Archie Horror with Bookmonkey: Day One

Welcome to our 2018 look at the Horror Genre and this year we'll be digging in to the Archie Horror imprint of comic titles, including Afterlife with Archie, Chilling Tales of Sabrina, Jughead: The Hunger, and Vampironica.

Having been an Archie reader for most of my reading life (short stories AND sitting next to the grocery counter - how could I not read these little titles growing up?), and being a huge horror fan from my earliest days the mix of the two in 2013 was sure to peak my interest.

I'm going to spend the next month digging into the various series and ask myself whether they mix well, or work to simply alienate Archie and Horror fans from each other.

Come along with me!

Bookmonkey vs The Hoard: Post Seven - Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

Ok, so back in 2013 I started collecting my first Archie comic in about thirty years, Afterlife with Archie. The comic, written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and with art done by Fansesco Francavilla, takes the familiar characters from the small town of Riverdale and throws them into a full-blown zombie apocalypse. The art was great, the story significantly more emotional than I was expecting, and the the throwaway lines and references to the horror genre ensured this comic would be immediately addd to my ongoing comic collection.

Then a year later a spinoff was announced, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, which would follow the teenaged witch into her own horror-themed story. As Sabrina makes only one small (but crucial) appearance in the first collection of Afterlife with Archie comics, I wasn't sure at first if the new series would be a companion series or start something new all its own.

Then, as with virtually every title I've been enjoying this month, I dutifully collected each issue as it came out, stuck it in my "to be read" folder, and ignored the entire collection until last month when I began putting this theme month together for my blog.

The series, written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa with art by Robert Hack, follows Sabrina through her teen years during the 1960s. Other than being part of the Archie Horror imprint, it has no connection with Afterlife with Archie, and feel a lot like the devil-focused witch movies brought out by Hammer Horror in the 60s.

The stories largely focus on Sabrina's backstory, as well as that of her nemeis, and like Afterlife with Archie, includes cameos by original Sabrina characters but shown in a very different light. The overall story is really quite eerie, and does, at times, get fairly gruesome.

Definitely not for kids, but if you grew up reading Sabrina, or (like me) are even vaguely familiar with the character, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is a title well worth a look.

Bookmonkey vs The Hoard: Post Three - Revival

I've been a fan of Tim Seeley's work since i first checked out his horror movie-themed series Hack/Slash in 2011 and after spending a month in 2013 reading my way through that entire title, I began collecting his latest series, a Rural Noir called Revival, written by Seeley, and illustrated by Mike Norton. As often happens with collections, I ended up with five of these before I got around to reading any past the first volume, and that brings us up-to-date.

This week, I went through the first five collections and this series is pretty darn great. Having been a long-time fan of Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead (whether in original comic, adapted television show, or even video game form), I wasn't exactly sure if I wanted to start another comic about the dead rising, but Revival is something entirely different.

Taking place in a fictionalized version of Seeley's hometown of Wausau Wisconsin, the story focuses on police officer Dana Cypress and the events set after "Revival Day", when the dead rose in the area surrounding the town, not as zombies, but apparently as themselves, and (mostly) wanting to get on with the business of living. The series works as a mystery, both on the large scale, as no one know why this specific geographical area has been effected, and on the small scale, involving murders, kidnappings and the types of crimes than can happen in a small town cut off from the rest of the world (Wausau is quickly put under quarantine by the United States Government).

Although the series does have a large number of truly gruesome scenes, much of the story is driven by family drama, Dana works with her father (the town's Sheriff), has a younger sister in college, and an eight-year-old son, each of which has their own secrets and story lines.

A really great series, and one I'm quite happy to have finally gotten around to reading!

Bookmonkey vs. the Hoard: Post 1

As with many journeys, my blog this October began with a simple step. For the last year I've been excited for the day Ash vs the Evil Dead became available on DVD, and about a month ago it finally did! Snapping it up as quickly as I found it, I brought it home and prepared to watch the latest in one of my very favourite horror franchises, but then my wife hit me with a pretty good piece of logic.

