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I only read the first Galaxy of Terror book, I think that's the one with the people eating planet, but I only really remember that they stay at a place called the "Don't Come Inn" or something like that. Wish I'd read more, apparently one of the later ones had a bunch of cannibal kids on Dagobah or something grim like that. I imagine they're not great, but readable in that "90's kid book that you can blaze through in an hour" kind of way.
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Feb 22, 2018 01:17
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So over in the comic sub forum we're doing something called 'Every Story Ever Roulette', where we take a master list of comic stories and roll on a random number generator to get one, then review it. I got the very last one on the list, and drat if it don't belong in here. After all, don't people insist they're graphic NOVELS?
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Feb 22, 2018 04:19
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Ambitious Spider posted:I read all those books as a kid and loved them so much. I should see if i can dig them all up again. I had a few of those books, and I also liked them a lot. The only title I can remember, though, is "The Dark Secret of Weatherend," (but nothing about the actual story, other than "there was a big storm"). Looking it up, my memory was correct about the title, and somehow I forgot that the big storm hits Minnesota (where most of the story takes place) and northern Wisconsin (I lived in Green Bay as a kid, but it was still neat reading about cities/towns that I knew the names of).
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Feb 22, 2018 04:29
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Cornwind Evil posted:So over in the comic sub forum we're doing something called 'Every Story Ever Roulette', where we take a master list of comic stories and roll on a random number generator to get one, then review it. That was a fantastic(ly LONG) write up of the worst storyline in comics. Of course, you realize I have to hate you for a bit since you reminded me that Identity Crisis exists.
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Feb 22, 2018 06:57
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there is only one children's horror series worth discussing I was an already-fearful, sheltered child, why would anyone put that book in an elementary school music room
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Feb 22, 2018 06:59
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Proteus Jones posted:That was a fantastic(ly LONG) write up of the worst storyline in comics. If I say it's the worst, I am drat sure going to make sure that reasoning is drat well in-depth.
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Feb 22, 2018 07:03
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Cornwind Evil posted:So over in the comic sub forum we're doing something called 'Every Story Ever Roulette', where we take a master list of comic stories and roll on a random number generator to get one, then review it. I thought Identity Crisis was great when it came out, because I was an edgy 13 year old.  It's interesting, though, that like Marvel's similarly-maligned Civil War crossover, it's always seemed to me like most of the acclaim comes from readers who aren't into comics in a big way. Now, I think it's a bad story regardless, but you could probably argue that it does something that folks who aren't necessarily fans probably don't associate with superhero books and that makes it unexpected and clever. I haven't read beyond your first part so I don't know if you go into it but one impression I get about the message of Identity Crisis is, "It's okay that you liked all those silly stories when you were a kid, because this is how they were actually dark." One reason the War Rocket Ajax guys put it at the bottom of their list in the first place is because it's a story that they thought ruins the DC universe in two directions: it distorts the past to make it more palatable to adult fans who were embarrassed by Silver Age silliness while setting it off in a future direction that copies the surface level elements of Alan Moore comics (i.e. sex and violence = Very Serious and Mature) and I think that's part of it.
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Feb 22, 2018 11:56
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When they re-released Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark without those illustrations, a part of me died. Still have all of my copies from when I was little. I went camping at a provincial park a decade ago and when my group was tucked away after hiking and eating, the craziest thunder storm I've ever heard, we've ever heard, rocked us for a half hour before rain started pounding on the tent. During the commotion someone asked if anyone knew any ghost stories to lean into the mood, and I basically told the Scary Stories greatest hits and it became a night we still talk about My kids are getting my copies of those books e: I forgot to mention I was an adult during that camping trip in case it wasn't obvious lol forest spirit has a new favorite as of 15:32 on Feb 22, 2018 |
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Feb 22, 2018 12:11
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Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark had a two-week waiting list at my elementary school library, and I think a shorter checkout period because it was that popular. The only other book so adored was The Chocolate Touch (in which a kid gets the Midas-esque ability to change what he touches to chocolate, which is far more horrifying than it sounds). I buy Scary Stories as a “first book” for friends having kids. Kids like to be scared in a safe way.
