Spooktober: Wytches vol 1

Wytches vol 1
Written by Scott Snyder
Drawn by Jock
Published by Image Comics
Released 2014

You know when you wait on something, and it's something that deals with a topic you typically love a lot. Inevitably hype builds up internally, without ever even realizing it. That's what happened with Wytches for me. I haven't read much Scott Snyder, but I hear almost universal praise for his recent runs on Batman, which I still have yet to check out. I also hear universal praise about this book, with people claiming it's actually terrifying at parts, and with a title like that I know the subject matter is something I'm particularly keen on. So does it manage to live up to my hype that I typically try and avoid having? Well..

Occult Origins of October: Man-Bat

Man-Bat vs. Batman (Detective Comics #400, 402 and 407)
Written by Frank Robbins
Drawn by Neal Adams
Published by DC Comics
Released 1984 (Originally 1970/1971)

Randomly one evening while playing through a good chunk of Batman Arkham Knight, I realized I didn't really know much about Man-Bat. That night I started on a journey to assemble every single Man-Bat appearance in order, by the next day I'd gotten all my bats in a row as it were. The Man-Bat origin I'm used to plays out a little differently than how it originally worked out. With Man-Bat killing, or at least seriously pushing away, his wife/fiance after accidentally transforming into a seemingly mindless beast. This actual origin lays the groundwork for that, but it's a much more silver-age take on the concept. Zany, if silver-age means nothing to you.

Summer of Screams: Man-Thing (Fear #10-19)

Man-Thing (Adventures into Fear #10-19)
Written by Gerry Conway (10), Steve Gerber (11-19)
Drawn by Harry Chaykin (10), Rich Buckler (11), Jim Starlin (12), Val Mayerik (13-19)
Published by Marvel
Released 1972

Man-Thing is a character I wasn't too familiar with. Sure I knew that which knows fear burns at the touch of the Man-Thing, but beyond that I wasn't too familiar with the big slimy oaf. First appearing in Adventures into Fear, which started out as just Fear for the first nine issues (which look to be just reprints of older stories), the book started focusing on Man-Thing with issue ten. There were still a couple back up stories, mostly fairly lame horror stories, but wound up phasing them out completely by issue fifteen. For ten issues Man-Thing carried the book, setting up the character rather effectively. The real main character though has to be the narration, Man-Thing doesn't think in a traditional manner of speaking, and these narrations boxes drive that point home really well.

Summer of Screams: Through the Woods

Through the Woods
Written and Drawn by Emily Carroll
Published by Independent
Released 2014

Fun fact, I've had a fully written and edited blog entry for a non-WTF comic book finished since March. I haven't posted it for some fairly idiotic reasoning revolving around how I want the picture of the cover to look. Needless to say I am throwing all that concern out the window to write about this comic. I'd never really heard of Emily Carroll before I discovered this delightful little bundle of stories. Apparently she makes creepy comics and posts them all the time on her website. If you're interested, check it out.