Like I said last time, I fell significantly behind in my blog posts and updates, although I was “participating” quite a bit in September and October. Of course, October is all about horror and #HorrorComicsMonth is the official theme. Over the years, I’ve gained a fondness for horror books, especially the older ones, and so I grabbed a number of horror or horro-adjacent books that I hadn’t read before and decided to give them a read. So here are some mini reviews.

The Conjuring: The Lover #1 (DC). My experience with The Conjuring in any media doesn’t go beyond seeing the trailers and TV commercials. The movies don’t look bad; in fact, if I came across one, I’d probably watch it. So this was a comic book prequel to the film The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It and involves a demon haunting and eventually possessing a character named Jessica, and it’s apparently the demon that possesses a character in the film. I love a good demonic possession story and this particular issue made me want to read the rest of the series, which was available on DC Infinite. I suppose if you’re really into the series, you’d consider this part of the overall lore (I remember feeling that way about Oni Press’ Blair Witch Project comics back in 1999-2000), but it was still entertaining. Knowing that I can revisit it digitally doesn’t make this book worth holding onto. Sell/Donate.

Blood Hunt #5 (Marvel). this was the last issue of Marvel’s most recent summer event, a comic that was part of the mystery box I bought from Third Eye Comics at the Baltimore Comic-Con. Being the last issue of the book, it’s whomever are the heroes int he story coming together to fight the big bad. I was a little confused (despite the recap on the first page) but since I’m not that invested in the current Marvel Universe, I was just able to sit back and enjoy the fighting. The art’s good and the story’s well-paced. It sets up the next event: One Nation Under Doom, which sounds like it might be more interesting than this. But I haven’t been much for company-wide crossovers these days (although I will read them digitally since I don’t have to spend the money to buy the issues). Sell/Donate.

What’s the Furthest Place From Here? #18 (Image). This was another book in the mystery box and it’s a title I’ve seen advertised in Previews quite a bit. I don’t think this qualifies as horror and is probably more science fiction with adventure, but I figured I’d throw it in here anyway because it was on the pile. It … wasn’t for me. I was having a hard time following what was going on. There were times when I enjoyed the artwork and other times when I found it distracting. And while I don’t require every issue to bring me the perfect introduciton or jumping on point to a series, I’d like to at least be a little interested in the characters and story or come out a little bit invested in it. Not the case here. Sell/Donate

The Vault of Horror #13 (Gemstone reprint orginally published by EC). I was about halfway through this when I realized I’m pretty sure I already own this comic. Either that, or at least one of the stories is reprinted in another reprint issue. Either way, it was one of the best comics of this lot. I love pre-Code horror comics, especially the ones by EC. Yes, there’s plenty of goofy stories in there, but there are also a number of gems and when the art is well done, those stories create a creepy mood. I’m not out to collect all of the Gemstone EC reprints or anything like that, but they are the type of book that I’m going to keep grabbing whenever I see them in a cheap bin. I’m going to Keep this one for now, but if it turns out that I already have it, I’ll pass it on.

The Twilight Zone #1 (Now Comics). Now Comics is one of those late 1980s/early 1990s independent companies that made a little bit of a mark with movie and television tie-ins, most notably The Terminator, although they also published comics based on Married … With Children and The Real Ghostbusters. This particular series spins out of CBS’ 1980s Twilight Zone reboot, a show that I watched quite a bit of back in the day and still have a fondness for. This particular story is about a man going up against the Devil and whether or not a deal is going to be made; there’s also a backup story about a bullied kid getting revenge via his grandpa’s “Wishing Book.” The comic (at least the main story) is written by Harlan Ellison and illusrated by Neal Adams, so even where it’s clunky, it’s a great book to flip through. I don’t often come across this series in cheap bins, but I’ll probably grab it when I do. Keep.

The Savage Return of Dracula #1 (Marvel). Stella and I covered Dracula for our October episode of Required Reading, and when I was at the Baltimore Comic-Con, I spotted this for a couple of bucks and grabbed it. The book reprints the first two issues of Tomb of Dracula and features a brand new cover by Gene Colan. Honestly, I wasn’t the biggest fan of the cover because despite it being a Colan illustration, it made me think that this was going to be some second-tier Nineties Marvel book. I was pleased to see that it was the Tomb of Dracula reprints because I’ve actually never read any of that series. While this was written by Gerry Conway and not Marv Wolfman, whose run on the book alongside Colan would be the more celebrated, this has everything that you need from both a Gothic horror story as well as a Bronze Age Marvel horror book. In fact, it played exactly like one of the old Hammer movies that I’d catch on TV from time to time. Like I said, it’s a one-shot, so I’ll probably seek out Tomb of Dracula on Marvel Unlimited and hold onto this. Keep.

Dynamic Classics #1 (DC). The 44-page one-shot reprints the Denny O’Neil/Neal Adams/Dick Giordano Batman story “The Secret of the Waiting Graves” from Detective Comics #395 as well as “The Himalayan Incident,” which is a Manhunter story by Archie Goodwin and Walt Simonson from ‘Tec #437. I think I picked this up for $3 at the convention and while I already own a collected edition of the Goodwin/Simonson Manhunter(albeit a water-damaged one I bought on the very cheap) and can read that Batman story on DC Infinite, I just couldn’t pass this up. It’s not out of left field to say that I love Neal Adams’ Batman and this story is just classic “Batman Horror.” It’s got all the creepy mansion, mysterious woman, and odd circumstances that you’d expect from a Bronze Age DC horror book–and a Scooby-Doo episode–and it’s an absolute gem. And the Manhunter story is … well come on, you know it’s a gem. This was such a great find. Keep.

And that wraps up comics from October. On to the #WarComicsMonth reading!