Midnight, Mass. Trade Paperback Collection Now Available

 

Collecting the entire 8-issue series, Midnight, Mass., written by me with pencils by Jesus Saiz, inks by Jimmy Palmiotti, colors by Noelle Giddings and Kevin Somers, lettering by Ken Bruzenak and John Costanza, and edited by Heidi MacDonald is now available at your local comic book store and book store. 

The series follows the exploits of paranormal investigators Adam and Julia Kadmon as they take on a variety of monsters, strange cults, ghosts, and a new personal assistant. 

Midnight, Mass. Trade Paperback Collection Coming In Fall 2024

 

Through it's Black Label imprint, DC Comics will be releasing a 208 page trade paperback collection of the 8-issue series, Midnight, Mass. on October 1, 2024. It will sell for $16.99 retail. You should be able to pre-order it through your local comic book store in the next few months. 

Midnight, Mass. follows the adventures of paranormal investigators Adam and Julia Kadmon from their home in Midnight, Massachusetts. It was written by me with pencils by Jesus Saiz, inks by Jimmy Palmiotti, colors by Noelle Giddings and Kevin Somers, letters by Ken Bruzenak and John Costanza, and covers by Tomer Hanuka. It was edited by Heidi MacDonald and Zachary Rau. 

Here's DC's press announcement:

The Grim Gallery Enters Year 13

Do you like monsters? My companion blog, The Grim Gallery is full of them. Over 4300 of them, posted one per day. The Grim Gallery has just entered its 13th year of surving up all sorts of horrors on a daily basis. Go check it out.

The Grim Gallery - Now in it's 12th Year

My companion blog, The Grim Gallery, is now in it's twelfth year of daily monster imagery from movies, art, comic books, books, magazines, mythology and elsewhere. If you like the monstrous, check it out. There are now over 4000 images to pour through.

Mad Scientist #34 Now Available

Martin Arlt's excellent magazine, Mad Scientist, celebrates it's 20th anniversary with the packed issue #34, which is now available. You can read a list of the full contents plus order a copy here. The art on the back cover was made by me specially for this issue.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 28 - Book

Don't Turn Out the Lights - Edited by Jonathan Maberry. Harper Collins. 2020. In 1981 a thin book of creepy campfire-type stories aimed at young readers appeared. The stories were very short and set up almost like jokes with macabre punchlines. There was a premise, a set up, and a dark finish. Characters were thinly drawn. No matter, this book was extremely popular (and followed by two more) and hgave many kids nightmares, no doubt fuelled by Stephen Gammell's unsettling illustrations. The book was Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz. I was too old to be the target audience for these books when they came out. I was aware of them, but would noy investigate them until many years later. Jonatahn Maberry was also too old for them when they first hit the scene but took a copy camping with him and recognized the power of those stories whie out alone in the middle of nowhere. Don't Turn Out the Lights is a tribute anthology to Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. It contains 35 stories by some of the top spooky YA authors out there. Like the books this is in tribute to, most of the stories are very short, though a few run a bit longer. They also typically foow the format of the original's tales, joke-like in structure with more attention paid to the details than to the characters, though typically, the inhabitants of these stories have a bit more meat on their bones. The stories here are all quite good, and are entertaining, even though, I'm quite a bit beyond the age of the intended audience at this point. each story is accompanied by an atmospheric illustration by the amazing Iris Compiet who is going to explode in popularity soon. If you are a fan of the Scary Stories books, this is a worthy successor.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 26 - Movie

While Diving, Matt Farrell (John Ashley) is abducted by a scientist (Charles Macauley) who wants to use him in one of his experiments combining humans with animals in order to create a super race of beastmen. The scientist's daughter (Pat Woodell) has a change of heart and helps Farrell and some of thye beast people escape. A sadistic henchman (Jan Merlin) and his team set out across the island to hunt them down. The Twilight People (1972) is a low budget Filipino-American film directed by Eddie Romero that is essentially The Island of Dr. Moreau combined with The Most Dangerous Game which is not necessarily a bad thing. This is the kind of movie that you used to kind on tv on Saturday afternoons, or late at night and is perfectly entertaining if not exceptional viewing. While the make-up on the animal people is crude, it's still pretty effective. The actors also try to give their animal characters defining characterustics, such as the antelope man who tends to defend himself with backward kicks. The creatures are also a ittle more ambitious than the straight-up adaptations of H.G. Wells' novel. Here we are even given a flying batman. This movie is probably best known for featuring Pam Grier as the panther woman.

32 Days of Halloween - Day 12 - Book

The Resurrectionist by E.B. Hudsbeth. Quirk Books. 2013

Dr. Spencer Black was a renowned surgeon and anatomist in the late 19th century, but his studies in teratology led him to bizarre beliefs, and his undoing. According to Black, mythological creatures were real, and when a person, or animal was born malformed, it was due to the body attempting to revert to one of those hybrid mythical forms. Dissections and mutilations led Black on a mad quest to attempt recreating numerous mythological species through surgery rather than genetics.

The Resurrectionist is divided into two parts. The first section contains a biographical overview of his life and work. The rest of the book is devoted to his notes and precise anatomical drawings of his mythological recreations. While an initial perusal would suggest this as slight reading material created to support Hudsbeth's finely rendered drawings, there is something unsavory about the book as a whole. Another book that was created to serve as a biological and anatomical field guide to mythological creatures using the same illustrations would come off as fascinating, but after reading the disturbing account of Black's disturbing experiments, those same illustrations come across as grotesque and unsettling, like something you really shouldn't be looking at. This is a strong recommendation.










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31 Days of Halloween - Day 11

In this year where no one could travel, I made a decisiuon to share some of the more macabre things I've seen in the past couple of years, before COVID-19 came along. Today will feature some of the more monstrous items in the collection at the Fallery of Paleontology and Comparitive Anatomy at the Muséum nationale d'histoire naturelle in Paris, France which I visited in May of 2019. You can see more images by scrtolling down to yesterday's post, and by checking back tomorrow.

Part 3 tomorrow...

31 Days of Halloween - Day 9 - Book

Rick Baker: Metamorphosis by J.W. Rinzler.   Cameron Books, 2019


I have avidly followed the career of Rick Baker since King Kong (1976) and have been waiting for this book since I was in high school, later contenting myself with the issue of Cinefex devoted to Baker and his work. Finally, as of a year ago, this book arrived and it did so in a big way. It is a massive two volume set. Seventeen pounds of beautifully designed paged crammed with photos, drawings, text by J.W. Rinzler who is simply one of the very best writers on filmmaking out there. The book is pricey, but well worth every penny. Even for someone like myself, who considers themselves something of an expert of Baker's work, I learned so much that I did not know.

Baker and Rinzler also did what everyone tells you to do, which is to leave your audience wanting more. I was more than satisfied with what's between the covers here, but would happily pick up a third and fourth volume, which I hope will be coming since Rick Baker says there is so much material that had to be cut.

If you have any interest in film, make-up effects, or true artistry this book is a must have.




 


This post contains affiliate links, which means that John Rozum receives a percentage of sales purchased through links on this site. Thank you for your support!

31 Days of Halloween - Day 9

Make-up maestro, Rick Baker is one of my favorite people on the planet. I probably would not be who I am, or do what I do, without him. He has recently retired, but seems to be busier than ever in retirement, doing what he loves best, and having a lot of fun doing it. Now that he's no longer creating make-up for movies, he's doing it for himself and his family, especially for Halloween. Here are some of the Halloween creations he has done on himself and his family. Most images came from Rick Baker's Instagram account, which is definitely worth following.