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Goth Chick News: Time Stands Still in Pause: John Carpenter’s Latest Sci-Fi Horror Comic

Goth Chick News: Time Stands Still in Pause: John Carpenter’s Latest Sci-Fi Horror Comic

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John Carpenter’s Tales of Science Fiction: Vault (June 2018), Vortex
(October 2018), and issue #1 of Pause (February 26, 2025

Storm King Comics was founded in 2012 by legendary filmmaker John Carpenter and his wife of thirty-five years, producer Sandy King. Together, they are known for delivering stories of horror, science fiction, and the supernatural, with series like John Carpenter’s Tales of Science Fiction and John Carpenter’s Tales for a HalloweeNight. Combining Carpenter’s cinematic style with the visual storytelling of comics, Storm King Comics offers fans immersive experiences that have cemented its reputation in the comic book industry.

I was first introduced to Storm King Comics by the grand dame herself, Sandy King, when I met her in 2016 at C2E2. Since then, I have collected all the issues from Tales for a HalloweeNight as well as Asylum which was my first exposure to the great stories that come out of Storm King. And though I am not a sci-fi girl strictly speaking, I love a good crossover, which this week’s launch seems to be.

For a bit of background, John Carpenter’s Tales of Science Fiction launched in 2018 with its inaugural story Vault, telling the tale of a moon-bound crew who discover an alien vessel with English markings. Since that time there have been eleven total installments and this week the series returns with installment twelve, entitled Pause.

Here’s what you have to look forward to…

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Goth Chick News: Getting Our Heavy Metal Back…

Goth Chick News: Getting Our Heavy Metal Back…

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Heavy Metal #319, the penultimate issue of the original run (November 2022). Cover by Pascal Blanche

Okay, strictly speaking, this topic doesn’t fall into a standard (notice I didn’t say “normal”) Goth Chick category. But bear with me for a short story.

A long time ago in a small midwestern town far, far away, I experienced my first hardcore crush. The subject in question was not only tantalizingly a few years older than me but he was decidedly gothy in a dark-warrior kind of way. Therefore, in my youthful opinion, he was perfection on two feet. That same year as I was sitting cross-legged on the floor of my local bookstore my eyes fell on an issue of Heavy Metal magazine where low and behold was my crush, or someone who looked darn close, personified in all his brooding magicalness, right there on the cover. That day my allowance went to my first issue of Heavy Metal and though I was a rabid fan for years afterward, I admittedly became hit and miss, buying only sporadic issues throughout the 2000’s.

Heavy Metal magazine, which had been in constant publication since 1977, printed its last issue in 2022 after a series of attempts to keep it viable, and an era came to an end.

Until now.

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Roy Thomas’ Barbarian Life

Roy Thomas’ Barbarian Life

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Conan The Barbarian #1 (Marvel Comics, October 1970). Art by Barry Windsor Smith

The package I received on July 6, 2020 brought me great joy! Roy Thomas is my favorite comic book writer. I correspond with him occasionally, and he is quite generous with his time, sharing his thoughts and memories. Very similar to how Gary Gygax did this, treating every fan with dignity and respect. A true gentleman.

I thanked Roy in my latest Hyperborea adventure book, The Sea-Wolf’s Daughter, because it included a character inspired by one of his creations. I sent him a copy of the book, and along with it my personal copy of Conan the Barbarian #1, to be signed by the author. Well, here it is! (He has an agency that normally handles this sort of thing, but he made an exception for me.) Excelsior!

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Savage Sword of Conan is Back

Savage Sword of Conan is Back

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Savage Sword of Conan #1 (Titan Comics, February 2024). Cover art by Joe Jusko

Savage Sword of Conan, from Titan Comics, is the comic book that I have been waiting for. It is a thing of perfection: art, story, presentation, physical format – all unmatched.

The cover by Joe Jusko is brilliant, capturing some brutal imagery from the prose story within, penned by Jim Zub. I loved Joe’s work on the original SSoC run.

The introduction by Roy Thomas was a delight. Roy was the mastermind behind Conan the Barbarian and Savage Sword of Conan, but he’s also known for creating characters such as Wolverine, Vision, Werewolf by Night, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Ultron, and scores more. Hearing that he had plans to contribute to this magazine filled me with joy.

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B-List Heroes and More: Marvel Contest of Champions, The Atomic Knights, and Hulk Annual #13

B-List Heroes and More: Marvel Contest of Champions, The Atomic Knights, and Hulk Annual #13

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Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions, 3-issue limited series (Marvel Comics, June,
July & August 1982). Written by Mark Gruenwald, art by John Romita Jr. and Bob Layton

Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions! Long before the more famous Secret Wars, in 1982, Marvel released a mini series that pitted hero against hero!

Similarly, they were whisked away by omnipotent aliens to combat one another. The story was created by Mark Gruenwald, Bill Mantlo, and Steven Grant. It was illustrated by John Romita Jr. and inked by Pablo Marcos.

Forever a fan of the B-list heroes, I loved seeing characters like Sunfire, Dr. Druid, Hellstorm, Machine Man, Doc Samson, Quasar, and Brother Voodoo.

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The Convincing Villain

The Convincing Villain

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Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Good afterevenmorn, Readers!

Side note, autocorrect keeps trying to fix my nonsensical greeting and it’s quite annoying. Back to the post!

