Culture

http://player.ooyala.com/iframe.js#pbid=23ab3edda6d64b96a30b37a512eb5adf&ec=RjNnBlcTp6-ewmVxR2yXDzQrp-yPkK0A Game over, man, game over. UPDATE: You can watch the whole segment exclusively at The Mary Sue.

  Timing is everything, and Humble Bundle has just launched a horror themed bundle with many comics including Shadowman, afterlife with Archie, Buffy and prose works...

by Edie Nugent The main stage spectacles of NYCC saw panels filled with celebrity actors and moderators alike, whipping thousands of screaming audience members into...

I'm pretty sure we've posted some of Eric Haven's creepy cool Mancat comics before. But not it's all being collected by AdHouse, in UR. The publisher describes these comics as "Dark, absurdist, and deadpan, these stories reflect the apocalyptic undercurrent of the modern era. Also included is Haven's long-running comic strip "Race Murdock" which appeared in The Believer magazine." Haven is among those cartoonist's whose work is just inherently spooky. In the past his work has appeared in various anthologies, but when he isn't cartooning he's producing the TV Show Mythbusters. A real hyphenate for the season.

There was a time not too long ago when you could fit all the "women in comics" at a big table in a coffee shop. Now there re more than 300 women who just work in comics shops. That's the membership of The Valkyries, a private organization for female comics retail employees. and it turns out the group has been instrumental in promoting a coupld of books that have had great success this year, namely Saga and Lumberjanes. Janelle Asselin interviews group founder Kate Leth for all the details:

Who is Marie Duval? While not a household name in comics circles she's actually one of the most important Victorian cartoonists, artist on Ally Sloper, one of the early cartoon sensations. The tale of a no good lazeabout that ran from 1857 on, it was created by Duval's husband, Charles Ross, but gained its greatest fame after Duval took over in 1859. The Guardian has a tribute to her.

English artist INJ Culbard has become the resident HP Lovecraft expert at SelfMadeHero with several of his adaptations of Lovecraft (The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, The Shadow Out of Time and The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath) turning into bestsellers for the Brit Literary Comics house. Well, it seems his next book is one that greatly influenced Lovecraft—and Stephen King, and Marion Zimmer Bradley, and Raymond Chandler and True Detective—namely The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers. The 1895 short story collection centers around a sinister play called "The King in Yellow" and this title character, as well as Carcosa were used in Season 1 of True Detective, and gave the cult book a new life.

Did I get tricked into running this somewhat non-slick infographic because The Beat is ranked #8 in a list of the top 100 comics blogs? You bet. But I did like that The Nib is #1. I think the chart went by Alexa rankings and it includes webcomics among the blogs, which doesn't really make any sense. But anyway, talking points.

If you've been hanging out on the internet this weekend you have have seen the above shocking "Sexy Ebola Nurse" costume going around on the Reddits and twits. Is it a real thing? Although we can't imagine some gallows humor experts won't wear Ebola-themed costumes this year, this particular costume is actually a repurposing of LAST year's top meme, Breaking Bad, as it began life as a sexy Walter White in the lab costume.

Okay can you say instant classic? HALLOWEEN JUST GOT REAL, people. This wraparound cover by Steve Morris is for Buffy The Vampire Slayer  Season 10...

Manga isn't all awkward schoolgirls and giant robots. There has long been a very strong alternative and literary thread of manga, and two recent articles give you some perspective on it. I would call Ryan Holmberg's Proto-Gekiga: Matsumoto Masahiko’s Komaga a must read, but I have to confess, it is very long and involved, and I have set it aside for weekend reading. BUT the important thing is that he compares and contrasts Yoshihiro Tatsumi, who is kind of credited as the father of "gekiga" or realistic manga, with Matsumoto Masahiko, a figure who appears in Tatsumi's autobiographical A Drifting Life under another name. Masahiko's work went down a slightly different path than Tatsumi's but Holmberg shows that it was equally important:

The Bride of Frankenstein is one of the enduring archetypes of horror. Invented by James Whale in the immortal film The Bride of Frankenstein, and played with hissing horror by Elsa Lanchester, she symbolizes the essential isolation of the Modern Prometheus—even with a mate specially created for him, the Creature receives nothing but rejection. Write Jamie Rich and artist Megan Levens have reinvented the character in Madame Frankenstein, a seven-issue series from Image Comics. Six issues are out and the 7th drops on November 5th, with the trade due in February. Interior art is by Levens and letters by Crank. The covers, seen here, are by Joëlle Jones and Nick Filardi.