You know, there's a lot of horror-themed things you've had around the house for a while now and haven't watched/read/played yet. How about you try some of them first?

And you know what? She was totally right.

So I went though my house collecting every horror-themed product I had purchased (or received as a gift) and hadn't got around to enjoying yet and realized something.

This is my October blog theme.

So here we go, a month cleaning up a pretty significant backlog of stuff, including comics, games, short stories, and films.

Welcome to Bookmonkey vs. the Hoard.

This October, on Wisdom of Bookmonkey

Hi Everyone,

It's that time of year again, where I take a topic in the Horror genre and dig deep down for an entire month worth of posts.

Next month, however, the topic is going to be a little different.

For years now I've been collecting horror comics, novels, movies, and games I've been meaning to get around to, and just haven't touched. But two weeks ago I got a really great piece of incentive - the first season of Starz's Ash vs Evil Dead, and I really REALLY want to check it out.


So here's what I'm gonna do next month - I'm going to dig up all those books, games and movies I've been meaning to get around to and check them out, earning myself one episode of the TV series per item, getting to see my new series and at the same time, doing a pretty big cleanup on a backlog of horror I've been meaning to clean up for a while now.


So get ready, because in two week's time, we begin


Bookmonkey vs. The Hoard.

Get ready for some werewolves...

As we head into the glorious month of October, it's time to gear up for another of my yearly dips into a horror theme.

This year it's the Netflix series Hemlock Grove.

As with my month on the Saw franchise a few years back, I'm going in blind, having never seen an episode of the show and with very little idea of what to expect.

Here's what I know so far:

1) It's based on a book (which I start reading today!)
2) There are sure to be some werewolves
3) It's currently in season three, but I'll be focusing on season one

Also, I may be talking about all sorts of other werewolf titles I'm fond of, so get ready, because on Friday

Bookmonkey visits Hemlock Grove!

Gearing up for October

As we’re heading into my yearly Halloween-themed month, I’m currently at work reading the primary stuff I’ll be reviewing (the 2013 Penguin horror imprint), and am also hunting down a variety of films, comics and other related texts to chat about as well.

At this point I’ve got at least one movie connected with each reading (except for American Supernatural Stories – it’s my last one so I’ll be researching it later in the month), but have been happy to find related materials from all sorts of places (friends, used-book stores, Amazon, and in one case the special features of a DVD I’ve owned for quite a while now).

I’m still hoping to knock out a Charles de Lint review before we start but my reviews on new genre TV (Constantine, Gotham, American Horror Story: Freak Show, and The Walking Dead) will all have to wait until November.

Looking forward to it!

Things I've noticed: Thinking about a month of Twilight is scary

Dear Readers:

By this time next week I'll be working on a month's worth of posts focusing on the Twilight Series. Yup, almost 2500 pages, three movies, three soundtracks, two teams, and millions of screaming Twi-hards have caught my attention, causing me to devote a month to a series of books about vampires that glitter.

I'm hoping to keep to the same schedule I usually blog, but for the entire month of October I will be focusing on one of the most popular horror series of all time, and to be fair, one of the ones that scares me the most (for example, the fact that this series is considered horror scares me).

I'll do my best to give the series an honest look, from the point of view of a father of two teenaged girls who have read or are reading all of the books, as well as from the point of view of a fan of both horror and vampire-specific fiction.

If you don't like Twilight, and the idea of reading about me reading it over a month makes you want to stop visiting my blog, I understand. Just keep two things in mind:

1) If you read my blog throughout October you will become much more knowledgeable about the world of Twilight.

2) As of November I'll be back to my regular style post (first up, a review of the AMC series The Walking Dead - which premieres on Halloween)

For those of you brave enough to enter this frightening world with me - Thanks!

Your pal,

Bookmonkey