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking. It’s dangerous. I do not recommend it. But I’ve been doing a lot of thinking on the nature of fictional villains and morally grey heroes, and how to write them convincingly. While it’s sometimes fun to read a simple story where good and evil are very evident, and we’re all firmly on the side of the heroes here. The fight (and eventual victory) against Evil™ can sometimes be exactly the hopeful escape we need. Please note, I’m not looking down my nose at those kinds of stories. I enjoy them myself.

My favorite reads, however, are stories where good and evil is not so simple. It’s not all cut and dried. This isn’t just about creating complex characters to counter your protagonists, but also about creating a safe space to explore all the nuance that we find in real life. It’s a good, safe place to grapple with ideas of heroism, morality and villainy. What makes a hero? Or a villain, for that matter? If the end result is good, are morally questionable actions justifiable? What are we willing to sacrifice for the greater good? Is it acceptable if the answer to the previous question is, “Everything”?

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G.W. Thomas on Science Fiction of the 30s by Damon Knight

G.W. Thomas on Science Fiction of the 30s by Damon Knight

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Conan the Barbarian: Archie Style! From Everything Archie
#111 (May 1984). Art by Stan Goldberg and Larry Lapick.

G.W. Thomas has gradually become my favorite genre blogger. Not just because of his constant stream of content — he posts every two days at Dark Worlds Quarterly, and has been doing so for nearly a decade — but because of his endlessly zany topics. In the past few months he’s covered Haunted Houses in 50s comics, the Top Ten Ghostbreakers from Weird Tales, Werewolves of EC Comics, Space Heroes of the Golden Age, Fearless Vampire Killers of the pulps, Top Ten Fantasy Fight Scenes from 1980-1985 sword & sorcery flicks, Plant Monsters, Conan in Archie Comics, and so, so much more. For pulp and comic enthusiasts of a Certain Age, G.W. has tapped a nostalgic mother lode.

He also delves pretty deep into more serious topics of real interest, like that time he wrote a one-sentence review of every story in Damon Knight’s classic anthology Science Fiction of the 30s, complete with the original pulp illustrations.

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EC Comics is back

EC Comics is back

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Cruel Universe #1 and Epitaphs from the Abyss #1. Covers by Greg Smallwood and Andrea Sorrentino

EC Comics is back. In cooperation with Oni Press, the classic imprint that brought us Tales from the Crypt, The Haunt of Fear, Weird Science, Weird Fantasy, and other titles is back. The two new titles are called Cruel Universe and Epitaphs from the Abyss.

Cruel Universe #1 features four stories, “The Champion,” “Solid Shift,” “Drink Up,” and “Priceless.” The stories are each written and illustrated by a different team, and each has something exciting and different to offer.

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Everyone Knows This is Nowhere: The Book of Elsewhere by Keanu Reeves and China Miéville

Everyone Knows This is Nowhere: The Book of Elsewhere by Keanu Reeves and China Miéville

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The Book of Elsewhere (Del Rey, July 23, 2024). Jacket design by Drusilla Adeline

Can someone who has been alive for 80,000 years find wonder and meaning in every day life? Would such an immortal still be capable of surprise, still uncertain about his own motivations, still unable to come to grips with the meaning of it all? After experiencing centuries upon centuries of the death of others, and frequently inflicting those deaths, do you become oblivious to the fate of mortal souls as just so many anthill denizens?

Is there anyone else out there like you? And why are you the way you are? Would the wish for mortality indicate a Freudian death wish, or instead a yearning to experience the existential perils and the perplexities of being that paradoxically imbue significance?

These are the intertwined questions posed by The Book of Elsewhere, a tie-in novel by Keanu Reeves and China Miéville based on BRZRKR, a 12-issue comic book (graphic novel?) co-written by Reeves. The title refers to when the protagonist suffers episodes of uncontrollable violence and goes “berserk” (get it?), although “suffer” is perhaps better applied to those in the line of fire of his rage.

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A Surreal World: St Trinian’s: The Entire Appalling Business by Ronald Searle

A Surreal World: St Trinian’s: The Entire Appalling Business by Ronald Searle

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St. Trinian’s: The Entire Appalling Business (Overlook/Rookery, March 13, 2008). Cover by Ronald Searle

St Trinian’s was first created in a series of magazine cartoons in the 1940s and 1950s. Ronald Searle began drawing them in 1941, with a long hiatus while he was a prisoner of war in Southeast Asia. Most of them were set at an English boarding school for girls, and the rest showed characters who attended it. The Entire Appalling Business collects all of them in a single volume.

Boarding schools are a long established subject for English storytellers, from Tom Brown’s School Days, an autobiographical novel by Thomas Hughes set at Rugby, to the Harry Potter novels. Most portrayals take them fairly straight, staying within the traditional strictures of boys’ books — or girls’ books, as in this case. But there’s also a more subversive tradition, as in the Kipling stories that were collected as Stalky and Co. Searle’s cartoons are very subversive; that’s the whole point of the joke.

Most of the St Trinian’s girls are children rather than adolescents (some later cartoons show sixth form girls who are visibly more mature, particularly the recurring character Angela Menace). However, many scenes show them smoking — usually cigarettes, but occasionally cigars, and one panel refers to pot — or drinking beer, wine, or spirits. There are also references to gambling, particularly betting on horses or on school athletic events.

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