reviews

The Darkness Behind Franco's Spain Author: Ruta Sepetys It’s 1957 and eighteen-year-old Daniel Matheson is experiencing Madrid for the first time in The Fountains of Silence. His parents have come for an important oil well deal. While Daniel is slated to inherit the family business and follow in his mogul-father’s footsteps, he not-so-secretly cherishes a love for photography. As a matter of fact, he sees this as the trip that will let him prove himself to his father. The pictures he captures of Spanish life will be entered into a contest. He knows he will win, and that will change [...]

Gothic: An Origin Story Author: Horace Walpole My daughter told me one day that she was making a chronological list of all the horror movies ever made.  Yep, I thought, that sounds exactly like something she would do.  Because it’s something I would do, and I kicked myself for not having thought of it first.  But she wasn’t making a list of horror novels… I haven’t either, although if that information were easier to find online, I absolutely would.  What I was able to find, though, was what is considered to be the first horror novel.  Or at least the [...]

"I’ll have my glasses now, please." Writer: Zeb Wells Artist: Kaare Andrews Ever since he was first introduced back in Amazing Spider-Man #3, Otto “Doctor Octopus” Octavius has always been considered one of Spider-Man’s greatest foes. His origin story was brilliant scientist who designs a set of artificial limbs that he can use to help him in his studies of radioactive isotopes gets caught in a lab accident that fuses the artificial limb harness to his body, but also gives him mental control over the limbs … and also drives him a bit crazy. But in 2004, writer Zeb Wells [...]