class (don’t let the MCU fool you). The most enduring fantasy is to become powerful enough to take the weak under your own wing. To give, without needing to take. So yes, the superhero myth, as a text, isn’t collectivist. But that’s not why we keep coming back to it. That’s not why children read it. We keep coming back to it to learn one simple lesson… The best thing we can do with power IS GIVE IT AWAY." - Joey deVilla, 2021 https://www.joeydevilla.com/2021/07/04/happy-independence-day-superhero-style/

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New from me

I guarantee you’ll learn something

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Regarding Dick Briefer’s Frankenstein, you've said that the humor period starts in 1945 with the Frankenstein run proper, ending with issue 17 (with 18 forward being the 2nd horror period), but that the humor stuff also happens in Prize Comics. I searched online to see which issue of Prize Comics stops being the horror/superhero stuff and becames humor, but couldn't find it. Do you know in which issue of Prize the humor period begins?

It’s not a super clean break, like “this issue is horror, next issue is comedy,” it’s more of a transition. Once the Frankenstein vs the Nazis stuff wraps up in Prize 43, Frank meets Zora the vampire and Rollo the zombie in issue 44. While that first story isn’t particularly comedic, after that the three monsters go to New York and open a hotel. That’s where the comedy stuff really starts, and continues until the end of the Prize Comics title in issue 68.

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Hi. I just saw an old post of yours recommending Plastic Man, Cap Marvel Adventures, Wonder Woman, Superman and Batman comics of the Golden Age. I was wondering, do you have any more recommendations of comics from that era? I've been interested in the Golden Age lately.

Yeah, sure!

Obviously Simon and Kirby were putting out quality stuff during this era, in all sorts of genres. While Captain America is the obvious pick, I’d definitely recommend their work on Sandman, Boy Commandos, and Fighting American. If you’re interested in their non-capes stuff, there are lots of nice collections available now of their sci-fi, Western, horror, and romance comics that should be pretty easy to find. I know Kirby was particularly proud of Boys’ Ranch.

Another favorite of mine from the Golden Age is Dick Briefer’s Frankenstein. It goes through a number of different stylistic eras — horror to superhero to comedy back to horror — but those latter two eras are some of the best comics ever made imo. Here’s an introductory essay I wrote a while back:

I’ll also give qualified recommendations to Will Eisner’s The Spirit and Reed Crandall’s Blackhawk, but only if you can overlook offensively archaic racial caricatures (pretty endemic of the Golden Age, so if you’ve read the stuff I’ve recommended before, you’ve definitely encountered it)

Phantom Lady is pretty good if you don’t mind cheesecakey stuff.

Obviously EC was putting out top tier sci-fi, horror, war, and crime books. Tons of nice collections in print now, some collected by title or genre, some by artist. I personally like the Jack Davis horror collections, but you really can’t go wrong.

If you’re open to humor comics, Herbie is one of the funniest books ever published and the bizarre humor really holds up for the most part. And then the vast body of material from John Stanley — Little Lulu, Nancy, Melvin Monster, et al — is extremely charming, top shelf material. Also technically Carl Barks’s Duck books are Golden Age, but don’t typically get grouped in with Superman and so on.

Of course, the REALLY ace material from this time comes from newspaper strips, but that’s a whole different post

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Maybe this is a wrong perception but I feel like whenever I watch older horror what I read about it will be like “this film was a colossal failure on release. Now though it is considered the most important horror film ever.” Is this a thing you notice? Is there a reason why?

It definitely does happen a lot, especially with films that push the envelope on contemporary mores that are only later rediscovered by a generation who is more prepared to accept it. Peeping Tom is like a prime example of this. It’s the Marty playing a metal solo at the Enchantment Under the Sea dance thing.

That said, there are a number of landmark horror movies that were enormous popular, critical, and financial successes in their day: Frankenstein, Psycho, The Exorcist, Horror of Dracula, House of Usher, many others.

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New episode drop, tell your dad

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New from me

#norse mythology #greek mythology #classical mythology #celtic mythology #hindu mythology #roman mythology #japanese mythology #chinese mythology #finnish mythology

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Hi Benito,

I recently found Apocropals and am only on episode 15, but thank you for sharing, you and Chris are hilarious- I’ve been listening through at my new desk job. I was hoping to learn more about the Bible as an agnostic raised Non-Dom Christian and learn enough to connect and hold conversations with my father about his faith. I’m not reading along but I didn’t know I would laugh so much listening, thank you for making these ancient texts more accessible to a queer 20-something in the modern era. I really value your historical perspectives, and the emphasis on wizards.

My question is only kind of related, but I just finally logged back on my antisocial media and found your tumblr- I had no idea you wrote on the Tick, and I am a fan of the series.

This my best news all week- I’ve been looking for an excuse to buy a physical copy of the Tick comics- do you get a cut/royalties of all purchases of The Tick: The Complete Edlund New Edition? I would love to order from somewhere where I know for sure you (and the other authors) are getting the most support you can for your work, could you provide me website/store link or just where to purchase from? I’m not huge on ordering from Amazon unless there is no other option, are there alternatives?

Hey! Thanks for listening to Apocrypals, and thanks for looking me up online!

Yes, I wrote for The Tick! I wrote The Tick New Series #1-8, The Tick #100-101, and short stories that appear in various other special issues and reprints.

To answer your question: nope, I do not see any royalties from sales on any Tick books, so feel free to buy however is most convenient to you. I will say that while I do have a story in most later printings of The Complete Edlund, it's only like 8 pages maybe. BUT! You should be buying it for the Edlund material anyway, it's the original and best Tick stuff. My issues has, of yet, not been collected into paperback form and so can only be bought in single issue format. Probably the best way to get them is via online retailers. I usually say the NEC Press website, but it looks like it's not up right now.

#comics #benito cereno #the tick