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Feb 22, 2018 13:22
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Penpal posted:When they re-released Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark without those illustrations, a part of me died. Still have all of my copies from when I was little. Is there a story in there where a kid brought home a cool looking mummified corpse from an Indian burial mound (or something like that) that was more or less child sized and had a beak on the skull? I seem to remember he had a puppy, too. Heard some noises in the dark where he stored the mummy. Gets a flashlight and puppy charges ahead with much growling and yipping and yipes in pain and goes silent. I think the kid drops the flashlight and it spins around giving him a glimpse of the mummy moving toward him with scraps of puppy on its beak. If not, does that sound familiar to anyone? I remember reading that in an anthology back in the late 70s when I was in 4th or 5th grade and being abso-loving-lutely terrified by that story.
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Feb 22, 2018 21:04
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I remember that story! It was not in Scary Stories To Tell Etc. No idea what the title of the book was. You might be mixing it up with the follow up story: he had a grown dog that had...something happen to him off screen. The next story was about a boy in a medieval times world who is ruled over by an evil baron who has extremely nasty dogs; the boy has a puppy and the dogs eat it. The boy seeks out a 'witch' to be turned into a werewolf to get revenge on the dogs; he gets it, but the witch tells him he either kills the baron too or she won't cure him. I mainly remember that the witch, who was said to be lacking a nose, hated the baron because he 'took her to his castle for a year' (and the implications of that flew over my head) and then cut off her nose so no man would ever want her again before throwing her out. That baron was a massive prick, but the story ended before he could get eaten.
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Feb 22, 2018 22:38
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Proteus Jones posted:Is there a story in there where a kid brought home a cool looking mummified corpse from an Indian burial mound (or something like that) that was more or less child sized and had a beak on the skull? I seem to remember he had a puppy, too. Heard some noises in the dark where he stored the mummy. Gets a flashlight and puppy charges ahead with much growling and yipping and yipes in pain and goes silent. I think the kid drops the flashlight and it spins around giving him a glimpse of the mummy moving toward him with scraps of puppy on its beak. It's from a book called Monster Tales. The story is Wendigo's Child by Thomas F. Monteleone.
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Feb 23, 2018 03:00
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SUPERMAN'S GAL PAL posted:Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark had a two-week waiting list at my elementary school library, and I think a shorter checkout period because it was that popular. The only other book so adored was The Chocolate Touch (in which a kid gets the Midas-esque ability to change what he touches to chocolate, which is far more horrifying than it sounds). I remember that one. He eventually starts dying of thirst.
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Feb 23, 2018 03:07
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SUPERMAN'S GAL PAL posted:Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark had a two-week waiting list at my elementary school library, and I think a shorter checkout period because it was that popular. The only other book so adored was The Chocolate Touch (in which a kid gets the Midas-esque ability to change what he touches to chocolate, which is far more horrifying than it sounds). I owned that book. Jesus, I'd forgotten about it. It really was kind of horrifying at the end, in a way you didn't expect it to go because nothing about the cover or the presentation said "horror." The presentation said "cute funny chocolate story!!!!" rather than "dying of thirst due to inability to consume water." I remember I left it out in the rain after reading on the back deck and the pages got all warped, but I don't think that was the end of it, either. I must've passed it down to one of my younger sisters. I wonder what happened to it.
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Feb 23, 2018 04:34
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Cornwind Evil posted:So over in the comic sub forum we're doing something called 'Every Story Ever Roulette', where we take a master list of comic stories and roll on a random number generator to get one, then review it. This is really good. Read them all. Do you have a link to the thread it came from?
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Feb 23, 2018 04:47
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Arivia posted:This is really good. Read them all. Do you have a link to the thread it came from? Every Story Ever Roulette Plenty of the stories in the thread are actually good, though there's been a bit of a trend recently to request utter poo poo to review.
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Feb 23, 2018 05:07
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Doctor Spaceman posted:Every Story Ever Roulette Yeah. As I figure it, if I was given something quality, I'd basically go "I like this, go read it." without giving any real details because I want people to experience it. With average stuff it would just be a bunch of "Mehs" and "This was better in X." But bad stuff? That's a gold mine.
