Random Happenstance

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.