I wake up to an America I do not recognize.
The unimaginable has happened. America has elected president a racist, misogynist bully with no filter, no experience, no gutter he won’t stoop to.
And it did it with its eyes wide open.
Maya Angelou said, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”
In 1973, just a few months at the helm, Marv Wolfman was already shaking things up at Marvel Comics’ “Tomb of Dracula.” He had introduced Blade, arguably one of the most important characters in the Marvel Universe, in TOD No. 10. Of course, we only know that in hindsight.
But Wolfman wanted readers to know the horror title would live up to its grim potential. This wasn’t going to be the typical Marvel book in which the characters get pummeled one issue and are fine the next. Violence would have consequences.
Some bad things were going to happen. And no one was safe.
Continue reading “‘Tomb of Dracula’: When the Terror Got Real”
Now that I have moved to the South Shore, I am once again looking for a church.
It’s not that I’m particularly religious or even spiritual, but I do know the value of being a part of a community concerned with making a better world, if not a better people.
First Church in Cambridge, my previous sanctuary, one that I will always consider home, is two-plus-hours away given the vagaries of public transportation on a Sunday. I have been looking closer to home, but finding a church within walking distance would seem to qualify as a minor miracle. I actually bought a home in a city without a proper bookstore. Is it too late to give back my keys?
Last November, the apartment building I have lived in for 23 years was sold to one of Boston’s most notorious landlords.
The change in ownership was like going from Spock to Jabba the Hutt, if you’ll forgive me for mixing my sci-fi franchises.
Heat suddenly became a luxury. Trash wasn’t picked up as often.
So apparently there are now only six dirty words left you can’t say – in comic books, anyway.
DC’s “Secret Six” No. 14, now available, drops an s-bomb.
The moment comes when the Ventriloquist gets stabby with her super-villain allies as they try to rescue one of their own from the League of Assassins.
The Ventriloquist’s dummy Ferdie objects to her betrayal. And then Ferdie starts to losing all feeling in his wooden limbs and can’t understand what’s happening to him.
And the Ventriloquist’s reply?
Mark Perigard 