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Feb 23, 2018 05:52
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The Arrogance Fireworks By Dan Brown Prologue Renowned turtleneck Charles Probed brutally murdered his brilliant enemy, Mr. Versailles. The man stared lifelessly back at him for five minutes before dropping like a ghost. Probed shot off with thunderous force for the buildings of the Vatican. He knew there were no Bible Dollars in his pocket. He pushed at a nondescript door with Devil Monitors around it. A moment later the door slid open to the Treasury of San Pietro. It was the most dangerous weapon of Vatican City: the room where Caesar once ruled over the world. Probed filled his tweed jacket with fifty thousand Bible Dollars and looked up at the image of Leonardo da Vinci, the man who had weathered tempests and spats. He felt like a brick before a stack of them. The words Jesus, Vinci is long overdue for a museum to his genius, I assume? made his mouth go dry. He turned to go, but the image of Leonardo popped out of the ceiling. “I am of the Brotherhood. I am incredibly positive and I want you to keep this!” he said and gave Probed a large death bed. Chapter One Robert Langdon awoke with fire in his loins. Vittoria had given him Portuguese Tile, the killer exotic. She was responsible for his bitterness and faxes. “My god! Hate Vittoria!” he said suddenly. A young geisha was in the doorway. “Gaea is still with me! I need your skills, Langdon. I am a prototype analysis platform. Alchemists just proved the existence of God,” she said. Langdon frowned and then exploded with confidence. “Technically, the Illuminati had proven that 1,000 years ago by killing Him” he said. The geisha shrugged sadly. “Technically, the Illuminati did. They stole His magnificent computer games and His legendary truck. But that’s not everything. The alchemists picked up His wheelchair on the monitor,” she said with a smile. Langdon studied her legs. “He’s alive,” he said. The Vatican would never be the most powerful Satanic cult in the world again. Chapter Two The Man Who Killed People knew that homicide is a crime, but he was clearly an odd man who killed for a spiritual end. He pulled out his phone and paged the Director. Then he looked at Langdon, the geisha, and the Shakespearean melodrama Depravity King Kohler. He was a warrior of the Brotherhood and a mad scientist. The Man Who Killed People pictured in his mind the Harvard symbologist orbiting planets. A lifetime of sexual fantasies like that had earned him magical artifacts: the Antimatter Trap, the Massive Robes, and the Door of Islamic Hell. He supposed that he would need all of them to prove God’s Catholicism.
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Feb 24, 2018 07:10
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girl pants posted:Was there one where some kids accidentally ended up at a summer camp where the counselors worshipped a sentient blob of jelly or did I dream that one The Horror at Camp Jellyjam. The first one I read. The original cover had the super creepy counselor on it. I loved those dumb books. I also remember reading a ton of Fear Street and it's knock offs. I remember one that involved time travel at a beach house I think? I remember a bunch of the teen horror novels I read being quasi-slashers. Also I think I read one about a witch or something with a romantic plot where the love interest was a witch hunter or something.
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Feb 24, 2018 07:35
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The rumors of your death appear to have been exaggerated.
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Feb 24, 2018 08:45
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Cornwind Evil posted:So over in the comic sub forum we're doing something called 'Every Story Ever Roulette', where we take a master list of comic stories and roll on a random number generator to get one, then review it. I read graphic novels occasionally, I like a story I can consume in about an hour. When I started reading them out of highschool a friend recommended Identity Crisis and all but forced the trade into my hands. Until then everything I knew came from the cartoons (Justice League, Justice League Unlimited, and Teen Titans). Thank you for doing a really great tear down of it (and Kick rear end as well). And not just a tear down, but a good exploration of the themes and missteps. Even back then I knew it was capital B Bad, but I didn't know how to articulate it. I figured it was because I didn't know comics, and in fact it put me off reading other superhero comics. It even soured my opinion of my friend for a time. Now, over a decade later (I'm an old) I can forward him this excellent review to rub his nose in it. What else are friends for? Thank you. Edit: The end of part #5 doesn't have a link to part 6. PJOmega has a new favorite as of 09:34 on Feb 24, 2018 |
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Feb 24, 2018 08:51
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Thank you, link edited in. But like I said, don't blame your friend. As I made as an extended point, Identity Crisis' greatest trick is how well it can sneak past you for a variety of reasons and you won't recognize the issues unless you go back with certain things in mind. Heck, it took ME years to really comprehend all the story's issues.
