My local
Comic Book Shop put a ton of books in the dollar bins, just for me! OK, maybe not "just for me," unless I get there first! I tried very hard not to buy any issues I already had, although I know there were a few: there was a variant for
Sgt. Rock vs. the Army of the Dead that grabbed me, and like I'm not going to grab spares of
Sergio Aragonés Massacres Marvel #1 or
Giant-Size Mini-Marvels #1; and I did get almost a complete second run of the two
Blackwood series.
From 2018,
Blackwood #2, written by Evan Dorkin, art by Veronica and Andy Fish. The first two issues weren't in the GCD, so I just uploaded this Declan Shalvey cover.
Four new students at Blackwood Academy--Stephen, Wren, Dennis, and Reiko--have just had a rough night, as one of them, Stephen, was dragged into a well, after the school's dean Ogden had turned into a creature. The well spits Stephen out, along with seemingly a ton of spirits, leaving him on the lawn in a ring of glyphs. The Blackwood faculty scrambles to try and piece together what had happened, as well as what to do with the new kids: the increasingly stressed-out acting dean Colby tells them, about the real Blackwood. The main school was a front, but there was also a secret school, teaching about "magic and ghosts, and all that stuff." "The secrets of the occult world," one of the kids phrases it better than the 1988 manual...
Wren wonders if it isn't messed up to offer scholarships to a school like that, but Colby tells them what they already suspected: all four of them had already suffered horrific mystical experiences, which may have prepped them to learn more. Unfortunately, they are then visited by Dean Ogden, wrapped in a coat and scarf, changed after reading from "the Book of Despair." Apologetically, Ogden curses "thee," binding their fates to that of the school. Stephen tries to argue "thee" means Colby, not all of them; although I don't know if he believes that. Following Ogden into a secret passage, they find a ton of weird bric-a-brac, including a stuffed monkey with two heads--that's alive!
Already knowing he was cursed, Dennis tries to leave the school, but a homeless woman starts babbling at him at the train station. A homeless woman, holding a headless rat, and with a horrifying parasite "child" that looks like it's coming out of her...!
Blackwood would get two mini-series, and I wish it had continued: not to damn it with faint praise, but it's like Harry Potter if it was interesting. Just from this one issue, the characterization is a gazillion times better, and no weird stereotypes, and a two-headed monkey! Beats the crap out of Hufflepuff or whatever.
8 comments:
Hmmm, I’m intrigued enough by your recommendations, teases & because it’s Evan Dorkin, to give this series a try. “Harry Potter if it was interesting” Ha! Better not let JK Rowling see you saying that 😏
Much like his Beasts of Burden series, I could easily see Blackwood being adapted as a live action series or movie on Netflix, Amazon Prime or even Apple plus.
JK might be married, but I don't think she has kids: I mention that just because Scott Adams just died and the rights for DILBERT are...where? He didn't have any heirs, so...
Weirdly, the only place to see Harry Potter criticism is maybe like old Twitter or BlueSky, since it's a kazillion dollar franchise. But, to use the wrestling parlance, the thrust of the series is largely "know your role and shut your mouth." You're going to be assigned a house, you're going to follow its rules, you're going to conform. Even any of the rule-breaking the kids do ends up in service to that: Harry is the special chosen one and can do whatever he wants. Hard to believe JK could create a character like Dolores Umbridge and then turn into her...
That IS a good question and honestly I don’t care what happens to Dilbert know. I’ll assume his living relatives get it & either sell it to some right wing media company so it’ll be a proper MAGA cartoon strip or run it into the ground.
Rowling definitely lived long enough to be the villain, or rather just revealed her true colors. I expect nothing less from a hack who successfully ripped off Tim Hunter to build an empire.
More than that- The Journal of Luke Kirby was doing a somewhat similar bit two years before The Books of Magic, and it was published in England (in 2000 AD, to be exact).
Though I believe Rowling came up with Harry Potter much like Matt Groening came up with the Simpsons- in a short time, with a very loose premise, and using the names of people and places she knew for characters and locations.
Oh? Matt Groening didn’t create the Simpsons?
No, he did but it was sort of an accident. He was originally there to pitch Life In Hell shorts but he realized while he was waiting that he’d need to give up some rights for that. He sketched basic versions of the family on a napkin or scrap paper or something, and used his family’s names for them- his father is Homer, his mother is Marge, and his sister is Lisa. Bart is an anagram of brat and stood in for him (I guess so it wasn’t so obvious). The premise was something like ‘an examination of the typical American family’. As the show grew, they used names from around Portland (where he grew up) for characters and places- I think Lovejoy, for example, is a street name.
Okay so then that’s not at all like plagiarism like Rowling committed since Groening used personal material to create the Simpsons.
I knew of his previous characters because I used to own The Simpsons guide to life book Groening put out some years ago. Very informative read.
Yeah, get some Life In Hell collections if you can- most of them are reasonable for second-hand books. I personally like the later ones better but he was angrier in the earlier ones, so go with what works better for you.
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