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Feb 24, 2018 09:44
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Superhero comics are bad, except for Silver Age Superman and Batman.
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Feb 24, 2018 09:48
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Oh. You’re back. Joy.
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Feb 24, 2018 10:18
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Adam West Batman is actually very good.
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Feb 24, 2018 10:47
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Djeser posted:Adam West Batman is actually very good. And the second-best Batman movie, after Lego Batman.
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Feb 24, 2018 11:47
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no the good batmans are the weird 1980s ones with michael keaton, christopher walken, & danny devito. forget about the nicholson scenes.
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Feb 24, 2018 12:36
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excuse you, i just watched batman stuck in a giant egyptian vase getting pebbles dropped on his head to drive him crazy while singing 'twinkle twinkle little bat' if that's bad then i don't want to be good
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Feb 24, 2018 16:10
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Djeser posted:excuse you, i just watched batman stuck in a giant egyptian vase getting pebbles dropped on his head to drive him crazy while singing 'twinkle twinkle little bat' Adam West Batman is hilarious and great. The Keaton movies were great. The animated series was loving amazing. Batman is cool and good. Also if you like goofy Batman, "Batman: The Brave and the Bold" was a legit really funny show. Every episode had a cold open of Batman and some other hero mid adventure and then wrapped that up by the credits for the main story. I think it only ran for like 3 season but it was super enjoyable. https://youtu.be/M9oolBoJsUI joylessdivision has a new favorite as of 17:03 on Feb 24, 2018 |
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Feb 24, 2018 17:00
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joylessdivision posted:Also if you like goofy Batman, "Batman: The Brave and the Bold" was a legit really funny show. Every episode had a cold open of Batman and some other hero mid adventure and then wrapped that up by the credits for the main story. I think it only ran for like 3 season but it was super enjoyable. It also features hands-down the best version of Aquaman ever, along with a host of otherwise obscure DC characters.
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Feb 24, 2018 18:55
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Krankenstyle posted:no
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Feb 24, 2018 19:22
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Wait there were Batmen after Adam West? gently caress off.
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Feb 25, 2018 05:01
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There are many good batmen, but the best one is Greg Kinnear as Captain Amazing in Mystery Men.
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Feb 26, 2018 09:11
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I Before E posted:There are many good batmen, but the best one is Greg Kinnear as Captain Amazing in Mystery Men. Captain Amazing isn't Batman. Batman wears glasses.
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Feb 26, 2018 13:28
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Unkempt posted:Captain Amazing isn't Batman. Batman wears glasses. He takes them off when he becomes Captain Amazing.
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Feb 27, 2018 00:43
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Cornwind Evil posted:He takes them off when he becomes Captain Amazing. That's ridiculous. How would he see?
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Feb 27, 2018 01:26
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Lemniscate Blue posted:That's ridiculous. How would he see? Bats use echolocation, silly.
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Feb 27, 2018 02:37
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I'm late to the Goosebumps party but I think the best/worst twist ending I remember was in Attack of the Jack-O-Lanterns. On Halloween the protagonists, along with the school bullies, are being menaced by otherworldly humanoids with glowing pumpkin heads. They can detach their heads, and threaten to remove the other children's heads and replace them with pumpkins, while chanting "JOIN US" spookily. But the twist is the pumpkin-heads are actually the protagonists' friends, who are space aliens, helping them get revenge on the bullies for a mean prank! And the protagonists knew this all along, and were just pretending to be scared! To the point of lying in their internal monologues. It was also implied that the pumpkin-heads were fattening up kids on candy in order to eat them, since there was something about fat kids disappearing the previous Halloween. The Give Yourself Goosebumps books were also really crazy. I remember a lot had bad endings where you were turned into an inanimate object (such as a paper lantern, a gingerbread man, or a rosebush). Also, The Chocolate Touch reminds me of a book I read as a kid called Chocolate Fever where a kid starts developing chocolate freckles after eating too much chocolate. It was more whimsical than scary, though.
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Feb 27, 2018 05:17
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I really liked the spooky cuckoo clock as a kid and I still feel slightly chilly when I think of it.
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Feb 27, 2018 06:55
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I liked one of the Escape from the Carnival of Horrors books because you could get devoured by carnivorous hotdogs.
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Feb 27, 2018 07:22
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